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THE DINO LAND DINOSAUR GAZETTE
-------THE DINO LAND DINOSAUR GAZETTE-JUNE 2000-------
*******Volume 2, Issue 6*******Steve Brusatte, Editor*******
--TABLE OF CONTENTS------------------------------------------ 1) CHANGES TO DINO LAND WEBSITE 2) DINO LAND BOOK REVIEWS-THE ETERNAL TRAIL 3) SUE UNVEILED AT FIELD MUSEUM-ARTICLES AND PHOTOS 4) CRYOLOPHOSAURUS ARTICLE AND PHOTOS NOW ONLINE 5) DINO LAND WEBRING 6) STEVE BRUSATTE NOW EDITOR AT OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT -------------------------------------------------------------
1) CHANGES TO DINO LAND WEBSITE
As is the norm, during the past month I have made several changes to the Dino Land website. Some of the major changes deal with the addition of Sue articles and exclusive photos, new book reviews, and Cryolophosaurus/Fryxell Museum photos. These topics will be covered a little later on in the newsletter.
I have also begun posting archives of my monthly Fossil News state fossil article series. This past month I posted articles concerning Allosaurus of Utah and Smilodon of California. Coming soon are the Hagerman Horse of Idaho and many others.
I have also updated my Field Museum photo database, which can now be viewed at Field Museum Photos. New photos inlclude those of Herrerasaurus, Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, Mongolian dinosaur eggs, the artworks of Charles R. Knight, Brian Cooley, and John Gurche, Eryops, and several other dinosaur and mammal photos.
I have also updated my paleontologists interview section at Susan Hendrickson Interview. This section includes interviews with Robert Bakker, Susan Hendrickson, Martin Lockley, David Raup, and Peter Sheehan, among others.
2) DINO LAND BOOK REVIEWS-THE ETERNAL TRAIL
The Dino Land book reviews section has been updated with two new reviews, those of Martin Lockley's book the Eternal Trail and Howard Zimmerman's new art book Dinosaurs! Both of these reviews, along with several others, can be found at Book Reviews.
Some of these other reviews include Dinosaurs to Dodos by Don Lessem, the Dino Guide by John Fredriksen, T. rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Alvarez, the Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs by Don Glut, and Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs.
Upcoming reviews include the First Fossil Hunters by Adrienne Mayor, Finding Out About Dinosaurs by Elin Kelsey, Dinosaur Tracks by Martin Lockley, and Why Elephants Have Big Ears by Chris Lavers, plus Fossiling in Florida by Mark Renz.
For those who cannot visit the Dino Land website, here is my review of Dr. Martin Lockley's book The Eternal Trail. The full review with photos and links can be found at The Eternal Trail Book Review.
Adventures in Dinosaur Tracking Revealed!!
(Book Review, The Eternal Trail, by Dr. Martin Lockley, 2000, Perseus Books)
We all have heard marvelous stories about dinosaur bones, from the media darling T. rex Sue to the ancient discoveries of Iguanadon and Megalosaurus. But, in reality, what can these bones tell us? In fact, they tell us a lot, from an animal's size, to its diet, to its evolutionary relationships. But, bones are extremely poor when it comes to discussions involving speed of ancient dinosaurs and other fossils, possible social activities including herding, migration, and climate. But, if bones are a poor indicator of these topics, then how come the science of paleontology has painted such a vividly lifelike portrait of our ancient world? The answer lies in fossilized tracks and footprints, and in his new book Dr. Martin Lockley has written a thorough and even intellectual discussion on how these trace fossils have given new insights into paleontology and humanity.
Dr. Martin Lockley has long been known as one of the world's premier fossil footprint experts. This British-born paleontologist began his career as an Ordovician expert, but soon changed his major field of study over to footprints, a topic that captivated him beyond belief. And, this captivation has led to much of the enchanting and even mystical text in his new book The Eternal Trail-A Tracker Looks at Evolution.-published by Perseus books, and copyrighted in 1999.
