|
 Digging
for Dinosaurs
MAIN
STORY
- DETAILS:
Programs mentioned in the main article - DETAILS: Other programs - FAMILY ARCHAEOLOGY
 BY DIXIE M. JORDAN
© COPYRIGHT
2003 BY PARENTS' PRESS
Reprinted from the March 2003 print edition of Parents' Press
Last summer, the Bury family of Des Moines, WA Christie,
Steve, and their two daughters, Chantell, 11, and Cortney, 10
headed to Eastern Montana for their annual vacation. This
is dinosaur country, and they signed up for a popular Montana
activity, a dinosaur "day dig."
Equipped with awls, dental picks, and a little on-the-spot
instruction from the dig's field paleontologist, they began to
prospect for fossils on the sagebrush-dotted bluffs. Ninety minutes
later, they hit the paleontological jackpot: The small pile of
disintegrating, fossilized bones they found turned out to be
bits of the first Tyrannosaurus rex found at this site.
At first, the Bury family didn't know what they had discovered
and neither did paleontologist Chris Morrow. Morrow instructed
them to keep looking and to expand the area of their search.
Despite the 110-degree heat, their enthusiasm remained high,
and they soon found a larger bone.
"We were actually working on a real dinosaur bone!"
says Christie Bury in an article on the family website. "Did
we find a good section of a Triceratops? We were in an
area populated with that dinosaur. Chris said we had to uncover
more for him to tell for sure."
By this point, Morrow and two teenage dig participants, Jaime
and Chandler, were also working at the Burys' site, carefully
wielding paintbrushes and dental picks.
"Finally Chantell and Jaime uncovered the area of bone that
made Chris stop and take a few deep breaths," Christie continues.
It was part of a pubic bone, which is quite different in herbivores
like Triceratops than in predatory, meat-eating dinosaurs.
"Chris said, 'I think what we have here is a T. rex!'"
"We had been digging here for twelve years and hadn't
found a T. rex," said Joseph Cornwell, head of the
non-profit PaleoWorld Research Foundation, which sponsored the
dig. "Here was this family, doing something quite different
from Disneyland for a vacation really working and learning
together."
The family's find has been dubbed "Big Bury" in
their honor, and excavation will continue on it this summer.
Eventually, Cornwell says, the T. rex will be displayed in a
museum in Jordan, MT, the town that serves as a base for PaleoWorld's
summer digs.
 Kids
Teaching Parents
Not every family that digs together will make a discovery as
exciting as Big Bury. But paleontology (the study of fossils)
is one of the few remaining fields where amateurs can make real
contributions to science.
It's also a field where young people can play a significant
role. A 12-year-old farm boy discovered the first known dinosaur
footprints in in North America back in 1802. Thirteen-year-old
India Wood picked up some intriguing fossils while on vacation
in Dinosaur National Monument. After living in a box under her
bed for a while, they were identified by paleontologists as part
of the most complete Allosaurus ever found in Colorado.
In Great Falls, MT, a 17-year-old boy found what appeared
to be a grayish-brown bone sticking up from the dirt where his
father was excavating for a retaining wall. Four years later,
after a stint as a doorstop, the bone was identified as part
of a Stegosaurus. It may have lived farther north than
any other known examples of this dinosaur. It will be excavated
this summer.
In recent years, more and more families are taking part in
organized dinosaur digs. Possibilities include Dig-for-a-Day
programs that welcome younger kids, strictly scientific expeditions
that accept some families with teens as volunteers, and even
packaged vacations with first-class hotels, horseback riding,
and river rafting that encourage grandparents and grandchildren
to dig together. The majority of programs are located in Montana,
Wyoming, and Colorado.
"Kids know a lot about dinosaurs what they looked
like, what the environment was like then," says Cornwell.
"Here they have the opportunity to actually teach mom and
dad."
Cornwell founded
PaleoWorld largely to "bring the science of paleontology
to the average person," especially young people and families,
by letting them join a real expedition for a day or a week. Nonetheless,
dinosaur digging is not for everyone, he cautions.
"This is not a tour you're there to work,"
he stresses. Children as young as 6 and 7 have participated in
Paleo-World digs, but parents should use discretion in deciding
if their kids can handle working several hours a day in the blazing
Montana sun.
Many Ways to Dig
"I don't run a paleo dude ranch," emphasizes Nate Murphy,
curator of paleontology at the Phillips County (MT) Museum and
director of the Judith River Dinosaur Institute, which will be
excavating the Great Falls Stegosaurus t
Nonetheless, he is happy to include families with teenagers
14 and over (the minimum age approved by the institute's insurance
company) on the five-day programs he runs each summer in the
Montana badlands. A recent participant discovered Leonardo, a
mummified Hadrosaur brachylophosaurus that has created
considerable excitement among dinosaur enthusiasts.
"We tend to attract the person who is really into dinosaur
paleontology," Murphy says. "But sometimes parents
will do this for their kids and end up coming back themselves
the following year."
As with many of the longer digs, the institute's participants
may camp nearby or stay at a small-town motel and join staff
and volunteers for a daily drive to the current year's site.
Often a particular restaurant or hotel becomes an informal dig
headquarters.
