Fossils
Kid Discoveries in the Fossil World
Age has no difference out in the outdoors sometimes. A 12-year old boy in Ohio found a fossil that was discovered to be that of a wooly mammoth. After waiting for many people to examine it, he wants to know when he can take it to school and show it off.
For information on this recent discovery, check out this site: https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/viral/boy-makes-ancient-discovery-in-creek-bed/vi-AAFNFiy
New Triceratops Head Discovery in Montana
National news reports that more dinosaurs are being found in Montana with summer projects with fossil diggers who have the bug to look for those giants who traversed the earth right here in our great state.
Harrison Duran, a biology student from California found this head while in eastern Montana this summer on digs in the area. Read the information in this site to learn more. Totally interesting.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/triceratops-skull-65-million-years-old-unearthed-by-college-student-23/ar-AAEVnLn?li=BBnb7Kz
Fossil Idea Development
When you gather about fossils from your trips to rock shops, finds or shares, you might like to try what a young rock girl will be selling when she starts up her rock booth, and that is a plaster cast of your favorite pieces.
Ellie Fudge, a local rock enthusiast, has shark teeth, agates, hemitite, shells brilobites, or others, and wanted to find a way to save them into a wall or dresser display. You can gather your pieces and put them down with a little bit of sand and then pour some paster over your finds in a small box. You need to let this set, but after it hardens you can have a nice display of your fossils as a keepsake or for sharing with other.
This photo is what is sold at Gem Mountain in Phillipsburg when people come to search for stones, they also look for fossils too. You can make your own display easily.
Dinosaurs Signed in Law
Apparently, Governor Steve Bullock got into some dinosaur action. Two giants died while fighting on the range, got fossilized over time, but the courts have juggled with the topic of just who owns the millions of dollars worth of their bones.
Is it the surface rights holder or do those bones belong to the mineral rights owner? Our state legislature weighed in on the topic, and Governor Bullock signed into law the verdict. We'll see how it will turn out eventually, but check it out on the news channel. https://www.abcfoxmontana.com/regional/governor-signs-bill-clarifying-ownership-rights-to-fossils/article_16603df1-c730-5974-b9bc-38deb24c8466.html
A Montana T-Rex Goes to Washington D.C.
After discovering the dinosaur part sticking out of the ground, the Wankel family went back to dig up its curiosity in 1988 and in 2019, that entire example will be on display for millons of people to see.
It came from our land where giant beasts used to traverse the area in search of food. Now we get to divvy up its remains for others to see in our nation's capitol. Learn more about it here: https://krtv.com/news/montana-and-regional-news/2019/06/05/new-smithsonian-exhibit-features-t-rex-fossil-from-montana/
Truth in the Rocks
Scientists exploring the earth have found evidence that depicts blow by blow, moment by moment events of how the dinosaurs were obliterated by an asteroid that hit the earth and destroyed tons of life forms living then on the planet.
The truth was in the fossils as the life was snuffed out of these living creatures. It is all stated in pictures right in the rocks.
To see the evidence, just go to this site and read all about it. It's amazing. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/new-fossils-mass-extinction-wiped-out-dinosaurs/?utm_source=FBPAGE&utm_medium=social&utm_term=20190419&utm_content=2259921174&utm_campaign=NOVA&linkId=66334096&fbclid=IwAR0XMIqcZznGPVxNkkuBKW-hK0TgQHRu-s5aA7qMGVJVKE5-BEY508d72Xo
Feathers on a T Rex? News is always interesting
Apparently scientists discover new facts all the time about our past, but to think that those little critters were all furry and fuzzy when they were young, yet grown up to be such big, huge things is astounding.
Check out this website to learn more about the latest discoveries in regards to the dinosaurs that were found in Montana.
Scotty Beats Out Sue
In the world of dinosaurs Sue, the Tyrannosaur Rex, has taken the spotlight of the biggest, baddest and the best, but recently Scotty, found in western Canada has stolen the spotlight. He weighs in as the top dog of the fossil world of his species and goes down in the record books making Sue move down a notch.
Even though it was found in Canada, it appears as though the entire species ruled the area into Montana, just a little bit south of the discovery as the earth rattled with their territory they roamed as they didn't know there was a border to cross between nations. For more information go to this site for all the specifics. You will be amazed. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/tyrannosaurus-rex-found-in-canada-is-worlds-biggest/ar-BBV7xn6?li=BBnb7Kz
Regrowing the Wooly Mammoth Here and Now
Have you ever wondered if cell from ancient fossils could be grown in scientists' laboratories? This story indicates we are on the road to such possibilities in the future.
Poor guy, if he was recreated, just who would be his buddy. Where's his girlfriend. He would be a loner and desperate for a mate and food. Just what would be do?
