Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - Dinosaur fossil will open eyes to state's past

Dinosaur fossil will open eyes to state's past

Feb 04, 2008 - 04:05:27 CST

Nothing brings home the reality of our prehistoric past like standing before the massive fossil of a long-extinct dinosaur. The size. The alien look. The improbability. Yet, there it stands. Concrete evidence of an earlier earth, populated by mastodons, saber-toothed tigers and all the creatures of Jurassic Park.

Today, a duckbilled hadrosaur discovered by Tyler Lyson near Marmarth in 1999 will be returned to North Dakota. The 30-foot fossil will go on display at the Heritage Center during the first week in June and is expected to remain for about three years. Standing before the fossil, named "Dakota," visitors will be able to contemplate a North Dakota that was more water and swamp than prairie and butte. The fossil comes from a time when what has become the western North Dakota landscape teemed with the duckbilled hadrosaur and the T. Rex, rather than Holsteins and Angus.

The recent subzero temperatures made the idea of a nearly tropical North Dakota difficult to accept without hard evidence and hard feelings.

There is a storybook quality to this duckbilled hadrosaur tale. When Lyson was 15 years old, living in Marmarth, he discovered this duckbilled hadrosaur fossil. At the time, he was working for a University of Alabama professor doing field work, according to a Tribune story from the time. When he was 17 years old, he discovered a sort of mass grave of prehistoric turtles, which he recovered and brought to the paleontology lab he had developed in the family garage. The Tribune reported that the curator of paleontology at the Science Museum of Minnesota was visiting Lyson and studying the young man's fossilized turtle collection.

The duckbilled hadrosaur belongs to Lyson, who is now working on a doctorate degree in paleontology at Yale University, paid for in part by fossils that he has collected from the Hells Creek Formation in southwestern North Dakota. He has agreed to let the Heritage Center exhibit the find.

Not to make light of the tale, but Tyler Lyson one-upped the Hardy boys and the other high-achieving characters of adolescent fiction. It's a reminder that young people, given the right circumstance and challenge, can do remarkable things, and we ought not sell them short.

The exhibit at the Heritage Center will be a must-see attraction. Thank you, Tyler Lyson.

News > Opinion

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Comments

Rasmus wrote on Feb 7, 2008 8:18 AM:

" To Great Job!: I used to laugh at the pseudo-science of creationists. It reminded me of the convoluted orbits needed to explain the Earth-centered solar system. Since Bush, with his pseudo-science and Rapture Theology (Jesus is coming any day, so do whatever to the planet!!), it is no longer funny. I visited the Heritage Center in Bismarck around Xmas and it was better than ever. Thanks, ND Heritage Center, geologists, and paleontologists for putting the truth on display. "

Rasmus wrote on Feb 7, 2008 8:07 AM:

" That's right, Rex, but the results of drastic climate change will have the same results: mass extinctions. "

Great Job! wrote on Feb 4, 2008 7:20 AM:

" Bravo to the folks at the state paleontology lab for all of the fine work they do, day in an day out. However, given that this dinosaur does not match up to biblical creationism, you can rest assured that the Religious Right will poo-poo this as a deception of Satan, the result of the Prince of the Nether Region's desire to fool the human race into believing that the Bible's declared 6 thousand year age of the earth is in error. The loonies aside, this is yet another fine discovery here in North Dakota. "

My 002 Cents wrote on Feb 4, 2008 6:55 AM:

" Our climate has not been constant throughout the years (there's probably no such thing as a perfect temperature). The state has obviously seen some warm and some cold times. "

REX wrote on Feb 4, 2008 5:44 AM:

" Concrete evidence that climate change was occuring long before humans and SUVs were around. "

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