How To: Find dinosaur fossils

Where do you go? How do you know how to look for fossils? How about dinosaur fossils? That's a very good question, and the Museum of the Rockies has the answer, along with Mark B. Goodwin, Ph.D., Assistant Director of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Paleontologists do a lot of research before they actually get out to the field. They need to know what kind of rocks are there exposed, and that's very important because the age tells them what animals they might find. The kind of rocks are also important. They look for fossils and sedimentary rocks that were laid down by rivers and streams when these animals actually lived.

Once out in the field, paleontologists do a lot of walking, however don't do any digging until they find something. They're prospecting or looking for fossils that will provide clues. They look for bone that's actually weathering out, eroding out of the surface. That gives some clues to what's beneath the surface.