And then, where would scientists be able to go with that DNA with all the DNA banks in the US. They could reproduce you in a lab and have your clone doing all kinds of things. Yikes!! Check it out to see. https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/science/woolly-mammoth-cells-brought-back-to-life-in-shocking-scientific-achievement/vi-BBUGPzc
New Dinosaur Exhibit in Billings Amazes
Check out this website for the full details about how the live creatures who roamed Montana so long ago lived, how they looked and what they were like. Many images can dance through your head for months of what the land was like before these big critters were discovered on Montana soil as they laid to rest from catastrophes or sudden death.
The sound, the size, and the realism might amaze you. https://krtv.com/news/montana-and-regional-news/2019/03/10/dinosaur-exhibit-draws-big-crowds-at-billings-metrapark/
Fossilized Fish
One of the hottest and best places to search for fossilized fish, even those fossilized while eating another, means a trek to Kemmerer, Wyoming. It is only so long you can hear about digging these thin slabs of rock with history embedded in it without making a time to go do it yourself.
Given enough time to put it on your calendar for next year, one can be sure to hit up the quarries that have a variety of arrangements for digging.
Even though it might be easy to just go buy one, it is not the same as getting your own. Consider the search for fossilized fish on your outing for next year. Just too cool.
Amber Saves Lives
This latest link tells the story of how scientists found a 100 million year old snail perfectly preserved in amber so that it can be studied and researched like nothing ever before it.
It is amazing what the earth can do and what we can learn from it. Such interesting lives of all kinds of life forms. Check it out: https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/a-100-million-year-old-snail-has-been-found-preserved-in-amber/vi-BBOhLFI
Let's Just Pretend!
We all want that archaelogist experience where we discover a dinosaur bone or mini skull like it was the first time event.
Well, you can have it with one of the GeoCentral's Dinosaur Skull Excavation Kit. I know I just had to have one to share with some kids I know. We will have fun chunking it out of the plaster sand case it is in and reveling at the beauty of the remains of a once roaming critter from around these neck of the woods. Get yourself one too, for fun and excitement.
Shopping for Rock Hard Feces; Oh My!!
"Do you have any dinosaur poop?"
The man shows me a tub full of all shapes and sizes of coprolite and then bends down to bring up a 5 gallon bucket of his collections of dinosaur poo he found around Choteau, Montana. He has tons of it, and I think they would make great Christmas presents. Wouldn't everyone want a sample of dinosaur poo in their Christmas stocking? Just for fun!!
The idea that 500 million years ago, these giant critters were roaming our area deposited their digestion for us to pick up now and hold like treasure. He has dinosaur bones and rocks from Africa. I could spend my allowance all in one spot. But a fossil investment is an investment in history!!
A New Dinosaur Discovery in South Africa Leads to Development of Further Information About Their Lives on This Planet
Good Dinosaur Video
Think you know all the names for dinosaurs? Think again when you watch this video on this site because it is very cleverly done and has all kinds of examples of dinosaurs that you probably never heard of.
Just click on the link and watch the description of land as it once was here on earth. We only now get petrified rocks that are from the dinosaur and look like a bunch of mini eggs stuck together. Millions of years ago they were formed. But it is the way the dinosaurs breathed and used oxygen that helped them become so huge. Fun stuff. https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/the-biggest-dinosaurs-of-all-time/vi-AAAtGOf
Check Out His Guts See the Body Parts on Many Pages of This Book
In the world of the dinosaur there are many publications that have interesting formats. this book was found at the Goodwill in Helena.
This book opens up into many pages of the guts and body parts of the many levels of the dinosaur with colored parts with where the pieces go and it tells what it does.
The many pages of body parts flip easily and showcase what we have learned about as we reconstruct information about the dinosaur from discovery of the fossil remains rebuilding.
This book might be a great one to have in your possession or on your bookshelf. It is done so well and is very interesting, even for the adult. Lots of pictures with simple explanations.
Two Medicine Dinosaur Center Had a Maiasaurus 40th Birthday Party in Bynum, Montana, June 30th, Unveiling the Discovery that Started It All. More on other pages
New Dinosaur Discovery
Word comes on MSN that researchers in Utah have discovered a new kind of dinsoaur with spikes all over his face. Aren't we glad that Utah has not sold off this land for mining exploration so that our history of this earth can be discovered and therefore preserved.
But North America's previous creatures lay all over our territory and maybe more will be discovered. It was with one man putting these bones together and publishing the information that we know.
Such great access to new information we have. Check out this site for more information. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/science/scientists-discover-new-dinosaur-with-a-face-full-of-spikes/ar-BBKZdqs?li=BBnbcA1
Dave Trexler talked about how he and his wife went wtih his mother out onto the Montana prairie and found baby dinosaur bones, and later found adult ones with his wife that started the dinosaur discoveries world wide.