Michael Menard curates historic sites and handles special
events (including digs) for the Museum of Western Colorado and
its Dinosaur Journey in Fruita, CO. Day digs are a good way for
families to "get their feet wet" and find out if they
enjoy the experience, he says. This program includes several
hours participating in a real dig in an area that has yielded
a wide variety of dinosaurs. Then it's back to town for an introduction
to lab work and fossil casting and a tour of the museum.
In general, he says, the museum's Dig-for-a-Day and three-day
digs are best suited for kids from 7 or 8 into their teens. But
Dinosaur Journey programs are open to all ages "and we've
had 5-year-olds who wished they could stay for a week,"
he notes. These popular programs tend to fill up by late spring,
and reservations are suggested even for day digs.
Unlike most scientific
digs, J.P. Cavigelli's Western Paleo Safaris lets participants
keep some of the fossils they find from dinosaurs and a variety
of other ancient plants and creatures. These are vacation-oriented
camping trips with fossil collecting on private ranches. Agreements
with the ranchers govern what participants can collect and keep
usually large dinosaur bones stay with the landowner.
Most of Western's week-long trips require a minimum age of
12 to 16. But this year Cavigelli will have a shorter, three-day
trip in Wyoming aimed at families with kids as young as 8, with
a focus on dinosaur bones.
More luxurious and expensive is the Family Dinosaur
Discovery Tour offered this summer by the Wisconsin Alumni Association,
Aug. 9-15, in Grand Junction, CO. "Dig side-by-side with
scientists in a quarry where incredible discoveries have been
made, including bones from eight species of dinosaurs,"
enthuse the program's organizers. And do it in considerable comfort,
with guided hikes and rides, picnic lunches and barbecues, fossil
rubbing and river rafting. Grandparents as well as parents are
encouraged to attend; children get a discount from adult prices,
which start at $2,400.
If you decide on a dinosaur dig, as the focus of your family
vacation or a one-day activity, start planning now and research
carefully. Programs come, go, and change from one year to the
next, and vary widely in creature comforts, minimum age requirements,
and their emphasis on working, learning, or vacationing.
DETAILS:
PROGRAMS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Dinosaur Journey
Museum of Western Fruita, CO
(888) 488-DINO
www.dinodigs.org
Judith River Dinosaur Institute
Box 429
Malta, MT 59538
(406) 654-2323
nmurphy@ttc-cmc.net
www.montanadinosaurdigs.com
PaleoWorld Research Foundation
(866) 678-0911
FAX: (540) 678-0911
www.paleoworld.org
Western Paleo Safaris
P.O. Box 1042
Laramie, WY 82073
Toll-free phone, from U.S. only: (888) 875-2233, use PIN 7737.
www.westernpaleo.com
Wisconsin Alumni Assn.
ww.uwalumni.com/travel/family.html
For details of a similar program to be offered in June by the
Iowa State University Alumni Assn.
Academic Travel Abroad, Inc.
1920 N St., NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 785-9000
(800) 556-7896
FAX: (202) 342-0317
www.academic-travel.com
DETAILS:
A SELECTION OF OTHER PROGRAMS
Dinosaur Research Expedition
Hagener Science Center #219
P.O. Box 7751
Havre, MT 59501
(800) 662-6132, ext. 3759
(406) 265-3700, ext. 3759
http://scimath.msun.edu/dinosaurs/index.html
E-mail: clousev@yahoo.com
Seven days of camping and researching a newly discovered dinosaur
n esting ground. Minimum age: 13.
Old Trail Museum
Choteau, MT
(406) 466-5332
E-mail: otm@3rivers.net
www.oldtrailmuseum.org/dinodig.html
Two-day field course in paleontology. Minimum age determined
on an indivdiualized basis.
Pioneer Trails Regional Museum
12 First Ave. N.E.
Bowman, ND 58623
(701) 523-3600
E-mail: paleo@ptrm.org
www.ptrmorg/page/paleo.html
Day tours of active fossil-bearing sites, with some participation.
Participants must be able to hike up to two miles in rough terrain.
Those under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
Royal Tyrrell Museum
P.O. Box 7500
Drumheller, Alberta, Canada TOJOYO
(403) 823-7707
Toll-free from U.S.: (888) 440-4240
FAX: (403) 823-7131
E-mail: info@tyrrellmuseum.com
www.tyrrellmuseum.com
Day digs. Minimum age: 10.
Timescale Adventures
Bynum, MT
(800) 238-6873
(406) 469-2211
E-mail: info@timescale.org
www.timescale.org/main.html
Day digs and longer camping expedition. Minimum age: 10.
Wild West Vacations & Travel
wwwwildwestvacationsand travel.com/codydinoyell4.shtml
A six-day family vacation package that includes a one-day dinosaur
dig. The itinerary also includes stays at a guest ranch and in
Yellowstone Park, a visit to the Buffalo Bill Museum, and several
optional activities.
The Wyoming Dinosaur Center
110 Carter Ranch Rd.
P.O. Box 868
Thermopolis, WY 82443
(800) 455-DINO
(307) 864-2997
E-mail: wdinoc@wyodino.org
www.wyodino.org
Small day digs.Minimum age: 5.
|
