This concrete-floored, warehouse-like space was peppered with workbenches, their surfaces a mess of assorted tools, equipment for removing rock and dust, and fossils in mid-preparation. Beyond the desk, a large window allowed views into the main fossil preparation area. The technician was on duty at a table in the Royal Tyrrell Museum, where visitors can observe first-hand the work of carefully repairing and preparing fossils found in these geologic pages for the Museum collections. Spectacular geologic outcrops preserve entire ancient ecosystems, documenting them in pages made of rock.” “Marine reptiles, sharks and other fish in the sea, turtles, crocs and other reptiles in freshwater, dinosaurs, small mammals and lizards on land, and birds flying in the sky. This rich dinosaurian record is heavily reliant on what is known from Cretaceous Laramidia, the Western sub-continent.” I asked him what kind of life lived in Cretaceous Alberta. He painted a vivid picture of the landscape he studies: “lush tropical forests covered the lowlands, incised by creeks and streams running from the very young Rocky Mountains, and filled with fresh water gathered from seasonal storms.” It was the runoff of fresh sediments from the uplands that covered the remains of animals and plants in the valleys below, often washing them into lakes and rivers, and preserving them for millions of years.Ĭhiarenza’s research focuses on the dinosaurs of Late Cretaceous North America “I am interested in how a changing climate and geography interacted with living species in the Cretaceous to shape their evolution and distribution on land. “The Western Interior Seaway was a warm and shallow sea that danced frequently changing its depth and extension several times,” explained Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, PhD researcher at Imperial College London. Illustration: Sampson et al 2010/Wikimedia Commons
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |