Stories tagged fossils
West Clay Pit at Lilydale: Wet weather can make the quarries at Lilydale very treacherous and even dangerous.Courtesy Mark RyanA rescue effort is underway right now in St. Paul where three children are reported to have gotten stranded in Lilydale Regional Park. A helicopter and several rescue units are on site. Two children has already been recovered and taken to hospital but one child is still missing. The children were part of a group of 4th-graders on a field trip from St. Louis Park.
Lilydale is a popular fossil collecting site for school field trips and others but the Decorah shale in the quarries where most of the fossils are found can become very treacherous in wet weather. The crumbly shale reconstitutes into a very thick, slippery muck when it rains making the steep quarry walls very unstable. Three inches of rain have fallen in the Metro area over the past few days.
A firefighter reportedly sustained injuries to his head from a falling rock during one of the rescues. Let's hope everything else turns out okay.
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Fossils and art contest: The 2013 National Fossil Day Art and Photography contest is now open for submissions.Courtesy Mark RyanDo you like fossils? Do you like to draw or take photographs? Then you should know that the 4th annual National Fossil Day Art and Photography Contest is now accepting submissions. The contest runs until next autumn (submissions must be postmarked by October 4th) when judges will select the winning entries. It's all part of the many celebrations of fossils that take place across the country on and around the official National Fossil Day on October 16, 2013. The celebration is a combined effort by the National Park Service along with several federal and state agencies, and earth science related organizations.
There are four age categories: ages 5-8, 9-13, 14-18, and for us old-timers, 19 and up. You can find all the information you need here on the official National Fossil Day contest site.
This year's contest theme is: "Your nomination for our National Fossil". Maybe you think it's should be a dinosaur, or a trilobite, or one of the famous fossil fish found in the Green River shales of the western USA? Whatever you think, get out your pencils, pens, paints, or cameras and make your case for our national fossil.
By the way, Minnesota is one of 10 states in the union lacking an official state fossil. That needs to be remedied. Do you have a favorite fossil found in Minnesota? Maybe you found one yourself at one of the fossil collecting sites around the Twin Cities. If so, let us know in the comments.
LINKS
NFD Art & Photo Contest page
National Fossil Day site
National Fossil Day Flickr page
![Como Bluff c. 1879: William Harlow Reed stands before the expanse of the eroded anticline in southeastern Wyoming where he discovered dinosaur remains on March 7, 1877. When Samuel Williston arrived to supervise and organize the quarrying of the rich fossil deposits for Yale paleontologist O. C. Marsh, he was told that "the bones are by the ton and extend for six or seven miles!". Watercolor by Arthur Lakes.](/sites/default/files/images/ARLAK.275-R-PR7-crop.jpg "Como Bluff c. 1879: William Harlow Reed stands before the expanse of the eroded anticline in southeastern Wyoming where he discovered dinosaur remains on March 7, 1877. When Samuel Williston arrived to supervise and organize the quarrying of the rich fossil deposits for Yale paleontologist O. C. Marsh, he was told that "the bones are by the ton and extend for six or seven miles!". Watercolor by Arthur Lakes.")
Como Bluff c. 1879: William Harlow Reed stands before the expanse of the eroded anticline in southeastern Wyoming where he discovered dinosaur remains on March 7, 1877. When Samuel Williston arrived to supervise and organize the quarrying of the rich fossil deposits for Yale paleontologist O. C. Marsh, he was told that "the bones are by the ton and extend for six or seven miles!". Watercolor by Arthur Lakes.Courtesy Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale UniversityOn this day in 1877, railroad worker William Harlow Reed came over a ridge-top with the remains of a freshly killed antelope slung over his shoulder, and spotted huge fossilized bones exposed on the side of the steep bluff located a half-mile south of Como Station, a desolate railroad stop on the High Plains of Wyoming. It was a discovery that would forever change his life.
Reed and station master, William Carlin, began collecting up as much as they could, dreaming of money and employment other than railroad work. They waited several months before announcing the discovery in a letter to Yale professor Othniel C. Marsh, at the time one of America's prominent paleontologists. When a crate of bones - along with the guarantee of many more - arrived at Yale, Marsh realized they were dinosaur remains and hired both men to excavate and send him as much as they could, and to keep out any interlopers to his claim. Marsh knew if he could keep it secret - at least for a short time - the fossils at Como Bluff could give him a huge advantage in his rivalry with Philadelphia paleontologist, Edward Drinker Cope, and their notorious Bone Wars.
