Utah •

911 dispatch operator just 2 weeks into his job helped Utah mom deliver baby.

William Kalaher, a newbie 911 dispatcher helped a distressed mom deliver baby on a highway in Utah. Though the man had only two weeks into the job, he successfully assisted the mom while giving birth.

Kalaher recalls that he received a call from Kristin Allred, who was about to the deliver her baby in the family truck last Friday. Luckily, her husband was around too. Kristin told reporters that they were rushing to a hospital that day, but when they got really close to it contractions started. Suddenly she felt the urge to start pushing, she added.

From the moment they made that 911 call and the moment the baby came into the world only 1 minute passed. The mom’s husband was still driving when the birth was ongoing. He was hoping that they could make it time to the Intermountain Medical Center. Nevertheless, he had to pull the car over.

The couple said that contractions started around 1 a.m. so they got in the car hoping that they will have plenty of time at their disposal because the woman’s previous labors lasted about eight hours each. Yet, this one hardly took 90 minutes.

When his wife told him that she felt the need to push, he dialed 911. Kalaher was on duty and picked up that call. The dispatcher said that he and his colleagues often joked about the odds to get a pregnancy call, but on that day it really happened. Fortunately, 911 operators are trained to cope with this type of emergency, as well.

Within one minute the baby girl was already born, but when Allred put her upon her chest she realized that something was wrong. She noticed that the baby wasn’t breathing. Fortunately, Kalaher didn’t panic when he heard the news.

Allred was impressed that the man remained calm even though she was very distressed at that time. The 911 operator asked her to check whether the umbilical cord was preventing her daughter from breathing. The woman told him that when she delivered her, the baby was crying but moments later she turned limp.

Fortunately, the man knew exactly what to do next. He asked the parents to tie a string around the cord about 6 inches from the newborn. About half of minute after they followed instructions and tilted her head back, the baby girl regained breath.

About five minutes later emergency crews arrived at the scene, but in the crucial moments the 911 operator literally saved the baby’s life.
Image Source: Pixabay

Bizarre turtle fossil adds to the Cretaceous portrait of Utah, as it was discovered in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Since the fossil was unearthed, the most striking feature observed by the paleonthology team was the area of its nose. Modern turtles and other ancestors of the shelled creature have only one opening in the skull representing the nose. Arvinachelys goldeni as the bizarre turtle fossil has been dubbed, has two. Which renders its nose more similar to the snout of a pig. In the case of other turtles, the differentiation between one nostril and another is simply a soft tissue barrier.

With Arvinachelys goldeni, it’s a strong bony barrier. The pig-like snout of the bizarre turtle fossil has drawn it the name of Miss Piggy before the scientific name was established. Now, its name is derived from a couple of Latin words (no surprise here). For once, arvina is translated as pig fat or even bacon. Chelys is the correspondent of the word tortoise in Latin. While goldeni stands for Jerry Golden, the volunteer creator of the

Cretaceous turtle holotype specimen.

Doctor Joshua Lively who was studying the 76 million years old bizarre turtle fossil as a graduate student, is now a researcher with the University of Texas at Austin. As lead author on the paper describing how the Bizarre turtle fossil adds to the Cretaceous portrait of Utah, he stated:

“Anatomically, it’s one of the most bizarre turtles that ever lived. More importantly, it adds to a growing story about ecosystem dynamics during the Late Cretaceous across western North America”.

The length of Arvinachelys goldeni is estimated to have been two feet long at maturity. In addition to the pig-like snout, the ancient turtle has a clearly streamlined shell, indicating the reptile lived in the lakes and rivers of the Cretaceous landscape in Utah. The bizarre turtle fossil is a feat for researchers not only for its anatomically unique pig-like snout, but for also coming also almost complete.

The fossil unearthed in Utah has a complete skull, parts of the hind limbs, one complete forelimb and vertebrae of the neck and tail. Reconstruction the holotype was certainly easier due to the wealth of fossilized parts.

Arvinachelys goldeni helped add to the long-held idea that the territory of modern-day Utah was rich in biodiversity. With lowland plains and brazed by rivers, it was hosting a number of species. Further research might also show what made Cretaceous Utah so special.

Photo Credits: National Geographic

Newbie 911 Dispatcher Helps Distressed Mom Deliver Baby on Highway

Bizzare Turtle Fossil Adds to the Cretaceous Portrait of Utah

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