dinosaurs.

every so often, I get use my creativity and genius at college. these moments are rare, yet totally awesome! so far no other class has let me have as much fun with scholarly stuff than my geology 100: dinosaurs class.  today a two page paper was due titled: "dinosaurs in my backyard." each of us needed to discuss whether or not we could find dinos back in our home states. lets just say i took this paper very seriously. 

Dinosaurs in my Backyard  

(I know it sounds like I'm in the third grad again :))

little sister running from dino

Last year, while digging around in our backyard my brother found some petrified wood and some extremely old bones that most likely came from a deer that died a few years ago. In all our family outings and excavations throughout Washington State we have uncovered fossils, rare stones, and bones, but we have never found a dinosaur. Nor is there any record that any dinosaur bones have been found in the glorious Evergreen State. Then how come this is a picture of my little sister running from a dinosaur in Vantage, Washington at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest one of the many Washington State Parks?

As it turns out Washington soil has yielded many different fossils, gem stones, and petrified woods, but no dinosaur bones. It is just plain cool  or tacky, depending on your point of view, to have a statue of a dinosaur outside a museum. The dinosaur statue brings in the crowds because people want to know what pre-historic meat eaters roamed the plains before them. But if you ask the ranger on site or check out the Washington State Department of Natural Resources website they will tell you the truth: no dinosaur bones have been found in the state. Even though it is unlikely that dinosaur bones will ever be discovered due to the oceanic climate during the day of the dinosaur, everyone seems to remain hopeful that one day they will be discovered. Due to the rare chance of such a find the WA DNR believe that this type of discovery it would be found by rockhounds instead of by geologists. Never fear dino lovers! Dinosaur bones are on display at Burke Museum at the U of W in Seattle and many dinosaur sites and museums exist throughout North America-some of which are close to Washington. 

blah blah blah... (sciencey paragraphs that no one except the TA who has to grade my actual assignment will read) ...skip to the end.

Whether it is in an ancient coastal formation in British Columbia, in rocks of Utah, or plains in China, it is truly amazing that geologists and rockhounds alike can find evidence of ancient life. The evidence comes in many different forms, such as fossils of bones, poop, feathers, etc. and yet paleontologists are able to determine from a few footprints found in Canada some of the characteristics of the Columbosauripus. It continues to amaze me that my home Spokane, Washington was probably under miles of ocean in the dinosaurs’ day or at the very least it had an ocean view. As in real-estate paleontology is all about location, location, location. And because of the changes in the land over time and the vast amounts of vegetation currently growing, I probably will never find a dinosaur fossil in my parents backyard, but nothing is better than getting to see real dinosaurs roam the land. (I'm not talking Jurassic Park either.)  Maybe when I go home for Thanksgiving I’ll visit the chicken farm down the road and leave the fossil finding to the geologist in other states. 

3. assignments. they can be fun if you let them.