September 27, 2006
The Giant Dinosaurs of Patagonia
Dr. William Gallagher
Curator at the New Jersey State Museum
Minutes of the Third Meeting of the 65th Year
The 85 members present were gaveled to order by President Joe Giordmaine promptly at 10:15 AM.
George Hansen led the Invocation. Wonderfully perceptive minutes of the previous week’s talk by humorist Joseph Cardone were read by John Frederick. Brooks Dyer introduced his guest Leonard Schwartz, a World War II veteran who worked his way up from stock boy at Brentano’s to CEO of that publishing house. Charlie Stenard moved for election to membership the 15 applicants introduced at the last meeting. The candidates listed below were approved unanimously: Herb Abelson, Juris Apse, Carl Brown, John Burton, Carmen Catanese, Arthur Eschenlauer, Alvin Gordon, Bruce LaBar, Dave McAlpin, Juliana McIntyre, Scott McVay, Bob Middlebrook, Ev Pinneo, Jack Reilly, Stan Tarr.
Jim Johnson introduced our speaker, Dr. William Gallagher, Assistant Curator of the New Jersey State Museum. Dr. Gallagher, a Rutgers graduate received his Doctorate from Penn and has written a book and many articles in his field of Paleontology. His lifetime interest in the subject began when he was 8.When he was 15 he discovered a fossil type which was named for him.
Dr. Gallagher’s topic was “The Giant Dinosaurs of Patagonia” and he began the report of his NSF funded field trip there with students from Drexel by telling us about some of the prehistoric animals that roamed the wilds of Camden and Gloucester County New Jersey. For example, the first reasonably full skeleton of a dinosaur ever found was discovered in 1858 in Haddonfield NJ. There is today a statue of that beast in the town square.
To whet our appetites further, Dr. Gallagher described briefly the astonishing size of the largest land creatures of which we have evidence. Among the carnivores, Tyrannosaurus Rex, at 42 feet and 7 tons was only recently topped by the former Patagonian resident, Giganotosaurus at 45 feet and 8 tons. Yet these frightful creatures would hardly be noticed in the presence of the nightmare sized Brachiosaurus and Argentinosaurus, the latter two weighing in at 80 and 100 tons respectively.
If you are in the Northeast US and want to visit the fossil site in Patagonia, you must truly want to go. It is located at the extreme southwest corner of South America, and it takes three planes and two days of travel to get there. To complete the trip to the field site from the town of Calafate is still more work. The site is beside the Rio La Leona which, along with the Rio Santa Cruz, drain the Lago Argentino. That lake in turn is fed by two huge glaciers that bracket it. The barren rocky area studied is about the size of Connecticut and contains but three habitable structures. There is a sharply layered outcropping that contains the fossils in question. The area is the place where Charles Darwin discovered remains of a giant Armadillo, the Glyptodon, whose resemblance to the smaller creature is said to have begun his thoughts on evolution and adaptation.
Among the fossil remains found of a Sauropod (a suborder of herbivorous, long-necked quadrupeds of which the Brachiosaurus and Argentiosaurus are genera) were teeth, which were small and used for raking rather than chewing, and a rare jawbone. The chewing process was evidently accomplished in the stomach by means of small stones which were swallowed for the purpose! Because the neck was quite flexible, it decays sooner than the rest of the body and the skull is rarely found nearby. Great care must be taken in moving the delicate fossils, and they are often put in plaster casts for transport.
Observations by the scientists were not limited to long dead fossils. Guanacos, llama like animals and the spectacular condor with its 12-foot wingspan were some of the live fauna seen.
The cataclysmic event that ended the reign of the huge land animals was discussed. There is an ongoing debate as to whether the extinctions were sudden and for example the result of meteors hitting the earth or the result of gradual climate change. The factors affecting extinction impinge upon large animals and small ones quite differently, as the time to reproduce, the availability of food and range are markedly different for very small and very large animals. Thus, the things causing extinction have quite different effects on different species.
The speaker ended his presentation by noting that we observe now alarming changes in our environment. The glaciers are melting, the seas rising, the global temperature increasing, and we can obtain clues as to what the future portends by studying the extinction of species now long gone.
