Idaho Man Stumbles Upon Dinosaur Bones

[Garrison Hilliard <garrison@efn.org>]

Jul 25, 8:32 AM EDT

Idaho Man Stumbles Upon Dinosaur Bones




POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) -- A paleontology graduate student on a stroll with his
father stumbled upon more dinosaur bones in one day than had previously been
discovered in the state's history.

Jason Moore stopped at a stone outcropping on a southeast Idaho hillside to give
his father a lesson in fossil hunting.

"I happened to glance down and said, `That large pile of bones on the ground is
bone,'" said Moore, who studies paleontology at Cambridge University.

Moore and his parents scoured the hillside, finding more fragments, and soon
realized a dinosaur was buried in the earth below.

The discovery in late June became the most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found
in Idaho, and it doubled the number of known dinosaur bones in Idaho. The
location remains secret.

Experts say the animal was probably a large herbivore, perhaps a Tenontosaurus,
that lived during the late Early Cretaceous Period, which began about 89 million
years ago and lasted about 16 million years.

Until now, most dinosaur hunters have avoided Idaho, where soil and vegetation
cover rocks and make searching difficult. Montana State University
paleontologists Frankie Jackson said searching in Idaho requires spending more
time driving than digging.

"Because it's not an area that's been prospected extensively, anything you find
there is going to be important," Jackson said.

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