Digging Up Dirt on Dinosaurs 

Art Chadwick, chair and professor of biology, SWAU (posted 5/20/04)

 

           A group of eager diggers will leave Keene on June 3 for this year’s dinosaur excavation trip to a privately owned field station in Wyoming.  The Dinosaur Project welcomes a broad cross-section of participants. This four week trip, gives college students four units of credit, and adults can earn professional development credit as well.

 

Early in the morning, participants begin tedious, detailed work to excavate dinosaur bones, while using cutting edge technology to note the location of every bone or tendon and miscellaneous fragments. The bones found in this rich quarry come primarily from huge Edmontosaurus, a duck-billed dinosaur; massive Triceratops; Pachycephalosaurus, bone heads; Tyrannosaurus rex; and other theropods. This is one of the largest and richest dinosaur quarries in the world.

 

  A major goal of the project is to learn answers to scientific questions. But perhaps the most important goal is to provide an educational experience for students, teachers, and other interested people who feel comfortable with a Christian lifestyle and are open to considering ideas of origins other than the traditional evolutionary paradigm.

           

            This year excavations will expand the research at this site.  Although we have just scratched the surface at all of the sites.  Our estimates based upon a careful survey conducted last summer indicate a minimum of 10,000 animals are buried here. Needless to say we are very excited about the prospects for our research this summer. In the evenings, there will be lectures by Drs. Spencer, Turner and Chadwick, as well as guest speakers.  These professors have developed new field methods that are setting new standards for this type of research.

 

            For more information about Southwestern Adventist University’s dinosaur project. Visit  http://dinodig.swau.edu  Keep up-to-date with the project, check out the live web camera, and see daily updates of this year’s trip.  To see the research results and actual dinosaur bones and specimens, visit the Southwestern Adventist University biology department, which houses the Earth History Research Center.  To make reservations for a visit to SWAU’s campus, call 817-645-3921 ext. 277 and ask for Art Chadwick.

 

Back to News Archives