Hunting Dinosaur Fossils for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCCLIX

Dinosaur fossil (Mesozioc, Wyoming)

One of the more irritating habits of the freelancers who plied their "trade" at eHow.com and its many niche sites was a pair of diametrically opposite tendencies: either they turned simple questions complex or they turned complex questions simple. Being ignorant of the answer is, at least to us, no excuse; for eHow it was just "minimum word count" plus "SEO" equals cash. Sadly, some of eHow's (now Leaf Group's) freelancers are still at it: witness marine biologist and small dog trainer Marina Somma attempting to answer the question, "In Which States Are Dinosaur Fossils Found?" for Sciencing.com (with her usual little help from biologist Sylvie Tremblay). It's a rewrite of a 2011 post by Craig Colin Smith...

Smith's version was little more than the regurgitation of factoids he found on a couple of websites; basically lists of known dino species finds by state with the addition of such scintillating prose as, "No dinosaur fossils have been found in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio" accompanied by an aerial photo of farm fields, supposedly in Indiana. Duh.

Somma, however, did an even more ho-hum job of attempting to answer the question. Before we get to the details, however, let's ask the staff geologist where one could conceivably find dinosaur fossils in the United States. His answer?

"Only in those states where terrestrial sedimentary rocks of Mesozoic age are exposed at the surface."

That's not, however, what Somma said. No, instead of a succinct answer such as that one, Marina went off into what we like to call "cloud cuckoo land." Although she correctly stated that,

"The states that produce the largest number of dinosaur fossils are Montana, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming..."

...that was nowhere near enough verbiage to satisfy her masters at Leaf; not to mention not explaining why fossils are concentrated in the mountain west. So, Somma was forced to expand on that answer. That's when she started dumping out dross such as,

"If your family is looking for a spot to find dinosaur bones for kids, several different states have dinosaur tourist attractions and places to search for fossils with the whole family. Locations like the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains, Dinosaur National Monument and Mojave National Preserve all contain fantastic opportunities to see and learn about fossils."

Remember what the geologist told us about the age of the rocks? To refresh, they need to have been deposited during the Mesozoic Era, sometimes known as "the age of the dinosaurs." What Marina didn't seem to know is that the first three places she mentioned – "the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, [and] Guadalupe Mountains" – comprise entirely or almost entirely Paleozoic rocks, too old to contain dinosaur fossils. 

Oh, wait, we get it: Marina seemed to think that all fossils are dinosaur fossils. That must be why she waxed eloquent about Carlsbad Caverns, telling us that,

"This park, located in New Mexico, contains a fossilized reef that dates back to the Permian Age. The fossilized reef, known as 'Captain Reef,' [sic] dates back some 265 million years..."

First, there were no dinosaurs during the Permian; second, dinosaurs (when they lived) would not have been found in a reef environment; and third, it's the Capitan Reef, not the "Captain." Oh, yeah, and Carlsbad Caverns are in the Guadalupe Mountains. Sheesh.

Apparently still short of her minimum word count, Marina decided to range even further from the original question – Where can I find dinosaur fossils? – and performed a data dump listing the count of U. S. National Parks by state. We kid you not! She introduced this padding by telling her readers that, 

"Just because you don't live close to a 'hot spot' for fossils doesn't mean you don't have fossil sites near you. Find all National Park Service states [sic] with dinosaur fossils or learning opportunities here..."

Yup, our Dumbass of the Day tried to tell her readers, for instance, that you can learn a-a-a-alll about dinosaur fossils in locations such as,

"Indiana – 2 different locations including Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore"

We call bullshit. And while we're here, we need to strenuously object to Marina's implication that certain National Parks include "places to search for fossils." No, they don't: federal law prohibits the removal of fossils from national park land, even if you are "a kid."

SI - PALEONTOLOGY