Lockley begins by explaining just how important and vital fossilized footprints are. As an example, he uses human footprints and compares them with human anatomy. The bones of a human foot are many, and are also somewhat narrow. And, when they are drawn out they look absolutely nothing like a human footprint! This is, of course, expected, since flesh and muscle are attached to the bone, and these tissues are what is recorded in the print. But, for early land reptiles and dinosaurs and saber tooth tigers we do not have muscles and flesh. Sure, museums around the world are filled with their marvelous fossilized skeletons, but as Lockley exhibited we cannot deduce much about their foot from solely studying the bones. That, as he triumphantly explains, is where footprints come in! Footprints are exact imprints of a blood-and-flesh animal, one with flesh and muscles and fat, and even pathologies. And, unlike skeletons, these rarely fossilized characteristics are always present in tracks!
From this opening Lockley builds a strong case for the metabolic backgrounds in animals. In other words, there are reasons why the colors of rodents vary from their backs to their stomachs, and there are many reasons why larger animals seem to migrate and smaller animals tend to stay closer to their home base. As an example, Lockley compares a mouse, gazelle, and bison. The mouse will usually stay very close to the place where it was born, sometimes never even leaving a 1,000 feet radius! A gazelle, on the other hand, seems to move around freely, but tends to stay in a 'home territory,' or a familiar area. This familiar area may be as small as a few miles, or as large as a hundred. Then, on the extreme end is the bison. This large hoofed creature tends to migrate thousands of miles in vast social herds, as seen in the American West. But, what exactly does this have to do with fossilized tracks and dinosaurs? Later on in his book Lockley ties it all together, explaining why and how some dinosaurs may have been social.
seriously considered until 1979, when Jack Horner and Bob Makela discovered that a duckbilled dinosaur they named Maiasaura actually cared for its young, a notion never before seen in dinosaurs. Since then paleontologists have been asking-and looking for, evidence that may point to herding and migrating in dinosaurs. And, this notion has been popularly portrayed in the media, too. Remember Jurassic Park, with the sauropod herds and the Velociraptor packs? As it turns out, none of this social gibberish can be proven, nor will it ever be able to be proven beyond a doubt, but Lockley makes a compelling case for the sociality of some dinosaurs!
For instance, Lockley introduces a series of 'mega tracksites,' including one in Utah. This site in Utah contains tracks of the dinosaur Megalosaurus, a carnivore, spread out over an area of approximately 800 square miles. This area occurs all in the same geologically aged strata, and therefore, has been christened the Moab Megatracksite. But, did all of these tracks mean that Megalosaurus was actually traveling in herds, or does it possibly mean that hundreds of Megalosaurs simply passed by at different times.
The answer to this question may never be known, but another tracksite in Colorado is yielding more supportive evidence. Near the Purgatoire River, in southeast Colorado, lies an immense and very interesting tracksite. Although it contains some of the same tracks seen in other locales, this site stands out because of how the tracks are laid out-in regularly spaced patterns. These patterns suggest a herd! Further more, all of the tracks seem to change direction at the same time. In other words, all of the track makers were synchronized! Another major victory for the pro-herders!
After Lockley makes his compelling case for social lives and herding in dinosaurs, he then tries to tackle the tricky "Creation vs. Evolution" debate. As many die hard paleo fans know, one of the world's most famous fossil tracksites lies near Glen Rose, Texas. This site is Cretaceous to paleontologists and evolutionists, but to creationists it is something much more recent. Among the many tracks at this site are a series of small theropod tracks. To scientists studying tracks they mean little in terms of exclusive science, but to creationists they are one of the most important pieces of evidence for a 'young earth.'
You see, these small theropod tracks take the same general shape as a human print, although they do not have five toes and are somewhat pointed at the end. Even an untrained amateur paleontologist could tell you that there is no evidence to these claims, but countless creationist propaganda campaigns, resembling those of Hitler and Stalin, have come to symbolize these tracks as 'human,' and evidence that dinosaurs and man walked side by side. In fact, there were even plans for a creationist museum near the tracksite.
