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How do you think the dinosaurs died? Did the dinosaur travel in herds?How do dinosaurs (generally) become a fossil? Could you describe the process step by step?
Will you be doing another dig this year? Next year? How many more?
How much did the Prosauropod weigh?
Did the Prosauropods travel in herds/groups? How fast could they run? How far could they see?
Did they have a good sense of smell?How many prosauropods are there and how do you identify a prosauropod's fossil?
Who discovered the first dinosaur? What year? What kind of dinosaur? Where did they find it?
Where did the name Styracosaurus come from and what does it mean?
Why are the bones of the forearms of your prosauropod skeleton criss-crossed? Is it
supposed to be like that?Can you tell what colors dinosaurs are? Do you know what colors dinosaurs are?
Why the triceratop had the shield on it's head and not somewhere else on its body?
Who came up with the word dinosaur?
How long does it take to dig up a dino bone?
When do you plan on being finished?
My question is, what kind of tools do you use to dig up the fossils? Thanks.
What is a eosuchian and why is it important in the study of dinosaurs?
What is an imprint, trackway, tracks, pace, stride regarding foot printsof dinosaurs.Do you have any idea as to where and when the specimen will be published?
1) The prosauropod is presented with a date of 200 mya. What is this age date based on? Radiogenics? Biostratigraphy?
2) What is the primary composition of the fossilized bones?I would like to know if the dinosaur is the size of a horse or an elephant? How big is it?
Why has it taken so long to find a prosauropod skeleton with a skull? Why were their heads missing?
How can you tell the age of a fossil?
How many people are working in the lab right now?
I was wondering did dinosaurs or just the raptors really evolve into birds?
How big is the prosauropod's tooth, and is
prosauropod the actual name for the dinosaur?When are you going to put the bones that you're done with on the dinosaur bone map?
What would happen if you chipped a bone, would you get fired?
Is your job sometimes fun or is it usually boring? Is air scribing hard or fun to use?
I am wondering how much dinosaur bones weigh. I have been trying to find out for a long time.
What kind of dinosaur are you looking for?
How many dinosaurs did you find?
I was just wondering, what does polyvinyl acetate do? Is it safe to use?
Question:
How do you think the dinosaur died? Did the dinosaur travel in herds?
Answer:
We have not found any specific evidence that clarifies why this dinosaur died. Once the bones are completely removed from the sandstone the story may become more clear, but we may never know with certainty what killed this dinosaur 200 million years ago.
From other prosauropod dinosaur discoveries it seems that prosauropod dinosaurs did travel is small groups. This is a common herbivore strategy for avoiding predators. An individual in a group is safer from attack than an individual left alone.Question:
I noticed in a book I was reading (Into The Dinosaurs' Graveyard: Canadian Digs and Discoveries) that of the Prosauropods found in NS, one had gastroliths found in it's stomach area, and also the jaw of a sphenodontid (the book says it may have been eaten by mistake with vegetation or for it's calcium content). My question is, what happened to this specimen and is there any new information about the abnormality?
Answer:
Great question, and I hope you are enjoying the book. This specimen is still being studied along with the more recent material we are currently working on in the lab. As you mentioned the jaw was likely eaten for it's calcium content. It is common for herbivores even today to eat small bits of bone. With a diet that is limited only to plants obtaining enough calcium is a serious challenge. Consuming small bits of bone provides an excellent source of calcium.
Question:
How a dinosaurs (generally) become a fossil? Could you describe the process step by step?
Answer:
The first and perhaps most important thing is that the dinosaur bones had to be buried very quickly. With this specimen it seems like a temporary river provided the sand sediment that buried the carcass of the dinosaur. After the bones are buried, they must remain below the surface to become mineralized. The pore spaces in the bone become filled by minerals precipitating from the ground water that moves through the sand and bones. This mineralization may take 1000 or more years to complete depending upon the environment the bones are buried under.
So, there are fossil bones in the sand (now sandstone). Next, these bones have to become exposed at the surface for someone to find. The fossilized bones will not last long exposed to the elements, so if someone does not spot the fossil material it will quickly disappear.
Question:
Will you be doing another dig this year? Next year? How many more?
Answer:
We are focussing on preparing the material collected last year. Although it seems likely that more dinosaur material will be recovered from the site, we are not going to mount an expedition this year. However, some examination of the sediments is being carried out at the collection site. We are trying to gather evidence for the depositional event(s) that caused these bones to be preserved.The collection of prosauropod dinosaur bones will likely continue for many years to come. With the material collected over the past several years, this site has become the richest deposit of prosauropod fossil material in North America.
Question:
How much did the Prosauropod weigh?
Answer:
The prosauropod dinosaur we are working on in the lab would have been about 4 meters long, stood about 1.5 meters at the hip, and likely walked on four feet. An estimate weight would be around 400 kg, or almost 900 pounds. It won't be clear until all of the bones are uncovered how accurate this initial estimate might be.
Question:
What is planned for the prosauropod remains once they are removed from the matrix and re-articulated? Are you going to make cast replica's and rebuild the skeleton or just display each "real" bone separately.
