Case Solved
In 1910 a fossil hunter named Barnum Brown made news: He uncovered a
cache of Albertosaurus fossils in the badlands of Alberta, Canada.
It was extraordinary to find so many Albertosaurus skeletons
together! Brown sent the bones to the Museum of Natural History in New
York. There, they were eventually forgotten.
Almost 90 years later Philip Currie set out to find Browns dig site.
Currie is a paleontologist, a scientist who studies fossils to learn more
about the history of the Earth. First he searched the museum for clues and
discovered four of Browns old photographs of the site and his field
notes. Brown hadnt written down the exact locationit was still a
mystery.
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Left: Currie
compares Browns photograph with the present-day landscape. Above:
Fossil hunters Eva Koppelhus and Philip Currie carefully remove soil
around dinosaur bones.
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Next Currie and his team of scientists rafted down the Red Deer River
in Alberta, trying to match the scenery with landmarks in Browns
photographs. One day the team discovered a hill that matched one in
Browns photographs. The scientists were close! For hours the team
searched the area in the blazing sun. The team was ready to give up; but
Currie pushed on. On a ridge, he discovered the bone heap!
Photographs by Richard T.
Nowitz |