National Geographic has a story about the discovery of a Jurassic aged predator trap that is  finally heading into the lab for study.   The remains, probably a bed of quicksand, were discovered about 10 years ago in Utah.  After years of work, a group of paleontologists have finally gotten the huge block of stone and bones down off the mesa where it was discovered.  There’s an interesting video that shows how they got the chunk of sandstone onto the truck. 

The fossils include a prey animal skeleton, an Iguanadon, along with up to 10 specimens of Utahraptor.  The preservation is said to be exceptional.  All of the animals are thought to have died at the same time in a predator trap.  This find has significant scientific importance, as it may give us clues into animal behaviour.  Something that typically does not get preserved in the fossil record.

A nine-ton block of sandstone that was pulled from a Utah mountain late last year holds the biggest fossil trove ever found of the giant predatory dinosaur known as Utahraptor. Covered in feathers, with a huge sickle claw on each second toe, Utahraptor looked like a pumped-up version of the Jurassic Park star Velociraptor.

The fossils might help resolve a long-standing debate about whether these predators hunted in groups. In the Jurassic Park films, velociraptors were shown cooperating to chase down prey, an idea based at the time on several predators that had been found alongside an herbivore. The new fossils may help confirm whether the silver screen got it right.