Lid Comes Off Dinosaur
By TONY SPILDE,
One of the rarest dinosaur fossils ever discovered – a scientific marvel that has already altered conventional wisdom – feels like a basketball.
A little bumpy, but kind of smooth. Dimpled, is what you’d call it.
Its name is Dakota, and it’s hanging out in the basement of the North Dakota Heritage Center.
The state paleontologist popped the lid off Dakota’s crate Tuesday morning. The duckbilled hadrosaur, discovered near Marmarth in 1999, has just made its way back to the state after being studied by scientists from England, Michigan and California.
Dakota is one of the best-preserved dinosaur finds ever unearthed, paleontologist John Hoganson said. It was essentially mummified, entombed in the ground with its skin intact. Workers are now chipping away the smooth, dimply sandstone that covers most of the bones.
“Mummified dinosaurs are very rare – this is only the third or fourth one found in the world,”Hoganson said. “Already there’s been some new information about these duckbilled dinosaurs that has come out, like the shape of the tail, for example.”
Scientists also have determined the reptile was probably faster than previously thought, able to outrun predators like Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“A fossil like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to actually see it and work with it here at the Heritage Center,” Hoganson said. “It’s quite a thrill.”
The Heritage Center joins the ranks of the American Natural History Museum in New York City and a museum in Germany – the only other places to exhibit a complete duckbilled hadrosaur – because of Tyler Lyson. Now pursuing a doctorate degree in paleontology at Yale, Lyson grew up on a ranch near Marmarth. He found “Dakota,” and has maintained the rights to the fossil.
“Tyler Lyson wants to keep it here in North Dakota,” Hoganson said. “The plan is to keep it here at the Heritage Center for a while. The hopes are to eventually build a museum in the Marmarth area.”
Lyson has founded the Marmarth Research Foundation. One of its staff members, Stephen Begin, has worked with the fossil for the last three winters. He’ll be in Bismarck for a couple of weeks to help get the workers started on recovering Dakota from its rock bed. On Tuesday, he was showing people how to use the microjack, which is essentially a mini electric jackhammer that’s no bigger than a dentist’s drill.
“I’m here to impart my wisdom, so they can have the benefit of my experience from the very beginning, rather than starting from square one,” Begin said. “It’s not such a bad job at all. All the people who do this are children at heart. Dinosaurs are cool, and some of us never grow out of that phase.”
Hoganson said Dakota will be on display in June.
(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@bismarcktribune.com.)
(c) 2008 Bismarck Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.