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1.How did you learn to become a paleontologist? Did someone help you?
Answer: I learned about fossils first
when I visited a large rock quarry not far from Chicago. I found a
fossil worm and my brother found a fossil leaf. In my grade school,
I saw a film about a paleontologist who found human fossils in Africa.
I thought that was hard but very interesting work. Later, I learned
more about fossils at the Field Museum. Many years later, I took some
classes about fossils in college. My teachers helped me learn about
fossils. I learned the most, however, from studying books about fossils
on my own. Eventually, I had the chance to lead an expedition to find
the fossils that nobody else had found.
2.Have you ever found all the bones to one dinosaur? If yes, what dinosaur
was it? How many bones did it have?
Answer: I have never found a perfectly
complete dinosaur skeleton. There are many small bones in the skull
and skeleton, and it is nearly impossible that they all are preserved
if the skeleton was moved in any way after its death. After most dinosaurs
die, their skeletons are moved by predators, scavengers, and water
and wind, before they are finally buried and fossilized. Then, some
part of the skeleton must be exposed on the surface so that you can
find it. That’s when a lot of bones can get lost or damaged –-as the
skeleton is eroding on the surface of the ground before its discovery.
The closest I have come to discovering a complete skeleton is with
the little dinosaur Eoraptor, one of the oldest dinosaurs. Now there
are two very good skeletons. One lacks only the tip of the tail. The
other lacks only part of the skull and a few toes.
3.Which bones are the hardest to find? Why?
Answer: The small bones - or the skeletons
of small dinosaurs that are composed of small bones. That’s because
these bones are much more delicate and easy to destroy than the larger
bones. A large bone can roll a long way down a river after a dinosaur
dies and get buried and fossilized. But a small one will break into
a lot of pieces and disappear. So it’s the small dinosaurs that generally
are hardest to find, and the smallest bones, like the tiny ear bone,
that are almost always missing.
4.Where will you put your new 600-toothed dinosaur?
Answer: Right now some of the dinosaurs
that my teams and I have found around the world are on display in
different museums, but there is no single place where you can see
them all. I hope that in the future, the 600-toothed dinosaur can
join the others in a big exhibition space devoted to the dinosaurs
that once lived on Africa.
5.Could you find fossils in quicksand?
Answer: There is no proven case of fossilization
in quicksand. It is a very rare kind of place for an animal to die.
Much more common is mud. A lot of animals get stuck in the mud near
water holes or other soft spots, and they can get buried and fossilized.
Some animals have been covered by sand in sand storms. The majority
die right where they spend most of their lives and are buried by rivers
and floods.
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