Dueling Dinosaurs<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd in answering those questions is where Zanno\u2019s \u201csomething different\u201d comes into play. Her team will be doing all of its research directly in front of museum patrons in the state-of-the-art SECU DinoLab, a specially designed lab that marks the first update to the museum in a decade. The museum raised $15 million for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe whole point was to do all the science in front of the public, so it\u2019s been really difficult to have them here\u2009\u2014\u2009they\u2019ve been here for seven years now\u2009\u2014\u2009and not work on them,\u201d Zanno says. \u201cBut that was the fundamental goal from the beginning, to not do the research behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SECU DinoLab has the technology at the ready for CT scanning and digital imaging that is being done. Laboratory extraction arms stretch down to address the dust and ensure a safe environment. Big screens near the ceiling are displaying the scientists at work. But it\u2019s what the DinoLab doesn\u2019t have that\u2019s most important. There are simply no barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe team in the SECU DinoLab gets to \u201cpiece together\u201d the story of the tyrannosaur and the Triceratops<\/em>. That\u2019s partly because parts of the two beasts sit separately in eight blocks or jackets made of plaster and burlap. Four of those are in the lab. From left to right: the tyrannosaur\u2019s body, the Triceratops<\/em>\u2019 hip, the Triceratops<\/em>\u2019 chest and the Triceratops<\/em>\u2019 skull. Visitors get a front-row seat to researchers working on the fossils. And to further underscore that experience, there is an overhead livestream viewers can access to monitor the work on each fossil by visiting the project\u2019s website.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe decided that we were going to try something really experimental,\u201d says Zanno, who\u2019s also an associate research professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. \u201cWe were just going to get rid of the glass altogether, and we were going to invite the public to come inside the lab space, walk into an authentic research lab, have an authentic experience and be able to talk to the scientific team in that space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd that, as far as I know, [has] never been done anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c. . . We were just going to get rid of the glass altogether, and we were going to invite the public to come inside the lab space, walk into an authentic research lab, have an authentic experience and be able to talk to the scientific team in that space. . .\u201d \u2013Lindsay Zanno<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The Specimens<\/h4>\n\n\n\n Zanno admits that she\u2019s not easily impressed. She and her teams have discovered more than a dozen different species of dinosaurs. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of stuff,\u201d she says. \u201cBut fossils don\u2019t cease to amaze me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Especially Dueling Dinosaurs<\/em>\u2019 tyrannosaur and Triceratops<\/em>. Zanno praises them as \u201cincredibly well-preserved\u201d and points out that they both were buried in the Cretaceous period with all of their soft tissues intact, meaning each beast\u2019s bones are in place as if they were alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe fossils now sit in pieces like a puzzle. For instance, the tyrannosaur\u2019s skull, its body, the Triceratops\u2019<\/em> skull and its hip and chest each sit atop a wooden cart in what is called a jacket, a casing of burlap, foil and plaster. And each rests in a bed of the original dirt from the Hell Creek Formation in the Montana badlands, where the fossils were discovered. All told, it\u2019s a combined 30,000 pounds of fossil and Hell Creek earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s essential, when you\u2019re a scientist working on fossils, that you have data that comes directly from when the fossils were discovered,\u201d says Zanno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Story<\/h4>\n\n\n\n Zanno\u2019s team can look at the fossils and the earth around them to help answer several questions. First off, what is each? \u201cWe know that they are a tyrannosaur and a Triceratops<\/em>, but are they a rex<\/em>? Are they a Nanotyrannus<\/em>? Is it a Triceratops prorsus<\/em>? Or a Triceratops horridus<\/em>?\u201d asks Eric Lund, manager of the SECU DinoLab. \u201cThe other thing that we\u2019re trying to figure out is what brought these animals together. Were they indeed truly dueling as the moniker says? Or was one already dead and one came to scavenge? Or were they both dead and they washed into the same place?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nPart of the research, then, is to look at the specimens almost as a crime scene\u2009\u2014\u2009let\u2019s call it CSI: Cretaceous<\/em>\u2009\u2014and tell a story. That\u2019s a role Zanno readily accepts when asked if she thinks of herself as a storyteller. \u201cA hundred percent,\u201d she says. \u201cI think this is one of the things that\u2019s incredible about the university-museum partnership, [. . .] we\u2019re training the next generations of students at the university to become storytellers and to learn to translate science into a story so that it can be shared with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think this is one of the things that\u2019s incredible about the university-museum partnership, [\u2026] we\u2019re training the next generations of students at the university to become storytellers and to learn to translate science into a story so that it can be shared with the public.\u201d \u2013Lindsay Zanno<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
All the members of Zanno\u2019s team, in fact, see storytelling as an integral part of their mission. It\u2019s a team whose members come from a diverse array of disciplines, something Zanno sees as most important about paleontologists: \u201cWe have chemists and biochemists. We have physicists. We have engineers. We have geologists. We have evolutionary biologists and ecologists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nPaleontologist Eric Lund runs a high-powered light across a fossil to look for things like feathers and skin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHistologist Jennifer Ann\u00e9 sits beside the tyrannosaur\u2019s body.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\nThe SECU DinoLab features researchers who employ CT-scans and digital imaging into their work. Some use X-ray fluorescence to learn about the chemistry fingerprint in the fossils and surrounding rocks and plants. Some are experts in paleopathologies, the injuries and diseases present in fossils. And some run high intensity light with wavelengths of lasers across the specimens to find things like feather and skin in the fossil blocks not detected in regular light. For instance, no scientist has ever found a Triceratops<\/em> specimen with preserved skin impressions from the top of the frill before. Might that change with Dueling Dinosaurs<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\nStay tuned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>
