It's a new holiday! Burke Education makes one kid's dream come true

When 6-year old John, of Friday Harbor, Washington, was asked make up his own holiday, he let his imagination run wild—prehistoric wild.

Image excerpt courtesy of Scholastic Book Clubs, Inc.

7 good reads recommended by Burke staff

Tell us what you're reading this summer 
in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter. 
Photo: Simon Cocks / Creative Commons

Whether you're heading out on the road or hanging out in the sun, summer is a great time to explore new worlds through reading.

The following seven books are recommended by Burke staff for your summertime enjoyment—whether you like the prehistoric or present, natural history or culture—or all of it!

Be sure to check out the end of this post for museum-related offers for summertime readers.

Bringing a Triceratops to Seattle



Dinosaurs capture the attention of museum visitors of all ages. (Watch our 30-second Dino Shake video to see just how much a few of our staff members and their kids love dinosaurs.)

Here at the Burke, we have several dinosaurs in our galleries, but we also maintain a vertebrate paleontology collection with more than 50,000 specimens. Nearly 90% of these specimens are fossil mammals, with the remaining 10% comprising dinosaurs, fossil fish, fossil birds, fossil marine reptiles, and other fossil reptiles. 

Researchers study these specimens to learn about the life before us, as do University of Washington (UW) undergraduate and graduate students taking paleontology and evolution courses.

So, when a team led by Christian Sidor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke, discovered a Triceratops in a rock formation in eastern Wyoming, he set out to bring more of the iconic dinosaur to Seattle. 

A young visitor admires a Triceratops in the Burke gallery
Photo by Carol Swales

What really killed the dinosaurs? K-12 teachers are helping us find out

By Gregory P. Wilson

Many of us think of extinction as a terrible process that strips us of amazing biodiversity. On one hand, that’s certainly true. It’s estimated that more than 99.9% of living things that once existed are now extinct! On the other hand, extinctions often benefit the survivors.

As a paleontologist with the Burke Museum and University of Washington, I examine the evolution and ecology of early mammals in the context of major events in the earth's history.

Dr. Wilson in the field.

There’s no better example of this than the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs (except for birds) and allowed mammals to expand into all corners of the earth, all body sizes, and all modes of life.

Marine fossils from around the world contain important clues to understanding this mass extinction event. But relevant terrestrial fossils, including dinosaurs, can only be found in a handful of places.

One of the most famous and intensively studied fossil sites is the Hell Creek badlands in northeastern Montana, where the type specimen of T. rex was discovered in 1902 by paleontologist Barnum Brown. In the 1980s, this area became a testing ground for the ‘Alvarez hypothesis’, which posited that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs in a geologic blink of an eye.

The Dinosaur in the Lobby

Paraphysornis brasiliensis

Like many natural history museums, the Burke has a dinosaur in the lobby. Ours just happens to be a terror bird. (All birds are dinosaurs, but not all dinosaurs are birds!) In honor of this year's Dino Day, meet our terror bird.

The theme of Dino Day this year is "Predators and Prey"—and terror birds were top predators. These giant flightless South American birds had huge hooked beaks and sharp claws. Ranging in size from the 3-foot-tall Psilopterus lemoinei to the 10-foot-tall Brontomis burmeisteri, they probably killed their prey by stabbing it with their hooked beak. Their strong legs might have helped hold down struggling prey while the beak stabbed and ripped it.

Terror bird foot

As for who they ate, we can't be sure. Larger terror birds probably could have eaten small- to medium-sized mammals.

There are no birds alive today close enough to terror birds to tell us exactly how they lived and hunted. Modern large, flightless birds—ostriches, emus, rheas, and cassowaries—are not hunters (although they can be dangerous). Terror birds' closest living relatives, the seriema, may be close to what the smallest terror birds looked and acted like.

Terror bird head

The Burke's terror bird is a cast (replica) of Paraphysornis brasiliensis. It lived in Brasil 23 million years ago.



