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.

By TRIBUNE EDITORIAL Nothing brings home the reality of our prehistoric past like standing before the massive fossil of a long-extinct dinosaur. The size. The alien look. The improbability. Yet, there it stands.

By STACI MATLOCK A large Swainson's hawk perches on a fence post at the edge of the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge, watching as a truck passes by on the dirt road less then a dozen feet away.

Today, Aug. 6, I reached the halfway point of my Little Missouri trek. At about 3 p.m. I walked into Sully Creek State Primitive Park. Hey, it has water, so it is not primitive to me. Thoreau said he went to the wood to reduce life to its lowest terms. That's what's happened to me. Food. Tent.