Paleontology

Ya Dig?

The more I learned about the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences' discovery of the mystery dinosaur in Utah, the more amazed I became that the fossils were discovered at all.

That’s because while it is easy to find the full femur bone of a creature that lived 98 million years ago, it’s not that simple to spot a piece of a bone laying on the rocky ground.

Mystery Dino

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences researchers discovered fossils of an unknown dinosaur while working in Utah. Using only a few bones, they'll learn the creature's size, diet, age and other features, and this mystery dinosaur could become the museum's first holotype, the example with which other species are described.

Dinosaur GPS

Paleontologists working in the field looking for fossils have always faced a painstaking process that required a lot of luck to be successful. But using Landsat satellite imagery, a UNC Greensboro scientist is replacing luck with educated efficiency in the quest for fossils.

I Miss Brontosaurus...

There are times some folks might think I grew up in the age of the dinosaurs, although a check of my driver's license and other official paperwork continues to prove I am not quite that old.

Nevertheless, I am here to say I miss Brontosaurus.

Actually, I called him Bronto. He was a green sauropod dinosaur with a long neck and tail. I played with him when I was little and will tell anyone who will listen that Bronto was very cool.

But then science came along.