No one had seen anything like it before—a whole fossilized skeleton of a baby Pentaceratops! Scientists know that Penteceratops ate plants and that five horns poked out of their heads. They know that adults could grow up to 27 feet long. But this new find means that scientists can learn about baby Pentaceratops for the first time. And this baby measured about the size of a rhino. Now that’s a big baby!
Paleontologists found the fossils in the badlands of New Mexico in 2011. But they couldn’t just pack up the fossils in a suitcase then load them in their cars. The law forbids driving cars in that wilderness area of New Mexico. So for four years, researchers dug around the fossils. Then they covered the fossils in plaster. That kept the fossils safe. Finally, this October, they could move the plaster and fossils. And in order to do that, they had to call in the National Guard! A Black Hawk helicopter helped carry the fossils to the scientists’ labs.
Have you ever visited a museum that had models of dinosaurs inside? Building one of those takes lots of work! First, scientists dig up fossils. In the lab, scientists use molds and casts to make copies of the fossils. Then they can build the copies into a dinosaur model.
Some scientists even give dinosaur fossils cat scans. A cat scan is an x-ray test usually used on people. It takes pictures from more than one angle. Then it puts the pictures together. But even after a cat scan, scientists do not know exactly how a dinosaur looked. They still have to guess a little. One scientist, who believes birds came from dinosaurs, uses frozen ostrich heads to make his dino-images complete.
And dino models aren’t just for looking at. They teach scientists new things. One group of scientists tried to rebuild the tail of an Aptosaurus dinosaur. They used aluminum, stainless steel, neoprene and Teflon. The tail measured just 12 feet long. A real Aptosaurus tail would be four times bigger. But the scientist’s model told them something important. When the Apstosaurus banged his tail on the ground, he may have broken the sound barrier. That means his tail moved even faster than sound!
