Scientists still on the trail of dinosaurs

You wanted to know

Sydney Davis, 10, of Mundelein wanted to know:

What was the first dinosaur fossil found?

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For more information

To learn more about dinosaurs, the Cook Memorial Library in Libertyville suggests the following.

– “Scientists Who Study Fossils” by Mel Higginson.

– “Stories in Stone” by Jo S. Kittinger.

– “Dinosaur Detectives” by Peter Chrisp.

– “Great Dinosaur Hunters” by Tamara Green.

– “Tyrannosaurus & Other Wrecks: Freaky Fossil Trivia” by Carole Marsh.

– CD ROM: “Dinosaur Hunter” by DK Multimedia.

“What was the first dinosaur fossil found?” asked Sydney Davis, 10, a fourth-grader at Diamond Lake School in Mundelein.

Nature has preserved dinosaur bones, eggs and impressions of dinosaur’s scaley skin in fossils – actual dinosaur remains or prints that over time have become rock, revealing evidence of these giant reptiles and their surroundings. These fossils have been collected for thousands of years and have been found in nearly all parts of the globe. In ancient China, dinosaur bones were used in medicines. In ancient Rome and Greece, fossilized bones were displayed in temples.

It wasn’t until about 200 years ago that people began to recognize that these fossils were evidence of the reptiles that existed at one time but had became extinct. The first documented dinosaur fossil find in which the bone was identified as an extinct reptile’s was in 1824. A British geologist and minister William Buckland of Oxford University collected dinosaur remains and named his first find megalosaurus. The first fossils were megalosaurus jaws.

Another collector, Mary Ann Woodhouse, found teeth from a large plant-eating dinosaur that was later called Iguanodon. The fossil specimens were uncovered in England where both collectors lived.

The word dinosaur dates to 1841. Sir Richard Owen, also from England, created the word from two Greek words, deinos, which means terrible, and sauros, meaning lizard. Owen was a biologist and physician affiliated with the British Museum. Owen made major scientific breakthroughs with his research of fossils and “extinct animals,” as they were then called.

There is still much to learn about these ancient reptiles. Even today, leading paleontologists like Paul Serrano of the University of Chicago, Mark Norell of The American Natural History Museum in New York City and Jack Horner of Montana’s Museum of the Rockies are busy revealing the mysteries of dinosaurs, their lifestyles and habits.

Nature has preserved dinosaur bones and eggs for today’s scientists to study, and also tracks that enable paleontologists to understand how the large beasts moved. Recently, tracks of dinosaurs were found in southwest Utah. Called the Johnson Farm dinosaur track site, fossils show evidence of dinosaurs that had been swimming in a lake more than 20 million years ago in the Early Jurassic period.

That lake is long gone and today the site is a vast desert. The dig is ongoing and visitors are welcome. Located in the town of St. George, city officials are hoping to build a museum to protect the tracks.