This is Throwback Thursday #20. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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Elmer Riggs on an expedition in Bolivia, 1927. The photo's description notes that this is a dig site for Lestodon, a group of extinct ground sloths. Field Museum Photo Archives
The Field Museum has a blog post about a dinosaur named for Elmer Riggs. Elmer the man, was the Field Museum's first field paleontologist. He collected fossils on multiple continents (North and South America). He was employed by the Field Museum from 1899 until he retired in 1942. Although he found countless specimens for the museum, he is probably best known for presenting evidence that Apatosaurus and Brontosaurs were species of the same animal (Note: since 2015, they are again separate taxa).
Geology preparator John Abbott, on the expedition with Riggs, wraps the dinosaur specimen in a plaster jacket, in preparation to move it out of the field. Alberta, Canada, 1922. Field Museum Photo Archives
Elmer the dinosaur is a species of Gorgosaurus, actually a young tyrannosaur. It was discovered in 1922 in Alberta, Canada by Elmer the man. The bones spent 77 years encased in plaster field jackets. Finally in 1999, fossil preparators took time to open the jackets and prepare the bones. It was then that they were finally identified as a Gorgosaurus.
For every specimen you can see out on display at the Museum, there are many more behind the scenes. Our scientists and visiting researchers are always studying what’s in our collection—and sometimes, we make unexpected discoveries.
One such mystery in our collection was a dinosaur fossil discovered by Elmer Riggs, the Field’s first paleontologist. Riggs and his team unearthed the specimen in question on a 1922 expedition to Alberta, Canada. Riggs noted in his records that he suspected it was a “little carnivorous dinosaur,” but it was part of our collection for nearly eight decades before we understood what a fascinating find it really was.
In 1999, fossil preparators finally had the opportunity to open up field jackets containing Riggs's dinosaur. After painstakingly removing rock from around the fossils, our scientists were able to identify the mystery dino: Gorgosaurus, a young tyrannosaurid that’s related to the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex.
Fondly nicknamed “Elmer” after Riggs himself, this cousin of T. rex is an exciting find. Though we don’t have the full skeleton, the parts we do have are remarkably complete. Riggs’ team found the skull, neck bones, hips, both legs—including a 100-percent-complete right foot—and a nearly complete eight-foot-long tail. What makes Elmer even more interesting is that it’s a young dinosaur. It gives us a unique look at the bones of a juvenile, which we can study to better understand dinosaur growth as a whole.
