Dinosaur Breakout

by Judith Silverthorne

  When they were back in the truck again, Daniel ventured to ask, “How did you convince them to apologize?”

  “I didn’t give them a choice, “ Pederson answered in a tone Daniel knew meant the subject was closed.

  Daniel thought about the events of the day so far. It was barely ten o’clock. What else was going to happen?

  They headed down the main street to the old rink, which had become the temporary museum. The Quonset-shaped building had a huge banner across it announcing the “Climax Dinosaur & Historical Museum.” The original town museum had moved into the new location, along with the new dinosaur material, in the spring. Everything had been reorganized to incorporate the Edmontosaurus information Pederson had discovered.

  As they entered the museum, Marlene, a cheerful fifty-year-old volunteer, greeted them.

  “Well, if it isn’t Ole Pederson and his young protegé, Daniel Bringham.”

  “Everything going okay?” Pederson asked her.

  “Just fine, Ole,” she said, straightening up some brochures on the information desk. “We had sixty-five visitors to the museum yesterday.”

  “Great,” he said. “Let’s hope there are even more today!”

  They took a quick walk through the paleontological part of the museum, heading straight to the replicated Edmontosaurus nest and eggs, which had been there since the opening. Pederson had made a name for himself with the discovery. It had been the first nearly totally intact Edmontosaurus skeleton, and the only nest of their eggs so far. He’d written a paper on it that had been published in one of the more prestigious paleontology magazines.

  They stood in front of the display sign that read “Roxanne,” with an explanation of where the Edmon-tosaurus had been found. She was nicknamed Roxanne, a favourite name of Ole Pederson. The full skeleton exhibit was a replica on loan from the Tyrell Museum for the next few years until Pederson’s discovery could be fully prepared and examined. Daniel knew this was the usual procedure in museums and that real skeletons were rarely on display.

  “They sure did a fine reproduction job!” Pederson said, looking proudly at the nest of sand with a variety of partly hatched eggs and one baby dinosaur crawling up the side.

  Daniel noticed the glow of satisfaction on the old man’s crinkled face and felt cheered and happy that he’d been part of the experience. He was also incredibly pleased to be part of Pederson’s latest digs. Who knew what they would find next!

  Pederson nodded at Daniel and silently they both turned and headed to the front desk.

  “You’re sure you have everything you need, then, Marlene?” Pederson asked.

  “All under control,” she said with respect.

  “All right, then, we’ll be off.”

  On their way out of town, they passed by the little house Pederson used in the wintertime. He also had an old shack in the hills, but it wasn’t very protective from the often arcticlike winter weather on the prairies. Even though he preferred working there, his arthritis kept him away; but at the first signs of spring he moved himself totally out to the cabin.

  After they passed the tiny town of Frontier, Daniel stared out at the large sloughs, mostly dried up now, but with random islands of pink flowers growing abundantly in them. Maybe there was a similarity between these sloughs and the low-lying marshes of the Cretaceous Period? From what he’d seen, it certainly seemed so.

  Once they swung north onto the number 614 grid road, they drove for several miles on gravel again. Grass-hoppers swirled up from the ditches of long grass, splatting onto the windshield in a steady barrage along with other flying insects, smudging the glass and making it difficult to see. When the truck wheels hit the pavement again, Daniel heaved a sigh. They were almost at Eastend.

  He never ceased to marvel at how the landscape changed from a relatively flat plain and then took a major dip into the valley, with Eastend nestled at the bottom in a long coulee. The town sprawled along the winding Frenchman River amongst a long sweep of lush trees. It had begun in about 1887 as the most eastern detachment from Fort Walsh, a North West Mounted Police (nwmp) post, and was at the east end of their patrol. The name Eastend had stuck, from the constant reference to the location of the post.

  Daniel examined the town as they drove in past the Co-op Centre, the Super Thrifty Drug Store, and the grocery store. The extra-wide streets left plenty of room for angle parking on both sides, especially on Main Street. At the end of the block, Pederson parked in

  front of the Red Coat Booksellers store, one of Daniel’s favourite haunts.