Geology of Como Bluff and environs: Diagram created by the American Museum of Natural History, c. 1900.Courtesy Mark RyanThe dinosaur-rich strata at Como Bluff (the Morrison Formation) are found in the exposed flanks of an anticline (an upward fold), the center of which has been carved out by erosion [see diagram]. All three periods of the Mesozoic Era (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous) are represented in the rock layers found there. Besides dinosaurs, fossils of fish, crocodiles, flying and swimming reptiles have also been found there. A significant number of important Late Jurassic mammalian fossils were discovered and collected by William Reed from Quarry 9 on the east end of Como. Reed also discovered and removed the great Brontosaurus excelsus skeleton that stands today in Yale's Peabody Museum.
Professor Marsh visits Como Bluff: Yale paleontologist, O. C. Marsh (right), lunches with his field workers, William Harlow Reed (center), and Edward Ashley (left) during his 1879 visit to the quarries at Como Bluff. Painting by Arthur Lakes.Courtesy Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale UniversityIn the years following its discovery hundreds of tons of dinosaur remains quarried at Como Bluff were shipped to Yale and other institutions pushing America into the forefront of vertebrate paleontology, and heavily influencing how museums would be constructed throughout the world. 
Former denizens of Como Bluff: The American Museum of Natural History's iconic Allosaurus displayed in its fantastic pose over the remains of an Apatosaurus. Both specimens were collected at Como Bluff, the Allosaurus in 1879 by F. F. Hubbell (for E. D. Cope) and the Apatosaurus in 1897 by an AMNH field crew.Courtesy Mark RyanThe dinosaur halls at the American Museum of Natural History have several mounted specimens found at Como Bluff as does the Smithsonian in our nation's capitol. Well-known genera like Allosaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus are just a few of the dinosaurs pulled from the mudstones and sandstones at Como Bluff. In the early 20th century it was thought that Como had exhausted its supply of dinosaur remains and exploration there for the most part tapered off for several decades. But in recent years, paleontologist Robert Bakker has been re-examining the quarries and uncovering additional secrets still buried in the Jurassic bluffs at Como.
Como Bluff today: The same year dinosaurs fossils were discovered at Como Bluff two other major dinosaur discoveries occurred in Colorado, one near the town of Morrison, and another farther south in Garden Park. Along with Como Bluff, the three sites were battlegrounds for the famous Bone Wars. Paleontologist Samuel Williston was present at all three sites in the early months of their discovery and said Como Bluff was the earliest.Courtesy Mark RyanWilliam Reed worked for Marsh for several more years and the two men remained friends until the Yale professor's death in 1899. Reed continued in the field of paleontology, working independently, and for a time with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. He finished out his career as a popular geology professor and museum curator at the University of Wyoming, just sixty miles from Como Bluff, the great dinosaur graveyard that changed not only the course his life but also that of American paleontology.
Como Bluff was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It's also been designated as one of Wyoming's National Natural Landmarks by the National Park Service.
LINKS
Biography of William Harlow Reed
Marsh's Dinosaurs: The Collections from Como Bluff
Discovering Dinosaurs in the Old West: the Field Journals of Arthur Lakes
Tarborsaurus bataar in Barcelona museum: The sale of dinosaur fossils collected illegally deprives both the scientific community, and the public in general of important fossils. Pictured specimen mounted at Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, Barcelona, Catalonia, ES.Courtesy Jordi Payà via FlickrPaleo-blogger Brian Switek has written an interesting and lengthy article recounting the recent attempt to auction off a stolen Tarborsaurus bataar skeleton. Professional paleontologists and other concerned parties complained that the illegal dinosaur's remains had come from - and by law belonged to - the country of Mongolia. A last minute court order stopped the auction just as the Tarborsaurus (a relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex) was on the block and already receiving bids. Switek, who blogs about dinosaurs on the National Geographic magazine’s Phenomena website writes how the black-market fossil trade deprives institutions of both funds and important scientific knowledge. It does so by creating a commercial market that tends to overly inflate the price of rare fossils beyond the reach of most non-profit institutions, and removes rare specimens from scientific study and public view.
SOURCE
Slate article
National Fossil Day artwork: My winning entry in this year's National Fossil Day Art & Photography Contest.Courtesy Mark RyanNational Fossil Day is finally here. The official website calls it "a celebration organized to promote public awareness and stewardship of fossils, as well as to foster a greater appreciation of their scientific and educational value."
I'm a big fossil fan year round but I'm particularly happy today because I won first place in the NFD's Art & Photo Contest! The theme this year was "Careers in Paleontology". My entry, pictured at right, is a nod to paleoart and features a new "dinosaur" species (Bryocrinoidosaurus decorahi) created using invertebrate fossils found in Minnesota. You can view all the winning entries here.
