Virtual Paleontologist Study and Review Sheet:

Introduction:

Paleontology is the scientific study of life existent prior to, but sometimes including, the
start of the Holocene Epoch.
Not only the study of dinosaur bones but also fossilized plants, pollens, spores and
theories about ancient life
Paleontologist need to study Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Astronomy in College
Paleontology has 3 main goals
o Describe as many forms of life as possible
o Create a better picture of life on earth
o Learn more about evolution

Dinosaurs:

Appeared 231.4 million years ago

Dominated during Jurassic and cretaceous period
Known as The Terrible Lizzards
Mammals lived at same time as dinosaurs
Marine animals like liplerodon and pterosaurs are not dinosaurs
All had feathers or scales
All had feet directly underneath body

Birds and Dinosaurs:

Many scientists believe that dinosaurs evolved to birds

First proposed after discovery of archeopteryx
5 reasons listed below
o Elongated arms and forelimbs and clawed manus (hands).
o Large orbits (eye openings in the skull).
o Flexible wrist with a semi-lunate carpal (wrist bone).
o Hollow, thin-walled bones.
o 3-fingered opposable grasping manus (hand), 4-toed pes (foot); but supported by
3 main toes.

Evolution of Paleontology:

Humans were interested in fossils since the ice age

We wanted to piece together our findings and share them
Ice age animals found first since closer to surface
Originally dinosaurs were thought to look extremely like lizards and walk on all fours
Paleontology has become progressively more easy due to many advances like carbon-14
dating

Prospecting:

Need permission before digging in certain areas

Topographical maps Different land forms in region
Geographic maps different exposed time periods of fossils
Sandstone large fossils and footprints
Limestine shelly invertabrates
Shale sea creatures
Chalk, tuff, basalt, metamorphic no fossils

Field Work

Normally takes around 3 weeks

Be sure to use correct tools
o Picks
o Toothbrush
o Hand chizels
o Hammers
o Brushes
o Pneumatic tools
o Super glue
Always be safe
o Stay hydrated
o Wear tons of sunscreen
50spf minimum
o Be aware of animals
o Take breaks
o Be patient
o Never work alone
o Its okay to work at night
Plaster fossils for transport
o Use burlap strips and hydrocal plaster

Dangers of Field Work

Quicksand
o Looks like wet sand
o Moves around
o Stay calm
o Lean back and let legs rise to surface
o Slowly crawl out
Animal poison
o Rattlesnakes
All north and south America except Canada
Dont bother rattle snakes
Immobilize bite below heart

Call EMS immediately

o Scorpions
All world except Russia and Canada
Wash stung area for 10 minutes on and off with soap water
Call EMS
o Black Widow Spiders
All world except Canada and Russia
Immobilize bite below heart
Seek immediate help
Heat Stroke
o To prevent
Wear light clothing
Avoid digging on hottest days
Drink TONS of water
Accumulate to hot conditions slowly
o Identify the symptoms so you can help
Throbbing headache
Dizziness
Lack of sweating despite heat
Red, hot, dry skin
Muscle weakness or cramps
o For treatment
Put ice packs on
Groin
Arm pits
Neck
Have victum drink fluids
Eevate feet
Have them lie down
If possible blow them with fan

Basic Fossilization

Most bones do not fossilize

o They need to be immediately covered in some sort of sediment
o Takes millions of years to become fossil
o 6 types of fossilization

unaltered preservation- like insects or plant parts trapped in amber, a

hardened form of tree sap)
per mineralization petrification- in which rock-like minerals seep in
slowly and replace the original organic tissues with silica, calcite or pyrite,
forming a rock-like fossil - can preserve hard and soft parts - most bone
and wood fossils are per mineralized)

replacement- An organism's hard parts dissolve and are replaced by other

minerals, like calcite, silica, pyrite, or iron
carbonization=coalification- in which only the carbon remains in the
specimen - other elements, like hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are
removed
recrystallization- hard parts either revert to more stable minerals or small
crystals turn into larger crystals
authigenic preservation- molds and casts of organisms that have been
destroyed or dissolved.
Body fossils are a fossilization of a living thing
o Such as wood, bones and shells
Trace fossils are fossilization of what living things have left behind
o Such as footprints or dinosaur scat (Rusophycus)
Geochemical observation helpdeduce the global level of biological activity or the affinity
of a certain fossil
Most fossil dating knowledge comes from radiometric dating
o Relies on properties of isotopes and how they date over time

Classifying fossils

Can be classified into taxa

o Kingdom 5 categories- anamalia, plantae, prostita, monera, fungi
o Phylum breaks down into more well-known categories like arthropods and
backboned animals
o Class broken down into specific categories for instance birds
o Order
o Family
o Genus
o Species
o Remember King Peter Came Over For Good Spagetti
Diet-based classification
o Carnivores
Only eats meat
Least population
Curved, created teeth
Walked and ran on 2 legs
Solitaire animals
Could be broken down into
Ovivaporous only eats eggs
Piceosaur only eats fish
Insectovore only eats insects
o Herbivores

