New York: A `priceless` three-toed dinosaur track, believed to date back to 190 million years, has been stolen from a trail near Utah.
The track was lifted out of Jurassic age Navajo sandstone in the Hell`s Revenge area near Moab.
The theft was discovered last Tuesday when a tour guide noticed a triangular slab of rock about 1 foot long and 3 feet wide missing.
The slab contained the track of a theropod, a family of meat-eating dinosaurs that included T rex, `LiveScience` reported.
"They`re priceless to us. You can`t replace them," said Rebecca Hunt-Foster, a paleontologist at the US Bureau of Land Management field office in Moab.
Theft or damage to dinosaur tracks on public land is not unheard-of, officials said.
Visitors to public lands regularly take dinosaur bones, tracks and even archaeological artifacts such as petroglyphs or pottery.
Taking any artifact from public lands is strictly against the law, and is punishable with both fines and jail time, Hunt-Foster said.
