As children, one of those topics that fascinate the most is that of dinosaurs. Whether you played with toys, had pictures, or read the books, dinosaurs are almost an integral part of every child’s life. So it isn’t with any reluctance that we get to revisit such stories when we’ve moved on in to our adult lives. The same can be said for the team led by William Hammer of Augustana College, who found the remains of a dinosaur in Antarctica in the early 1990s.
Unearthed on Mt. Kirkpatrick near the Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet (nearly 4,000 meters), only a partial foot, leg and ankle bones were discovered.
Only recently though have the remains been examined at any length. As a result, both a description and a genus and species of dinosaur have appeared.
"The fossils were painstakingly removed from the ice and rock using jackhammers, rock saws and chisels under extremely difficult conditions over the course of two field seasons," said Nathan Smith, a graduate student at The Field Museum in Chicago, who along with a colleague describes the dinosaur in the Dec. 5 issue of the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
Measuring in at 20 to 25 feet long (six to about 8 meters) and weighing in at 4 to 6 tons, Smith and co-author Diego Pol, a paleontologist at the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio in Argentina, found that the remains belonged to a previously undiscovered dinosaur.
Named Glacialisaurus hammeri, the dinosaur was a sauropodomorph. The sauropodomorph was a group of long necked dinosaurs, snacking only on plants, and so large that they eventually became the largest animals that ever walked on the face of the planet.
Along with its discovery came the query as to where it was found, and from what period it emerged. Previously dinosaurs from the Early Jurassic period (from which G. hammeri is thought to have come) were thought not to have moved much from China, South Africa, South America and North America.
However its location in Antarctica has obviously dispelled that theory further, along with the discovery of a possible sauropod in roughly the same location.
"This was probably due to the fact that major connections between the continents still existed at that time, and because climates were more equitable across latitudes than they are today," Smith said.
The giant landmass, Gondwana, is one explanation for how these animals made their way to Antarctica. At that time, Antarctica would not have been the cold haven that it is now, as it was closer to the planet’s equator. But the landmass began to break up during the mid-Jurassic, approximately 167 million years ago.
These discoveries are important for proving the geographical sprawl of the animals, but also the genetic line in which they lived. "They are important because they help to establish that primitive sauropodomorph dinosaurs were more broadly distributed than previously thought, and that they coexisted with their cousins, the true sauropods," Smith said.
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Joshua Hill, a Geek’s-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm.