  “I’ll go to the credit union first and meet you back here at the bookstore,” Pederson said, heading across the street.

  Daniel climbed the steps that led to the bookstore and opened the door. He stood in the doorway breathing in the slightly musty smell of old books, mingled with the crispness of ink and new paper, which he loved. The floor-to-ceiling shelves were loaded with used, new, and rare books on every subject Daniel could imagine. His prime target was the shelf in the back of the store that held all the paleontology books. Many were of a technical nature, some a little too technical for him to read, but that didn’t stop him from looking at them. He nodded at the young red-haired woman behind the counter as he passed.

  He was so immersed in a book on the evolution of birds that Daniel didn’t hear Pederson come in until he spoke behind him.

  “Something new, lad?”

  Daniel jumped. “Yeah. Look at this!”

  Daniel showed him the open page of drawings of successive birdlike species from the prehistoric periods to modern day. Pederson studied if for a moment.

  “Hmmm! Some new theories at last.” Pederson gently took the book from Daniel and looked at the publication page, then the cover. “Bracken’s a good scientist,” he said. “Maybe we’ll just have to have this one for our library.”

  Pederson handed the book back to Daniel. “What do you say?”

  “Don’t buy it just on account of me,” Daniel answered, feeling a little guilty at prompting Pederson to buy the book.

  “It’s for both us!” Pederson answered. “Anything else of interest?”

  Daniel shook his head, afraid to speak out again.

  “All right, then, we’re off.”

  Soon they were heading across the little bridge over the river and up the winding gravel road to the T.rex Discovery Centre halfway up the valley. The centre had been dug into the side of a hill, following the long natural curve. Actually, the top of the hill had been cut away and then replaced with soil and native plants once the building was complete, so that it looked like it had been entirely carved out of the hillside. All that stuck out was the curved front of the building, done in stone and glass, which looked benevolently over the town of Eastend.

  Daniel had been there a couple of times with his school classes, and he and Mr. Pederson had gone once in the early stages of setting up the museum in Climax. Something new was always being added to the displays as the paleontology work was completed.

  As they walked around the curved sidewalk to the entrance, Pederson said, “Tim Tokaryk has agreed to meet with me. And so has the Executive Director of the Centre and the Eastend Tourism Authority. Would you like to join us?”

  Daniel only took a split second to reach a decision.

  “Nah, you go ahead. I’ll hang out in the museum.”

  “I thought so.” Pederson nodded knowingly and swung open the big double glass doors. They were greeted by the museum staff, who collected their entrance fees and offered to answer any questions. Pederson explained his mission and was ushered into Mr. Caswell’s office, tucked away behind the gift shop.

  One of the guides said to Daniel, “The documentary on finding Scotty will start in five minutes, if you’re interested.”

  “Cool,” he answered. Even though he’d already seen it with his school class, he wanted to see it again. “I’ll be right there.”

  First, he needed to check something out. Without hesitation he walked
into the first section of the museum and peered about. Then he saw it. Hurrying over to a huge footprint display, he squatted down to examine it. Yup! This was what he’d seen, all right!

  He compared the length of his arm to the toe impressions, then measured the whole thing by stepping along its length with his feet one in front of the other, his heels butted against the toes of his sneakers. At home he’d measure his feet and calculate how long the impressions were in metric measurements.

  When Daniel was sure no one was looking his way, he lay down on the floor and matched himself against it. He remembered how he’d awoken in the past with his head crunched into the depression of the main foot.

  There was little doubt he’d been lying in a Tyran-nosaurus rex footprint!

  Chapter Five

  “Are you all right?” asked a dark-haired girl bending over Daniel.

  He still lay on the floor beside the T. rex footprint, deep in thought. He jumped to his feet.

  “Yes, sorry, I was just getting an idea of size.” He felt his face go hot.