Answer:
Once finished removing the bones, we plan to display them as the originals. If the bones are very brittle or in very bad shape, then it may be that they will be replicated as casts.
As for rebuilding a skeleton, it is not likely since the bones found from this area tend to be very fractured and distorted.
Question:
Did the Prosauropods travel in herds/groups? How fast could they run? How far could they see? Did they have a good sense of smell?
Answer:
From research on other prosauropod dinosaurs, it is thought that they traveled is small groups. At our research site we have found the remains of three prosauropod dinosaurs very close to one another. One explanation is that they traveled in small groups, but another might be that several dead dinosaurs were swept down a river and deposited (together) along a river bank. The location of skeletons in close proximity does not necessarily mean they lived together. Many other dinosaur groups are known to have traveled in groups/herds so it would not be unreasonable to consider prosauropod dinosaurs traveling in small groups.Running estimates for prosauropod dinosaurs are not common. When an animal runs the stride length increases, and to estimate the top speed of a prosauropod dinosaur it is important to have a trackway that shows a running stride. Unfortunately no running trackway of a prosauropod dinosaur is known, making the estimation very difficult. However, an estimate for the running speed of a different dinosaur, a large theropod, has been suggested to be about 40 kilometers/hour.
Vision is another hard topic to understand when thinking about an extinct animal like the dinosaurs. Prosauropod dinosaurs may have been like many herbivores today and been good at seeing predators approaching from behind and the sides, as well as seeing motion in the distance.
Some prosauropod dinosaurs had quite large nostrils, but it is unclear if they had a heightened sense of smell or if they had special excretory glands in their nostrils.
Question:
How many prosauropods are there and how do you identify a prosauropod's fossil?
Answer:
Most scientists recognize seven families of prosauropod dinosaur. The names of the families and where they have been found are Thecodontosauridae (England), Anchisauridae (North America), Massospondylidae (Africa), Yunnanosauridae (China), Plateosauridae (Germany), Melasorosauridae (England and South Africa), and Blikanasauridae (Europe).The fossil bones are identified as prosauropod dinosaurs by looking at the shapes of the skull, limbs, and hip. The fossils are compared to previously published descriptions of fossils and if the bones show characteristic prosauropod features, the specimen can be confidently identified as a prosauropod dinosaur.
Question:
Who discovered the first dinosaur? What year? What kind of dinosaur? Where did they find it?
Answer:
What a great question! It seems that the first documented discovery of a dinosaur bone was in 1677, by Robert Plot. He discovered the end of a femur (upper bone of the rear leg). The femur was found in Oxfordshire, England. When it was discovered it was described as a "Thigh-bone of a Man or at least of some other Animal". Remember, the word "dinosaur" was not coined until 1842. A lot remained to be learned of ancient life when Robert Plot found the megalosaur femur.Question:
Where did the name Styracosaurus come from and what does it mean?
Answer:
Styracosaurus means "spiked lizard", referring to the large backward directed spike on its head shield. It was named by the palaeontologist Lawrence Lambe in 1913.
Question:
Why are the bones of the forearms of your prosauropod skeleton criss-crossed? Is it supposed to be like that?
Answer:
This is a great question. Although it might look strange the first time you see a skeleton, the bones of the forearm do cross.Try this: Holding your arm out straight, with the palm of your hand facing down, push on the thumb side of your arm to feel your radius bone. Follow this bone up to your elbow and notice it crosses to the outside of your arm. Next, feel the bone on the little finger side of your wrist; this arm bone is called the ulna. Follow the ulna up your arm and you will find in moves to the inside of your arm. Now turn your hand so your palm is facing up and notice the radius and ulna travel straight up to your elbow.
The radius and ulna can turn over each other and allow the hand (or foot) to turn 180'.
Question:
Can you tell what colors dinosaurs are? Do you know what colors dinosaurs are?
Answer:
It is very rare, but with some special dinosaur skeletons scientists have found skin impression preserved. The skin is not fossilized, but an impression (perhaps made in a very fine mud) will show what the surface of the skin looked like. From these impressions we understand what some of the dinosaurs skin looked like, but unfortunately there is no way to determine what color the dinosaur skin was when the animal was alive. Perhaps they were grey like elephants, or perhaps they were striped and camouflaged like Zebras or Iguanas. We can only use our imagination to consider what color dinosaurs where.
Question:
Why the triceratop had the shield on it's head and not somewhere else on its body?
Answer:
There are several ideas about the function of the head shield. Most often these dinosaurs are shown in illustrations using their head shield and horns for defense, similar to how we see a Rhinoceros behave today. Other functions for the frill might have been as an attachment point for the jaw muscles, and to increase the body temperature as blood moving through the frill may have been warmed by the sun (like a solar panel).
Question:
Who came up with the word dinosaur?
Answer:
The word dinosaur was coined by Richard Owen (1804-1892), a British anatomist. The word "dinosaur" was constructed from the Greek words deinos (terrible) and sauros (lizard or reptile) in 1842, and used to describe the few specimens that were known at that time. It is interesting to note that the prosauropod dinosaurs Thecodontosaurus and Plateosaurus were one of the first few "dinosaurs" studied in the middle of the 19th century.