Upon presenting his readers with the dinosaur-man tracks problem, Lockley devotes five pages to a discussion on the infamous evolution-creation debate, beginning with the Scopes Monkey Trial and working his way up to more modern times. Along the way he takes an odd stand for a paleontologist: philosopher, as he delves into this perplexing and troubling question of religion vs. science.
As soon as he finishes, Lockley goes straight back to dinosaur herding and migration, as he discusses the occurrence of the same Iguanadon tracks at dozens of sites covering an area on the order of 30,000 square miles! What does this mean? Well, these sites correspond with the ancient Cretaceous coastline, so Lockley infers that possibly these Iguanadons migrated in great herds along the coasts, traveling to more temperate and comfortable locales. About 70 million years ago the Rocky Mountain Front Range thrust up from the earth, and what had been the shoreline became the locale where the Rocky Mountains meet the High Plains. The dinosaur freeway, therefore, follows the direction of the up-thrust, creating a magnificent squall line of paleontological mega sites!
Lockley concludes the dinosaur discussion in his book by telling the story of his discovery of dinosaur tracks only 15 mere inches from the infamous K-T layer! As of now, the closest relatively complete skeletons found near the layer have been at a distance of about 10 feet-a huge gap! This gap has led several paleontologists to reason that the dinosaurs were already extinct before the asteroid hit. But, once again, the discovery of tracks has led paleontology to reconsider its views. If, indeed, the dinosaurs died out before the asteroid struck, then it would have likely only been mere years before!
At the conclusion of his text on dinosaurs Lockley dives into Ice Age mammals and even ancient humans. He then jumps forward to modern man, and what significance the footprints of American astronauts on the moon will have in the future. As he finishes what may be his best book yet, Lockley once again converts back into philosophers, and discusses where our 'Eternal Trail' will lead us!
3) SUE UNVEILED AT FIELD MUSEUM-ARTICLES AND PHOTOS
On Wednesday, May 17th, at exactly 6:47 A.M., the Tyrannosaurus rex known to the world as Sue was unveiled to a crowd of schoolchildren, reporters, and VIPs at Chicago's Field Museum, ending a decade of discovery, preparation, ownership disputes, casting, and research.
I was very lucky to get to visit Sue three days later, on Saturday May 20th. I was also able to attend a lecture by Dr. Chris Brochu, the lead Sue researcher. Based on the lecture and the saga of Sue, I wrote an article that appears below.
I also took several photos of the Sue mount, including those of her cast and original skull, pathologic lower jaw, her wishbone, her pathologic tail vertebrae with muscle casts, and her feet. These pictures were recently posted to my website at Sue Photos.
In addition, an interview I conducted with Susan Hendrickson last year was posted at Sue Hendrickson Interview.
The article I wrote was posted at Sue Unveiling Article. This article includes photos and links, and to get the complete information visit the site. But, here is the full text from the article:
SUE FINALLY UNVEILED AT FIELD MUSEUM
After years of court fights, preparation, and study, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found has greeted the world!
August 12,1990 started out like any normal day for the globe-trotting adventurer Susan Hendrickson. Like she had been doing for the past several weeks, Hendrickson was digging for dinosaur fossils with commercial fossil hunter Peter Larson in the Badlands of South Dakota. That day the team was exploring the deserted outcrops near the small town of Faith, and after a long afternoon of sun and dehydration the group decided to call it a night...except for Hendrickson. That day Larson's group had explored six outrcrops, all of which yielded nothing. But, one cliff face had remained unexplored, and Hendrickson felt what she described as a mystical urge pulling her towards that outcrop. So she started to walk, and after walking for several minutes she came upon one side of the cliff, and immediately noticed small small bones which had fallen loose of the rock and tumbled to the ground below. She followed these bones up with her eyes and the sight amazed her. There, lying in front of her, was the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
And, what a skeleton it was! Even before she could dig it out of the cliff she could tell that it was amazingly complete-and needed to be looked at by the expert Larson. Knowing that she had no business handling what could turn out to be a priceless find, she hollered for Pete and the crew, who came running to her side and were amazed by her discovery. They immediately began excavating, and a week later they had extracted all of the bone bearing rock and loaded it up for transport back to their lab at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City, South Dakota. There, at the lab, Larson began to prepare the bones which he christened Sue, after their discoverer.
