Dinosaur Expedition 2000

October 23:

Joan Jones 3rd Grade Class
Solomon School

Letter from the Team:

Hi Mrs. Jones' class!
We are writing to you this evening after a full day of prospecting for fossils, plastering some of our finds, and fighting against some very strong and dusty winds. It's great to know that you are in Chicago and following along with us on the expedition. Paul answered your questions below. Thanks a lot for including a question from a parent. It's nice to have a chance to hear from them, too. - Gabrielle

Have you found a nest on this trip? If so how do you put a cast around it?

Answer:
We have not found any dinosaur nests or dinosaur eggs. The closest we've come is when we have found broken ostrich eggs from living ostriches! It's quite common not to find dinosaur eggs and particularly nests. Nests and eggs can be preserved in special circumstances: typically in ancient environments that included sand dunes or in places that were nesting grounds. Most of the ancient environments preserved here in Niger are riverbeds or the banks and plains along rivers. These are places where it would be rare to find eggs and nests. But we might get lucky!
How do you decide to name a dinosaur?

Answer:
First, you have to check it out carefully and make sure it is in fact a new dinosaur and different from all other discoveries that preceded it. Then you make a list of the new animal's special features and describe its bones carefully. Next you publish the description with a new name. The name is your choice, however, it usually has some special meaning for the dinosaur. (For example, was it a plant eater? Was it especially small or fast? Where did it live? Did it have any unusual body parts?) Also, the name you choose must never have been used before. If you fail in any of the above points, the name that you invented is not considered valid, and someone else could name the dinosaur. So careful work is important.
How deep do you have to dig to get a dinosaur bone?
Were you able to find a more complete Nigersaurus like you hoped?

Answer:
With the bones we have just discovered and the ones we discovered three years ago, we now have most of the skull and skeleton-maybe 75-80 percent. But there is a lot of work - actually a whole lot of work by a team of people with many different skills -before Nigersaurus will stand again. We need to clean the bones, mold and cast them, study them carefully to combine skeletons of different age correctly, reconstruct the skull from the many separate bones, and sculpt any missing pieces. While that is going on, we will be studying and describing the bones for a formal scientific report. When we publish the report it will include technical drawings of the anatomy of this strange sauropod and an analysis of what it means for dinosaur evolution.
Can you describe a typical day? Do you have much time left at the end of the day to have fun? How long are you out in the field each day?
Do you get to a point in the trip when you really miss your families and just want to go home or is your work just too exciting to really get homesick?

Answer:
Not really. I miss everyone I know a lot, but I am more worried about getting to all of the places we wanted to see with enough time to make the discoveries. This is a once in a lifetime chance to go to some of these places with a team like mine, and we better make use of every day.
Parent Question:
Mrs. Tharwani wants to know - How did you feel when you found your first dinosaur fossil?

Answer:
My first dinosaur fossil, believe it or not, was found when I was traveling alone as a graduate student in paleontology in the Gobi Desert of Outer Mogolia. I was the first American paleontologist to go back the the famous beds that Roy Chapman Andrews and crews had worked in the 1920's, and my first bone-the very first bone that I picked up-was the thigh bone of Protoceratops, the little horned dinosaur they made famous. I felt GREAAT!!!!!!

Sarah Hemrich, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade gifted science Robinson School, Robinson, IL
ISBE, Kurt Mowrer, kmowrer@lth6.k12.il.us

Letter from the Team:

Hello Robinson School!
It seems like you've been thinking hard about our expedition - and have come up with some really good questions - especially about the car problems. We've just made a great discovery here in Camp 3 so if you haven't logged on in a while, check out the site! Paul had a great time answering your questions this evening. We hope you like the answers -Gabrielle

It is obvious that Paul has come a long way from the kid that caused trouble in school. When did you realize that it was time to stop goofing around and take school seriously?

Answer:
Probably I needed attention and that was the easiest way to get it. I wasn't sure about my capabilities and didn't know what I would be able to do or if I would be successful. I had problems, but I got my act together before I graduated from high school and that was a lucky thing because it meant I could go to college and a lot of pathways were open to me. (answer first given October 9 to Elaine Meldrum's 5th grade class in Romeoville.)
What are your goals for this expedition? You have made some great "finds" so far. How many different types of dinosaurs do you hope to find? Have you found anything of importance besides bones?