Question:
What's the smartest dinosaur?
Answer:
Of course it is hard to determine how smart dinosaurs where. One way scientists have tried to answer this question is to make an endocast, a cast of the inside of the brain case, and use this to estimate the size of the animal's brain. The body mass of dinosaurs can also be estimated from the size of their bones, and by comparing the estimated mass of the brain to the estimated mass of the body a number called an Encephalization Quotient (EQ) can be calculated. The EQ number can be used to compare different (extinct and living) animals and may be helpful in suggesting how smart an animal was.Sauropod dinosaurs have the smallest EQ ratios of all the dinosaurs. This is not too surprising because the sauropods have such small heads for their body size. The Stegosaurs also have small EQ values, but they are a little larger than the sauropods. The Ornithopods that lived from the late Jurassic into the Cretaceous are the dinosaurs with the largest EQ values.
Question:
How long does it take to dig up a dino bone?
Answer:
The length of time it takes to uncover a dinosaur bone depends on which bone is being uncovered, and how big the dinosaur was. Usually the bigger the fossil bone, the longer it takes to uncover, but this is not always the case. The femur (upper bone of the back leg) is the largest bone in the prosauropod dinosaur's body. But it is strong, so is not difficult to expose and might take about 10-14 days to uncover. However, the skull is only 1/2 the length of the femur but might take several months to uncover. The skull is composed of paper thin bones that have complicated shapes, making it difficult to remove the sandstone.Question:
More and more dinosaur fossils are revealing evidence of a feathery coat, is it possible that this dinosaur also was a feathered one?
Answer:
An excellent question! Although the prosauropod dinosaurs and theropod dinosaurs are saurischian dinosaurs (and closely related), no evidence has been found to suggest prosauropod dinosaurs had feathers.Question:
We can realize how parasaurolophus or muttaburasaurus made voices, but I'm wondering what was the sounds of dromeosaurs (for example). Could they tweet like a birds?
Answer:
Now there is a tough question. A time machine would be helpful so we could travel back and listen.
It's too bad that sounds don't fossilize.You mentioned Parasaurolophus, the well known Cretaceous herbivore with a long tube like crest on it's head. Researchers have wondered what the crest was used for, and tested the idea that it was used to produce sound. Scientists made a model of the bony crest and when air was blown through the tube, a deep bellowing sound was produced.
Birds produce chirping by contracting muscles around their windpipe. Dromaeosaurs, another group of dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous are very closely related to birds. It is an interesting idea that dromaeosaurs might have tweeted like birds but because muscles do not fossilize it is hard to prove what type of sound they made.
The Prosauropods we are working on in the lab are much older than the other dinosaurs already mentioned. The prosaurpod dinosaurs lived from the Late Triassic into the Early Jurassic. They are thought to have been social animals, traveling in small herd like groups. In order to communicate with each other they probably made some kind of vocalization; but again, we don't have any fossil evidence to speculate on what they might have sounded like.
Question:
How long do you think it will take you to dig up the whole dinosaur? Do you really know how the dinosaurs died?
Answer:
Last summer eight large blocks of sandstone where collected from a Museum research site nearby. Also, smaller bones were carefully wrapped in paper and put into plastic bags. A field number was assigned to every bone found at the site. In total we collected over 100 different bones last summer, so we have an an enormous amount of material to work on in the lab.The task of removing all of the sandstone from the bones is expected to take about a year. However, this is difficult to estimate because it depends on what is being uncovered. A vertebra has complicated shapes with thin areas of bone and will take longer to uncover than a solid limb bone like a humerus.
We don't know how this dinosaur died, and we might never know. Sometimes fossil evidence can be found for what killed an animal. If the dinosaur died from a bone disease there will be distinct marks on the bone, or tooth marks in the neck would suggest the animal was killed by a predator. This prosauropod dinosaur was found under a thick layer of mud, and may have been buried by a type of landslide.
We won't know what killed this prosauropod dinosaur until all the bones have been exposed and carefully examined. But if we find something that suggests how this dinosaur died we will post it on this web page, so stay tuned.
Question:
I was wondering How did the dinosaurs die. My teacher told me that a meteor hit the earth and all the plants and dinosaurs died. I was wondering is that true because some scientists say different things and so my teacher told me to go to this web site and so I did. So did it hit earth?
Answer:
It's important to remember that most dinosaurs lived a full life, and died from natural causes. Sometimes we often do not appreciate how long the dinosaurs successfully lived on the earth. Dinosaurs, as a group of animals managed to live for about 180 million years. They are perhaps the most successful group of animals that have ever lived.The dinosaurs did experience two mass extinction events. The first was at the end of the Triassic, 200 million years ago, and the second was 65 million years ago. Some dinosaurs survived the first extinction event, but all of the large dinosaurs were wiped out during the second extinction event. The question you are asking refers to the second extinction event, 65 million years ago.