This story sounds amazing and full of pride and glory, but, the luck of Susan Hendrickson and the Black Hills Institute sooned changed for the worse. In the summer of 1992, on the exact day that Larson was to send the skull to be CT scanned to reveal its internal structures, the FBI rushed into the Institute much like they did into the home of Elian Gonzalez. Carrying guns and court orders, they instructed Larson to hand over all papers regarding the discovery of Sue and forcefully removed all of the bones, including those being carefully prepared in the Institute laboratory.
The raid was carried out because there was an immense ownership dispute over the rightful proprietor of the fossil. Back in 1990 Larson had paid Sioux rancher Maurice Williams $5,000 for the rights to the bones, a deal that was recorded on video tape. But, news of this deal soon reached the Sioux tribal leaders, who also demanded compensation. Furthering the problem was the United States National Government, who reasoned that they were leasing the land to Williams, and therefore deserved their share of the money. Therefore, the case of Sue went into the US District Courts, where, after years of disputes, Sue was awarded solely to Williams in 1996. Larson was also charged with over 190 federal felony counts, and was convicted on two technicalities: that he failed to declare $20,000 worth of traveler's checks at customs when he returned from a fossil hunting trip overseas.
Williams, knowning nothing about the importance of Sue and its scientific significance, decided to place it up for auction. In October of 1997 the fossil and complete and total rights of ownership were put up to the highest bidder in New York. The bidding started at $500,000, and ten minutes later, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago had offered over $7 million dollars. No other institutions or individuals matched their bid, so after seven years of bitter disputes and court battles, Sue had found a permanent home-in Chicago. The total costs came up to $8.36 million, a record amount of money paid for a fossil!
In November of 1997 Sue was uncrated at the Field, and preparation began in the summer of 1998. Later that year the Field Museum hired Dr. Chris Brochu, recently out of the University of Texas-Austin, to lead the Sue research team. His first major move was to send Sue's skull for CT scanning at a Boeing laboratory in California, a move that Larson made over five years before but to no avail. The results of this scanning were reported in a May 1999 National Geographic article, and were later the topic of a Field Museum exhibit entitled "Sue, the Inside Story."
The results of these CT scans were amazing. They let researchers study the inside of Tyrannosaur skulls like never before. Possibly the most important result was that Brochu and the rest of the Field team were able to look into the braincase of Sue and see the complete size and shape of a Tyrannosaur bone. Brochu was amazed to see giant olfactory bulbs-two of them-the size of grapefruits. This led him to comment "T. rex smelled its way through life!"
After the opening of the Inside Story exhibit, Sue's bones were molded and two lifesize casts were made, each of which will be going on tour throughout the United States. After these casts were made the original bones of Sue were sent away and were mounted. Then, on May 17th, 2000, at exactly 6:47 A.M. Central Standard Time, Sue was officially unveiled to the world, ending a decade of fighting, research, and more money than most of us will ever see in our lives.
Many celebrities were on hand for the unveiling, including Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and representatives from McDonalds and Disney, plus Hendrickson and Larson. Hundreds of Chicago school area children were also present, and the media blitz was ungodly. Reporters from as far away as Japan were in Chicago, as well as representatives of ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX News.
