Have you ever dreamed of finding a dinosaur fossil? Meet Sue Hendrickson, a paleontologist who loves exploring and discovering amazing things like sunken ships and hidden treasures. One of her most exciting finds was the largest T-Rex dinosaur ever discovered! It was so big that it took six people 17 days to dig it out of the ground. They named this giant T-Rex “Sue” after her.
Natalie had a great question: “What’s the best place to look for dinosaur fossils?” You might think you need to be a scientist or go to a special place to find them, but that’s not true! Even kids like Nathan Rushkin, who was just 12 years old, have found dinosaur fossils. Nathan discovered a dinosaur called a hadrosaur while hiking in Canada.
Dinosaur fossils have been found in all sorts of places. Some were found on farms, like the ornithopods in China. Others were discovered on construction sites, like the triceratops in Colorado. Even a five-year-old found a nodosaur behind a grocery store in Texas! Isn’t that amazing?
So, how do people find these fossils? Is it just luck? Well, here’s a tip: fossils are usually found in rocks. But not just any rocks! The best rocks for finding fossils are called sedimentary rocks. These rocks are made from mud, clay, sand, or pebbles that have hardened over time.
When a dinosaur died long ago, if it was near water, its body might have been covered by mud or sand. Over time, this mud or sand turned into sedimentary rock, preserving the dinosaur’s bones as fossils.
How can you tell if a rock is sedimentary? You can try scratching it with your fingernail or a safety pin. If little pieces come off, it’s likely sedimentary rock. Volcanic rocks, on the other hand, are much tougher and don’t scratch easily.
In the United States, dinosaur fossils have been found in more than half of the states. Even if there aren’t dinosaur fossils near you, there might be fossils of other ancient creatures like ammonites or trilobites.
If you’re eager to find fossils, ask an adult to help you find the nearest quarry. A quarry is a place where people dig into the ground for rocks and building materials. Sometimes, fossils are found during these digs, and some quarries even let people collect fossils at certain times. You might be surprised how close a quarry is to you!
Remember, finding fossils can involve some luck, but it’s also about exploring and being curious. So, grab your explorer hat and start your fossil adventure!
Thanks for reading, and keep asking questions! There are so many mysteries to discover. Stay curious and happy exploring!
Fossil Hunt at Home: Create your own fossil dig at home! Ask an adult to help you bury small objects like toy dinosaurs or shells in a sandbox or a small patch of dirt in your backyard. Use a small brush and a spoon to carefully dig and uncover your “fossils.” As you find each object, try to imagine what it might have been like to discover a real dinosaur fossil. Discuss with your family how fossils are formed and why they are important to scientists.
Rock Identification Adventure: Go on a rock hunt in your neighborhood or a local park with an adult. Collect different types of rocks and bring them home. Try to identify which ones might be sedimentary rocks by using the scratch test mentioned in the article. Can you find any rocks that are easy to scratch? Discuss why these rocks might be good places to find fossils.
Imagine a Dinosaur’s Journey: Draw a picture or write a short story about a dinosaur’s journey from when it was alive to becoming a fossil. Think about where it lived, what it ate, and how it might have ended up in a place where its bones could turn into fossils. Share your story with your class or family and talk about what you learned about fossils and dinosaurs.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. This is paleontologist Sue Hendrickson. She loves exploring the world and finding things like sunken ships, hidden treasures, and this: the largest T-Rex dinosaur ever found. This fossil is so large that it took six people 17 days to excavate it. Whoa! When they were done, they named the T-Rex. Can you guess what it was? They named it Sue after Sue Hendrickson since she was the one who discovered it.
Someone named Natalie has a question about dinosaur fossils. Let’s give Natalie a call now. (phone ringing) – Hi Doug. – Hi Natalie. – I have a question for you. What’s the best place to look for dinosaur fossils? – Ooh, that’s a great question! It might be tempting to think that you have to be a scientist to find dinosaur fossils or that there’s only one special place on Earth to find them. But believe it or not, that’s not true at all.