Geologists and Palaeontologists have discovered that there is a layer of ash that can be found anywhere there are sedimentary rocks that are 65 million years ago. The layer of ash was deposited after a catastrophic meteor impact. The meteor probably hit around the Yucatan peninsula, where a huge crater is hidden just under the water surface.
The impact caused a tremendous change in the environment and many species went extinct. Not all animals went extinct, but many did. I don't know if you have ever heard about this, but many scientists believe that all the birds alive today, are related to a type of dinosaur called a Dromaeosaur. So, not all dinosaurs went extinct, only the really big ones. The birds that sing in our forests today are really dinosaurs that survived the second extinction event.
Question:
I was just reading the answer to the question about the number of bones in a prosauropod. If I understand the rest of your site correctly, prosauropod is the name of a group of dinosaurs, not one specific dinosaur. If this is the case, which specific dinosaur were you describing in the answer to the number of bones question?
Answer:
You are correct; there are a number of different groups of dinosaurs that belong to the broader category of prosauropod dinosaurs. They include the Ammosaurus, Anchisaurus, Plateosaurus, Yunnanosaurus, and a number of other dinosaur genera. Any variation between the different members of the prosauropod group would probably be found in the number of vertebrae within the spinal column; but the number is actually quite consistent.However, the problem is compounded by the condition of skeletons that are collected. Many genera are only represented by incomplete skeletons, making it very difficult to determine the total number of bones found in members of those genera.
The number of bones in a prosauropod skeleton (374), as given in a previous answer, was based on information on the Plateosaurus provided in The Dinosauria, edited by Weishampel, Dodson and Osmolska. Early research shows that dinosaurs here in Nova Scotia resemble Plateosaurus, a dinosaur of which we have a number of examples from across the globe.
Question:
When do you plan on being finished?
Answer:
The amount of time it takes to prepare the skeleton that was excavated will depend on the number of people working on the fossils. Throughout the winter there are fewer staff members and volunteers working in the lab, so the work slows down a bit. We estimate that it will take about one year to complete the preparation of this particular skeleton.We are quite certain that there is more fossil material in the cliff at Wasson Bluff, and that there will be more excavations in the future. This will keep our fossil preparators busy for many years to come!
Question:
My question is, what kind of tools do you use to dig up the fossils? Thanks.
Answer:
We use a lot of different tools to dig up fossils when we are on a fossil dig! I bet if you use your imagination, you can think of a lot of them.We use shovels and brushes, but sometimes we have to remove so much rock, that we have to use bigger tools. We have used a jack hammer and even an excavator to remove rock and sand. An excavator is a machine that is like a back hoe, but it has a track like a bull dozer instead of wheels. We also use brooms, rock hammers and chisels, and tiny picks and brushes. We use a liquid like glue on the surface of exposed bones to protect them. Then we cover the blocks of rock that contain the fossils with burlap dipped in plaster mixed with water so they do not break when they are taken back to the museum. We also use measuring tapes and other measuring tools so we can draw a map that shows where all of the fossils were located before we dug them up. We have a lot of tools to move around, so we sometimes need a truck just to take them to the dig site.
If you want to find out more about the fossil dig that we did in the Summer of 2000, you can go to that part of our web site: Dinosaur Expedition 2000. You can use your BACK button to return to this page.
Question:
Today at my school (North Queens High School in NS) my teacher showed us this web site and told us about the dig. It seems pretty cool and once we talked about it we had a question. I was wondering how long you guys have been going at this, and how much longer do you think it will take to get it all in a safe spot! Also, do you think there could be more dino fossils in the area where you are now?
Thank you for your time and good luck at it.
Answer:
Staff members and volunteers at the museum have been working on prosauropod dinosaur fossils since the museum opened in 1993. The fossil preparation you are watching on the web site is part of Project Prosauropod. This project started in the Summer of 2000 with the excavation of the most complete prosauropod skeleton we have found to date. Many blocks of sandstone containing fossils were brought into the museum where they would be safe. Since then, lab technicians have been working to prepare the fossils for research, and for display at the museum. We hope to finish the preparation of the skeleton by next Fall.The few other North American prosauropods that have been found are only isolated examples; each one was found in a different area. We know that our site (Wasson Bluff, NS) is the richest prosauropod dinosaur site in North America because we have found several skeletons in one place. Based on what we know about our own site, we are quite certain that we will find more dinosaurs there. You will have to keep watching our web site and listening to the news to hear if we have found enough fossil material in the cliff to do another excavation!
Question:
After the discovery that sauropods balanced their necks with their tails, do you think that Prosauropods held their necks horizontal also, or vertically?
Answer:
Like Sauropods, the Prosauropods probably did hold their necks in a horizontal position most of the time. However, unlike most sauropods, the Prosauropods were able to run on their hind legs. They are thought to have been fairly slow and awkward in a bipedal (two-footed) gait.Palaeontologists also feel that Prosauropods reared up on their hind legs to feed from tall trees. The tail acted as a third "leg". The hind legs combined with the tail to form a tripod while the animal held its neck in a vertical position to feed. Such a position would make it difficult for the Prosauropod to tip over.