Answer:
The basic goal of this expedition is to make "big" discoveries. By "big" I mean scientifically significant. That means discovering new species, discovering skull bones and skeletal bones that we will be able to reconstruct and discovering as many other kinds of things as we can find from crabs to seeds. We are the first to be able to paint a picture of life 100 to 135 million years ago on the African continent-that is, a detailed picture with a lot of animals and some plants rather than just a landscape. We have found at least a dozen new dinosaurs, some of which we know only from teeth and others from partial skeletons. Besides bones, we found an incredible human fossil site-ancient humans that lived thousands of years ago right on top of ground preserving dinosaur fossils! These humans would have looked quite a bit like us, but they had stone jewelry and stone tools. As far as I know, they did not dig up any of the dinosaur bones.
What convenience of home do you miss the most?

Answer:
Occasionally, I think of things a really like a lot, like a great cup of flavored coffee (I like flavors), ice cream (not freeze-dried), and a great hamburger.
How do you spend your free time if you have any? Did you bring things with you to do?

Answer:
Our days begin at first light and we usually work until sunset with a break during the hottest part of the day. Most people are tired enough that they usually go to sleep right after dinner, otherwise we read by flashlight, play chess by solar lantern, or write in our journals. Sometimes, if we get done early, we play Frisbee. We even brought a kite on this expedition and flew it one time during lunch from the top of a dune!
Have you had any serious automobile trouble? If so how do you get the Land Rovers fixed? What do you do if you start to run low on gasoline?

Answer:
We are always having car problems, big and small. One of the problems was so big the motor of one of our Land Rovers had to be taken out, driven 600 miles to Niamey, and is still waiting to be fixed. Other problems we turn over to a great mechanic, Mohammed, whom we met in Agadez- which is usually on every trip back into town. There are many problems that we fix (or sort of fix)ourselves right in the desert. This includes flat tires and many other problems that would stop a car in its tracks. We need to plan gasoline very carefully. If nothing else, we always have to keep enough to make a trip back to an oasis like Agadez and get more for the rest of the vehicles.
Alternate question: How do you cope with the heat?

Answer:
Actually I really have gotten to like the heat! My question, which is surely on the minds of many nomads here, is how do you cope with Chicago's coldest days? They are probably starting to be truly insane-snow, ice and wind, yuk.

Becky Fox and Sue Kouri's 4th and 5th Grade Classes
Highlands School
Naperville, IL

Letter from the Team:

Hello Naperville!
Great questions. I really enjoyed answering these - especially after a full day of fieldwork. I hope Naperville is doing well - and I hope you can meet Jobaria, one of the dinosaurs you ask about - close up in the near future! I hope you enjoy the responses and thanks for following along on the expedition with us! GO NAPER! -Paul

Is there anything that gives you inspiration?

Answer:
First, new discoveries. I think the finding a great new specimen inspires everyone to look for another one, to be proud of being a part of an expedition that will go down in history. Second, seeing the team working so hard and working without any of the difficulties that groups can often experience-that for me is an inspiration. We are all having a lot of fun.
Who is E. Love, why did you bring him, and why does he look forward to dancing so much?

Answer:
E. Love is none other than Eric, a technician who works in my lab back in Chicago. Actually, I met Eric first in Africa on the last expedition, when he was in the Peace Corps. He visited us in the field, and then came to work with me in Chicago (a big surprise), because he found the dinosaurs so intriguing. He speaks very good French and loves traveling in Africa. He is great in the field because he knows French, he knows fossils, and he enjoys Africa. That's probably why he can't wait to dance!
Are you able to determine how old either of the Jobaria was when they died? If you are, how do you determine how old they are?

Answer:
We don't know exactly how old they are except in a relative way-that is, we know that they are adult. Having said that, some new studies on the bones of long-necked dinosaurs are beginning to suggest that this kind of dinosaur grew fast and may have reached adult size in less than 15 years. Keep in mind that we become adult by 18 to 20 years of age and that, without medicine, doctors and hospitals, we would live on average only to about 35.
Why did the two Jobaria die on top of each other? Is one the baby? Are they even related? Do you know how they died or do you have any ideas on how you can find out?