Dino Day 2012 is coming up on Saturday, March 3rd!

Posted by: Winifred Kehl, Communications

Science Illuminated: Run, T. Rex, run!

Tyrannosaurs may have been faster than previously thought... or slower, depending on who you ask.

Dinosaur paleontologists seem to love arguing over how fast Tyrannosaurs could run. 


In the 70's, R. McNeill Alexander came up with a formula to estimate speeds by measuring the size and spacing of fossilized footprints. Alexander acknowledged its limitations: he made the formula by observing living mammals (like horses). Tyrannosaurs probably didn't run the same way a horse runs. Alexander's formula gives a rough estimate for Tyrannosaurs' speed at around 9 miles per hour (MPH).


You can also look at bones to figure out how an animal moved and how fast it could run. This is called biomechanics. It's a bit like looking at car parts and figuring out how they work together.

A comparison of running speeds (cc Wikimedia)

A 2007 paper by University of Manchester scientists used biomechanics to clock Tyrannosaurs at around 18 MPH max.**



A new paper suggests that Tyrannosaurs may have "power walked" faster by using their large butt muscles to power short, fast strides.*** Paleontologist Heinrich Mallison from the Museum of Natural History in Berlin wrote the paper, which will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 


Heinrich isn't the first person to suggest Tyrannosaurs' butt muscles made it fast. A 2010 paper by a University of Alberta paleontologist looked at Tyrannosaurus's bones and concluded that they could probably outrun every other dinosaur at the time.****


The long and the short of it is: Tyrannosaurs weren't horses or giant chickens (although they're related) - or even ostriches, the fastest critter on 2 legs today. So we don't have an instruction manual to tell us how they worked and how fast they could run. The best we can do is find better analogies and make better estimates.

  

* Dinosaur Biomechanics. R. McNeill Alexander. Proceedings: Biological Sciences , Vol. 273, No. 1596 (Aug. 7, 2006), pp. 1849-1855

** doi: 10.1098/rspb.2007.0846 Proc. R. Soc. B. 7 November 2007 vol. 274
*** http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111107/full/news.2011.631.html

**** http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.21290/full
cc: Images adapted from M. Martyniuk and Wikimedia

Posted by: Winifred Kehl, Communications

Our Favorite Fossils - Anatotitan

My left hand compared to Anatotitan's left foot.

It's true that ugly fossils are important, but that doesn't make giant duck feet any less interesting!

Anatotitan means "large duck" but the critter in question was actually a duck-billed dinosaur (a hadrosaurid). They grew up to 39 feet long - 6 feet short of your average school bus. At that size, it's no wonder his (or her!) foot dwarfs my hand. My palm is about the size of one of his (or her!) toe bones.

Anatotitan lived during the Late Cretaceous - 68 to 65.5 million years ago - at the same time as Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor, pterosaurs, small mammals like Eomaia, marine reptiles and birds. The Cretaceous ended with one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth's history.

Montana (starred) during the Late Cretaceous. (Dr. R. B.)



This fossil was found in the Hell Creek formation in Montana in 1987. University of Washington's Dr. Greg Wilson and his lab dig for fossils and what they find ends up here at the Burke!

You can see this very Anatotitan fossil at the Burke's Dino Day (and you might notice that it's featured on the Anatotitan's Wikipedia page!)

Posted By: Winifred Kehl, Communications

Ask the Burke: Bird or Dinosaur?

This Ask the Burke is based on a question from Adena Mooers, a reader from Bellingham. Her question was:

“When a three toed footprint fossil is found in sandstone in Washington, how can you tell if it is a dinosaur/lizard or a large bird? We have recently had Diatryma footprints found in Whatcom County. They look very similar to the dinosaur footprint we saw at the Burke last Friday.”

