{"id":11621,"date":"2019-03-07T17:22:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T00:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621"},"modified":"2019-03-07T17:26:51","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T00:26:51","slug":"visitors-get-hands-dirty-digging-cleaning-dinosaur-fossils-in-thermopolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621","title":{"rendered":"Visitors get hands dirty digging, cleaning dinosaur fossils in Thermopolis"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11622\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11622\" style=\"width: 771px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11622\" src=\"http:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig-771x741.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"771\" height=\"741\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig-771x741.jpg 771w, https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig-336x323.jpg 336w, https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig-768x738.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig-1200x1153.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig-1024x984.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig-400x384.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig.jpg 1366w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11622\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fossil hunter Bob Simon is seen excavating a nearly complete, highly articulated fossilized camarasaurus skeleton on a private ranch in Shell in this 2006 file photo. The Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyo. leads visitors on guided excavations for camarasaurus fossils and other species at a site just 10 miles from the Center. (Photo by Ruffin Prevost\/Yellowstone Gate)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">CODY, WYO. \u2014 Colossal dinosaur skeletons are a prime attraction at major museums in big cities like Chicago, Berlin, New York and Washington, D.C. But none of those institutions can match what Wyoming offers for a hands-on, citizen science thunder lizard experience in the heart of dinosaur country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;Paleontology is not accessible to the general public, and it&#8217;s paleontology&#8217;s fault,&#8221; said Andrew Rossi, an interpretive guide at the <a href=\"https:\/\/wyomingdinosaurcenter.org\">Wyoming Dinosaur Center <\/a>in Thermopolis. Big museums keep their fossils behind railings and glass as part of a deliberate effort to protect valuable, one-of-a-kind specimens. But visitors crave a personal experience getting their hands dirty on a real dig, Rossi said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Speaking at a Lunchtime Expedition lecture Thursday at the <a href=\"https:\/\/centerofthewest.org\/\">Buffalo Bill Center of the West<\/a>, Rossi pushed for a more immersive experience for dinosaur enthusiasts. He said the Wyoming Dinosaur Center is pioneering an approach that allows visitors to tour dig sites, <a href=\"https:\/\/wyomingdinosaurcenter.org\/programs\/dig-for-a-day\/\">work a full day unearthing actual fossils<\/a> or spend time in a lab cleaning and preparing previously excavated fossils.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In 2018, the Center saw almost 3,000 visitors take a dig site tour at a location about 10 minutes away. Nearly 900 people signed up for the Dig for a Day program and more than 600 visitors worked in the Center&#8217;s fossil preparation lab in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That represents a level of immersive participation that &#8220;most museums would kill for,&#8221; said Rossi, an animated and passionate speaker who brought the most of his geology and theater backgrounds to his presentation, one of four he had scheduled in person or online for the day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Center first gained international attention in 2006 when it <a href=\"https:\/\/billingsgazette.com\/news\/state-and-regional\/wyoming\/wyoming-museum-defends-custody-of-fossil\/article_2992b2c3-6d29-5390-b9d0-2ff3694f7557.html\">announced plans to acquire a rare archaeopteryx fossil<\/a>. Considered the finest of only a dozen such specimens in the world, the Thermopolis archaeopteryx is about the size of a magpie. The feathered dinosaur lived about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period, and is a key species in showing the link between dinosaurs and birds, their evolutionary descendants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But now the Center&#8217;s close proximity to an active dig site is the key to its immersive approach, which is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/travel\/article\/world-best-dino-museums\/index.html\">winning praise among travel critics and dinosaur enthusiasts<\/a>, Rossi said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Visitors have the chance work among 500 acres of excavations where more than 15,000 dinosaur bones have been discovered, an area he called &#8220;one of the riches fossil locales in the world.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The vast majority of the bones at the site come from four species of dinosaurs well-known to researchers since the 1870s: diplodocus, allosaurus, apatosaurus and camarasaurus. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But for such a rich fossil site, Rossi said, it is lacking in diversity of other species, including creatures from the same late jurassic era, such as ancient fish, lizards, turtles and crocodiles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Researchers are stumped why no other fossils have turned up at the site, Rossi said. So in a clever bit of marketing, the Center is billing that mystery as part of the location&#8217;s appeal, rather than a drawback.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Using the phrase &#8220;we don&#8217;t know&#8221; in such a context is an open and honest approach to enticing interest, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;I call it the beauty of the mundane,&#8221; Rossi said. &#8220;You find what seems boring and you make it spectacular.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Finding the right buzzwords can also help \u2014 something Rossi realized in pondering how best to market a site where visitors can see preserved footprints and tooth and claw marks where many ferocious, carnivorous allosauruses gathered to feed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A tour to an &#8220;allosaurus feeding site,&#8221; is interesting to many, Rossi said. But no one would pass on a chance to visit a &#8220;Jurassic McDonald&#8217;s.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">If you go\u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span class=\"s1\">The Wyoming Dinosaur Center at 110 Carter Ranch Road in Thermopolis is open daily, 10 a.m. &#8211; 5 p.m. Admission is $10, with discounts for kids, seniors and veterans. Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/wyomingdinosaurcenter.org\"><span class=\"s2\">wyomingdinosaurcenter.org<\/span><\/a> for more information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9818 or <\/i><a href=\"mailto:ruffin@yellowstonegate.com\"><span class=\"s3\"><i>ruffin@yellowstonegate.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; CODY, WYO. \u2014 Colossal dinosaur skeletons are a prime attraction at major museums in big cities like Chicago, Berlin, New York and Washington, D.C. But none of those institutions can match what Wyoming offers for a hands-on, citizen science thunder lizard experience in the heart of dinosaur country. &#8220;Paleontology is not accessible to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1008,1493,1494],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Visitors get hands dirty digging, cleaning dinosaur fossils in Thermopolis - Yellowstone Gate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Visitors get hands dirty digging, cleaning dinosaur fossils in Thermopolis - Yellowstone Gate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; CODY, WYO. \u2014 Colossal dinosaur skeletons are a prime attraction at major museums in big cities like Chicago, Berlin, New York and Washington, D.C. But none of those institutions can match what Wyoming offers for a hands-on, citizen science thunder lizard experience in the heart of dinosaur country. &#8220;Paleontology is not accessible to the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Yellowstone Gate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-08T00:22:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-03-08T00:26:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1312\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruffin Prevost\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/ruffinprevost\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ruffin Prevost\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ruffin Prevost\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1a1f8e053cac2fd776df966853da767b\"},\"headline\":\"Visitors get hands dirty digging, cleaning dinosaur fossils in Thermopolis\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-08T00:22:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-08T00:26:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621\"},\"wordCount\":712,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"buffalo bill center of the west\",\"dinosaurs\",\"wyoming dinosaur center\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621\",\"name\":\"Visitors get hands dirty digging, cleaning dinosaur fossils in Thermopolis - Yellowstone Gate\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-08T00:22:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-08T00:26:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=11621#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dinosaur-dig.jpg\",\"width\":1366,\"height\":1312,\"caption\":\"Fossil hunter Bob Simon is seen excavating a nearly complete, highly articulated fossilized Camarasaurus skeleton on a private ranch in Shell in this 2006 file photo. 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