Answer:
From your question, it seems like you've been doing some reading about our discovery during the 1997 Expedition to Niger. The sediment that covered the bones was laid down during a flood; the skeletons were moved by water and buried in a hurry in a slurry of mud. Sometimes we can even tell which way the water was flowing, because some of the long bones line up in the direction of the current. In a situation like a flood a lot of things happen fast. Skeletons that are lying on the surface of the ground get swept up, moved a short distance and buried. The skeletons at the site we called Fako were not moved very far, because they are very intact. We don't know that the skeletons buried there are adult and juveniles of one family. However, because there were so many skeletons or parts of skeletons--five or six-we think that they may have lived together in the same area.
When you send the bones back to Africa, do you put them in plaster jackets? If not, how do you ship them?

Answer:
We put them in special foam-filled boxes that are fitted to the shapes of the bones. For the larger bones, sometimes we make special holders out of thick plastic. They are shipped in wooden crates.
Did you ever find yourself sitting in the Sahara Desert saying to yourself, "I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe that I've come this far."? Have you ever regretted becoming a paleontologist? Is there another job that you would like to do?

Answer:
Well, I have never regretted being a paleontologist, not for one minute. There are so many adventures, I could (and might) write a book about them! When I was in fourth grade, and for many years after that, I wanted to be an artist. Sometimes I draw now. And one day, I might spend more time painting. I would like to do that someday, but for now I love what I'm doing.

Joe Cave's 6th Grade Science Class
Kennedy Jr. High
Naperville, IL

Letter from the Team:

Dear Mr. Cave's class
Paul says "GO NAPER!" We've just spent a full day prospecting the area around Camp 3 like mad - and working hard this evening to jacket a 500 pound fossil humerus (upper arm bone) that we will present to the school in the nearby town of Marendet. It's very exciting to know you are following along and we think you might be able to find the answers to a few of your questions on the website. Paul picked his favorite of the ones you submitted and his answers are below. -Gabrielle

About how many pounds of fossils do you excavate per week?
How do your expectations differ from what you've found so far?

Answer:
I think its been better than expected - and I'm someone who has very high expectations. After the fieldwork is over and we log up the discoveries (including the dinosaurs, the crocodiles, the other kinds of science research, the years that we will spend studying and reconstructing these animals, the good start we have on getting museums built here, and the discovery of an incredible archeological site of stone-age humans) I feel like I finally got a good report card. And we have a third of the expedition to go!
How can people living near the excavation site help you in your search for dinosaur bones? Can they help at all?

Answer:
This year we have found them more helpful than ever because after our work with them during the 1997 expedition they know more of what to look for when they are roaming the terrain. They are important as guides to know how to get somewhere, to know where the good water is, and to introduce to people who might know where fossils are. People living in areas with fossils are the people who will be able to show the sites to tourists and will have to protect the fossils from poachers, so they are helpful not just to us, but to the long term project as well. It has also helped this year that more of us speak French, which is the official language. Our relationship with many people in the country of Niger is an essential ingredient to our success. You can't fly in here and work in isolation.
What types of dinosaurs lived in the Niger area; any certain plant eaters or dinosaurs of a certain climate?
How do you know exactly where each fossil is formed? How do you find the area?
What other types of fossils do you find and why do you think you find them?
Do you usually find new species of dinosaurs on expeditions, like you did the first time. You went out?

Answer:
Sometimes it gets a little tougher, because the most common dinosaurs are usually found the first time around. Jobaria, for example, is very common, although good skeletons are very rare. With a lot of searching in new places though, we can find new dinosaurs. And we have! A new little armored dinosaur never before seen.
What does it take to be a paleontologist?
What are you thinking or feeling when you are discovering new dinosaurs or bones?
Does weather affect the digging of dinosaurs?
How far are you in completing a Nigersaurus skeleton? How much longer will it take if it is not done?

Answer:
With the bones we have just discovered and the ones we discovered three years ago, we have most of the skill and skeleton-maybe 75-80 percent. But there is a lot of work-actually a whole lot of work by a team of people-before that dinosaur will stand again. We need to clean the bones, mold and cast them, study them carefully to combine skeletons of different age correctly, reconstruct the skull from the many separate bones, and sculpt any missing pieces. While that is going on, we will be studying the bones for a formal scientific report, with technical drawings describing the anatomy of this strange sauropod and what it means for dinosaur evolution.

Back to Schools of the Week