To find dinosaurs and fossils, some scientists will travel across the world in search for new creatures to name and describe. For example, Roy Andrews was from America, but found himself in the Gobi desert where he uncovered new dinosaur species. In this article, you will learn more about dino hunters and fossil hunters, such as Roland Bird and Jose Bonaparte.
Roy Andrews
Roy Chapman Andrews (1884 – 1960) was not only a fossil hunter from the United States, but also held the position of director at the American Museum of Natural History. Between 1922 and 1925, Andrews was in charge of four expeditions to the Gobi desert in Mongolia. While on these expeditions, many significant finds were uncovered, such as the bones and eggs of the Protoceratops, which became the first dinosaur eggs found.
New dinosaur species were also brought to light during the Gobi desert expeditions, such as the:
· Oviraptor , known as the ‘Egg Robber’, it ate both plants and meat
· Pinacocaurus , the plant eater known as ‘plank lizard’
· Sauronithoides , an aquatic dinosaur with flippers
· Velociraptor , the two-legged meat eater with claws on its hands and feet
Roland Bird
Roland T. Bird (1899 – 1978) who gained a reputation for riding around the United States on a Harley Davidson motorcycle in search for dinosaur fossils to bring back to the American Museum of Natural History. One of the most impressive finds of Bird was the Glen Rose Trackway , a set of 105-million-year-old fossil dinosaur footprints located in Texas along the Paluxy River in 1938. Bird also excavated the Howe Quarry in Wyoming with Barnum Brown, which produced a collection of dinosaur fossils.
Jose Bonaparte
Jose Bonaparte is a paleontologist from Argentina who has located and named numerous dinosaurs in the South American region. He is responsible for naming more than 20 dinosaurs, including the Carnotaurus (“flesh-eating bull”), Alvarezsaurus (the bird like theropod), Saltasaurus (long-necked plant-eating dino), and Amargasarus (the herbivore with a sail on its back).
Barnum Brown
Barnum Brown (1873 – 1963) was a respected dinosaur hunter from the United States, who also served as the assistant curator of the American Museum of Natural History. Throughout his career, Brown discovered numerous dinosaurs, including the first T. rex specimens. In 1908, he identified the Ankylosaurus , the armored creature known for its tiny brain. Other discoveries included the Leptoceratops (meaning “slender horned face”) that ate low-lying plants and the Saurolophus (“meaning “crested lizard”) who had a duckbill.
William Buckland
Britain’s William Buckland (1784 – 1856) was a clergyman who enjoyed hunting for fossils. In 1819, he discovered the Megalosaurus (meaning ‘Great Lizard’) and gave it a name in 1824. This was the first dinosaur to ever receive a scientific description. The creature was also the first theropod (a class of dinosaurs that ate meat) discovered. A signature of Buckland was to carry around a large blue bag that he used to collect his fossils. Other features of the Megalosaurus include two powerful legs that it walked on, strong yet short neck, sharp serrated teeth, short arms, sharp claws on the end of their three fingers, and a massive tail.