Can You Dig It?

The Boneyard Fossil Fun Site in Dinoland, U.S.A. is many things. On the surface, it's a great playground area that's set up like a dinosaur dig. Young Guests can scale the scaffolding, reveal bones and slide down spill chutes. There's a lot more here, though, that's not just for the kids. The Boneyard also happens to be a hotbed of story material and a decent education in paleontology.

The Boneyard is the site of an incredibly rich deposit of fossils from the late Cretaceous period. In fact, this is where the first dinosaur bones - those of a T-rex - were discovered in Diggs County back in 1947. Today, the work of unearthing, documenting and cataloguing fossil finds continues under the guidance of Dr. Bernard Dunn and his team.

The tools of their trade, everything from spades and chisels to jackhammers and shovels, are scattered everywhere.

You'll also come across the team's notes. The Boneyard is filled with them, and they're loaded with fascinating details. Take this chalkboard, for example. There's a discussion of how dinosaurs are often classified by their hip bones (either bird-hipped or lizard-hipped), and there's a terrific diagram and explanation of the site geology.

The information about what can be found in the strata is interesting to read, but even more so to actually see. As you explore the Boneyard, you'll find these rock layers exposed, allowing for close study of their composition.

This white board not only educates us on the Hadrosaurs found in a nearby fossil matrix, but also opens a window into the paleontological world, where there are often conflicting theories. Intern Jenny Weinstein has posted a theory on the board as to why there are so many Hadrosaur skeletons grouped together. She suggests it could be evidence of a huge cataclysm, but one of her professors has left her a message in return, proposing other potential answers.

The pair of fossilized tracks embedded in this area of the Boneyard present a similar controversy. In this case, Jenny made the find and presented a straightforward assessment. Another intern has come along, insisting that these tracks show a chase between a Theropod (meat eater) and Sauropod (plant eater). In yet another difference of opinion, Dr. Woo has asked the question, "How do we know which came first? One set may have followed the other by hours."

Mark Rios, an intern known to his friends as "Animal," has been working on clearing this pair of Triceratops skulls. With his skewed view of the world, Animal has cooked up an idea that these two were locked in battle, allowing themselves to starve to death before one would concede defeat to the other. Dunn has stepped in to remind Rios to consider all the evidence (or lack thereof).

All these pieces in the Boneyard help to educate us, but they also clearly demonstrate one of the greatest challenges facing paleontologists. Their theories are at the mercy of 65 million-year-old fossil evidence, much of which can appear contradictory or confusing.

Hmmm... If only the scientists could somehow travel back in time to have the chance to observe the dinosaurs as they really lived. Oh, but that would be silly and reckless. Besides, it would take all the fun out of digging and uncovering mysteries.