Discovering a complete dinosaur skeleton is very rare, but once one has been found experts are needed to dig it up. Finding a fossil dinosaur can be difficult detective work.
First you must search for special sorts of rocks, such as sandstone or mudstone, 66 to 204 million years old. Experts look for traces of fossils, such as broken fragments of bone at the foot of cliffs, in hills or quarries, or down mines.
Freeing The Giant
A whole team of experts is needed to dig the fossil bones carefully out of the rock so that the giant skeleton can be pieced together like a jigsaw at the museum laboratory. Soon the site, or “dig” as it is known, is busy with people.
Where To Search
Fossil skeletons of dinosaurs are generally found in rocks that were being formed from mud and sand when dinosaurs were still alive. The dinosaur fossils are buried deep down in the lowest layers of the rock.
Palaeontologists do not dig holes all over the place in the hope of finding a fossil. First they look for the right kind of rock, then they let the wind and rain do their work for them. The best places to look for fossils are where the rock has been worn right down to its lower layers by the action of the wind and rain or waves.
Sometimes large parts of a hill or cliff crumble away and reveal part.of a fossil.
Beware Danger
The places where fossils are most frequently found are often dangerous. Never go fossil hunting unless you are with an adult. And always get the owner’s permission before you search on private land.
Striking It Lucky
Palaeontologists often go to quite remote parts of the world, such as Mongolia or China, to search for dinosaurs. But fossils can also be found by accident, by workmen making roads, quarry workers blasting for stone, or miners digging underground.
Fun Fact
In 1983, a huge, sickle-shaped claw was found by accident, buried in a . quarry in Surrey, England. It led to one of the most exciting recent dinosaur
finds.
Experts from the British Museum discovered the giant skeleton to which the claw belonged buried nearby. It was identified as a completely new dinosaur. They named it Baryonyx after Mr Walker who discovered the claw. Baryonyx was a meat-eater, as long as a bus.