Dinosaur Breakout (20 page)

“Thanks for the help climbing the tree,” Todd said awkwardly.

~

D
aniel crawled back into his hideout
and dumped the contents of his backpack on the floor. He sorted out what needed to stay and repacked what he was taking. As he did so, he thought again about his adventure into the prehistoric world and about the injured
Edmontosaurus
.

Roxanne’s skeleton and her nest had been found in what was once a riverbed. Could it possibly be Roxanne he’d seen? Was the river they’d crossed in the same place as the dig site on Pederson’s land? Then he remembered the phone call about Roxanne from the Museum. Hadn’t they said she had some bone breakage? Would the photos have been sent yet? He needed to get home to his computer.

Still thinking hard, he headed out to join Pederson and Jed, who offered to walk home with him. Mr. Pederson hoisted his backpack, and offered to pick up the cooler on his way home.

“I’m sure glad this day is almost over!” Daniel said, sighing. “I wouldn’t want to go through any of this again.” He was already trying to think of a cover story to give his parents for wrecking his clothes. Maybe by the time he got home, he’d also figure out how to explain the Nelwins coming to help him.

“You sure do get yourself into a mess of trouble, lad!” Pederson declared.

“I’ll say!” said Jed, obviously happy to be heading home with his friend intact.

Daniel smiled at his friends and shrugged. “It’s not as if I go looking for it,” he said. “Besides, I think we’ve got everything under control now. No more problems with the Nelwins, we’re ready for the tourists tomorrow. What else could possibly happen now that I got rid of that piece of bark?”

He took his backpack from Pederson and shifted it
comfortably onto his shoulders. He didn’t notice the
small redwood cone sticking partway out of the flap of a side pocket.

“Let’s go see if the Museum staff have sent us those photos of Roxanne yet!” He strode confidently towards home.

If You Want To Know More About Dinosaurs...

I
had a lot of fun writing
Dinosaur Breakout.
To make it as accurate as possible, I read many books and talked to experts like the real-life Tim Tokaryk. If there are any errors in information, they are solely of my doing, or they are ideas of my invention.

Please keep in mind that new explorations are always being conducted. This means that in the future you may notice some of the facts mentioned in this book have been replaced by new research information. Not all scientists agree about the significance of fossil finds and controversy sometimes exists until more research has been done.

Here are some dinosaur names and technical terms, along with their definitions, that you might find helpful. I’ve also included a Bibliography – a list of books and other sources that I consulted to help me write this book.

– Judith Silverthorne

Vocabulary/Descriptions

T
he material about paleontology found throughout this novel comes mostly from the Cretaceous Period. A brief description of some of the terms used follows, with their pronunciations. The Frenchman River Valley, where this story takes place, is located in the southwest area of Saskatchewan.

TERMS

cretaceous period
(cree-TAY-shus):

The Cretaceous Period, 146 to 65 million years ago, was the latter part of the Mesozoic era when great dinosaurs roamed the land and huge flying reptiles ruled the skies. A variety of smaller mammals and creatures also populated the earth and seas. The world was one of tropical temperatures all year round. Flowering plants and trees made their first widespread appearance, creating bright, beautiful places with their reds, yellows, and purples. Before that time, there were only the browns and greens of trees and ferns and the blues of the skies and seas.

Note:
Creta is the Latin word for chalk. The Cretaceous Period is named for the chalky rock from southeastern England that was the first Cretaceous Period sediment studied.

cenozoic era
(sen-uz-O-ik):

The Cenozoic era is the name given to the last major division of geologic time lasting from 65 million years ago to the present. The Cenozoic era is divided into two periods: the Tertiary, which began after the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago until about 2 million years ago, and the Quaternary Period, which dates from about 2 million years ago to the present.

mesozoic era
(mez-uz-O-ik):

The term Mesozoic means “middle animal” and was coined by John Phillips in 1840. This era is often referred to as the “Age of Dinosaurs.” It is divided into the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods. Dinosaurs, mammals, and flowering plants evolved during the Mesozoic era. All the continents as we know them now were jammed together into one supercontinent known as Pangaea, but in the middle of the Mesozoic Period, it began breaking up. The era ended with the K-T mass extinction.

k-t mass extinction
:

K-T stands for Cretaceous-Tertiary. “K” is for Kreide – a German word meaning chalk, the sediment layer from that time. “T” is for Tertiary, the geological period that followed the Cretaceous Period. About 65 million years ago, it is believed that all land animals over 25 kg (55 pounds) went extinct, as well as many smaller organisms.
This included the obliteration of the dinosaurs,
pterosaurs, large sea creatures like the plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, as well as ammonites, some bird families, and various fishes and other marine species. There are many theories as to why this mass extinction occurred, but many scientists favour the one of an asteroid hitting the earth.

tertiary period
(TUR-sheer-ee)
:

The Tertiary Period is the name for a portion of the most recent geological era known as the Cenozoic era, also known as the “Age of Mammals,” which lasted from about 65 to 2 million years ago. The term
Tertiary
was coined about the middle of the eighteenth century and refers to a particular layer of sedimentary deposits. Many mammals developed during that time, including primitive whales, rodents, pigs, cats, rhinos, and others familiar to us today.

paleontology
(PAY-lee-on-TALL-o-gee):

Paleontology is the branch of geology that deals with the prehistoric forms of life through the study of plant and animal fossils.

