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Even better, because it had been explored so little, it might even hold species previ-
ously unknown to science.
It was during their digging around the specimen, and Dave taking notes about
the sedimentary rocks immediately around the bones, that he began to notice
something peculiar. What he experienced is a feeling shared by many field-oriented
scientists, expressed succinctly in a quote by famed science fiction writer Isaac
Asimov: “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new dis-
coveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny …'” Dave noticed that the bones were
concentrated in an egg-shaped mass of sandstone, which also was better cemented
than the surrounding and overlying mudstone. He looked above where the bones
were located, and saw that the sandstone continued upward as a vertical structure,
and then turned to the right.
That's funny
, he thought. This structure had to have
been a significantly sized hole that was later filled by sand from above, making a
natural cast of it. What would have made such a hollow form during the Cretaceous
Period, and one that also had a dinosaur at the end of it? Even better, the dino-
saur was a small ornithopod. Although Dave could not yet identify its species, it
reminded him of
Orodromeus
, another small ornithopod dinosaur he had seen often
in northwestern Montana. As mentioned before, he had suspected
Orodromeus
was
a burrowing dinosaur, but lacked the key supplementary evidence for it: namely, a
burrow. But now it looked like he might have both a trace fossil and its tracemaker
together.
Fortunatelyforhim,andforvertebratepaleontologyingeneral,Daveisacare-
ful observer and cautious with his interpretations. He knew that much more eviden-
ce needed to be gathered to address a few key questions. For example, was this odd
structure really a burrow, or just a hole in the ground made by some other process,
such as erosion along a riverbank? Even if it were a burrow, was the dinosaur in it
the same one that made it? If this dinosaur was not the burrowmaker, what was it
doing there, and how did it become entombed in the burrow? Did it die in there, or
