Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction:
Paleontology is the scientific study of life existent prior to, but sometimes including, the
start of the Holocene Epoch.
Not only the study of dinosaur bones but also fossilized plants, pollens, spores and
theories about ancient life
Paleontologist need to study Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Astronomy in College
Paleontology has 3 main goals
o Describe as many forms of life as possible
o Create a better picture of life on earth
o Learn more about evolution
Dinosaurs:
Evolution of Paleontology:
Prospecting:
Field Work
Quicksand
o Looks like wet sand
o Moves around
o Stay calm
o Lean back and let legs rise to surface
o Slowly crawl out
Animal poison
o Rattlesnakes
All north and south America except Canada
Dont bother rattle snakes
Immobilize bite below heart
Basic Fossilization
Classifying fossils
Paleobotany
Famous Paleontologists:
Jack Horner
o Scientific advisor for Jurassic Park
o Proved dinosaurs cared for young through discovery of miasaura near nest with
young
o Has had many other achievements and theories such as how only of all species
of dinosaurs ever existed while the other half were juveniles
Mary Schweitzer
o Discovered tissue in Tyrannosaur skull raising questions on how dinosaur bones
fossilize
Luiz Alvarez
o Actually a physicist
o Discovered high levels of iridium in the Cretaceous level of sedemnt proving
asteroid killed dinosaurs
o Won Nobel Prize
Mary Anning
o Fossil collector
o Known for discovery of marine reptiles ichthyosaur and plesiosaur
Robert T Bakker
o Believes dinosaurs are warm blooded and has may arguments such as the 3 listed
below
Almost all animals that walk upright today are warm-blooded, and
dinosaurs walked upright.
Some dinosaurs lived in northern latitudes where it would be impossible
for cold-blooded dinosaurs to keep warm.
The predator/prey ratio of predatory dinosaurs to their prey is a signature
trait of warm-blooded predators rather than cold-blooded ones.
Barnum Brown
o Discovered first documented T-Rex
o Discovered Hell Creek Rock Formation
Thousands of fossils have been found here
Edwin H Colbert
o Discovered many arctic dinosaurs
Edward Drinker Cope
o Part of bone wars
Going on display
Different tools are used to remove different MATRIX (rock surrounding fossil) from
different fossils
o Air scribe
Most commonly used
Uses air to blow away matrix
Fairley fast and time efficient
Be careful while using because it is not good when you puncture a fossil
o Grinding tools
Used when matrix is very hard
Used when fossil is very fragile
o Picks and needles
Used to remove clumps of matrix from holes in fossils
o Brushes
Used to clean off the excess matrix (i.e. dust)
o Adhesives and Consolidants
In case you break a fossil or fossil comes to lab broken, put it back
together by using this adhesive.
You need to study fossils
o Labeling a fossil gives it a link to its information when it is put on a shelf along
with giving an easy access to paleontologists wanting to look for that fossil
o Molding and casting allows for replicas of fossils to be made but also allows for
replicas to be made for other fossils if they are not complete (i.e. general structure
of one hip bone may replace a hop bone of a triceratops that was not found)
Thin poured mold- for large and rigid fossils
Solid poured mold- for smaller and more smooth/flat fossils
o When assembling a fossil for display use strong materials like titanium and
stainless steel and not iron pins and wire hangers
o Think about these things when setting up fossil
Will it last long
Can it withstand seismic activity
Iguanodon
o First sauropod dinosaur ever discovered
Megalosaurus
o First dinosaur discovered
o First theropod dinosaur discovered
o Thigh bone originally thought to be that of a giant human
Mosasaur
o Got scientists to think they were dealing with creatures that lived
and died like humans do
Hadrosaur
o First near-complete fossil found
o One of few dinosaurs to be discovered on American Eastern Sea
board
Archaeopteryx
o Got scientists to believe dinosaurs evolved to birds
Diplodocus
o Urged the age of giant sauropods
Coelophysis
o A unique dinosaur and the only of its kind
Miasaua
o When found with its young close by, paleontologists realized
dinosaurs cared for their young
Sinosauropteryx
o First time paleontologists realized a primitive hair feature on
dinosaurs
Brachylophosaurus
o New technologies were introduced to hep understand this fossil
such as MRI fossil scans that are still being used today
Asilisaurus