Creatures

ankylosaurs
(AN-kye-loh-sawrs):

A group of armoured, plant-eating dinosaurs that existed from the mid-Jurassic to the late Cretaceous Periods.

basilemys
(BAH-zil-emm-ees):

A tortoiselike creature with a shell up to 1.5 metres across. This is the largest known fossil turtle from the French-man River Valley.

borealosuchus
(BOR-ee-al-o-such-us):

A crocodile in existence in the late Cretaceous Period in Saskatchewan. This crocodile would be little compared to its earlier ancestors, about two to three metres in length. It would be running from a
T. rex
as opposed to taking it head-on like the larger crocodiles.

cimolopteryx
(sim-oh-LOP-ter-icks)
(“Cretaceous wing”):

An early bird resembling typical shorebirds of today and found in the late Cretaceous Period in Saskatchewan.

dromaeosaurus
(DROH-mee-oh-SAWR-us)
(“fast-running lizard”):

A small, fast, meat-eating theropod dinosaur about 1.8 metres (6 feet) long, weighing roughly 15 kilograms. It had sickle-like toe claws, sharp teeth, and big eyes, and lived during the late Cretaceous Period, about 76 to 72 million years ago. Fossils have been found in Alberta (Canada) and Montana (usa). A very smart, deadly dinosaur, it may have hunted in packs.

edmontosaurus
(ed-MON-toh-SAWR-us)

(“Edmonton [rock formation] lizard”):

A large, plant-eating member of the duckbill dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs, that lived about 73 to 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period in western North America. It had hundreds of teeth crowded together in the huge jaw, enabling it to eat tough leaves and other vegetation. This flat-headed duckbill grew to 13 metres (42 feet) and weighed 3.1 tonnes (3.4 tons). It may have had anywhere from 800 to 1600 teeth.

hadrosaurs
(HAD-roh-SAWRS)
(“bulky lizards”):

A family of duck-billed dinosaurs that ranged from seven to ten metres (23 to 42 feet) long and lived in the late Cretaceous Period. They appear to have been highly social creatures, laying eggs in nests communally. Nests with eggs have been found in both Alberta and Montana. The only known hadrosaur in Saskatchewan is the
Edmontosaurus
(see description above).

mosasaurs
(MOES-ah-SAWRS):

Mosasaurs were giant, snakelike marine reptiles that extended 12.5 to 17.6 metres (40 to 59 feet) long. They were not dinosaurs, but were related to snakes and monitor lizards. They were powerful swimmers, adapted to living in shallow seas. These carnivores (meat-eaters) still breathed air. A short-lived line of reptiles, they became extinct during the K-T extinction, 65 million years ago.

pteranodons
(tair-AH-no-dons):

Pteranodons were large members of the pterosaur family from the Cretaceous Period. They were flying prehistoric reptiles, not dinosaurs, toothless hunters who scooped up fish from the seas.

pterodactylus
(ter-oh-DAK-til-us)
(“winged finger”):

A flying, prehistoric reptile, with a wingspan that spread up to .75 metres (2.5 feet); the wing was made up of skin stretched along the body between the hind limb and a very long fourth digit of the forelimb.

pterosaurs
(TER-o-SAWRS)
(“winged lizards”):

Flying reptiles, the largest vertebrates ever known to fly, they lived from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous Period.

purgatorius
(pur-go-TOR-ee-us)
:

A small, rodentlike mammal from the Cretaceous Period, which may have been about 10 centimetres (4 inches) long and probably weighed no more than 20 grams (
3
⁄
4
ounce) and fed on insects. Probably this animal was named after the outcrops at Purgatory Hill in Saskatchewan where it was known to exist.

“scotty”:

The
T. rex
found near Eastend, Saskatchewan in 1991.

stegoceras
(STEG-oh-CEER-us)
(“roofed horn”):

A bipedal, herbivorous, dome-headed, plant-eating dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period about 76 to 65 million years ago. It was about 2 metres (7 feet) long and lived in what is now Alberta, Canada. (Not to be confused with a
Stegosaurus
[pronounced
STEG-oh-SAWR-us],
meaning “roof lizard,” a plant-eating dinosaur with armoured plates along its back and tall spikes that lived during the Jurassic Period, about 156 to 150 million years ago.)

thescelosaurus
(THES-ke-loh-SAWR-us)

(“Marvelous lizard”):

A semi-bipedal, plant-eating dinosaur with a small head, a bulky body, a long, pointed tail and short arms. About 3 to 4 metres (12 feet) long and less than one metre (3 feet) tall at the hips, the thescelosaurus could probably run at about 50 km/hr (30 mph) for an extended time. Recent fossil discoveries show that it had a powerful, advanced heart, which seems to indicate that thescelosaurus was an active, warm-blooded animal. Two partial skeletons have been found in Saskatchewan

triceratops
(tri-SER-uh-tops):

Triceratops was a frilled dinosaur, a ceratopsian, from the late Cretaceous Period that had three horns on its head. This plant-eater was about 8 metres (26 feet) long.

troodon
(TROH-oh-don):

A very smart, human-sized, meat-eating theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period. Fossils of
Troodon
have been found in Montana and Wyoming (usa), and Alberta (Canada).

tyrannosaurus rex
(tye-RAN-oh-SAWR-us recks
or
Tie-ran-owe-saw-rus-recks)
(“tyrant lizard king”):

A huge, meat-eating theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period. The largest meat-eater that has ever
been, it stood 5-7 metres (16-21 feet) tall on its great clawed
feet and had terrible, daggerlike teeth, 15 centimetres
(6 inches) long.

Other References & Notes

bees
:

Over the past three years, Stephen Hasiotic, a Colorado University doctoral student and geology lab instructor, has found nests, almost identical to modern honeybee nests, that date back 207 to 220 million years, or about twice as far back as the oldest fossils of flowering plants. This means bees have been around longer than previously thought. The ancient bees could have found sugars and nutrients – which they find today in the nectar of flowers – in coniferous plants or even in animal carcasses.