  The girl with the red museum staff t-shirt smiled. “The show is about to start.”

  Twenty minutes later, Daniel emerged from the theatre contemplating what he’d just seen. Somehow his perspective had changed now that he’d experienced the Cretaceous time personally. He was even more curious to know more about paleontology and what life was really like in the past. Maybe he could set a few records straight!

  He never tired of seeing and hearing about the T. rex discovery and how they managed to excavate and move the large skeleton to the facility in Eastend. Now it took on new meaning. He could envision what the enormous creature looked like in the flesh and compare it to the massive skeleton left behind.

  The museum staff had had to extract Scotty in sections, first deciding where to make each of the four divisions. Then they’d wrapped each piece many times in burlap and plaster to keep it intact. This made the blocks even heavier and more difficult to manipulate. With careful precision, they used a team of Percheron workhorses to turn over the prepared section. Then they wrapped the underside for total preservation. The huge chunks, weighing up to four tonnes, were then loaded onto a flatbed truck, using a large front-end loader. Roxanne had been excavated in much the same way as Scotty, except they hadn’t needed to use the horses.

  Daniel strolled past the display of a menacing, three-toed T. rex foot. He could almost crawl between the toes! No wonder the earth ripped open when one of those creatures walked about.

  He headed over to the glass partition that separated the museum from the research station lab. He stared at the huge white blocks of plastered fossils lying on the floor and on shelves that reached the ceiling on one side of the room. He was reading the display cards on the exposed fossils just inside the window, when Pederson and two other men joined him.

  “Daniel, you already know Tim Tokaryk. And this is Mark Caswell.”

  “Nice to see you again, Mr. Tokaryk,” said Daniel. He’d just seen him in the documentary and felt awed to be in his presence again. He’d also seen him a few times at the Edmontosaurus dig when he’d come out to help retrieve it, but Daniel hadn’t had an opportunity to spend much time with him there.

  “Please call me Tim. I’m no different than I was last summer,” the well-known paleontologist offered, smiling. He seemed to have noticed Daniel’s reverence.

  “And pleased to meet you, sir,” Daniel said to Mr. Caswell, shaking both men’s hands in turn.

  “And I’m Mark,” Mr. Caswell said in an equally friendly manner.

  “Thanks,” said Daniel.

  They both looked curiously at the bandages on Daniel’s head.

  “I fell against some rocks,” he said, feeling compelled to explain.

  “During research?” Mark asked.

  “Something like that,” Daniel answered, unwilling to describe the real reason.

  “Paleontology does have its dangers,” Tim said.

  Daniel pointed to the lab. “This is awesome!”

  “Would you like to have a closer look?” asked Tim.

  “As sure as T. rexes are carnivores!” Daniel replied, excited at the prospect of seeing the activities up close. Mr. Caswell excused himself, saying he had work to do back in his office. He shook their hands again.

  “Please come any time, and if there’s anything we can do for you, we’d be happy to accommodate you. It’s always an honour to work with respected paleontologists,” said Mark, seeming to include Daniel in his compliment. Then he turned to answer a summons from one of the staff.

  Daniel and Mr. Pederson followed Mr. Tokaryk back through the foyer, into an education room and through some doors that said “Staff Only.” Daniel wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but the paleontologist was no less friendly than he’d been out at their dig. Even in his formal setting, he was just a regular nice guy. Dark, compassionate eyes, glasses, a regular t-shirt and jeans; someone who took the time to talk to a kid! His face, framed by a receding hairline, Fu Manchu moustache, and a light beard, gave a welcoming, knowledgeable, and approachable presence. What a thrill to be in the working lab of the man who had spearheaded the T. rex dig!

  As they entered the lab, Daniel noticed three work tables, each equipped with large, movable, lighted magnifiers, electrical drills, and a myriad of picks, tools, and brushes. They also were covered with fossils being worked on, and drawings and research information easily accessible at the fingertips of the scientists. A huge exhaust system wound through the room and out of the building.

