Time Team Day 9 - Dinosaur Hunt: A Time Team Special

Good morning, the Time Team is taking their skills across the Atlantic and into America as part of our 31 Days of the Time Team.  This is a Time Team special called: Dinosaur Hunt: A Time Team Special.  The run time for this episode is 49:18.

Tony Robinson and Phil Harding travel to Montana to help dig for dinosaurs.  The pair accompany both professional and private “dinosaur hunters.”  Montana was full of dinosaurs.  What do these Dinosaur hunters do?  How do they dig up dinosaurs?  Over the next three weeks, Tony and Phil hope to learn more about the digs and perhaps dig a few dinosaurs themselves.  They will go to three different digs and learn about what goes on at those digs.  This will be a whole new experience for Phil and Tony. 

Tony and Phil take a road trip through Montana to reach their first digs.  The pair talk about their expectations about the digs and dinosaurs.  The first site is sponsored by the Museum of the Rockies.  Its location is secret to prevent bone thieves.  It is nicknamed the Bahamas.  They catch up with the site chief, Dave Varricchio, and he shows them the latest find.  The find is under plaster jackets to protect it.  Tony and Phil look at the toe of the dinosaur.

Phil questions whether or not the bones are together or jumbled up.  Dave tells him that the bones are jumbled up and Phil gets a small smile and said that Tony was talking about finding a complete skeleton.  Tony learns about the digging process and is surprised by the use of chisels and hammers.  The paleontologists shave off as much of the rock as they can to protect the bones and then they are covered in plaster.  The dinosaur bones are delicate and will need extra care to clean up.  Phil then asks his burning question: can he help on the dig?  You can hear him being sheepish when he asks the question.

Frankie Jackson guides him and how to dig up a dinosaur.  Phil starts working on the area under Frankie’s guidance.  Tony then talks about the different techniques used between the rock site and the dirt site.  Phil discovers his first dinosaur bone and is happy with the find.  It is the oldest thing Phil has ever dug.  It took him an hour to find the bone, while Tony has walking around the site finding bones.  Tony is shocked to find so many dinosaur bones at once.  Tony discovered that digging up dinosaur bones is a slow business.

On day two Phil and Tony take their dinosaur explorations to a second site.  They go to a tourist town and this town is at the heart of the Montana dinosaur belt.  They go and sign up to participate in a dig.  Phil and Tony will take the day to dig.  They will work on an area that was just exposed.  Tony is determined to find a bone before Phil.  Tony highlights the controversy about this second site and talks about the commercialization of digging up dinosaur bones.  Sometimes bones are sold on the market around Montana.  Phil and Tony learn more about the sale of bones on the internet and do some research.  Phil comments that the sale of dinosaur bones and he said that it made him sick.

Then they take an eight-hour drive to the eastern side of Montana and go to a third dig.  Here they will meet up with John Horner, one of the most successful dinosaur hunters in Montana.  This dig is located in Hell Creek, Montana, and is home to one of the largest dinosaur excavations in the world.  What will the Tony and Phil Roadshow find in this area?  Will Phil get over his fear of snakes?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

This is one totally different Time Team.  The Tony and Phil Roadshow was enjoyable to watch and it was fun to watch the pair learning new techniques.  It was funny to see Tony so exasperated with how slow the digging went as well.  This would be a good episode to show to an earth science class because of the focus on paleontology.