Page 62 - Dinosaur (DK Eyewitness Books)

Finding dinosaur fossils

HȰȸ ȥȰ ȧȰȴȴȪȭ ȩȶȯȵȦȳȴ discover the remains
of dinosaurs? First, they look for the right kinds of
fossil-bearing rocks. Sedimentary rocks like sandstones
that date from the Age of Dinosaurs often show up
most clearly in badlands (barren and eroded regions),
deserts, cliffs, and quarries. Paleontologists search these
places for unusual rock. What we might consider shiny
or spongy stones may be recognized by the experts as
scraps of dinosaur fossils—pieces that may have broken
off from a larger fossil such as a skull. Discovery is just
the start. A team of experts may work for weeks to
free a large fossil from its rocky tomb without
damaging it. Meanwhile, they measure,
map, and photograph each bone.

THE HUNT
Secured by a safety rope,
paleontologist Hans Larsson
perches precariously halfway up
a cliff to excavate a toe bone of
Centrosaurus, a horned dinosaur.
ANCIENT TREASURE TROVE This scene is set in the remote
A sauropodomorph skeleton dwarfs this paleontologist working badlands of Dinosaur Provincial
at a dinosaur dig in China’s Lufeng Basin, a bowl-shaped region Park in Alberta, Canada, but the
filled with sedimentary rocks. In 1938, Chinese paleontologist hunt for dinosaurs ranges from
Yang Zhongjian unearthed fossils of the prosauropod frozen Antarctica to the baking
Lufengosaurus, the first dinosaur to be found here. Since then, sands of the Sahara Desert.
the area’s sandstones, mudstones, and shales have yielded more
than 100 dinosaur skeletons dating from the Jurassic Period.

Gloves
Straight-headed Pointed Flat
hammer for splitting chisel chisel
hard rock

Curved-headed
brick hammer
for breaking up
and clearing softer
rocks, such as clays

Rock saw
for cutting
through rock