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| Paleontologists Dr. Samuel Adamson (right) and his wife, Indiana Adamson (center) and their team are on the hunt for dinosaur fossils in Niger, Africa as a goat watches. Continue reading for more details on their discoveries. |
Dr. Samuel Adamson and his team of paleontologists are on the trail
of new fossil discoveries once again! On June 3rd, 2014,
Dr. Samuel, his wife Indiana and the lot all left Animal
Adventures Institute (AAI) at Animal Adventures Inc.
(AAI.) to venture to a just a few of the many fossil
sights located throughout the world. As you may recall from past
articles I've written about him, Dr. Samuel doesn't only dig up
fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct creatures for museum
collections, but some specimens he finds go to AAI where they
are tested to see if they yield DNA for cloning purposes. This year,
Dr. Samuel's expeditions took place in five different places in very
different parts of the world: Montana's Hell Creek Formation,
Alaska's Prince Creek Formation, a dig site he already wrapped up in
Paluxy Creek, Texas, and two new dig sites in Argentina's La Amaraga
Formation, Niger's Elrhaz Formation.
Of course, I had to get an exclusive interview with Dr. Samuel when
he was closest to home on his trip, in the Hell Creek Formation, so
my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater, and I packed
out bags and headed over to Montana. When we got there, Dr. Samuel
was supervising his team as they put the finishing touches on the
dinosaur fossils they planned to excavate. So as usual, I began to
ask him what they were digging up. Dr. Samuel is quoted for saying,
“Well, the dinosaur we're in the process of excavating is a common
duck-billed, or hadrosaur, dinosaur we've been finding out here for
years: Edmontosaurus.” He explained that Edmontosaurus
was common in Cretaceous Hell Creek, Montana by 4,350 years ago, in
the days before the Genesis Flood we can read about in the Bible. As
a hadrosaur, they probably spent their days roaming the land eating
lush vegetation. Left to themselves, they were pretty placid animals.
“We've been digging up remains of Edmontosaurus for several
years now, since 2011,” says Dr. Samuel, “but none have ever
yielded DNA. It's kind of strange when you think about it. It would
be amazing to finally bring back one of the most common hadrosaurs
from extinction through cloning.”
After he finished explaining to me how he and his team wrapped the
dinosaur's remains – still incased in cement-hard rock – in
plaster so that they could airlift it to the museum via helicopter, I
asked him about the other dig sites he was digging up fossils at this
summer and what he'd found so far. “Well, another dig site we've
returned to this summer is in Alaska, and it's in the Prince Creek
Formation. We're almost wrapped up there as well and back in the
pre-Flood world, that portion of Alaska represents a vastly different
place than the Alaska we know today. There is some debate upon
whether those Arctic dinosaurs actually lived in that region of
Alaska or if they merely floated there during the Flood, but I
believe they lived in that area, or at least close to the area. There
were many species of organisms making their home there at the time:
hadrosaurs, small carnivores such as Troodon and large
carnivores like Nanuqsaurus roamed the land as well. It was a
lush and tropical place at the time the animals were alive.” He
went on to say, “In addition to scant fossils of the newly
discovered Nanuqsaurus, and some teeth left behind by Troodon,
we also discovered the partial skeleton of a Pachyrhinosaurus.
It was a horned dinosaur, or ceratopsian, related to the larger
Triceratops, but unlike it, Pachyrhinosaurus had a
large bump – called a boss – on its snout, instead of a horn.”
Then Dr. Samuel began telling me about his two other dig sites that
they'd never been to before this summer. In the La Amarga Formation
in Argentina, they've uncovered the remains of a sauropod –
long-necked dinosaur – called Amargasaurus. This dinosaur
was strange for a sauropod because it had two rows of bizarre spines
running down its neck. “We aren't sure if they were just spines or
if the spines were attached to each other to form a double sail of
some kind,” Dr. Samuel says, “but they're pretty cool looking.
Perhaps if the individual we've found bears ancient DNA, we can clone
one and finally have an answer.”
Last but not least, I won't fail to mention Dr. Samuel's other new
dig site in Niger, North Africa's Elrhaz Formation. Dr. Samuel told
me that this place was also lush in the pre-Flood world. Instead of
being the dry, sun-baked desert of today, it was once a lush and
marshy place. It was probably loaded with great inlets and waterways
that supported some of the largest animals ever to walk the earth.
Large sauropods, many weighing over 70 tons, ornithopods like
Ouranosaurus and giant crocodiles like Sarcosuchus
lived in this area. “However,” Dr. Samuel began, “my team and I
are particularly proud of the partial skeleton of a sub-adult
Suchomimus!” Suchomimus is a rare spinosaurid; it had
long crocodile-like jaws and sharp claws on its hands. It was
probably a fish-eater, able to hunt down the largest fish of the
region, including mighty extinct species of coelocanths. The dig site
in Niger has already been completed for this year and Dr. Samuel and
his team have already loaded up the Suchomimus fossils for a
long flight to the United States and AAI, where Dr. Steve and his assistants will see if there is any viable DNA in these and the other new fossils collected over the summer.
“Nothing's been confirmed yet,” Dr. Samuel said, “but I've got
a feeling many of the fossils we've found won't only allow us to
bring back some of these amazing beasts from extinction, but will
also allow us to see what these amazing reptiles were like in a land
before any of us were ever born! I can't wait to see what we come up with!”
Written by: Mr. Smiley
Photographer: Daniel P.
Smithwater
Edited by: Christian
Ryan
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