  Fossils, some exposed, and others wrapped in the typical burlap and coated with plaster like huge white rocks, were placed methodically on every conceivable shelf and counter of the spacious room. What was really neat was that visitors to the centre could watch the scientists at work through the glass partition.

  Daniel felt privileged to be inside the lab and stood taking all the information in. Much of the equipment was similar to what Pederson had at his home and digs,

  but this was far more sophisticated and fancy. Pederson seemed impressed too. He looked carefully at the tools, then headed towards the shelves with all the stored fossils.

  “The only part of the T. rex we’ve prepared so far is the skull.” Tim Tokaryk pointed to the display at the front of the room. “It will take us years to do the whole thing. The skeleton is about sixty-five percent present, and is considered one of the most complete in the world to date. We’ll be preparing the limbs next.”

  “How do you figure Scotty died, Tim?” Daniel asked. T. rexes seemed so ferocious and dangerous to all the other creatures of the time that he couldn’t imagine something overpowering this top predator. Especially after what he’d seen when he’d somehow gone back into the prehistoric time. What would dare attack a Tyran-nosaurus rex?

  Tim turned to answer Daniel with a thoughtful look. “Hard to say, really. Even if we had completed the investigation, I don’t know if we’d know for sure. On first examination, there doesn’t appear to be any indication of excessive scarring on the skeleton. No physical reasons. There are no bone injuries, no damage to the skull, or anything of that sort in what’s been studied so far.”

  “What about disease?” Daniel thought to ask.

  “Nothing that we’re familiar with at this stage,” Tim answered. “But anything’s plausible – disease, starvation. There would be similar factors to those that face animals today.”

  Daniel indicated the skull. “Maybe he just died of old age. How old was Scotty?”

  Tim laughed. “That’s tough too. We think he was probably a young one, maybe like a teenager! He definitely wasn’t a full-grown adult, because the skull bones are disassociated, but the skeleton is too large to be a toddler either.”

  “What does disassociated mean?” Daniel asked.

  “Even in humans, when babies are born, there are parts of the skull bones that are not fully attached, which makes the birthing process easier, but as we become older they gradually fill in and
develop, along with the growth of the brain, permanent teeth, and changes in facial structure that occur naturally,” Tim explained patiently.

  “Something similar happens with dinosaurs. By the time they reach early adulthood, all the bones are fused together, and in Scotty’s case they are not, so we’ve de-duced he’s probably still a young T. rex.”

  “Cool,” Daniel said. “So then it’s hard to tell what his death was like?”

  “We can tell from where the skeleton was deposited that he died near or in a river system,” Tim explained. “The carcass was trapped in an oxbow type of bend. An overbank may have dropped on top of it, and then the dirt and trees acted like a sieve to help preserve it.”

  He moved over to the skull on display. “See those?”

  “Yeah! Those teeth are deadly!” Daniel said, remembering his private experience when he travelled into the past.

  “Kind of like giant bananas,” Tim smiled. “Only with edges like steak knives. The tooth is half root and half chomper!”

  Daniel laughed. Then he instantly sobered. He’d seen them in action.

  Tim continued his explanation, pointing to the jaw. “The gum line keeps the tooth in place. Usually the teeth are shed when we find the skulls. The teeth shoot out with the pressure of the water, but these stayed with the skull, probably because they were trapped by the debris from overhead.”

  Another man entered, acknowledged the visitors, and began working at one of the tables. Tim introduced him as Wes Long, an rsm technician. Pederson wandered over to examine what he was working and to chat with him.

  “We also have several volunteers and other staff members that work here from time to time,” Tim explained to Daniel. “We work on other fossils besides Scotty – the crocodile from the Carrot River area, the birdlike creatures, and a new Mosasaur find at Diefenbaker Lake.”

  “Wow!” Daniel’s mind whirled; so much going on here that he hadn’t realized. Somehow he’d figured they were just concentrating on Scotty’s remains. They walked over and looked at the crocodile fossil.