Bones, dem Bones, dem Dino Bones.

Today’s Rhinoceros are relatively new animals in the evolutionary chain of events but similar to those that lived during the Miocene era 14.2 million years ago.  Though old, they are much at the same now as they were then and more related to human being than dinosaurs.  Dinosaur’s lived over 167,000 million years ago so fully understanding how they lived is still a mystery. There is a great deal of new research being conducted about dinosaurs, with mounting  evidence showing that their ancestors may be related to birds rather than mammals. People visit Zoos to see Rhinos. Why not visit a dino-dig to find ancient fossil treasures?

Wouldn’t it have been exciting to be the teenager who found a Duck-billed Hadrosaur mummy in North Dakota in 2007? Imagine discovering a dinosaur with skin so that scientists don’t have to guess about the outer covering of this great extinct mammal.

Dinosaur explorations often change our view of history. I always imagined myself on a dig-team, becoming famous for finding a missing link. When my children were young I thought it would be fun to take them on a dig to the Dakotas or Texas as part of our family’s vacation. I never followed through though, so now I have to be satisfied by visiting museums and reading about interesting discoveries.

When my granddaughters were still in elementary school I once took them on an excursion to the Burke Museum in Seattle. The girls were excited by the prospect, grabbing notebooks and pencils along with a small reference book for the trip. Once in the museum they traveled from display to display, writing down information and drawing a pictures just as their research father might have done. This visit made me realize how fearless, curious and participatory young children are when given a chance to explore. They often lead the way to learning.

Pre-history is interesting for young and old alike. A while ago I learned of a fossil mammal found in Europe that is connected to South Dakota suggesting that there was a trans-Atlantic route about 66 million or so years ago. The keen eyes of paleontologist Frans Smet of St. Mary’s College in California discovered a tiny marsupial mammal tooth embedded in rock in Maastricht, Netherlands. When it was scanned in an electron microscope, the connection was made to North America and the historical timeline as the world knew it changed by 50+ million years.

Paleontologists now believe that T-Rex was a lean, mean, warm-blooded hunter who only attacked large prey and was not a scavenger as previously thought. He was agile and used a lot of energy, meaning that he needed a lot of food. Other research shows that most dinosaurs were vegetarian rather than meat-eaters and my oh my… they were sexy. It is thought that flying dinosaurs actually had more elaborate mating displays than modern-day peacocks. The fin-backed Pterosaurs and Pelycosaurs developed elaborate headrests and sails in order to attract a mate.

Did dinosaurs die 65 million years ago because of an asteroid impact? New research suggests that a bad climate caused by a series of volcanic eruptions was slowly killing off the mammals. “The [asteroid] impact was the coup de grace,” Paul Renne, a geologist at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement for National Geographic. USC earth scientist David Bottjer confirms that the earth “just got sick” during the Triassic-Jurassic extinction and food became scarce. By looking at rare development of aragonite crystals on the ocean floor, he postulates that the slow dying period had something to do with the ocean’s chemistry. The coral reefs of that period are related to those in our oceans today and by understanding why they died we might learn more about the death that is now occurring in reef populations around the world. Is our earth getting “sick”? Will mankind die out as did the dinosaurs?

There are several dinosaur extinction theories but the most prevalent speaks of five major mass extinctions, the largest occurring 250 million years ago in the Permian-Triassic era. Almost 95% of all species were eradicated at that time. Some scientists say a comet or asteroid collided with earth, others postulate that a flood volcano causing oxygen loss in the seas was the reason. Some investigators have had theories about thinning atmospheric oxygen levels and now even this theory is questioned. Such are the twists of science where each discovery causes a new hypothesis to be made.
Can understanding geology and paleontology help us with current issues of global warming? Scientists look at these ancient creatures and how they lived, at changes in land mass and atmospheric and oceanic conditions for clues that can help in predicting the fate of the earth over the next millennium.

According to Peter Dodson at the University of Pennsylvania, there are great times ahead for dinosaur hunters. He claims that paleontology will be a good career because new discoveries are increasing by 10-20% a year. So…if those visits to museums, digging for dino-bones in toys, and reading books spark an interest in your child or grandchild, you may want to fan the flame. With summer quickly approaching, participating in a excavation might be the perfect vacation.

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Want to know more? Go to:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/fossils_ruins/dinosaurs/ – for the latest research about dinosaurs.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/tertiary/miocene.php -Miocene era.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130212--chicxulub-asteroid-dinosaurs-volcano-mass-extinction-environment-science/ – about dinosaur extinction.
https://www.museumofwesternco.com/dino-digs/ – for family expeditions in Colorado.
http://www.paleoadventures.com/dinosaur-dig-site-tours.html – for family expeditions in South Dakota.
http://www.wyodino.org/dig-site-tours/ – for family expeditions in Wyoming.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaurs-living-descendants-69657706/?no-ist=&page=4 – Dinosaur connection to birds.