HOT TIME AHEAD FOR DINOSAUR HUNTERS
Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill.; Aug 11, 2000;
Pamela Hanson, Tribune Staff Writer
Copyright 2000 by the Chicago Tribune

In an air-conditioned University of Chicago auditorium Thursday morning, paleontologist Paul Sereno unveiled plans for his latest expedition to the sweltering Sahara.

His 14-member team departs Monday for the African desert, where the weather is too hot and dry even for scorpions. There, the dinosaur hunters hope to dig up more information on creatures that have captured imaginations around the world.

Although he cannot predict what all they might find, a denim-clad Sereno described one sure thing, the Nigersaurus. During his 1997 expedition to Niger, Sereno's team unearthed part of this peculiar plant-eater, which he describes as the "hammerhead shark of dinosaurs."

According to Sereno, the new species is a veritable "chewing machine," with a head shaped like a Hoover vacuum and hundreds of tiny teeth packed into a few rows just across the front of the jaw. On the last trip, the team was able to recover only part of its head and neck, but Sereno estimates that the whole Nigersaurus is about 45 feet long and 14 feet tall.

Even though sizable specimens attract a lot of attention, Sereno hopes to gain a better feel for what the entire ecosystem was like 90 million to 135 million years ago by using sieves and other specialized tools to look for the bones of more petite creatures.

"We have beads on small dinosaurs," he said.

Because African dinosaurs evolved in isolation from other dinosaurs, they tend to look very different from familiar species like the Tyrannosaurus rex or brontosaurus. Sereno's 1997 team, for example, recovered a creature named Suchomimus that has a long, pointy snout like a crocodile. There's no telling what they might find this time.

"What are they going to look like?" asked Sereno. "I don't know. That's part of the fun."

Besides a possible first look at more new dinosaur species, other firsts for Sereno on this expedition include use of a parafoil flying machine and posting the crew's discoveries on the Internet.

The parafoil, essentially a parachute and seat with a small engine driving a fan, not only will allow the researchers to cross treacherous dunes on a breeze, but it also can be used to survey large sectors of land before choosing where to dig.

However, such advantages come with added risk. When the team's physician first heard about the parafoil, he realized he would need to bring some major trauma gear just in case. However, Dr. Tim Lyman had not seen pictures of the machine until Thursday's press conference.

"Now I'm really worried," joked Lyman, who is taking a four-month leave of absence from West Suburban Hospital Medical Center in Oak Park to accompany Sereno's team.

Lyman anticipates cuts and scrapes will be more common, resulting from using pickaxes and chisels to excavate bones from rock.

"You can get cuts and trauma just like that," said Lyman. "You've got to be prepared to stitch someone up."

And prepared he will be. Describing his stash of medical goodies, Lyman predicts that his teammates will "fall over backwards when they see all that I've packed." However, not all the supplies will make it to the heart of the desert--more than half are being donated by West Suburban Hospital to local African clinics.

Another concern of Lyman's is the heat. With high temperatures expected to average 110 degrees during the trip, each team member will need to consume gallons of water a day to prevent dehydration. The team will also have to bury film, computer equipment and medical supplies to keep them cool during the heat of the day.

Graduate student Allison Beck is a veteran of Sereno's last trip to the desert and agrees that the heat is to be dreaded.

"It's almost scarier this time, because I'm not blissfully ignorant of how remote we are," said Beck, whose first camping trip ever was the 1997 expedition.

"You look on the bright side," said Sereno. "There's no humidity."

In fact, the area is so hot and dry that the team does not expect to encounter any snakes or scorpions, which are common where there is water.

There will be no shortage of sand and dust, adding to the difficulty of chronicling the team's adventures on the Internet. Starting Sunday, students, teachers and the public can follow Sereno and his team on its Web site (www.projectexploration.org).

"We want to bring the way science is done out from behind the glass and put it into the people's hands," said Gabrielle Lyon, co- founder of Project Exploration , a non-profit science education organization.

Since there are no outlets in the desert, the team will run the computers off car batteries charged by a gas-powered generator.

If all goes as planned, the Web site will open students' eyes to a world they might never see otherwise, including day-to-day life at the camp.

"It is every bit as exotic as it might seem," Sereno said.

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