Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fortheproverbial“thirdtime'sthecharm”attempt,towardtheendof2006we
sent our report to a venerable British journal,
Proceedings of the Royal Society of
London
. This time, the editor kindly gave us a chance and sent the article to two re-
viewers, both of whom signed their names to their honest and in-depth assessments
of the research. One agreed with nearly everything we said, but the other thought
we had placed too much emphasis on biologically based arguments and needed to
include more geological evidence. Oddly, the editor then told us the paper was “re-
jected,” but encouraged us to resubmit a revised article. It was like being told by
a date that he or she thinks you're ugly, smelly, and stupid, but would like to go
out with you again, just as long as you lose some weight, take a shower, and start
playing Sudoku. Nonetheless, we did as told, revised and resubmitted, and the pa-
per was finally accepted.
In February 2007, the online version of the paper was finally released, which
coincidedwithoursendingoutpressreleases,andagoodamountofmediaattention
followed. Granted, this was not a feathered dinosaur from China, nor was it a close
relative of
Tyrannosaurus rex
. Nevertheless, after 95 million years,
Oryctodromeus
cubicularis
, a dinosaur buried in a burrow of its making and with its offspring, was
now known to the rest of the world. The words “denning,” “burrowing,” and “dino-
saur” could be used in the same sentence, and thanks to a fortuitous combination of
trace and body fossil evidence, dinosaurs had entered yet another dimension in our
Mesozoic imaginations: underground.
Dinosaurs Down Under
We were lost. As a result, this otherwise fine fall day of May 10, 2006 had turned
into an unexpectedly long one for our group of eight while we hiked atop the high
cliffs of Cretaceous rocks along coastal Victoria, Australia. We were looking for an
auspiciously named locality—Knowledge Creek—that continued to elude us des-
pite our maps, GPS units, and field-savvy participants, including a few Australians
who knew the surrounding area. Having already taken two wrong turns down to-
ward the shore, only to double back and climb up, we were all becoming a bit tired