Question:
What is a eosuchian and why is it important in the study of dinosaurs? What is an imprint, trackway, tracks, pace, stride regarding foot prints of dinosaurs?
Answer:
These are two very good questions, but neither has a short answer! We'll start with the importance of eosuchians in the study of dinosaurs.According to evolutionary biology, modern reptiles, birds and mammals are included in a group of animals known as amniote vertebrates. Initially, there were fewer differences between members of this group. During the Carboniferous Period, 325 mya, the amniote vertebrates diverged into 2 groups: Synapsids (early mammals and their relatives) and Diapsids (reptiles, dinosaurs and birds, pterosaurs).
According to some scientists, early diapsids of the Triassic Period were quite similar, so they were lumped into a single category (Eosuchia). Now most researchers agree that the group had already diverged into two groups by the Early Triassic: Archosauromorpha (crocodiles, dinosaurs, etc.) and Lepidosauromorpha (lizards, snakes and sphenodontids). Members of Lepidosauromorpha are characterized by a sprawling gait. The legs extend out from the sides of the body, requiring the spine to move in an s-pattern, like that of a snake. These scientists now classify the group Eosuchia as a member of the Lepidosauromorpha.
As you can see, the evolution of the dinosaurs (and modern reptiles) is quite complicated. Determining where Eosuchians fit in the chain of evolution will help to determine how dinosaurs as well as our modern reptiles developed.
Now for the second part of your question. The study of dinosaur footprints (or ichnology) can reveal a lot about the way it moves, or its locomotion. The imprint an animal leaves behind is the actual indentation it makes in soft sediment, usually mud. The sediment may dry out and become buried. Over time, pressure from the weight of additional layers of sediment can turn the sediment to stone. The original imprint and the natural cast that filled the imprint may be exposed later by erosion, but often the fine-grained sediment that preserves the imprint is very soft and erodes quickly. Only the cast is left behind.
A trackway is simply a series of two or more tracks (or footprints) preserved in stone. Pace and stride both refer to the distance between two footprints or tracks made by either the two front feet or hind feet of an animal. In humans, the pace, or stride, is the distance one covers in one step.
Question:
Do you have any idea as to where and when the specimen will be published?
Answer:
The dinosaurs that we are currently preparing (removing from the stone) are being studied by Tim Fedak (Department of Biology, Dalhousie University) as part of his Masters research. Tim's research focuses on the identification and description of the prosauropod material based on morphological characters of the preserved material. Thin sections will also be used to estimate the age (number of years the animal lived) for each specimen. The final publication of this research is a couple of years away, sometime between 2003 and 2004.Question:
My questions:
1) The prosauropod is presented with a date of 200 mya. What is this age
date based on? Radiogenics? Biostratigraphy?
2) What is the primary composition of the fossilized bones?
Answer:
1) This date was assigned using a combination of methods. The igneous basalt flows below the sandstone were dated radiometrically. They have measured certain elements that decay over time, as well as the products formed by the break down. Since these elements decay at a known rate, they can calculate how long the parent element has been decaying, and therefore, the approximate age of the basalt. But as you know, the dinosaurs are not found in basalt, but in the overlying sandstone.
The date is fine-tuned using Van Houten cycles. These astronomical cycles result in climate changes that occur every 21,000 years. These changes result in alternating layers of sedimentary rock. The layers are counted and multiplied by 21,000 to give a more precise date.
Nova Scotia's dinosaurs are important because they occur at the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary. They are thought to be survivors of a mass extinction at that time.2) We're still in the process of analysing the bones to determine their primary composition. In living animals, bone consists of hydroxyapatite crystals (a combination of calcium, hydroxyl and phosphate ions) deposited in a framework of collagen fibres (a protein). The collagen gives the bones a bit of elasticity that prevents them from breaking easily. The collagen has likely deteriorated, and possibly was replaced by francolite. The hydroxyapatite is probably still there, but some of it may have been altered. At this point, we are not certain which water-borne minerals have filled in the pore spaces where blood vessels once penetrated the bone. As we learn more, we'll keep you posted!
Question:
How long do you think it will take you to uncover the whole dinosaur? Are you going to reconstruct it's skeleton?
Answer:
The answer to the first question is uncertain. We hope to complete preparation of material collected in 2000 within the next year. This will depend on funding for hiring additional staff, and on the availability of volunteers. There is still more material to be collected from the Wasson Bluff cliffs. As you know, excavations also depend on funding, and on the condition of the cliff surrounding the site.We will not reconstruct this skeleton. As you will see in the photo below, many of the prosauropod bones have been badly distorted. Shifting, or faulting, of the fossil bearing rock has offset the bones, making reconstruction impossible. Museum visitors can compare the isolated bones on display with a complete replica of a similar skeleton in one of our newest exhibits.
Question:
I would like to know if the dinosaur is the size of a horse or an elephant? How big is it?
Answer:
There is actually a wide range in the size of the dinosaurs we have uncovered to date. The smallest Wasson Bluff prosauropod was probably about 30 cm long. The prosauropod we are currently working on is close to your estimate of the size of a horse. Standing on all four legs, the prosauropod dinosaur would be about the same height as a small horse. The dinosaur is much longer though: about 5 m to 6 m long (about 15 to 18 feet).