Burke Museum Paleontology experts answered:

Great question. If you find a fossil footprint and want to determine whether it was a bird or a dinosaur, here are a few tips:

We all know what a typical bird’s foot looks like. Most birds have four toes. And in most species, the first toe (digit I) points backwards. The second, third and fourth toes are counted from the inside of the foot (digits II, III and IV). Chicken feet are probably the most familiar example.

Birds and dinosaurs are closely related, so it may be difficult to them apart. The currently recognized distinction is that “dinosaurs” include two groups: the birds, or avian dinosaurs, and the “non-avian dinosaurs.” But, many non-avian dinosaurs have feet that are very similar to typical bird feet.

And we have all seen bird tracks. How do bird tracks differ from non-avian dinosaur tracks?

For most birds, flying is the principal means of locomotion. So bird feet have long and slender toes that consist mostly of bone, tendon and scaly skin. For the non-avian dinosaurs, their mode of travel is by foot and their feet are relatively more robust. Comparing animals of the same size, the non-avian dinosaur foot will be more heavily built.

Fossilized heron tracks from approximately 50 million years ago, on display in the
Burke Museum’s Life and Times of Washington State exhibit.

Bird footprints are characterized by: slender digit impressions, impressions of three front digits (digits II, III and IV) and a fourth posterior digit (digit I), the front digit impressions (digits II, III and IV) converge, and lastly, there is usually a wide angle between digits II and IV.

In most cases, bird footprints are quite distinctive. However, as you can tell, determining a species from a fossilized track is an exercise in deductive reasoning.

The Burke Museum partners with the Seattle PI's Big Blog to answer commonly asked questions about the natural and cultural history of our region. This post originally appeared on the Big Blog on July 27, 2011.

Got a question for next time? Send it here!

Dino Day Limerick Competition!

Let me admit something about myself: I love limericks. I love writing them, I love reading them. And guess what else I love: dinosaurs! And since everyone at the Burke is in full-on excited mode for Dino Day this Saturday, this afternoon I decided to pose a challenge to my fellow Burke Bloggers. “Write me your best Dino Day limerick,” I said.

Then we decided to ramp up the competition and see who could take the best picture with our informal Burke mascot, Tyno Rex.  So readers, tell us: who wrote the best limerick? Who took the best picture? Give us your answers in the poll below.* And please, if you love limericks as much as I do, write one for me and post it in the comments.

Contestant #1: Julia Swan

This Saturday, don’t sit around being a bore,

Come to the Burke to see a real dinosaur!

Whether you fancy your dinos big or small

Our Dino Day event will have it all

From T Rex teeth to a full Stegosaur

Contestant #2: Karin Moughamer (guest blogger!)

This Saturday visit the Burke
Where paleontologists will showcase their work
Take a fossil journey through Antarctica, Patagonia and Wyoming
And learn about the dinosaurs that went roaming
Your kids (and you) are sure to go berserk!

 














Contestant # 3: Andrea Barber

Large teeth, sharp claws and small limbs

Dinosaurs were more than just a whim

So I’ll find my way

To the Burke’s Dino Day

And see dinos that could run, fly and swim!

 



Contestant #4: Samantha Porter 
(with a slight breach of the rules, she submitted her best dino haikus)

Dinosaur fossils
It’s paleo’s biggest day
Fun is not extinct

Sometimes there’s free cake
Fossils, wombats, Dinosaurs
I so love my job

Haikus are my friend
Julia’s talent: limericks
Sam: jealous of that

Who wrote the best limerick?

• Julia
• Karin
• Andrea
• Sam

View Results
Create a Blog Poll

Who took the best picture with Tyno Rex?

• Julia
• Karin
• Andrea
• Sam

View Results
Create a Blog Poll

And of course, don't forget to come to Dino Day this Saturday! 

* Update: as of 3/8, Sam is the clear winner of the photo contest and while she has the most votes for best limerick, she actually wrote haikus, so I'm awarding best limerick to the runner up, Andrea

Posted by: Julia Swan

Fossils: The Real Deal?