While the mount of Sue is mostly for show, the science behind the discovery of Sue is giving amazing new insights into the world of Tyrannosaurus rex. Brochu highlighted many of these new insights in a May 20th lecture. During this lecture he answered questions regarding Sue's age, gender, hunting abilities, pathologies, life, and death.
Several pathologies have been found on Sue's body, including a series of five holes in her lower jaw. These holes were originally thought to be bite marks, but Brochu now describes them as places of infection. But, a large mass of spongy bone on the tail vertebrae of Sue is giving more important insights than the jaw. This pathology was likely formed during an infection, and the resulting spongy bone grew around the tail muscles, leaving a natural impression of these soft parts not rarely seen in any fossilized animals. In fact, Brochu says, this is the only case of tail muscle molds even seen in a dinosaur.
One of the most frequently asked questions of Sue has been regarding her gender. Larson originally described her as a female, but Brochu is less skeptical. In many fossil and living species, the females are more 'robust.' But, Brochu explains, robust does not necessarily mean larger. In other words, he says, "Sue was an it!" And, this debate will likely never be answered.
Also during his talk Brochu told audiences that Sue was very old when she died, that the sense of smell was very important to all Tyrannosaurs, and that a broken leg did not cause the death of the animal. But, more importantly to paleo fans, he announced the tentative plans into a large symposium to be held at the Field at this time next year, and featuring many paleontologists from around the globe.
The research into Sue will continue, and the first definite monograph of the species Tyrannosaurus rex is expected within the next year. The fact that President Clinton visited the Sue skeleton at a late night private viewing gives testament to the fact that the event should be a major draw for the Field Museum and the city of Chicago. Having had the chance to see it for myself, I must recommend Sue to all dinosaur and paleontology fans around the globe. But, don't worry if you can't come down to Chicago soon, because for the first time in the saga of Sue, she won't be going anywhere!
4) CRYOLOPHOSAURUS ARTICLE AND PHOTOS NOW ONLINE
Last month I announced that I would be writing an online article on Cryolophosaurus ellioti, a little understood predatory dinosaur from Antarctica. This article is now online, and includes four pages of text, regarding Cryolophosaurus' discovery, traits, origins, and environment, and eight photos, including those of its skull, crest, lower jaw, teeth, and vertebrae, all of which I took on my visit to see the type specimen at the Fryxell Geology Museum at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. The article also includes a beautiful piece of artwork by paleoartist Todd Marshall.
This article, which appears in the Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) form online paleontology magazine Paleozoica, can be found at Dino Data.
I have also posted over 30 of the photos I took during my visit to the Fryxell Geology Museum at the Dino Land website. These include not only photos of the Cryolophosaurus bones, but those of Triceratops, Eryops, Placerias, Dunkleosteus, Pteranodon, Tylosaurus, Green River fish, a Tully Monster, a rarely preserved Cretaceous crab, and several Ice Age specimens. These photos can be found at Fryxell Museum Photos.
5) DINO LAND WEBRING
The Dino Land Webing has been around for close to 9 months now, and currently has 52 members. Kinks in our website have been fixed, and new members will likely soon be added.
You can find this webring at Dino Land Webring.
If you have a dinosaur site, then join today!
6) STEVE BRUSATTE NOW AN EDITOR AT THE OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT
I am happy to report that I am now an editor at the Open Directory Project, an online database of millions of webpages. I will be editing the Paleontologists (including vertebrate and invertebrate) and Paleontology Artists categories. Both of these categories include homepages and websites of today's top paleontologists and paleo artists.
You can view these pages by clicking on science, earth sciences, paleontology at Open Directory Project.
Anyone with site suggestions please e-mail them to me at brusatte@theramp.net>
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Thanks for reading (and hopefully enjoying) this edition of The Dino Land Dinosaur Gazette. Until Next Time,
Regards, Steve Brusatte Dino Land 3 Shady Lane Ottawa, IL 61350 brusatte@theramp.net dinoland@mailcity.com (alternate e-mail)
© 1997 brusatte@theramp.net
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