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Dinosaur Bone Found in Australia Proves History Wrong

By DONNA SANTI / guest columnist

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-          Donna Santi is a creative writer for LandAirSea Systems, a Woodstock, IL-based manufacturer and distributor of expertly-engineered, software and accessories. For information about LandAirSea, visit www.landairsea.com. To contact the writer, email donna.santi@landairsea.com

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Ancient history, meet modern technology.

When you’re digging for priceless, 65-million-year-old dinosaur bones, it’s best not to lose your spot of discovery.

A stick, a shovel or a hole could mark the location of a paleontologist’s excavation out in the middle of nowhere; but none so well as a GPS tracking system. For years, scientific teams that are digging up history have been using satellite readings to mark the precise locations they have found artifacts in the field.

GPS Tracking & Discoveries

The tools of the profession have come a long way from ropes, screens and tarps. Vehicle tracking has found a purpose at paleontology, archeology and geology sites throughout the world. Recently:

• Near Melbourne, Australia, a one-foot long piece of dinosaur bone was found that just might call for a rewrite in the history books. It was long-believed that the Tyrannosaurus rex was a predator unique to the northern hemisphere. An ancient hip fragment found in the southern continent was typed in October, 2009 as a smaller predecessor of the T-rex and it was dated 40 million years prior to when everyone believed the beast roamed the earth. A GPS tracker was used to map the dig site.

• In Newcastle, WY, cattle rancher Mike Harris enlisted the help of an Arizona paleontologist and discovered pieces of a Triceratops horn, skull and vertebrae in June, 2009. Painstakingly, with cord and stakes, they marked a grid on their excavation site and recorded each and every point digitally with a GPS tracking device. The detailed mapping was an absolute necessity, because Harris’s ranch is a vast 14,000 acres.

GPS tracking, a fairly new technology commonly used in civilian circles only in the last two decades, was quick to catch on in professional excavation, grading, surveying and even farming. Vehicle tracking equipment reliably measures location when a property lacks roads, buildings and other recognizable geographic characteristics. Some of the most sophisticated GPS tracking systems boast accuracy within millimeters of actuality. It was only a matter of time that paleontologists, archeologists and geologists adapted GPS tracking technology in order to expedite their tasks in the field.

Paleontologists can work up to 16-hour days, often in the sun, heat and wind. Fatigue can lead to confusion and error. GPS tracking will document every stake, every find, every bone bed, precise within inches, and put all the data together on a map so it can be accessed anywhere, any time.

Running a successful dig is much more than throwing a spade in the dust. Permission, cooperation and identification are of utmost priority. A digger’s “people skills” help accomplish the first two. His GPS tracking system assures the third is accomplished. The rarest of bones, fossils or minerals might be sold to museums worldwide for hundreds of thousands of dollars, making dinosaur hunting a very risky, but potentially lucky and profitable business.

Some land owners get into archeology and paleontology for the money-making potential. Some are motivated by a survival instinct, fighting development. In the case briefed earlier of Mr. Harris in Wyoming, the rancher was trying to establish the value of his land as a dig site and stop a major railroad company from cutting through his property.

“If I can prove that my patch of land is historically significant,” Harris said, “Maybe people won’t fight so hard to tear it up.”

Sources: Bloomberg Business Week , Wyoming Tribune