National Fossil Day is planned and promoted by the National Park Service through partnerships with professional organizations, government agencies, and other science-related groups such as the American Geosciences Institute, the National Earth Science Teachers Association and the Paleontological Research Institution.
The Science Museum of Minnesota celebrates National Fossil Day this coming Saturday, October 20, from 1pm to 4pm. Everyone is invited to join in on the celebration of fossils!
![Crystal Palace dinosaurs: These out-dated depictions of dinosaurs were created by artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins with scientific input from Sir Richard Owen - the comparative anatomist who coined the term "dinosaur". The sculptures, built in 1854, still grace the old grounds of the Crystal Palace in south London today (in Sydenham Park) and were some of the very first images of dinosaurs presented to the general public. More than a 150 years later International Dinosaur Month is celebrated now each October.](/sites/default/files/images/Crystal%20Palace%20Dinosaur%20Park.jpg "Crystal Palace dinosaurs: These out-dated depictions of dinosaurs were created by artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins with scientific input from Sir Richard Owen - the comparative anatomist who coined the term "dinosaur". The sculptures, built in 1854, still grace the old grounds of the Crystal Palace in south London today (in Sydenham Park) and were some of the very first images of dinosaurs presented to the general public. More than a 150 years later International Dinosaur Month is celebrated now each October.")
Crystal Palace dinosaurs: These out-dated depictions of dinosaurs were created by artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins with scientific input from Sir Richard Owen - the comparative anatomist who coined the term "dinosaur". The sculptures, built in 1854, still grace the old grounds of the Crystal Palace in south London today (in Sydenham Park) and were some of the very first images of dinosaurs presented to the general public. More than a 150 years later International Dinosaur Month is celebrated now each October.Courtesy Mark RyanI don’t have a clue who or what entity officially proclaimed October as International Dinosaur Month (and there doesn’t seem to be any official site online), but whoever it was, it’s a great idea! This means not only do we get to celebrate Earth Science Week (October 14-20), and National Fossil Day (October 17*) this month but we also get to celebrate everyone’s favorite prehistoric beasts! A quick Internet search brought up a couple teacher sites here, here and here each offering some interesting ideas on how to celebrate the great Mesozoic monsters this month. There's also this International Dinosaur Month site on Pinterest , and another Pinterest site (mine) featuring dinosaur postcards. Or you could go view some dinosaurs at a local or nearby museum. Below, I’ve included a few museum links to dinosaur-related exhibits, and a site that lists dinosaur exhibitions around the world. If you or your classes are celebrating dinosaurs this month or have other suggestions on how to do so, please let us know.
*The Science Museum of Minnesota will celebrate National Fossil Day on Saturday, October 20 this year.
Smithsonian NMNH
American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaur National Monument
Where to see dinosaurs around the world
National Fossil Day: A great time to dig fossils (both literally and figuratively).Courtesy Mark RyanNext month, the National Park Service once again teams with the American Geological Institute and other partners to celebrate the third annual National Fossil Day.
The mission of NFD is to “promote public awareness of fossils as well as to foster a greater appreciation of their scientific and educational value.”
This year the official day falls on October 17, but celebrations take place at various locations around the country over several days. Here at the Science Museum of Minnesota, the day will be celebrated on Saturday, October 20, 1pm-4pm throughout the museum. You can see what events are happening in your own area here.
Besides going out and hunting for fossils, one of my favorite NFD activities is the National Fossil Day Art & Photography Contest. As in previous years, the competition is open to anyone across several age groups. This year’s theme is “Careers in Paleontology”. A panel of NFD partners and paleontologists will select the winning entries. I’ve already sent in my submission but you have until October 5th (postmark deadline) to enter your own masterpiece.
National Fossil Day is usually observed in conjunction with Earth Science Week and this year is no different. EWS occurs October 14-20, and this year’s theme is Discovering Careers in the Earth Sciences.
Prehistoric Antarctica shoreline: artist's conception of flora living during the Middle Miocene epoch.Courtesy NASA / JPL-Caltech / Dr. Philip Bart, LSURecent investigations into microfossils show that Antarctica hasn’t been quite the icebox scientists have imagined it to be over the past 34 million years. Pollen and leaf wax samples from Miocene-aged sediments indicate the continent has experienced some periods of warming since the beginning of the most recent glacial period. The core samples studied came from ocean sediments collected near Antarctica, and particulates found in the samples indicate more rain fell on the ice-covered continent during the Middle Miocene epoch (15.5 – 20 million years ago) than previously thought, enough rain to spur the growth of forests of small, stunted trees.
