- Our museum is just 10
minutes away from the dig site,
which is what's made us one
of the best dinosaur museums
in the world.
We don't have to
transport people hundreds
and thousands of miles
to where the bones are.
(upbeat music)
- This whole thing
got started in 1993.
The goal was, a team
of people are going
to search the hills of
Thermopolis for one dinosaur.
So, they get in there,
dig it up quickly
and then move on.
But, as soon as they
started getting up here
and looking at all the
hillsides they learned
there was a lot more than
just one dinosaur buried here.
So, they decided, instead
of transporting these bones
hundreds, if not thousands,
of miles across the globe
to other museums, why not
build a museum right here
so our bones just have to
survive a 10 minute drive
down the road?
So, the museum itself
was opened in 1995
as a permanent home for
the fossils that were found
outside the hills of
Thermopolis and then
it just became one of
the best dinosaur museums
in the world in the
years after that.
(upbeat music)
- Paleontology is part
of Wyoming's legacy.
Paleontologists
came to our state
back in the 1870s to
excavate dinosaurs
because they're not found
usually on the east coast,
so they had to come here.
Most museums that
visit our state
take the fossils and
the dinosaurs out.
Our museum is special
because we still have
our dinosaurs here on
display for the public
that we're finding here.
- So, what did
these sauropods eat?
- [Child] Plants.
- Plants, right.
- [Narrator] The Wyoming
Dinosaur Center hosts several
educational programs
for the public,
including dig for a
day, where people can go
out to the dig sites with
the paleontologists on staff
and look for dinosaur bones.
- From the very beginning
our goal was to bring
everyday people out to
our property, 7500 acres
of prime real estate
for dinosaurs and other
prehistoric creatures,
and we wanted people
to get the first hand experience
of what it's actually like
to be a paleontologist.
So, every day during the
summer we take people out
to the sites to dig
dinosaurs along with us.
You're working right
alongside our staff
and lots of paleontologists
and nothing's planted.
You're working in a real
active dinosaur site
and we don't know
where the bones are
and where they're
going to turn up.
All we know is that we're
digging in the right place
at the right time
and most of the bones
that are found here are
not found by our staff.
They're found by everyday
people who are doing this
for the very first time.
So, we're training people
how to do our job every day.
- Everything we do is
to try and increase
scientific knowledge for people.
We want families to
come out here and see
what real paleontology is like.
Whenever we come
out here it's always
one family per guide,
or per pair of guides.
We want each family to have
an individualized experience.
- So, when someone finds
a bone, we keep it here
at the museum, but they
get logged in our records
as the official bone finder.
Their name's attached
with that bone
for the rest of history.
We bring it down to the museum.
We'll work on it in our
prep lab, get it cleaned up
and that's when the
real research begins,
to figure out, not just
the bone that you found,
but what's the story
behind that bone.
And most of our best
discoveries have been made
in the lab, which is another
portion of the process
that we invite people to
participate in through our
dig for a day and
paleo prep programs.
(upbeat music)
- We fund our operations
through the dig for a day,
through people coming
to the museum to see
the dinosaur bones,
doing dig site tours.
That's what keeps
gas in our cars.
That's what keeps us coming
up here every single day
to work at the dig sites.
- [Narrator] Wyoming Dinosaur
Center's most massive occupant
is Jimbo, a Supersaurus,
discovered near
Douglas, Wyoming.
While working at the Jimbo
site, paleontologists
exposed a much smaller, but
no less significant discovery.
- So, the way I was told,
Bill was supervising digs
in the site one day and he
saw a little cluster of bones
sitting at the surface
and he literally
threw himself on top of
it to make sure no one
stepped on it and then,
with the most precise tools
that he had at that moment
he starts chipping away
at the rock to see
this little specimen.
- In 2001, we had
student groups working
at the site in Douglas,
Wyoming, and the Lori specimen
was found about 10 centimeters
above the Jimbo display.
So, the large sauropod
that's on display
in the museum, the bones
were coming out of that.
This little theropod was
found right above that site.
- And, it is the
smallest dinosaur
found in the state of Wyoming.
It's a new species,
new genus and species.
That itself, is kind of
important for our state,
because it's a new
species of dinosaur.
People are gonna be
talking about it.
- You rarely get small
things within an environment.
You'll get something
big like a dinosaur.
You might get crocodiles,
you might get turtles,
but to find a small
theropod dinosaur like this
along with it, that's
telling you the other parts
of the environment.
- [Narrator] A paper
published in July 2019
first introduced
Lori to the world.
Lori, along with
another of the museum's
most important specimens,
one of the world's
best preserved archaeopteryx,
are important links
to begin explaining
the relationship
between dinosaurs and birds.
- We consider birds
as living dinosaurs.
We don't fully understand
a lot of how that happened,
like when did flight appear?
When did arms stop
becoming used for grabbing
and be used for powered flight.
Those are questions
we haven't answered.
Lori is going to fill
in a lot of those gaps.
Based on the information
we've collected
in our paper, Lori's
the earliest member
of the raptor family.
So, we all know velociraptor.
This is velociraptor's
grandmother, in a sense.
Now we have a much earlier
raptor from North America
from the late Jurassic period.
That's pushing the
origins of dromaeosaurs,
velociraptor family, back
several million years
onto an entirely
different continent.
- It's exciting
because you're getting
a fuller picture of
that environment.
Here's a small predator.
This wasn't taking
down sauropods.
This was going after bugs.
This was going after
maybe small mammals
or frogs or lizards
along that lake shore.
We hope to make
the Lori specimen
a hallmark specimen in
the dinosaur museum.
So, for any future
building projects,
display projects,
something like that,
make it part of it.
We have the largest dinosaur
in the state of Wyoming
and the smallest dinosaur
in the state of Wyoming.
So, that's kinda cool.
That's good bookends.
- [Narrator] Each day the
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
provides the unique
opportunity for visitors
to discover the
next important piece
of the paleolithic record.
That, coupled with their
mission to keep Wyoming
discoveries in Wyoming,
makes it a true gem
that the state can be proud of.
- [Narrator] We're the
ones who say, we don't care
how much experience you have.
We don't care what your age is.
Come out here and we'll
show you what it is
to dig up dinosaurs.
- There's enough dig sites
and specimens to work on here
for the next 100 years, easily.
So, we find new sites
almost every year,
so there's plenty
of work to be done.
- So, I like to say, the
world knows dinosaurs
because of Wyoming
and now it's time
that Wyoming gets credit for it.
- We dig up bones.
It's hard work.
It takes a while, but
it's also really fun
and very satisfying when
you do find something.
- You never know
what the next shovel
of stuff's gonna bring out.
It might be the same, something
you've seen 1000 times over.
It might be something
completely different.
It's the chase.
It's the discovery.
It's the explanation,
and it's fun.
It's fun.
