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Burpee Recollections
Hey,
I've just returned from the Burpee Museum of Natural History's Fourth Annual
Paleofest in Rockford, Illinois, where I had the opportunity to hear Bakker,
Currie, Gabe Lyon, and HP Mike Everhart speak. It was another great festival
put together by the folks at the Burpee. I'll do my best to briefly summarize
what was said.
Bakker announced plans to begin constructing a traveling coal forest exhibit
(with the Burpee Museum). All indications seem to say that the project is for
real, as he was collecting donations for it. He hopes to complete it in a few
years and arrange a traveling schedule that includes stops in the "coal states"
of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc.
Bakker also announced, for the first time (at least according to him), the
discovery of a new Jurassic champsosaur in Wyoming that pushes back the lineage
by 60 million years. The new animal, which he nicknamed the Golum, was found
on one of his commercial digs. A paper is supposidely in preparation, and the
remains include part of a scapula. He unveiled a drawing of the animal to the
public at one of his talks, and he seems to be talking about the animal very
freely (none of that "wait for the paper" stuff :-))
Gabrielle Lyon showed photos of several new dinosaurs that Sereno and his team
plans to study, name, cast, and unveil in the near future. Included are some
new sauropods and theropods. And, of course, there are a few more
crocodylians...
Mike Everhart had many interesting things to say about mosasaurs. Nothing very
new or exciting...but he did a very, very good job presenting mosasaurs to both
an adult and children's audience.
Phil Currie presented a talk on hunting behaviors in theropods. Nothing
extremely new here...just repetition of data on the fighting dinosaurs, his
_Albertosaurus_ quarry, and a very brief description of the new (still unnamed)
South American theropod.
I also had the chance to assume the form of Jordan Mallon for a moment, and ask
Dr. Currie about the tyrannosaurid skin. He said that he knows of no paper
describing it, but that his team is frequently coming across more tyrannosaurid
skin (from several genera) in the field. Basically, he seems to think that
tyrannosaurids possessed skin that was ostensibly "naked," although he is still
holding out for the discovery of a feather...
Those were the most exciting happenings at this year's fest...
Steve
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Steve Brusatte-DINO LAND PALEONTOLOGY
SITE: http://www.geocities.com/stegob
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