The word Stegosaurus means "lizard with a roof" or “roof-lizard”. This term came to be when the initial discovery of the Stegosaurus led Othniel Charles Marsh to believe that the plates along the Stegosaurus’ back lay flat rather than standing tall. Stegosaurus was an armored, plant-eating dinosaur. Staggered rows of plates along its back, made the animal look bigger than it was, and may have helped the animal control its body heat or attract a mate.
This earthcache is located inside the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. They are open every day from 9am - 5pm except Christmas. It is on the 3rd floor inside the Prehistoric Journey exhibit. You can view a map of this floor here. There is an admission fee, and there are also free days throughout the year. To complete this earthcache, you must find the display featuring Stegosaurus stenops and Allosaurus fragilis (pictured above).
How are fossils formed? There are actually six ways that organisms can turn into fossils: unaltered preservation, permineralization/petrification, replacement, carbonization/coalification, recrystallization, and authigenic preservation. Most animals do not fossilize, they simply decay and are lost from the fossil record. Paleontologists estimate that only a small percentage of the dinosaurs that ever lived have been or will be found as fossils.
Fossils of hard mineral parts (like bones and teeth) were formed as follows: the animal was quickly buried after death by sinking in mud or being buried in sand storm. Over time, more and more sediment covered the remains. The parts of the animal that didn't rot were encased in the newly-formed sediment. In the right circumstances (no scavengers/quick burial/not much weathering), parts of the animal turned into fossils over time. The chemicals underwent a series of changes. As the bone slowly decayed, water infused with minerals seeped into the bone and replaced the chemicals in the bone with rock-like minerals. The process of fossilization involves dissolving and replacement of the original minerals in the object with other minerals. This results in a heavy, rock-like copy of the original object - a fossil. To learn more about fossils, go here.
This Stegosaurus on display was discovered in 1937 by Frank Kessler, a high school teacher from Cañon City, while leading a nature hike in Garden Park. It was eventually named the Colorado state fossil, and was mounted by Phillip Reinheimer. In 1979, 13 year-old India Wood discovered a dinosaur skeleton on her family's ranch in Moffat County, Colorado. She excavated the find herself over a period of three years, until her mother encouraged her to reach out to the Denver Museum. A team led by paleontology curator K. Don Lindsey extracted the skeleton, which was an Allosaurus, but it remained in storage for over a decade.
Fast forward to 1989, when the Denver Museum began preparing this exhibit. As the centerpiece of the dinosaur gallery, Kessler's Stegosaurus and Wood's Allosaurus were united in a striking attack scene, meant to portray the dinosaurs as dynamic, active animals. You can learn more about it here.
In 1992, a complete Stegosaurus was discovered near Cañon City by Denver Museum of Natural History scientists. It showed patches of armor on the neck and hip for the first time. Other new information from the 1992 specimen, such as position of the tail spikes and the arrangement of the back plates, was used in remounting this skeleton.
Now for your assignment to log this cache... as always, do NOT post answers in your logs. Logs with answers will be deleted. Please e-mail me the answers to these questions, and the names of any cachers in your group. If I don't receive answers within seven days, logs will be deleted. I don't like doing it, but it is part of the game, so please comply.
1. The brains of a Stegosaurus were assumed to be the size of a walnut. Looking at the display, how do you think they were right, or wrong?
2. Find the fossils from the 1992 discovery: what are the four fossilized parts that are on display? Are you able to identify them on the Stegosaurus?
3. How many years ago, and what period did the Stegosaurus roam the earth?
4. What percentage of the Stegosaurus on display is fossil bone? What percentage is reconstructed? Can you identify which parts are actual fossils? What is the difference between the real fossils and the fabricated fossils?
5. Why do you think complete fossils aren't found more often?
6. (Optional) Post a photo of yourself onsite and share something you learned in your log (non-spoiler).
First to Travel Back in Time = FilmBEe
This cache was created on Phred's birthday!
Resources: Colorado.gov, Exploring Life's Mysteries, Enchanted Learning, and signs onsite. Photos by animjason. Special thanks to The Denver Museum of Nature & Science for being awesome!