Montana has supplied most of the world with dinosaur displays everywhere and it was with their family history that the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center was created because they saw what Ekalaka did with their dinosaur remains and they said to themselves, "We can do that too!"
Now there are dinosaur digs out to the field for people to sign up for and a museum to disseminate information about the world of the dinosaur and how they nourished their babies right from Montana land. Amazing.
40th Year of the Discovery of Maiasaurus in Bynum, MT Means a Giant Birthday Party, June 30th, 2018...The family who discovered her get to blow out the candles with a few tears
New dinosaur being installed in Chicago
Top headlines the end of May 2018 are about fossils. We all love to know and see more about dinosaurs, that's why the Field Museum on Lake Shore Drive is a masterpiece of a tribute to the big brute.
This one is going in and is so big that it has to be lifted by a crane up over the building as the freight elevators can't handle the size of the vertebrae. It's amazing to just see a picture of what the spine looked like. Before it is completed it will be one of the biggest ever assembled at a museum. It is a cast that will be on display so people will have to crank their necks just to gaze up above at the giant form that once walked this earth.
Want to feel small and insignificant, just schedule a trip to Chicago to see this amazing installation yourself or check out this site for sure: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/largest-dinosaur-ever-starts-to-stand-tall-in-chicagos-field-museum/ar-AAxXDfv?li=BBnbcA1
Get the scoop on all the state fossils in the United States
If you like to know about state dinosaur fossils from all the states in the United States, take a look at this website and click on each state. It is interesting to note that there are so many dinosaur types enough to fill 50 states taste for antiquity.
Information listed on each state tells a little history and data about each state's choice. So take a look and see what is important to folks all over our country. You might like to plan a family vacation to visit key spots in some of the other states if you have people in your family interested in dinosaurs. In Montana there is the Dinosaur Trail, the Museum of the Rockies, the Montana State University, and the Montana Bureau of Mining and Geology for a start. Enjoy. Click on the photo t9 go to this link. https://statesymbolsusa.org/categories/dinosaur-or-fossil
Bynum, Montana Showcases The Two Medicine Dinosaur Museum, The Best!!!
When one is on the road prospecting & camping (even though your remote car dust never comes off until you wash it hundreds of miles away at home), up at 6 and ready to eat that famous huckleberry French toast at the Whistlestop Cafe in East Glacier, you can be waiting outside the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center before it opens in Bynum.
I have always used their bathroom on a stop at the Trex Agate Rock Shop, but I never wanted to pay the $5 entrance fee to get in and see the small room, but Labor Day brought extra time to enjoy a museum I had put off too long. It was so worth it as the main crew were off investigating a new discovery in the field and a local, area teacher gave me the grand tour, stories and all.
The first, and most important thing I heard from Lisette, was the fact that when the Brandvold family would go out and look for fossils on their land, the mom and son once found dinosaur bones that the well known Jack Horner of Bozeman wanted right away, but she was astute enough to say, "NO! These are mine!!" and from that day onward the dinosaur legacy was established for the small town of Bynum. It put the small city on the dinosaur map becasue it is the only dinosaur museum that has baby bones around. She said people come from all over to see. Another attraction is the giant dinosaur above our heads and the building is built around that came from New Mexico. It is amazing, huge and wonderful. There is actually so much packed inside this museum, you go away in awe that you have seen something awesome, which is not always the case for some visits.
The palentologist table of experimentation and exploration that is customary in the dinosaur museums in Montana is no exception here. The palentologist on duty was upstairs working at the time, but this gal who was well versed in the museum as she is a teacher and has worked at the museum for awhile, gave me much, great information.
I learned that groups of 6 or so people can go out in the field and see the dinosaur dig sites for $75 for a half dayor $150 for all day. Even though I had taken the trip out of Choteau to Egg Mountain, this family site sounded interesting as well. I will keep it in mind.
Having so many elements spoken of in my tour by my guide, my tank of inspiration and information was filled in a short while. The concise and smallness of this huge topic was so delightful when one compares the experience to the elaborate set up of the Museum of the Rockies. Each have their beauty. The attraction of this installation is it is family owned and managed and not run by big corporate outfits and there is some individuality to the facility which is great.
The gift shop sports all kinds of dinosaur objects and information and I have always enjoyed getting my amber pieces of history from here as there is not very many places that have such a great selection.
On the way out it was interesting to see the head of that huge dinosaur from my human vantage point as it seemed he would be easily fought off with such a small head and I thought to myself, "Oh, I could have bashed his head in with a shovel." but when one considers how huge the rest of his body and the influence of some of those big bones falling down on you, one would think twice about combatting such a critter. Yikes! I am glad I didn't live in human form when they were around.