Question:
Why has it taken so long to find a prosauropod skeleton with a skull? Why were their heads missing?
Answer:
The reason prosauropod dinosaur skulls are rarely found articulated (connected) to the rest of the fossilized skeleton is that prosauropod skulls are very small, delicate structures. The prosauropod dinosaurs were herbivores but they did not chew their food like cows. While feeding, a prosauropod sliced plant material with its sharp serrated teeth and swallowed the vegetation unchewed. Stones (gastroliths) in the prosauropod's stomach were used to grind up the vegetation to promote digestion within the intestines. The skull did not need to be strong and rigid like a carnivore's skull that needs to fight with prey and tear meat from a carcass. The prosauropod skull is very light, with thin, delicate
bones. The delicate nature of the skull means that when the prosauropod died, its skull bones often fell apart. Small bones were more easily transported and dispersed by even a gentle flow of water and are more likely be damaged by the intense pressures during fossilization.For comparison, the femur (upper leg bone) of the prosauropod, is large, thick and heavy. The large size of the femur would make it is less likely to be transported by water or damaged by fossilization. Nearly all specimens found in Nova Scotia have a femur preserved, but only one specimen has been found with a complete, articulated skull. The skull of this specimen was likely preserved because the dinosaur was quickly buried shortly after death, by sand and mud at the bottom of a water filled channel. The quick burial prevented the body from being scavenged by predators and kept the bones together, preserved intact, until we found them 200 million years later.
Question:
How can you tell the age of a fossil?
Answer:
There are a number of different clues used to determine the age of a fossil. One is knowing the age ofother similar fossils, or the age of other similar rock deposits. For example, we know from previous research that Prosauropod dinosaurs lived during the late Triassic and early Jurassic Periods (231 to 188 million years ago). Nova Scotia's prosauropods probably live within that age range.Another indicator of a fossil's age is a volcanic deposit located above or below (or both) the layer of rock containing the fossil. Volcanic (igneous) deposits can be dated radiometrically. Scientists examine the elements found in these rocks to determine how long ago the igneous rock cooled.
Astronomical cycles that occur at regular intervals can sometimes be seen in layers of sedimentary rock. You can actually count the number of cycles within the layers and multiply that number by the number of years in each cycle to pinpoint that age of a fossil.
Combining all three clues gives scientists a pretty good idea of a fossil's age.
Question:
I was wondering if you could tell me on the next update if dinosaur digging and being a Paleontologist is as fun as it looks, and if a paleontologist is a good thing to be (money wise) because I was planning on being one myself when I grow up. I live in Labrador City Newfoundland. My school is J.R. Smallwood Primary and Elementary school.
Answer:
Being a palaeontologist is hard work, but it is also a lot of fun! And digging for dinosaurs can be very exciting, too. It's great that you want to be a palaeontologist - a good place to start is to do school science projects on palaeontology, or perhaps start your own fossil collection. Take lots of math and science courses when you get to high school. When you get to university, consider classes in both geology and biology.As for whether palaeontology is a good idea money-wise, a person won't get rich working as a palaeontologist, but it's one of the most interesting jobs out there. Palaeontologists do their job because they love it! Good luck at becoming one when you grow up!
Question:
How many people are working in the lab right now?
Answer:
This time of year we're down to a smaller crew; there are only three workers in the lab. Extra staff that are hired in the lab are usually students who only work in the summer. Things get a lot quieter in the winter, but we're still as busy as ever!Question:
I always wanted to be a palaeontologist, but I don't think I can, because I'm scared of heights, and I'm sort of scared of bugs. Can I still be a palaeontologist?
Answer:
The good news is that you can still be a palaeontologist. Most outdoor palaeontological work is done on the ground, since that's where the fossils are! Sometimes the fossils (like ours) are located on a cliff, but for most jobs, you don't have to do work that might put you in danger. Bugs are a bit harder to avoid. But you work as a palaeontologist in areas where there aren't many bugs, like where the climate is very cold, or where there aren't many bugs that could hurt you.It is important to remember that most of a palaeontologist's work is done inside. You don't get to spend a whole lot of time outside. If you really want to be a palaeontologist, I think you should follow your dreams. Don't let being afraid stop you from doing something you really want to do!
Question:
I was wondering did dinosaurs or just the raptors really evolve into birds?
Answer:
There is a lot of argument over the way birds and dinosaurs are related.Technically, raptors are really birds of prey. The term 'raptor as used in the movie, Jurassic Park refers to the Velociraptor (a type of Dromaeosaurid dinosaur). Dromaeosaurids belong to a group of animals called Maniraptors. Many people think that birds descended from other members of the Maniraptor group called Coelurosaurs. That would mean that the Velociraptor and modern birds evolved from the same group of animals (Maniraptors), not that birds evolved from raptors.
Question:
How big is the prosauropod's tooth, and is prosauropod the actual name for the dinosaur?
