Building to protect Dixie dino fossils

ST. GEORGE (AP) — This city is building a metal building to protect thousands of ancient fossils unearthed in southern Utah.

The 16,000-square-foot structure is being funded by federal, state and city governments. It will cost more than $1 million and should be complete by mid-September.

It will be built over a portion of the Johnson Farm Track Site, which has become the focus of fossil excavation and paleontology research since Sheldon Johnson unearthed the first fossils in February 2000.

Since then, the site has yielded some of the most unique fossils in North America.

More than 1,000 tracks have been discovered at the site, including footprints of three-toed Eubrontes and several large "potholes," believed by some paleontologists to be the oldest record of sauropods — large plant-eaters — in North America.

The metal building will keep the fossils from being exposed to heat, wind and rain. Also planned for the new structure are an office, a classroom and a gift shop.

While exposed, the fossils have been treated with a polymer-plastic preservative.