 Only eats plants

Highest population
Curved teeth
Had protection (such as plates) on body to protect from enemies
Swallowed stones to digest food
Bones scattered about (moved by carnivores)
Travelled in herds with young in center
Walked on all 4 legs
o Omnivores
Ate plants and meat
Middlemost population
Had multi-tasking tools
Therizinosaur had claws for breaking open wasp nests but also to
defend against tarbosaurus
Most had very chicken-like appearance with skinny neck and beak
Ate insects, plants, eggs, lizzards, berries but no large herbivores
Mass Extinction

90% of all species have gone extinct

K-T extinction (K-Pg)
o Killed dinosaurs
o 5th mass extinction
o Likely caused by meter strike (15km long, 10km diameter)
High levels of iridium discovered on Cretaceous level which is highly
present in meteors
o Other possible causes include
Volcanoes
Waves
Climate change
Ordivician-Surilian Extinction (O-S)
o First Extinction
o Likely caused by gamma ray burst
When star dies it shoots out gamma rays which are highly radioactive
Late Devonian mass Extinction (Late D)
o 2nd mass extinction
o of all species died out
o Caused by climate change
Permian Mass Extinction (P-Tr)
o AKA: The great Dying
o 3rd mass extinction
o 96% of all species died out
o Likely due to volcanic activity
Triassic-Jurassic (TR-J)

o 4th mass extinction

o Could have been caused by
Climate change
Asteroid
Volcanic eruptions
Humans have been driving many species to extinction
More than 45,000 times the amount of species are going extinct than should be
Humans may cause 6th extinction
May also be caused if sun dies, expands and then swallows earth
Many small creatures can survive mass extinctions because
o They can burrow underground
o Do not require as much food

Paleobotany

Study of prehistoric plants

Plant fossils can be preserved in 5 different ways
o Adipressions
Most common
Provide good morphological detail
Basiclly like a shadow of the plant preserved
Plant was compressed into the rock
o Petrifications
Give detail of plant cells
Occurs when plant particles replaced with stone
o Mould and cast
Preserve more robust plants like tree roots
Rock surrounds plant and then when it comes off you still see plant shape
inside
o Mineralization
Provide 3D Mophilogical data
Occur when plant particles replace with those of minerals
o Fusian
Alows for the observing of plant tissues
Occurs when plant if fossilized but tissue does not decay
Normally plants from at most 1million years ago are found like this
Plants evolved from small flowers to huge trees because mainly the oxygen supply went
up
4 different classes of prehistoric fauna
o Bryophytes
o Ferns
o Gymnosperms
o Anglosperms

Flora changed between periods

o Triassic mainly cycads
o Jurassic Jungle plants take over along with flowering plants such as Pinaceae
o Cretaceous Angiosperms take over
Palynology is the study of fossilized spores and pollens

Famous Paleontologists:

Jack Horner
o Scientific advisor for Jurassic Park
o Proved dinosaurs cared for young through discovery of miasaura near nest with
young
o Has had many other achievements and theories such as how only of all species
of dinosaurs ever existed while the other half were juveniles
Mary Schweitzer
o Discovered tissue in Tyrannosaur skull raising questions on how dinosaur bones
fossilize
Luiz Alvarez
o Actually a physicist
o Discovered high levels of iridium in the Cretaceous level of sedemnt proving
asteroid killed dinosaurs
o Won Nobel Prize
Mary Anning
o Fossil collector
o Known for discovery of marine reptiles ichthyosaur and plesiosaur
Robert T Bakker
o Believes dinosaurs are warm blooded and has may arguments such as the 3 listed
below
Almost all animals that walk upright today are warm-blooded, and
dinosaurs walked upright.
Some dinosaurs lived in northern latitudes where it would be impossible
for cold-blooded dinosaurs to keep warm.
The predator/prey ratio of predatory dinosaurs to their prey is a signature
trait of warm-blooded predators rather than cold-blooded ones.
Barnum Brown
o Discovered first documented T-Rex
o Discovered Hell Creek Rock Formation
Thousands of fossils have been found here
Edwin H Colbert
o Discovered many arctic dinosaurs
Edward Drinker Cope
o Part of bone wars

o Discovered over 1000 new fossils

Including camarasaurus and dimetrodon
Dong Zhming
o Chinese paleontologist icon
o Discovered many known dinosaurs specifically hadrosaurs
Othniel C Marsh
o Part of bone wars
o Discovered allosaurus, stegosaurus and triceratops
Bone wars were where 2 paleontologists (Cope and Marsh) destroyed and stole many
fossils and compeated to see who could find more
Turned up over 1000 new dinosaur fossil species

