Welcome to You Ask Andy

Eric Glouser, age 8, of Cherokee, Iowa, for his question:

WHO FIRST FOUND BIRD LIKE DINOSAURS?

All the dinosaurs were cold blooded reptiles. They thrived in mild, moist places where there was plenty of greenery and the weather was warm and mild all year around. The Gobi Desert in Central Asia is a vast, bleak and dry area. It seems an unlikely place to look for the remains of ancient dinosaurs ¬but many fossils have been found there, including the strange bird like dinosaur.

The first birds that took to the air were related to the dinosaurs. So when we mention bird like dinosaurs, we think of one of these early wide winged birds. The bird like dinosaurs whose fossils were found in the Gobi Desert, however, had no wings and never flew in the air.

The creature was built somewhat like the present day ostrich with tiny arms instead of wings. And, like the ostrich, he could race in giant strides on long, strong back legs. He was called the Saurornithoides, which means bird like dinosaur.

His discovery came rather recently  certainly many years after immense dinosaur fossils had been found in the eastern valleys and western mountains of North America.

Fossil experts from the American Museum of Natural History were ready to explore the great Gobi Desert in 1922. The team was led by Roy Andrews and Walter Granger, scientists who had discovered many fossils in the past. When the winter snows melted from the desolate desert, they set forth. A caravan of camels trudged along to deliver supplies at certain meeting places along the way.

The team of scientists studied the layers of rocks and discovered that 100 million years ago this was a warm, moist region with plenty of greenery. They found fossils including the bird like dinosaur. Buried in the loose ground they found the very first cache of dinosaur eggs  not those belonging to the bird like dinosaur (all dinosaurs laid soft shelled reptile eggs).but those belonging to a dinosaur whose head was sheathed in a bony helmet, somewhat like a large parrot beak.

The scientists returned again in 1923 and 1925. Discovered were dinosaur types not found in other lands. One belonged to a first cousin of the huge duck billed dinosaur that once lived in North America. Much was added to the dinosaur story after the Gobi Desert expeditions.

 

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