U. of C. program lets amateurs go digging for dinosaur bones ; Finds this summer include T. rex claw

When Carol Gudanowski got back to the University of Chicago for fall classes, she had a pretty good story about her summer vacation.

That’s because the 19-year-old sophomore was part of a dinosaur- finding expedition in Wyoming that included her finding the claw of a Tyrannosaurus rex and her team unearthing a 2.25-ton boulder containing the fossil of a 15- to 20-foot-long tyrannosaur.

“It was just sitting there on top of the sand,” Gudanowski, a U. of C. biology major, said about her T. rex claw. “It’s amazing it was just there.”

Gudanowski is part of a program at the university called “Stones and Bones.” The monthlong offering gives students a chance to go in search of fossils. This year’s course included a two-week dig at the Lance Creek fossil area, about 200 miles north of Cheyenne.

The class is led by educator Gabrielle Lyon and renowned dinosaur expert Paul Sereno.

Sereno, a native of Naperville, began his work in 1988 in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, where his team unearthed the first complete skeletons of the primitive dinosaur Herrerasaurus. Known previously only from bones of the hind limb, the fossil allowed Sereno and several sculptors to reconstruct its skeleton and create a flesh model of this 12-foot-long dinosaur, now on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Returning to the area in 1991, Sereno’s team discovered a small skeleton belonging to a new species they named Eoraptor.

His latest find with the students was on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land, near where the first Tyrannosaurus rex fossil was found about 100 years ago.

Sereno and his students, from both high school and college, pored over rocks and bones.

“It was strenuous because you were going up and down hills, and it was hot,” said Thomas Dinkel, 17, a senior at Loyola Academy. “But it was definitely worth it.”

The bones collected by the students will become part of an impressive collection at the U. of C.

“The city of Chicago, and the country, for that matter, have a great resource at their fingertips. And it doesn’t require being a full-time University of Chicago student to take advantage of our renowned staff and innovative courses,” said Daniel Shannon, dean of the university’s Graham School.