Paleoclimatologist and organic geochemist Sarah Feakins of the University of Southern California and her colleagues analyzed core samples taken from between 144 and 1,100 meters beneath the ocean floor – levels dating back to the Middle Miocene. Spikes of concentrated amounts of pollens and leaf wax appeared in two periods – one about 16.4 million years ago, and another about 15.7 million years ago. The warm periods were relatively short, each lasting less than 30,000 years.
In a previous study, palynologist Sophie Warny of Louisiana State University had first described the pollen and leaf wax spikes found in the core samples, and she and Feakins eventually teamed up for the recent study. The team determined the particle spikes didn’t arise from the leaf wax and pollen blowing in from elsewhere but rather came from two species of trees that once lined the shores of Antarctica. The two species, podocarp conifer and southern beech wouldn’t have grown very tall – maybe knee-high – and neither spreads their pollen over wide areas. Had the pollens blown in from elsewhere - say South America or New Zealand - there were would have been more species in the mix.
Using a mass spectrometer, Feakins and NASA researchers analyzed the ratio of hydrogen to deuterium atoms in the wax molecules which indicated the temperature at the Antarctica location during the two warm periods was about 7 degrees Celsius during the summer. Today, summer temperatures in the same region are about –4 °C. The average global temperature at the time was about 3 °C higher than it is today. As the overall global temperature changes a relatively greater change in polar temperature isn't unexpected due to a process called polar amplification.
The data from Feakins and Warny’s study, which appeared in Nature Geoscience, adds to growing concerns over the sensitivity of Earth’s climatic and hydrological systems. At the moment, no trees line the shores of Antarctica, but current levels of carbon dioxide (393 parts per million) are not far off those thought to have existed during the Middle Miocene’s warm periods (400-600 parts per million) when forests did exist on the margins of the icy continent. This could indicate that even small changes in carbon dioxide levels can are capable of creating big changes in climate.
SOURCES
Earth magazine
Science on NBCnews.com
Brontosaurus excelsus vertebra - Sauropoda Plate XVII: Figure drawings by Frederick Berger and lithographed by Emil Crisand showing third dorsal vertebra in lateral and anterior views. Original lithograph from a series of Sauropoda plates produced under the direction of paleontologist O. C. Marsh, c. 1882.Courtesy Mark Ryan CollectionIn 1879, on the High Plains of Wyoming Territory, fieldworker William Harlow Reed discovered the first bones of a nearly complete dinosaur skeleton that Yale paleontologist Othniel Marsh would eventually name Brontosaurus excelsus. Arthur Lakes (another of Marsh's fieldworkers) made a watercolor portraying Reed (right) and helper Edward Ashley sitting among the sauropod's bones at Como Bluff's Quarry #10 (scroll to bottom of link page see the painting). More about the discovery can be found here. The mounted skeleton still stands at Yale's Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut.
Skull of Yutyrannus hualiCourtesy Photo by Zang Hailong (via Nature)A huge one-and-a-half ton theropod discovered recently in China is further shaking up our old ideas of dinosaurs being oversized scaly lizards. The fossilized remains of Yutyrannus huali, a 130 million year-old tyrannosaur uncovered in the Liaoning fossil beds show evidence of a fuzzy coating of feathers on several areas, e.g. the tail, hip, foot, neck and arm. Yutyrannus huali is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex(there is some contention about this) which didn’t evolve until much later in the Cretaceous period. Evidence of feathers has been found on smaller dinosaurs including the basal tyrannosauroid Dilong but these are the first clues that larger dinosaurs had feathers. Three nearly complete and well-articulated skeletons of Y. huali - an adult and two juveniles were found in the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province in northeast China. The adult is quite large, being nearly 30 feet in length and estimated to have weighed in life around 3000 pounds! The two juveniles weighed around 1200 pounds. All show evidence of having filamentous feather. Large animals today, such as elephants, rhinos, and hippos are somewhat hairless and tend not to need insulation for retaining heat because of their size and the ratio of surface area of skin to their masses. Whether Yutyrannus huali’s well-known descendent Tyrannosaurus rex had any plumage remains a mystery. T. rex was six times as massive as its ancestor, and arrived on the scene 60 million years later in the Late Cretaceous when the climate was warmer. But all it takes to change that is some new fossil to come to light. Generally, it’s thought that feathers first appeared as a means of insulation, species identification, or for attracting mates long before they evolved for use in flight. Today, birds are considered the descendents of small theropods dinosaurs called dromeosaurids. The discovery of Yutyrannus huali adds new clues and additional mystery to our conception of how dinosaurs appeared in life. The new study by Chinese vertebrate paleontologist Xu Xing and his co-researchers appears in the science journal Nature.
SOURCES
National Geographic story
Nature article
NY Times story
Smithsonian's Tracking Dinosaurs