Getting a relationship with the size of dinosaurs and ourselves is just one of the many experiences one can have when visiting dinosaru museums. I got my stamp on my trail book when I was there as well. I am on my way to getting it filled!
Montana Made The Fossil & Dinosaur Digging List Nationwide!
Trippin' Fossil Trips Nationwide To Put On Your Docket
Even Though Montana Didn't Make The List, You Can Find Plenty Of Spots On Our Webpage To Fill that Bill!
Dinosaur Hot Spots
- Two Medicine Dinosaur Center, Bynum, Montana
- Old Trail Museum, Choteau, Montana
- Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana
- Rudyard Depot Museum, Rudyard, Montana
- Upper Musselshell Museum, Harlowton, Montana
- H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum, Harve, Montana
- Blain County Museum, Chinook, Montana
- Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and Field Station, Malta, Montana
- Phillip County Museum, Malta, Montana
- Garfield County Museum, Jordan, Montana
- Fort Peck Interpretive Center and Museum, Fort Peck, Montana
- Makoshika Dinosaur Museum, Glendive, Montana
- Makoshika State Park, Glendive, Montana
- Carter County Museum, Ekalaka, Montana
Follow Montana Dinosaur Trail on Facebook!
Information for this map was provided by the Montana Dinosaur Trail visit their webpage at http://mtdinotrail.org/. We thank them very much for this comprehensive view of Montana dinosaur world. It's great!
See More Fossil Information By Clicking Below
Learn Lots by Flipping the Pages on Each Booklet.
Summer Cool Destinations
On Facebook The Montana Dinosaur Trail
On the web at http://www.mtdinotrail.org/
The Museum of the Rockies:
There is a reason that the Museum of the Rockies is the most visited museum in Montana and it’s because it is so well done, thought out and presented with the desires and needs of the newbie visitor in mind. The trip to Bozeman, Montana and this Montana State University facility is so worth the time and money spent. Here are the facets:
The huge, giant land rovers from the open range of Montana’s landscape millions of years ago loom on the outside of the building with “Mike” reproduced in lifesized reproduction to the bits and pieces in the various rooms of the dinosaur loop and the dark ravines of this museum. Somehow the black rooms with giant dioramas and lit up cases of carcasses or reproduction of the land giants draw your awe at this era of earth’s history.
You can walk into other sections of the museum where there is many sections on the alligator with talking videos everywhere as to the evolutionary impact of the alligator, and you can visit the land of history with old building replicas, and western gear, but nothing compares to what you have just seen with dinosaurs. It’s all over from there. You’ve seen it all.
And as always I do most things in reverse, so when I came to the entrance to the museum I had to go to the gift shop first. It touts a wide range of products that tempt the pocket book and the interests of a wide variety of shoppers. The best part was learning about the Dinosaur Passport the gift shop that the attendant explained how it worked. Just the idea of having a packet supported by the Governor of the State of Montana and a list of all the dinosaur museums in the state was fabulous. Of course buying a bug in a sucker was reminiscent of when I would buy that for my son when he was young and we visited the museum. Eclipse glasses and rocks filled my bag along with a crystal growing kit. Ditch the jewelry, and fanciful things I just want the rock and fossils bit.
Attendants show you around, answer questions and are engaged in explanations about the world of dinosaurs. I overheard one gal explaining to a guy that the dinosaurs didn’t have lungs and a bellow type breathing construction like humans who have the intake of air in and out. They had a four chambers apparatus that the air went in and moved in and out of (didn’t know that) so their rib cage was constructed differently due to their purpose. At another station she explained how the government limited how they could reconstruct or deal with the dinosaur bones and their recreations.
In most any of the dinosaur museums there is usually a display of how the fossils of the dinosaur are carefully treated in the field, extracted from the ground and brought to the lab for exam, reproduction and presentation preparation. The many step process is always interesting as it is not quite so simple.
A great benefit of visiting museums such as these is the interesting way the displays are put together. Talking about rocks breathing or what’s for dinner make the information interesting and believable. There are lots of set ups and arrangements for all ages and the use of multimedia styles is done well. The arrangements make you feel like you connect and understand the impact of history in your life; a treat for sure.
There is a real life prairie home out back that can be toured so you can feel like you have touch with rural Montana, but that is not always a draw for some. Long ago it was there and is still in operation. Inside the museum there is time for kids to play with stuffed dinosaur anything and there is a theater presentation every hour on the hour that is included with your admission price. I once saw an omnidome presentation of the earth’s history on it there with my kids and it was impressive. The parade of time and where all history fits in drawn out on a screen overhead in a circular format is interesting.
Putting the Museum of the Rockies on your list of places to visit in Montana makes you feel like you are connected with some history of Montana, like you have been somewhere and brings family and friends closer together as you can stand and awe together at the world’s beauty together. Return visits are well worth it too. You can never get too much of this place.
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