Answer:
The prosauropod teeth that you can see in the photos above are 1 cm (3/8th of an inch) long. Some of the teeth still have part of a root. The longest root is 2 cm (3/4 of an inch) long.The prosauropods were a group of herbivorous (plant eating) dinosaurs that lived from the Late Triassic to the Early Jurassic periods (225-195 million years ago). But there is more than one kind of Prosauropod dinosaur, just like there are many kinds of cats: lions, tigers, house cats, etc. We're still trying to determine what kind of prosauropod we have here, but it seems to be most similar to the Plateosaurus.
Question:
Hi. We are doing a weekly activity on your dig. We are enjoying it very much. We would like to know how many bones are in the Prosauropod that you are digging up right now? We think you are doing a great job so please keep up the good work.
Answer:
There are a number of different groups of dinosaurs that belong to the broader category of prosauropod dinosaurs. Early research shows that our dinosaur resembles Plateosaurus, a very well known dinosaur. According to one of the books we use a lot here at the museum (The Dinosauria, edited by David Weishampel, Peter Dodson and Halszka Osmolska) the Plateosaurus has 374 bones. So far, we have excavated about 100 bones.Question:
I just recently went over "Dinosaurs of the East Coast." It stated that Nova Scotia has evidence of the genus Ammosaurus. The book was published in 1996, and I want to enquire if someone mistakenly assumed Ammosaurus to be the prosauropods discovered here like yours or if there is actual proof of this genus. Also, just reviewing the past site update, I recall reading (on the site and at the museum) that Anchisuarus was considered to be the dinosaur you have. Has there been new evidence to point more towards the Plateosaurus now?
Answer:
Like all other sciences, biologists and palaeontologists is constantly review and reassess their work as new specimens, more information and new ideas come to light.The Wasson Bluff dinosaurs discovered near Parrsboro, NS were first identified as prosauropods (For more info on prosauropod groups, see Q&A section Sept. 14, Nov. 22), a general identification that still holds. The size and structure of early specimens pointed to Ammosaurus or Anchisaurus.
A lot has happened since Dinosaurs of the East Coast was written and the museum was built. As many Project Prosauropod watchers know, a consistent part of our story has been the lack of a skull. This latest specimen, the first to include a skull, will help put a definitive name to our dinosaur. Based on its size and skeletal anatomy it resembles Plateosaurus more closely than any other, but you will have to wait for publication of our research, including the final identification, as mentioned in a previous update.
Question:
How long did it take you to find and start to dig up this prosauropod?
Answer:
A group of researchers discovered the first Prosauropod dinosaur at Wasson Bluff in 1973. They were not able to find another until 1986. The dinosaur that we are currently working on was discovered in 1998 during the excavation of another animal. It was not excavated until the summer of 2000 because of a tremendous rock fall. We've been working on preparing the specimens for research and exhibition ever since.Question:
What are gastroliths?
Answer:
Gastroliths (gastro=stomach, litho=stone) are stomach stones used by crocodiles, dinosaurs and birds . Some animals swallow small, hard stones and use them to grind up the food in their stomach. The gastroliths are important because these animals don't have teeth well suited for chewing their food. Prosauropod dinosaurs used gastoliths to grind up food in their stomach.Question:
I was wondering, do you have to go to university or college to learn to be a palaeontologist? And how long does it take to learn how to be one?
Answer:
Here at the museum, we have a palaeontologist and lab technicians. The palaeontologist does a lot of research and a little fossil preparation. He has finished one university degree, and is doing another one, a PhD. It's a very specialized degree that gives him the title, palaeontologist. That takes 6 to 8 years after high school.The lab technicians do a lot of fossil preparation and, sometimes research, too. Some are university students, some have university degrees, and some have college diplomas. This takes 2 to 4 years after high school.
Our volunteers are people who are good with their hands that only do fossil preparation. Some are high school students, some are retired.
To be honest, usually the longer you go to school, the more you will get paid. You could get started right now! Even if you can't find a fossil museum where you could volunteer, you can read lots of books about prehistoric creatures, and take up hobbies that make you use your hands, like drawing, painting, sewing and music. You'll need to use both your brain and your hands!
Question:
When are you going to put the bones that you're done with on the dinosaur bone map?
Answer:
We have updated the dinosaur skeleton showing the bones being worked on and those that are done. Remember, you can only see one side of the body and we're not 100% sure about where isolated bones fit in the body because a lot of the scattered bones are similar (e.g., ribs, vertebrae). But we can make a very good guess.Question:
What would happen if you chipped a bone, would you get fired?
Answer:
If we chipped a bone on purpose we would definitely get fired, but once in a while accidents do happen. If we break something, we have to fix it carefully, and describe what happened to the fossil in the papers that go with it. If we have too many accidents, though, we might get fired, or be given another job at the museum.Question
I was wondering how you knew what the dinosaur looked like, because you've only found some of the bones. Has it been found before?