One of the most commonly asked questions we hear from museum visitors is, “Are those dinosaur bones real?” The answer is yes. And no. Many of the fossils on display at the Burke are real, but some are casts or a mix of real fossils and casts. For example:

Clockwise from top right: Terror Bird (cast), Triceratops skull (real and cast), Stegosaur (cast), Sabertooth Cat (real), Mastodon (cast), Ichthyosaur (real), Xiphactinus (real), Whale (real)

What is a cast?
A cast is an exact copy of a fossil, typically made from polyester resin or plaster. To make a cast, each bone of the original fossil is encased in silicone and then removed, leaving an empty space – a mold. The mold is then filled with liquid casting material that takes the same shape and size as the original. Once the casting material hardens, it can be safely removed from the mold and used in mounted skeletons.

Why use casts? Aren’t real bones cooler?
Yes, real bones are cool, but occasionally cast bones are the only option. For example, sometimes only a partial skeleton was found during excavation, so fill-in bones are necessary in order to display a complete specimen. An example of this is the Allosaurus on display at the museum:

This dinosaur is a mix of real fossil bones from different Allosaurus individuals and some fill-in casts. It can be hard to tell the difference! In this case, the real hind legs and the cast tail bones look very similar.

Another reason why we might display a cast is that the real fossil of a particularly rare specimen is on display at another museum and exhibiting a cast is the only way to make it available for our visitors to see. This Elasmosaur is a cast of the one-of-kind complete specimen found on Vancouver Island. Because the real specimen is currently being studied by scientists in British Columbia, the Burke is only able to display it as a cast.

Next time you visit a natural history museum, see if you can figure out which bones are real and which are casts. Can you tell the difference?

Posted by: Julia Swan

Updates from Antarctica

Two weeks ago, a team of paleontologists from the museum began their journey to Antarctica for a two-month fossil hunting expedition. If you missed the video we posted about what the actual trip down to the southern-most continent is like, watch it here.

Well, they made it:

Exiting the plane at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

The Burke team is joined by scientists from The Field Museum, Augustana College, the University of Alberta, and the Iziko South African Museum. Together, the group is looking for dinosaurs and other fossils in the Transantarctic Mountains.

If you’re curious to know more about what it’s like to conduct field work in such an extreme place as Antarctica, The Field Museum has an excellent expedition website with lots of totally fascinating information about this 2010-11 Antarctic expedition.

I easily got sucked into the site, which includes photos of camp life, dispatches from the field, and more about the fossils that have been found in Antarctica so far. Here are three surprising things I learned from The Field Museum’s expedition site:

• Back in the day (i.e. 250 million years ago), the Earth had no polar ice caps. Antarctica was part of the super-continent Pangaea and was actually temperate in climate, hence the abundance of plant and animal fossils from species that would never survive in polar Antarctica today.

• Of the species found in Antarctica so far, many were wholly new to science, such as the first dinosaur found on the continent, Crylophosaurus.

• Because of the severe cold and altitude, many of the traditional tools used to stabilize fossils (e.g. fossils and glue) don’t work in Antarctica. As a solution, excavators will wrap small fossils in toilet paper to protect them in transit back to the United States.

Before leaving Chicago to meet up with our crew from Seattle in Antarctica, two of the paleontologists from The Field Museum recorded this video about their expedition. Watch it to learn more about what their goals are for this trip:




Find more online at The Field Museum.

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications




Dinosaurs in Antarctica? – Antarctica Video Report #1 from The Field Museum on Vimeo.

How old are dinosaurs? Older than we thought!

Here’s some breaking news: dinosaurs may have lived much earlier than previously thought!

Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology Christian Sidor and a team of paleontologists recently discovered that a dinosaur-like creature called Asilisaurus kongwe lived as many as 10 million years earlier than the oldest known dinosaurs.