The Bone Collectors<\/h2>\n\n One of the goals of the Dueling Dinosaurs<\/em> exhibit is to remove barriers between scientists and the public. Here's a look at the researchers you'll get to see up close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Eric Lund, Manager, SECU DinoLab<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat he does:<\/em><\/strong> Directs the day-to-day operations of the lab, which includes the upkeep and safety of the equipment, and manages the preparation of the Dueling Dinosaurs<\/em> fossils. \u201cThe lab is unlike any other prep lab in the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy he digs dinosaurs:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to be a paleontologist since I was three. I\u2019m from back in the day when [at] Dinosaur National Monument [in Utah], they still worked on that big wall of fossils. My grandparents took me there when I was three on a family vacation, and I saw somebody working on that wall, actually just sitting there and trying to get a bone out of that wall. I was like, \u2018That\u2019s great. That\u2019s what I want to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nSounding the horn:<\/em><\/strong> Lund\u2019s favorites are the ceratopsian dinos, some of which are known for their horns. \u201cI started out as a duck-billed dinosaur worker. . . . [But] when I really dove into their anatomy, functional morphology and evolution, I just became fascinated with the horned dinosaurs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nJennifer Ann\u00e9, Assistant Manager, SECU DinoLab<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat she does: <\/em><\/strong>Focuses on histology, the study of microscopic tissues, and looks at the chemistry of fossils, looking for trace elements that are important for bone remodeling and repair. \u201cI also look at how things are fossilizing, and then I also do paleopathologies, [which are] injuries and diseases in the fossil record.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn what dinosaurs inspire in us:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cThey\u2019re right on the cusp of fantasy and reality. So they are real living organisms, but they\u2019re so amazingly weird that you can kind of be applying your science to understand them. The other thing is just because they do look so weird, and we don\u2019t have them around, no matter what we\u2019re applying to them, you still have to use a little bit of your imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHer favorite predator:<\/em><\/strong> The Allosaurus. \u201cIt\u2019s a Jurassic, large theropod, meat-eating dinosaur. About the size of our Dueling Dinosaurs<\/em> tyrannosaur. The reason I love Allosaurus is because we have a lot of them. And because we have a lot of specimens, we\u2019re able to say a little bit more about them. . . . We can see a lot more of these injuries in the dinosaurs, get a better idea of what kinds of diseases and injuries they\u2019re having. We can see different growth ranges. We can see different preservation styles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nElizabeth Jones \u201910, Project Manager, Cretaceous Creatures<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat she does: <\/em><\/strong>Develops the curriculum and materials for the public science project Cretaceous Creatures<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy dinosaurs are so alluring:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s long ago. It\u2019s long lost, and it\u2019s the thrill of discovery, and it\u2019s the thrill of the unknown. I think dinosaurs speak to our humanity. Our drive as humans to do insane things, like go into space, go under the ocean. Dinosaurs tap into that ancientness, that mystery. And the \u2018Why them?\u2019 and \u2018Could it be us next?\u2019 All signs point to \u2018yes,\u2019 it probably is us next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen she was first captivated:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cI was a kid that had no interest in dinosaurs, and I didn\u2019t pay attention to them until I was at NC State. I had to take a science elective. I took \u2018Dinosaurian World.\u2019 Dr. Mary Schweitzer was teaching it. I had no idea that she was a big deal . . . I mean pioneering molecular research with dinosaur fossils. And she took me under her wing. She said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you do the history of paleontology?\u2019 And I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHaviv Avrahami \u201918 MS, Digital Technician, SECU DinoLab<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat he does:<\/em><\/strong> Previously worked on the public science project Cretaceous Creatures<\/em>, compiling a database of microfossils middle school students can potentially find and used 3D modeling to build spinning animations of the microfossils. Now, he applies his techniques in the DinoLab.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat sticks out to him about <\/em>Dueling Dinosaurs<\/strong>:<\/strong> <\/em>\u201cThe biggest thing is that the dinosaurs are humongous. <\/em>Everything in the late-Cretaceous of North America, the animals just got gigantic. . . . The first time I went to Montana, I would be walking around, I\u2019d see a gigantic leg bone just sticking out the side of a hill that\u2019s the size of my coffee table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis top dino pick:<\/em><\/strong> Ornithischians, or just ornithopods. \u201cThey were smaller bodied. They were bipedal. They kind of looked like a vegetarian velociraptor. They had really gnarly front teeth that were really spiky. Then they had huge rows of leaf-shaped teeth going back on both their lower and upper jaws that were used to grind plants. . . . I\u2019m naming a new species of one for my dissertation. . . . I wish I could tell you the name right now. I will say I\u2019m naming it after the indigenous cultural mythology of the Chamorro people [of Guam].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/span><\/span>Expand to read more<\/span>Collapse<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/aside>\n\n\n\nThe Public<\/h4>\n\n\n\n Just as important as the specimens, research questions and methods used is the open lab environment and its lack of barriers. That\u2019s what made Jennifer Ann\u00e9 join the project in 2023. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved working in public labs, and so getting to work in a public lab that\u2019s trying something different was exciting,\u201d says Ann\u00e9, the lab\u2019s assistant manager who specializes in histology, the study of microscopic tissues, and chemistry. \u201cAnd seeing how much thought was going into this type of lab, just thinking of logistics of fossils and how they were really thinking about making this lab something that was high-quality research as well as something for the public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n