The secret of the mass grave of dinosaurs on ‘River Death’ in Canada – BBC News in Serbian
Below the slopes of lush woods in the Canadian province of Alberti, a mass grave is hidden.
There are remains of thousands of dinosaurs, killed in a terrible disaster.
The paleontologist team is therefore arrived in Pipstone Creek (Pipestone Creek), a place that rightly bears the nickname « The River of Death », to try to solve the older 72 million years – how exactly were they all killed?
Their research begins with a powerful hammer blow.
The raw force is needed to break a thick rock that covers what Professor Emily Bemfort, which leads excavations, describes as « paleontological gold ».
When her team began to carefully remove the layers of land and dust, so they made intertwined fossilized bones.
« She’s a big bunch of bones there, we think it’s part of the pelvis, » said Professor Bemfort, while her dog Aster, whose assignment is to pawn if they notice the bear nearby.
« Then here we have all these long, thin bones. These are all the ribs. And this is interesting, it’s part of your finger.
« This one here? We have no idea what, but it is the perfect example of the mysterium Pipstown scream ».
The BBC News came to the park in Alberta to record the proportions of the prehistoric cemetery and see how researchers compile parts of the puzzle.
Thousands of fossils have already been collected from the site, but scientists constantly reveal something new.
All bones belong to the dinosaurs of the type of Pahirinosaurus (Pachyrhinosaurus).
This species, as well as excavations leading Professor Bemfort, was presented in the new BBC documentary series « Walking with dinosaurs » (Walking with dinosaurs), which combines the visual effects and science revives the world of prehistory.
These animals, who lived at the end of the chalk period, were close triceratops relatives.
Four-legged herbivores, about five meters long and weighing two tons, had a big head, with a characteristic bone part on the neck and three horns.
Its most memorable trait was a large bone protrusion on the nose.
The excavation season has just started and lasts until autumn.
Fossils on the small part of the field at which team currently works are incredibly compacted, and Bemfort estimates that there are up to 300 bones in each square meter.
So far, her team dug the surface area of a tennis court, but a layer of bones spreads over a kilometer in the hill.
« The concentration is stunning, » said Professor Bemfort.
« We believe this is one of the biggest fossil bones in North America.
« More than half of the famous species of dinosaurs in the world are described on only one copy, and we here have thousands of copies of Pahirinosaurs ».
Paleontologists believe that dinosaurs were moving in huge herd, migrating hundreds of kilometers from the south, where she surname, to the north, looking for summer pastures.
The area then had a significantly warmer climate than today was covered with lush vegetation, which provided plenty of food for this huge herbivorous herbivore.
« It’s a community, one type of animal, caught at one point, in a huge number.
« It’s almost never happening in fossil record, » said Professor Bemfort.
Larger animals reveal additional clues
This part of Northwest Albert was not home only to Pahirinosaurus.
Even larger dinosaurs wandered with these parts, and their study is key to understanding prehistoric ecosystem.
After two hours of driving, we reach the area called hills of demolished trees (Deadfall Hills).
We have to walk through the dense forest, we move fast rivers and climbing over the slippery rocks.
Excavations here are not needed – giant bones lie along the coast, cleaned with running water, as if they just wait to be collected.
A huge vertebrae is quickly noticed, as well as parts of the ribs and teeth that are scattered by sludge.
Paleontologist Jackson Under is especially interested in what looks like part of the skull of dinosaurs.
« Most of what we find here belongs to the dinosaurs with a pussy beak, called Edmontosaurus.
« If this bone is a skull, it is a huge copy, probably about 10 meters long, » he says.
Edmontosaurus, also herbivores, wandered forests as a pahirinosaurus, and also helps paleontologists create a clearer picture of this ancient world.
Sudder is a curator of the collection in the Dinosaur Museum « Filip John Kuri » in the nearby city of Grand prairi, where bones of both divivions relate to cleaning and analysis.
He is currently working on a huge lobanja Pahirinosaurus, which is about 1.5 meters long and is called « great sem ».
While working, it shows a place at the top of the bone part around the neck where three horns should be, but the middle is missing.
« All skulls that are somewhat preserved have a horn in that place, » he says.
« But it seems that his beautiful little horn is like one in a unicorn ».
During the years of work on this exceptional deposit, a team from the Museum collected about 8,000 dinosaur fossils, and the working areas in the laboratory are covered with bones.
There are bones of pahirinosaurus all ages, from cubs to older individuals.
The material of a large number of copies of these animals allows researchers to better understand the biology of dinosaurs and understand how the species grew and how the community was organized.
They can also study individual differences and discover how one pahirinosaurus could stand out from the faw, as per the case with a « big seme » and his missing.
A sudden disaster
All these research – both in the Museum and the field – help the team to answer the key question: How is it possible that all these animals in Pipstown died at the same moment?
« We believe that it was a herd in seasonal migration, which was caused by a catastrophic event and practically destroyed it.
« If not whole, then certainly a large number of individuals, » explains Professor Bemfort.
All evidence suggests that the cause was a sudden torrential flood wave, perhaps a strong storm over the mountains, which launched an unstoppable torrent, winged the drap, shaping trees from roots and moving rocks.
Professor Bemfort says Pahirinosaurus had no chance of surviving.
« These animals could not move quickly because of their numbers, and they were very heavy in the front of the body, and were not good swimmers at all. »
The rocks found at the site show vortex patterns in the sediments, which represents traces of fast and strong water that are all being beaten.
It looks like this catastrophe is frozen in time, like a wave in stone.
But the day that was a real nightmare for dinosaurs, today is a dream for paleontologists.
« We know that we will come here every time, 100 percent find the bones.
« And every year we discover something new about this type, » says Bemfort.
« That’s why we keep coming back, because we still discover new things. »
While the team packs the equipment and get ready to return, they are aware that there are still many more jobs.
They just scratched the surface of what was hiding here, and many prehistoric secrets are still waiting to be discovered.
The BBC in Serbian is from now on and on the morning, follow us Here.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Jutjubu and Vajiberu. If you have a topic suggestion for us please contact (Email Protected)