Going on display

Different tools are used to remove different MATRIX (rock surrounding fossil) from
different fossils
o Air scribe
Most commonly used
Uses air to blow away matrix
Fairley fast and time efficient
Be careful while using because it is not good when you puncture a fossil
o Grinding tools
Used when matrix is very hard
Used when fossil is very fragile
o Picks and needles
Used to remove clumps of matrix from holes in fossils
o Brushes
Used to clean off the excess matrix (i.e. dust)
o Adhesives and Consolidants
In case you break a fossil or fossil comes to lab broken, put it back
together by using this adhesive.
You need to study fossils
o Labeling a fossil gives it a link to its information when it is put on a shelf along
with giving an easy access to paleontologists wanting to look for that fossil
o Molding and casting allows for replicas of fossils to be made but also allows for
replicas to be made for other fossils if they are not complete (i.e. general structure
of one hip bone may replace a hop bone of a triceratops that was not found)
Thin poured mold- for large and rigid fossils
Solid poured mold- for smaller and more smooth/flat fossils
o When assembling a fossil for display use strong materials like titanium and
stainless steel and not iron pins and wire hangers
o Think about these things when setting up fossil
Will it last long
Can it withstand seismic activity

 Are designs safe for display or could they be hazardous

o When housing a fossil you need to consider proper packaging
Support the specimen
Limit the specimen moving
Pad the specimen to reduce damage risk
You can use some materials when packaging that do
not pose a risk to the fossil such as
o Polyethylene
o Polypropylene
o Polystyrene
o Natrual Unbleached Cotton
o Acid-Free Paper
o Mylar
o Acrylics
You cannot use substances that may harm or decay
the fossil
o Formaldehyde
o Acids
o Peroxides
o Amines
o Plasticizers
o Migrating dyes
o You need to make sure to monitor fossils and recoat them with
adhesives to make sure they withstand the test of time
Top Rated Dinosaur Exhibits:

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

o Walks you through the entire history and evolution of earth
Royal Ontario Museum
o Large dinosaur collection
Museum Fur Naturkunde
o Largest diplodocus fossil ever found
o First archaeopteryx ever found
Field Museum
o Houses Sue the tyrannosaur
o Location of night at the museum
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
o 30 iguanodon display
o Mosasaur hall
La Brea Tar Pits
o Tar fossilization
o See paleontology in action
o Learn about ice age mammals

Drumheller and Dinosaur Provincial Park

o Learn more about dinosaurs
o Learn about fossilization
o The difference between bone and rock
Petrified Forest
o In Holbrook
o Learn about fossilization
o Paleobotany studies
The Mammoth Site
o Non-extinction deaths (mammoths died when cave fell in)
o See paleontologists at work

Famous Fossil Profiles

Iguanodon
o First sauropod dinosaur ever discovered
Megalosaurus
o First dinosaur discovered
o First theropod dinosaur discovered
o Thigh bone originally thought to be that of a giant human
Mosasaur
o Got scientists to think they were dealing with creatures that lived
and died like humans do
Hadrosaur
o First near-complete fossil found
o One of few dinosaurs to be discovered on American Eastern Sea
board
Archaeopteryx
o Got scientists to believe dinosaurs evolved to birds
Diplodocus
o Urged the age of giant sauropods
Coelophysis
o A unique dinosaur and the only of its kind
Miasaua
o When found with its young close by, paleontologists realized
dinosaurs cared for their young
Sinosauropteryx
o First time paleontologists realized a primitive hair feature on
dinosaurs
Brachylophosaurus
o New technologies were introduced to hep understand this fossil
such as MRI fossil scans that are still being used today
Asilisaurus

o Closest thing to a dinosaur without being a dinosaur

Yutyrannus
o Showed that dinosaurs could have feathers
More specifically large carnivores like tyrannosaurus
Sue the Tyrannosaur
o Largest T-Rex Ever discovered
o In field museum
o Discovered by Sue Hendrickson on Indian Reserve without Permit
Raised ownership issue and ended up being given to the
government to auction off
Turkana Boy
o Most complete Homo erectus ever found
Lucy
o Nearly complete austiperithicus fossil (40%)
o Has hip very similar to humans raising evolution questions
o Song Lucy and the Sky of Diamonds by The Beatles is based on
this fossil
289 Babtastina
o Meteor that killed dinosaurs
o Only present in iridium between Cretaceous and current era
sediment layers
o 15km long, 10km diameter
o Crashed into Yucatan Peninsula

Dinosaur Name Meanings:

Found on Gondwana Noto

Groundbreaking Discovery Xeno
Small Nano
Huge Bronto
Had horns Cera
Ran fast Veloci
Looked like another animal Mimus
Interesting skeleton Dylus
Interesting face Tops
Interesting Teeth Don
No facial indifferances from other dinosaurs Saurus
Ate herbivores Raptor
Ate both herbivores and Carnivores Rex