Asilisaurus is part of a sister group to dinosaurs known as silesaurs. Silesaurs are considered dinosaur-like because they share many dinosaur characteristics but still lack key characteristics all dinosaurs share. The relationship between silesaurs and dinosaurs is analogous to the close relationship of humans and chimpanzees. Sidor and his colleagues concluded that dinosaurs might also have lived at the time of Asilisaurus – bumping back the age of the oldest dinosaurs by 10 million years.

The Asilisaurus fossil bones were recovered from a single bone bed in southern Tanzania, making it possible to reconstruct a nearly entire skeleton. The creature would have stood about 1.5 to 3 feet tall and 3 to 10 feet long, weighing between 22 to 66 pounds. The description of the new species appeared in a paper published March 4 in Nature. The lead author is Sterling Nesbitt, at The University of Texas. Sidor is among the co-authors.

An article in the University Week gives more detail about the new species. Christian Sidor was also recently featured on NPR’s Science Friday, in an interview about the discovery. Click here to listen to his interview.

Posted by: MaryAnn Barron Wagner, Communications

Photos: (center) A life recreation of Asilisaurus kongwe. Marlene Hill Donnelly, Field Museum; (right) Christian Sidor excavates a fossil from the Manda beds in Tanzana in 2007, photo by L. Tsuji.

Celebrating milestones

It's a week of milestones at the Burke Museum: Saturday is the 25th Annual Dinosaur Day and today marks the 300th post to the Burke Blog! To celebrate, we've compiled some of our favorite entries from the past 100 posts.

Behind the scenes with Ray Troll gave a look at how the Burke Museum prepared for the exhibit Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway.

Q: How does one go about moving 650 pieces of ceramic pottery from the Burke Museum to a new storage facility? A: Very, very carefully detailed how the ethnology department prepared to safely move the ceramic and pottery collection to another storage facility (without breaking anything along the way!).

Favorite New Acquisitions Part 1 and Part 2 listed our curators’ favorite new acquisitions to the collections.

Where can kids dig in Washington? offered parents tips about where their kids can participate in mock archaeological digs around the state.

How can a museum reduce its environmental impact? reflected on the discussions being held around the museum about how to function in the most sustainable way.

Twilight series thrusts Quileute Tribe into spotlight examined the Quileute Tribe’s relationship to the Twilight book and movie series.

The Burke Blog contributors work hard to offer insight into the inner workings of the Pacific Northwest’s only major natural history museum. Thank you for reading the Burke Blog and we look forward to the next 100 posts!

The Science of Art

If you read our blog regularly or follow the Burke Museum in the news, you most likely have heard about our upcoming exhibit, Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway. The exhibit, opening on December 19th, features the collaboration of paleontology and art and includes fossils from the Burke’s collections that will be on public view for the first time. Intriguingly familiar, artist Ray Troll and paleontologist Kirk Johnson see the past as a continuous process that shapes the world today.

For a sneak peek at some of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway’s artwork, and to hear Ray Troll’s comments about his artistic process throughout the exhibit’s development, watch the video below.



There are also several other videos of Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll as they explore the prehistoric past of Washington State. To view them, click here.

Stay tuned to our blog for more previews and information on our newest exhibit, and don’t forget to come see it for yourself!

Posted By: Andrea Barber, Communications

Dinosaurs at the Burke

Have a passion for dinosaurs? Then come to one of the many events the Burke Museum offers about these magnificent prehistoric creatures.

Our first event is Dinosaurs on Ice: Jurassic Dinosaurs from Antarctica, a lecture for those who are interested in an academic viewpoint of dinosaurs. On Thursday Nov. 12, 7 pm at the Burke Museum, the museum is honored to have Dr. William Hammer of Augustana College, Illinois speak at the event. What started as a trip to Antarctica in 1977 in search of fossilized vertebrates has blossomed into over 30 years of research and numerous expeditions. For more information on Dr. Hammer's lecture, click here.