Consider Nathan Rushkin, who at the age of 12 had dreamed of finding a dinosaur for as long as he could remember. One day, while hiking in Canada with one of his parents, he saw something that looked like a long bone stuck in the rock. Could it be a dinosaur fossil? It was! Nathan discovered a young hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur that lived in that area long ago.
Dinosaur fossils have been found on farms, like the ornithopods in China. They’ve been found on construction sites, like the triceratops discovered by builders in Colorado, and even behind grocery stores, like the nodosaur found by a five-year-old in Texas. Wouldn’t it be amazing to find a dinosaur like that? But how did these people find them? Was it just luck? Were they just walking around and noticed a dinosaur fossil lying on the ground?
Before I say anything more, I’m curious: Where would you look if you wanted to find a dinosaur fossil? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? To start off, it’s good to know that when dinosaur fossils are found, they’re usually embedded in rock. Whether it’s rock visible on the surface or deeper in the ground where tools like hammers and chisels are needed to extract them. So does that mean you should look anywhere there’s rock? There’s a lot of rock on Earth. For example, when you dig into the ground, you eventually hit solid rock. Can dinosaur fossils be found in any kind of rock? It would be helpful to narrow it down. Luckily, there is a way.
Many illustrations of dinosaurs show them near erupting volcanoes. So could it be that lava rock is the best place to look for dinosaurs? Surprisingly, fossils are almost never found in volcanic rock. If a dinosaur died during a volcanic eruption, the lava is so hot that it would destroy the bones, leaving nothing to find later on. No fossil.
So what kind of rock should we look for? Scientists have discovered that most dinosaur fossils are formed when a dinosaur dies near a watery place and its body gets covered by sediment, which includes sand or mud. Over time, layers of sediment pile on top, and these sediments harden into rock. The best place to look for dinosaur fossils is in sedimentary rock, which is made of bits of sediment.
Think of mud, clay, sand, or pebbles. When these harden, they become sedimentary rock like sandstone, which is made of hardened sand, or shale, a mixture of hardened clay and mud. So when an animal like a dinosaur dies, the best chance its skeleton has of becoming a fossil is if its body gets covered by sediment that turns into rock.
If you want to find dinosaur fossils yourself, sedimentary rock is the best place to look, not lava rock. But how can you tell whether rock near you is made of sediment or came from lava? Both types of rock can look very similar, so it can be hard to tell. However, there are a few things you can do to differentiate them.
You can often tell the difference by scratching the rock with your fingernail or something harder like a safety pin or a nail. If a rock is made out of sediment like sand or clay, you should be able to scratch it and get little pieces off. With volcanic rocks, you usually can’t do that; they tend to be much tougher.
So take a look at the rocks around you. If you find sedimentary rocks, there’s a chance there could be some fossils in there. In the United States, dinosaur fossils have been found in over half of all the states. Even if there haven’t been dinosaur fossils found near where you live, fossils of other prehistoric animals have been found in every state, some just as strange and amazing as dinosaurs.
From the shells of prehistoric squid-like creatures called ammonites to the extinct insect-like trilobites that once lived on the ocean floor, and even the fossilized teeth of prehistoric sharks. There is some luck involved in finding fossils. Not every place with sedimentary rock will have fossils, but you might be surprised how close you might live to a place where you can easily search for fossils.
One tip is to ask an adult in your life to look up where the nearest quarry is. A quarry is a place where people dig into rock underground for construction and building materials. In many quarries, fossils are found during excavation, and some even allow people to collect fossils at certain times. You might be surprised at how close the nearest quarry is to you. Even major cities sometimes have quarries nearby, like the Thornton quarry outside Chicago, Illinois, which is home to some amazing prehistoric ocean fossils.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Natalie, for asking it. Now for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and picked out three questions sent in to me that I’m thinking about answering next. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: “How are compasses made?”, “Are butterflies the only animals that start out as caterpillars?”, or “Why do clothes sometimes shrink when you wash them?” So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see you next week.
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