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An expert on dinosaurs speaks at Middle School News
by Paulena Prager, Class 6
Middle School students recently learned about paleontology from Jack Horner, one of the world’s leading paleontologists. Dr. Horner is head of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, and a professor at Montana State University. He is also the author of numerous books and was the technical advisor on the Jurassic Park movies. Mr. Horner has had a passion for dinosaurs since he was a small child and is considered the preeminent authority on dinosaur growth and behavior.
We were shown a presentation called "What is a Dinosaur" through Dr. Horner’s interactive computer program, which was fun and entertaining. We also learned how archaeological digs are conducted. During Dr. Horner’s presentation, I demonstrated with a slow, hunched walk how bones are found by careful examination of a site's rocky surface. When a worthy specimen is found, a team of graduate students digs deeper, sometimes with jackhammers. A glue-like substance used to recover bones is left on the bone overnight, enabling the bone to harden. The bone is recovered the next day. An articulated skeleton is excavated with much of the surrounding rock and dirt attached, then jacketed in plaster and sent to the lab where it can be carefully scraped clean and studied.
Next Dr. Horner showed us how to compare dinosaurs’ skeletal features — such as their wishbones, three-toed feet, hip placement and the structure of their eggs — to those of a chicken, leading us to conclude that birds are dinosaurs. That would make birds reptiles, in a direct challenge to our longstanding classification system.
Dr. Horner also illustrated how to analyze skeletal features and determine behavior and growth. For example, a cross section of the Pachycephalosaurus' skull reveals that this species could not possibly have been the "head smasher" it is commonly believed to be, and that three distinct species — Dracorex, Stygimoloch and Pachycephalosaurus — are now believed to be the different growth phases (juvenile, adolescent and adult) of one single species. Likewise, the Tyrannosaurus rex, usually believed to be a top predator of the Cretaceous Period, was anatomically suited to survive as a scavenger, with its bone-crushing teeth, enormous olfactory canal and inability to run.
The interactive program made learning about dinosaurs fun and easier to understand. The only thing that could have possibly been better would have been a Chapin Middle School dig!
Click here for a photo gallery of images from Mr. Horner's lecture.
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