Next is the premiere of Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, on view from December 19 - May 31. Based on the book with the same title, artist Ray Troll and paleontologist Kirk Johnson have created a "road trip" through the American West exploring fossils and stories from the past. On opening day, Ray Troll and Kirk Johnson will give tours with Burke Curator of Vertebrates and Micropaleontology, Dr. Liz Nesbitt.

This spring the Burke has dinosaur events for those who like hands-on experience. March 6, come to Dino Day and meet experts from the Burke's paleontology department and learn some interesting facts about dinosaurs. Be sure to check the Burke Museum's website for upcoming information!

Burke Museum members have a special opportunity to explore the collections and meet Burke Staff at the Members' Behind the Scenes Night in April. If you have thought about becoming a member, we recommend supporting the Burke in order to take advantage of this wonderful benefit.

Allosaurus fragilis, on long-term display at the Burke Museum

From exhibits to lectures, the Burke Museum has many options for dinosaur fans of all ages and interests. Open the doors to the Burke and step into the past!
Posted By: Andrea Barber, Communications

Woah, Dinos!

Dino Day 09 was a smashing success. Over 3,000 people poured into the Burke last Saturday afternoon to get a taste for some of greatest paleontological wonders in the museum's collection. As evidenced in the slide show of pictures below, everybody who came had a blast!

All photos by Lora Shinn.

The Age of Dinosaurs

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

It's a dino-riffic week at the Burke Museum, with Dino Day approaching and the launch of a brand new interactive Burke Box called Age of Dinosaurs! Dozens of physical Burke Boxes travel the state visiting classrooms all over Washington, but online Interactive Burke Boxes make it even easier for educators anywhere to utilize the resources of the Burke Museum. This is the second Interactive Burke Box (with more on the way); the first was called Rocks and Minerals of Washington State.

Click here to launch Age of Dinosaurs and learn all about geologic time, evolution, and life as a paleontologist. And if you know any educators, pass along the word about this great new tool that makes teaching about dinosaurs easy and fun!

Dino Day is Dino-mite!

Posted by: Karin Hoffman, Communications

On Saturday, March 7th from 10 am – 4 pm the Burke presents the 24th annual Dino Day. The star this year is Triceratops! Come learn about where it lived, what it ate, and who tried to eat it. Crack open a rock with Stonerose Interpretive Center, draw a dinosaur with illustrator Mark Orsen and watch Burke scientists extract fossils from rock right before your eyes. Here’s a little fossil preparation preview with Bruce Crowley, Burke fossil preparator, as he works on triceratops horns that will be on display for the first time at Dino Day.

Junior paleontologists discover dinos

Posted by: Keely Gangy

From June 23 - June 27 a dozen Junior Paleontologists were hosted by the Burke Museum for a week of Dinos Summer Camp! They adventured back in time, exploring the dinosaurs and their environment.

Parents and friends joined the campers for a party on the last day. They came to admire the campers' marvels from throughout the week. Below is a slide show the campers created telling the story of dinosaurs:

For more information on upcoming Burke Summer Camps, see here.

- Keely

245 million-year-old fossils found in Antarctica

Posted by: Steven Zhang

Here’s an amazing discovery in the field of paleontology: for the first time paleontologists have found 245 million-year-old fossilized burrows of tetrapods (four-legged land vertebrates) in Antarctica. The Burke Museum’s curator of vertebrae paleontology, Christian Sidor, is the lead author of a paper describing this new discovery.

So, what’s a burrow? It’s a series of holes underground created by mammals as their habitat.

"We've got good evidence that these burrows were made by
land-dwelling animals rather than crayfish," said Sidor.

Evidence shows that the fossils were formed when fine sand from an overflowing river poured into the animal’s burrows and hardened. The largest piece found was 14 inches long, 6 inches wide and 3 inches deep. This was a rare discovery considering the icy conditions of Antarctica and suggests that mammals were living in Antarctica far earlier than previously thought!

-Steven

Photo by Cara Fritz / Oregon State University