| Public Land Name: | BLM Price Field Office | | Position Title: | Paleontologist / Education Specialist | | Position ID Number: | 88 | | Location: | Price, UT | | Position Description: | The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry (CLDQ) is a paleontological site containing the densest concentration of Jurassic-aged dinosaur bones ever found. It also has the largest collection of a large meat-eating dinosaur (allosaurus fragilis) ever found with at least 46 allosaurs having left their bones there. And it is still an unexplained phenomenon. The bones themselves generally are in very good condition yet articulated skeletons are non-existent. None of the hypotheses put forth in the last 80 years since it was first worked by a scientific institution has survived testing. Not a river deposit, not a lake deposit, not a swamp deposit yet the remains of 2 turtles, a crocodile, and charophytes point to water being involved somehow.
The GeoCorps participant's primary duties will be to interpret the geology and paleontology as applied to the Cleveland-Lloyd deposit to visitors. This may include guiding tours to interested and qualified visitors, showing examples of a fossilized clam bed, casts of sauropod tracks, a theropod track, and a dinosaur bone in the field. Secondary duties will include assisting a team from the University of Utah in a ceratosaur excavation project. Only one ceratosaur seems to have left its bones at CLDQ. This particular specimen is the type specimen for the species, making these bones quite valuable. The GeoCorps participant will have the opportunity to do some digging in the deposit under the team leader's direction. Some light maintenance and trail work may also be required. Prior to starting this position a government security background clearance will be required.
| | Qualifications: | The applicant should have completed at least two years toward a degree in the geosciences, including at least one course in paleontology. The applicant must be able and willing to interact with visitors on a daily basis; experience in geological interpretation is preferred, but not necessary. | | Position Dates: | May 20 - Aug 11; 12 weeks | | Payment: | $2750; housing provided | | Housing Available: | The BLM office will provide housing at no cost to the participant in 36 foot long camper trailers with electricity, stove, refrigerator, water, sewer, and a swamp cooler. Other volunteers and staff sharing this space is possible, but not probable. The trailers are located in Price at the Forest Service ware yard on the north edge of town, roughly two miles from the BLM office. | Physical/Natural
Environment: | The Price Field Office is located on the northwest corner of the Colorado Plateau, and the northwest flank of the San Rafael Swell. The area is semi-arid, lies just under 6,000 ft above sea level, and has pinyon-juniper forested slopes and sagebrush/saltbrush covered uplands. | | Work Environment: | CLDQ has a recently renovated visitor center where most of the visitor contact will take place. Work on the bone deposit will take place within a Butler building erected over it. Temperatures will likely top 100 degrees F for at least several weeks in July. 2 normal, full-sized American grocery stores here in Price along with a K-mart and Wal-Mart and the standard list of fast food joints. Price is also the home of the College of Eastern Utah, a two-year school with an enrollment of about 2,500 during the regular school year. Price is about 2 hours from Salt Lake City (center of the urbanized Wasatch Front with about 1.8 million people), from Moab (mountain biking capital of the world, near Arches National Park and Canyonlands NP), or from the Uinta Mountains (peaks over 13,000 ft., lots of lakes and streams for fishing, alpine etc.). The Wasatch Plateau to the west provides alpine opportunities within an hour's drive from Price. Desert and rock outcrops abound in the nearby San Rafael Swell also reachable by vehicle within an hour or so of Price. | | # of current Applicants: | 11 |
If you have questions about the application and selection process, please contact Anny Jones. If you have questions about any aspect of the position — description, qualifications, housing, dates — please contact the primary or secondary contact below:
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