Answer
Prosauropod dinosaurs like ours have been found in the United States, Africa, Europe, and China. They are a really good clue about what kind of dinosaur we have. It helps to know how long ago the rock surrounding the dinosaurs was formed, since only certain dinosaurs were around at that time. It is our researchers's job to find out if our dinosaur looks like another known dinosaur well enough to say that they're teh exact same type of animal.Question
I have always really loved dinosaurs and want to learn as much about them as possible. I have bought books on dinosaurs and love reading them. When I grow up, I would like to be an archaeologist. I would like to know where you learn how to become an archaeologist and how long it takes.
Answer
I think maybe you want to learn about being a palaeontologist (they work with fossils). Archaeologists learn only about ancient people.Here at the museum, we have a palaeontologist and lab technicians. Some are university students, have university degrees, or have college diplomas. This takes 2 to 4 years after high school.
Our volunteers are people who are good with their hands, and were trained at the museum. Some are high school students, some are grown ups. We teach them what to do right here.
You can get started right now! Keep reading books about prehistoric creatures, and practice using your hands by drawing, painting, sewing or playing a musical instrument. You'll need to use both your brain and your hands!
Question:
Is North Mountain Basalt the name of Basalt from a certain area, or the name of a type found in similar environments to it's namesake?
Answer:
Although there are similar deposits of basalt around the world, and some are from the same time period as the N.M. basalt, only the section of a large basalt flow that shows up Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy Region is known as the North Mountain basalt. Like many formations (uniform deposits of rock and/or minerals), it is named for the location where it was studied, North Mountain.Question:
I read in the last couple of updates that you are working on a block of rock that contains a skull. Have you uncovered enough of the skull to make a reasonable identification of the type of prosauropod?Answer:
At this point, we have not uncovered enough of the skull to make an accurate identification. We still need to see more of the skull, and additional bones (like those in the hips) before we can tell which of several types of Prosauropod dinosaur we have. You can check above for more information on identifying Prosauropods.Question:
Is your job sometimes fun or is it usually boring? Is air scribing hard or fun to use?Answer:
To tell the truth, 98% of the time, it's great fun. It's exciting to uncover ancient dinosaurs, and being the first person in the whole world to see it. Not only that, no other being has seen this animal for more than 200 million years! You can't beat that!But you know, I have a slow day once in a while. When work is going slowly, it feels more like I'm making sand than contributing to amazing scientific research! It's good that those days are very rare.
The air scribe can be dangerous - the vibrations can shake a bone to bits, and it's really loud. But it makes work go much faster. Once you get used to it, it is fun.
Question:
I was just wondering,are you working on other dinosaurs or just the one dinosaur, and can you tell me what a dorsal vertabra is?Answer:
Most of the bones are articulated, they sit in the rock like they're still attached. So we know that most of the bones are from one dinosaur. But there was one extra hip bone that was not attached to anything else. Either it's from another animal, or we have one funny looking dinosaur! By the way, we've collected parts of at least five other prosauropod skeletons at other times.The dorsal vertebrae (or vertebra, if there's only one) is from the part of the spine that makes up the prosauropod's back. Cervical vertebrae are from the neck- you have these in your body, too. Sacral vertebrae are from the hip and caudal are from the tail. They all have different shapes.
Question:
I teach human anatomy & physiology at SE-Warren High School in Iowa. We are working on a section of comparative anatomy between the human and the cat. We were studying the fact that most mammals have 7 cervical vertebrae including giraffes.One of my students asked the following questions: "How many cervical vertebrae do dinosaurs have? Does that provide evidence that dinosaurs may have been warm blooded?"
Answer:
Our prosauropod dinosaur has about 10 cervical vertebrae. That is definitely higher than the total for mammals. But the total number of cervical vertebrae varies form one type of dinosaur to the next. Scelidosaurus (an ankylosaur relative) for example only has 6.A number of different types of evidence have been looked at to determine whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded. Researchers have looked at how active they were (based on footprints), features of the brain (using the inside parts of the skull), the rate of evolution and the relationship between birds and dinosaurs, and the physical make-up of the bones, but no-one has ever looked at the number of vertebrae.
Your students will have to keep researching, and keep asking good questions!
Question:
I am wondering how much dinosaur bones weigh. I have been trying to find out for a long time.Answer:
I'm afraid you are still going to be left wondering since the answer is: it depends. It depends on the size of the bone, and the type and amount of minerals that have filled in the pore spaces. The bones here in the lab range from sever grams or ounces to several kilograms or pounds.
Question:
What kind of dinosaur are you looking for?
How many dinosaurs did you find?
Answer:
We are working on three Prosauropod dinosaur skeletons. There are several different genera, or types, of Prosauropods. We do not know the genus of our dinosaur yet, but will find out very soon. It is also possible that this is a new species.
At least three other partial skeletons have been excavated from the same site. All of the skeletons seem to be the same type.
Question:
I was just wondering, what does polyvinyl acetate do? Is it safe to use?
Answer:
Polyvinyl acetate is basically a plastic that fills in tiny pore spaces inside the bone. It comes in a powder form, and is non-toxic. It becomes toxic when we mix it with acetone to turn it into a liquid mixture. The plastic dries and hardens inside the bone make it stronger from the inside. Then it can be handled by researchers and displayed without breaking.
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