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‘Dinosaurs’ class finds new fossils at Arlington site

Written by Bryan Bastible

Wednesday, 17 September 2008 07:22 PM

Earth science Ph.D. student-professor Derek Main and his students have unearthed new fossils at the Arlington Archosaur Site in North Arlington. Main teaches a course called “Dinosaurs,” which visits the site about once a month to give students a hands-on experience. (The Shorthorn: Andrew Buckley)

The university’s own “Dinosaur Guy“ has a few reasons to be proud.

Derek Main, an earth science Ph.D. student-professor, and his students recently unearthed some new fossils at the Arlington Archosaur Site in north Arlington.

“This could have a large effect on UTA,” said Phil Kirchhoff, Dallas Paleontological Society president and one of the site’s discoverers. “The site is so rich in fossils, many will be new species. UTA will be put on the map of schools where you can study vertebrate paleontology.”

Main said all of the fossils are the property of the university.

“We have some of them on display at the Geology Hall so that students can walk by and view them and go ‘Oh cool! It’s the UTA dinosaur!’ but most of them are stored right here in the classroom,” he said.

Recently, they have made some fresh findings include a small lungfish tooth, a juvenile hadrosaur jaw and shed teeth, thumb-sized croc teeth, fossil wood, a turtle shell and femur, and some gar scales.

Both the dinosaur and crocodile bones belong to the Archosaurs group, which is a type of reptile from the mid-cretaceous time period about 100 million years ago, he said.

“In fact, the rocks at the site that the dinosaur bones are coming out of are underneath D/FW Airport and under all of Arlington. So UTA is built on the same rocks that the dinosaur fossils are being found on,” Main said.

Kirchhoff said he discovered the site in the summer 2003.

"My friend and I were out fossil-collecting,” he said. “We saw a site from the road that looked promising. We hiked over to it and started finding fossils at every step.”

He said at first glance there were crocodile and turtle fossils on every square inch of the hill.

“After we had been collecting for about an hour, I stumbled across two very large [dinosaur] vertebrae,” Kirchhoff said. “We knew they were not what we had been finding.”

He said it took six years to get permission from the land owners and get everything set up with the university.

To take the course and go on the digs, students have to take one semester of freshman geology as a prerequisite.

“Students get to learn how to distinguish between different rock types,” he said. “They learn how to look for fossils and what types of rock to find fossils in.”

Geology junior Erin McPherson said she loved the class when she took last fall.

“I learned a great deal, not only about dinosaurs in general, but of the politics behind digs and the actual work that goes into restoring the skeletons,” McPherson said. “I feel his class made a huge impact on my future and would take it again if I could.”
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Comments (3)

1 New Fossils - Really?
Written by Robert Whiddon, on 09-17-2008 21:39
Hate to be too picky, but "new finds" of fossils is probably more accurate.

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2 Hate to be picky?
Written by Shut up R. Whiddon, on 09-18-2008 10:32
That's a tad false since all you do is badger every damn article with meticulous details.

As a student here at UTA that reads the Shorthorn daily, I hate reading going to the website and finding your nitpick comments on here.

Sure, the work these students produce isn't New York Times material but they work hard and they dont need a douche like yourself "correcting" them at every chance. I'm sure they have someone who does that for them.

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3 A D****e Like Yourself
Written by Robert Whiddon, on 09-18-2008 12:45
Yes, of course you are right in all you say. It was a tad false, although I do not badger every article. Happy that you read The Shorthorn daily. Happy that you read. Yes, I see you do hate my comments, and that makes it all worth while.

Finally, by any comparison except perhaps the number of fish it could wrap, The Shorthorn is far superior to the NY Times. If I can spot things that you consider to be corrections, then we are both doing God's work to help prepare these budding journalists.

Now go take a chill. :grin

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 December 2008 02:30 PM )

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