A lively question and answer session followed this most interesting talk.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lee Neuwirth
George Hansen led the Invocation. Wonderfully perceptive minutes of the previous week’s talk by humorist Joseph Cardone were read by John Frederick. Brooks Dyer introduced his guest Leonard Schwartz, a World War II veteran who worked his way up from stock boy at Brentano’s to CEO of that publishing house. Charlie Stenard moved for election to membership the 15 applicants introduced at the last meeting. The candidates listed below were approved unanimously: Herb Abelson, Juris Apse, Carl Brown, John Burton, Carmen Catanese, Arthur Eschenlauer, Alvin Gordon, Bruce LaBar, Dave McAlpin, Juliana McIntyre, Scott McVay, Bob Middlebrook, Ev Pinneo, Jack Reilly, Stan Tarr.
Jim Johnson introduced our speaker, Dr. William Gallagher, Assistant Curator of the New Jersey State Museum. Dr. Gallagher, a Rutgers graduate received his Doctorate from Penn and has written a book and many articles in his field of Paleontology. His lifetime interest in the subject began when he was 8.When he was 15 he discovered a fossil type which was named for him.
Dr. Gallagher’s topic was “The Giant Dinosaurs of Patagonia” and he began the report of his NSF funded field trip there with students from Drexel by telling us about some of the prehistoric animals that roamed the wilds of Camden and Gloucester County New Jersey. For example, the first reasonably full skeleton of a dinosaur ever found was discovered in 1858 in Haddonfield NJ. There is today a statue of that beast in the town square.
To whet our appetites further, Dr. Gallagher described briefly the astonishing size of the largest land creatures of which we have evidence. Among the carnivores, Tyrannosaurus Rex, at 42 feet and 7 tons was only recently topped by the former Patagonian resident, Giganotosaurus at 45 feet and 8 tons. Yet these frightful creatures would hardly be noticed in the presence of the nightmare sized Brachiosaurus and Argentinosaurus, the latter two weighing in at 80 and 100 tons respectively.
If you are in the Northeast US and want to visit the fossil site in Patagonia, you must truly want to go. It is located at the extreme southwest corner of South America, and it takes three planes and two days of travel to get there. To complete the trip to the field site from the town of Calafate is still more work. The site is beside the Rio La Leona which, along with the Rio Santa Cruz, drain the Lago Argentino. That lake in turn is fed by two huge glaciers that bracket it. The barren rocky area studied is about the size of Connecticut and contains but three habitable structures. There is a sharply layered outcropping that contains the fossils in question. The area is the place where Charles Darwin discovered remains of a giant Armadillo, the Glyptodon, whose resemblance to the smaller creature is said to have begun his thoughts on evolution and adaptation.
Among the fossil remains found of a Sauropod (a suborder of herbivorous, long-necked quadrupeds of which the Brachiosaurus and Argentiosaurus are genera) were teeth, which were small and used for raking rather than chewing, and a rare jawbone. The chewing process was evidently accomplished in the stomach by means of small stones which were swallowed for the purpose! Because the neck was quite flexible, it decays sooner than the rest of the body and the skull is rarely found nearby. Great care must be taken in moving the delicate fossils, and they are often put in plaster casts for transport.
Observations by the scientists were not limited to long dead fossils. Guanacos, llama like animals and the spectacular condor with its 12-foot wingspan were some of the live fauna seen.
The cataclysmic event that ended the reign of the huge land animals was discussed. There is an ongoing debate as to whether the extinctions were sudden and for example the result of meteors hitting the earth or the result of gradual climate change. The factors affecting extinction impinge upon large animals and small ones quite differently, as the time to reproduce, the availability of food and range are markedly different for very small and very large animals. Thus, the things causing extinction have quite different effects on different species.
The speaker ended his presentation by noting that we observe now alarming changes in our environment. The glaciers are melting, the seas rising, the global temperature increasing, and we can obtain clues as to what the future portends by studying the extinction of species now long gone.
A lively question and answer session followed this most interesting talk.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lee Neuwirth