(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) James Kirkland, right, the Utah state paleontologist, and Bill Keach, the state geologist, explain the significance of the Utahraptor megablock at the core center for the Utah Department of Natural Resources in Salt Lake City on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. The 9-ton piece of rock contains more than a dozen raptor skeletons that date back 135 million years, but state resource managers are having trouble securing funding to excavate the fossils.
Leia Larsen is a sixth generation Utahn and a water and land use reporter reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune. She has covered environment, energy and political issues throughout the West. When she’s not chasing the news, Leia can be found exploring the Wasatch Mountains, sleeping in the desert or rooting around her garden.