December 28, 2003 The Antarctic Sun • 9 Paleontologists search for dinosaur bones at a site on Mt. Kirkpatrick. Photo by Andy Sajor / Special to The Antarctic Sun Dinosaur hunters dig up new beast By Kristan Hutchison About 100 feet above the cry- Sun staff olophosaurus, mountaineer Peter Braddock ielding hammers, crowbars spotted another bit of exposed bone. He and dynamite, the dinosaur showed it to Hammer, who identified it as hunters tracked down a new either part of a pelvis or shoulder of a sauro- animal, but they couldn’t get pod. W Blaster Marty Reed set charges of dyna- all their quarry home. Paleontologist Bill Hammer suspects the mite near the surface of the rock at three newly uncovered bones on Mt. Kirkpatrick foot intervals. A boom like fireworks could be the remains of a primitive sauro- exploded down the mountain, but only the pod, a type of herbivorous dinosaur with six dinosaur hunters were close enough to long neck and tail that lived from 248 mil- hear it. lion to 65 million years ago. Though “The main thing is you have to use light Hammer won’t know until he has time to charges so you fracture the rock,” said study it back in the lab, it is likely to be a Reed, who fractured the rock to within a new species. foot of the bones. “Anything we find down here is very dif- From there the team worked with pick ferent from other parts of the world,” axes, rock hammers, crow bars and rock Hammer said. saws to free the beast locked in rock. The The last time Hammer visited Mt. team retrieved about 1,500 lbs of rock and Kirkpatrick, 13 years ago, he dug up the bone, but left more buried in the hillside. remains of the first, and only, carnivorous “I’m happy with what we found,” dinosaur found in Antarctica. The 22-foot Hammer said. “There’s still more going cryolophosaurus turned out to be the oldest back in there. We probably have another of its kind from anywhere in the world. whole season’s work there.” “We know very little about the early Hammer also wanted to visit five other Jurassic, particularly on the southern conti- Photo by Kristan Hutchison / The Antarctic Sun sites where dinosaurs may be hiding, but nents,” Hammer said. The only other Bill Hammer shows one of the new bad weather kept him from flying there. He Jurassic site in the southern hemisphere is in dinosaur bones found on Mt. Kirkpatrick believes many of the ridges between the South Africa. With about 35 percent of the ton from a Canadian maker and tried to peaks may hold Jurassic bones. cryolophosaurus’ skeleton, Hammer was drive back across the border. “There’s actually a lot more out there able to create a model of the entire dinosaur. “It was too crazy a story to make up, but than it appears on the map,” Hammer said. A month after Sept. 11 he picked up a full- we still got hassled,” said Hammer, who sized reconstruction of the dinosaur skele- NSF funded research: Bill Hammer, Augustana spent two hours convincing customs offi- College. cials the dinosaur was legitimate. The skele- ton is now displayed at Augustana University, where Hammer teaches. This month Hammer led a team of six back to Mt. Kirkpatrick, hoping to retrieve any remaining cryolophosaurus bones, and find something new. He found about 35 more bones at the cryolophosaurus site, including vertebrae and a toe. The bones may belong to cryolophosaurus or other dinosaurs from the same site. Marty Reed sets dynamite to crack open the rock above hidden dinosaur remains. Photos by Andy Sajor / Special to The Antarctic Sun PALEOZOIC MESOZOIC CENOZOIC 248 206 144 million years ago 65 PERMIAN TRIASSIC JURASSIC CRETACEOUS TERTIARY.