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Show Vernal Express Wednesday, July 2, 2008 B11 iVi icro- j by Kevin Ashby Express Publisher I Around here, when you hear ! about someone discoveringa new ! dinosaur set of bones, people I think big. But there is a new set of rules being followed in town concerning the discovery of new species of prehistoric life that involves in-volves the use of a microscope, j "We had to crawl around on j ' our hands and knees to find this ; new micro-site and now we are ; finding some fascinating and exciting things," explained Tom j Nelsen of Buffalo, New York and I a graduate student of the Univer-I Univer-I sity of Oklahoma in vertebrate j paleontology. He returned this s year for his second year of internships intern-ships in Uintah County. Last year ; he worked for the Park Service and this year he is working for ', the Utah Field House of natural History Museum in Vernal. The process starts with extracting the gray shale rock ; from the Morrison formation that has already numerous 150 million year old dinosaurs. The rock is brought to Vernal where Nelsen and another intern, Jen Grasso, a recent graduate of Buffalo State with a bachelors degree in geology, have worked out the process of breaking the shale into smaller pieces. After rock pieces are broken down to a walnut size rock pieces. mosaurs oeing; removed and a more detailed! 1 .iscovered and stuuieo. They are left out in the sun to become be-come completely dry. For the next step rock fragments are put in home-made screens and soaked in a tank filled with water for several hours. Nelsen explained that the process of breaking the rock down, and then a series of drying and then wetting the rock brings about the desired result. "The water in the tank eventually even-tually dissolves the clay and leaves the smaller rocks and pre-historic animal remains in the screens," explained Nelson. "And it's working. We are finding smaller stuff like turtle shells and real small croc (crocodile) teeth, as well as larger teeth and bones from larger animals." Nelsen explained the shale clay as a place where prehistoric animals came to water, and if there were no water, would have laid down and died. The carcass would have attracted other forms of animals and they in turn would have died without water. Therefore all these animals became be-came part of the marsh bottom that was eventually compressed enough to fossilize the bones and keep them in tack for millions of years. Although some of the fossils fos-sils are obvious with the naked eye, microscopes are used to throughly search through the remaining grains of rock. Using a pair of tweezers, the fossils are is made under the magnifying glass. It takes about a week to crush and dissolve one gunnie sack filled with rock. Scientists have already discovered dis-covered a very small six inch croc, Hoplosuchus, and Nelsen is finding a lot of small teeth that he suspects are from this smaller croc. But he is also finding other smaller teeth that have different wear factors or striations that makes him wonder if they are discovering a totally new kind of animal that was present during the time frame of 150 million years ago. "These things we are finding are small, but I want to find things even smaller, like skeletons skel-etons that could fit on something the size of your thumbnail," stated Nelsen. "That's what we are looking for." "We know we are finding Therapod (carnivorous dinosaur) teeth, but we don't know if we are finding a smaller therapod or juvenile teeth of something else," said Nelson. Nelson explained that they will note a detailed description of what they find, and then compare com-pare these notes and photos with everything they can find that has already been written about micro-dinosaurs. "If nothing is found describing what we have found, then it could be a new species," explained Nelsen. "This is very exciting for us," explained I leal her Finlanson. Curator of Collections for the Utah Field House of natural History in Vernal. "We don't have a large collection of micro-animals micro-animals and we are seeing some very exciting things from this project." r ""rgy I , i , , -.. .....r,.. A prehistoric crocodile tooth is shown by itself as well as another as found in the shale rock. 4' i i C Brent Fox, M.C.H, CCC-A 37 years experience Licensed Clinical Audiologist VERNAL 1 38 East 100 North ROOSEVELT 1 57 North 100 East CalM -800-244-9001 The shale rock is soaked and sun dried several times to finally turn to mud and release small sand sized rocks and fossils. Pictured is a crocodile tooth from a six inch long prehistoric crocodile that is embedded in a shale rock. r T TW v A - ft" 1 ' v J J 'O - '4 The screening process traps small particles of sand rock and a piece of a prehistoric turtle shell. X SUNBURST TLKKACE. Come See Vernal s fastest selling New Home Community!! Over 95 sold - Hurry only 25 homes left to sell!! Starting at only $144,950 (includes the lot)!! 100 Fin. avail.!! No closing costs!! 6.5 fixed rate 30 year loan!! Why rent? Monthly payments from only $1,000!! Open Monday - Friday 9 - 5 and Saturday 10-4 "4"Fci rnTS'hB"d"Mo"d'etszz: cv. ., - A . ,1 V " i : . 'i j 1 Tom Nelsen stays busy from digging the rock to crushing, drying, dry-ing, separating and eventually seeing what he has found under a microscope. 3 Parks with Playground 6 Floorplans to Choose From Quick Delivery Available 3-4 Bedrooms 2 Full Baths 2 Car Garage Landscaped Lot r Directions to Sales Center and Model Homes: From Main Street (Hvvy 40), go South on 500 West approximately 2 miles, then turn left into Sunburst Terrace. Price effective 051 608 and subject to change without notice M See On-Site sales agent for details Rate in effect as of 05 1 608 and subject to market change. APR equals 7.5 Locally produced Delivery available Great Price Bi Rolls, Small Rolls, & Flats Available Call i 1 fS (STr-s ftS K' k - . i j ',- rt i-: : '- i |