Paleontologist Leads Effort to Reconstruct Ecosystem

Dinosaur hunter John “Jack” Horner drives his four-wheeled ATV like he’s crazed. He veers down what passes for a road, a rutted, bouncy path that eventually gets him and his passenger bobbing on back within a long hike of buried dinosaurs.

“This is my office,” the paleontologist says, grinning as he looks out on the dry eastern Montana badlands.

This is where Horner has launched his latest project, one far more ambitious than just digging up bones. Buried in the hills are not only the remains of dinosaurs but, Horner believes, vast clues to their lives and the environment in which they lived their final 3 million years.

Horner plans to collect fossil evidence from rocks in what is known as the Hell Creek Formation to eventually reconstruct the ecosystem as it appeared 65 to 68 million years ago.

The Montana native and technical advisor to the “Jurassic Park” movies has gathered a team of top scientists from throughout the country, with backgrounds ranging from geology to invertebrate paleontology, for this project. It is considered the largest of its kind ever in the state.

The scientists want to learn more about the “lifestyles” of the dinosaurs--from diets to behavior. And they believe the clues are buried right alongside the mammoth beasts.

“It will probably be the most complete ecosystem ever interpreted, certainly for any of the time that the dinosaurs had been around,” said Horner, whose credits include finding the first dinosaur eggs in the Western Hemisphere and the first evidence of dinosaur colonial nesting.

The findings from Horner’s Hell Creek Project could also have benefits far beyond paleontology, including allowing researchers to study climate change over long periods.

“Here is a whole ecosystem no longer on earth. It’s very alien to us,” said Nels Peterson, a project crew chief from Corvallis.

“The paleo-ecology has never really been told,” said Marilyn Wessel, director of MSU’s Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, where Horner is curator of paleontology.

“Someone digs up a big dinosaur, but what does that tell us?” she said. “It’s interesting. But what can you learn about the environment from that?”

The findings from this dig, scientists say, also may provide better insight into what led to the dinosaurs’ demise.

“We can already say there were changes leading up to the extinction and these stories of a catastrophic environmental change because of an impact are overblown,” said Bill Clemens, a professor and curator in the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California-Berkeley.

Horner searched sites around the world before settling on eastern Montana, near Jordan.

Here, he said, the final 3-million-year period of the dinosaurs is preserved distinctly. Because of erosion, many bones and fossils already are exposed.

The formation is known for yielding dinosaur bones. Crew members last summer found five Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons and one, found by Horner’s wife, may be the largest.

It is hard, demanding work. Sometimes it’s downright treacherous. The weather ranges from a scalding dry heat to sudden downpours that can make just getting to the site nearly impossible. Sites are remote, their locations protected by project members to keep away a prying public.

Reaching the project sites is not easy. There are long hikes through clusters of cactus and tall grass. Some are reachable only by boat. Workers often rely on a helicopter to transport materials and fossils from the site.

“It gets brutal out here,” said DeLacy Williams, of Helena, pointing to the tarp meant to block the elements at a hillside T-rex site.

The work also is expensive, costing about $150,000 for the summer field season alone, Wessel said. It is paid with private donations. Universal Studios, makers of the two previous Jurassic Park movies and the second sequel out this month, put up a huge chunk--$150,000 over two years, she said.

Although more is known about dinosaurs today than ever, scientists want to learn even more.

Pat Leiggi, administrative director of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies is especially interested in such things as the feeding methods of T-rex, or whether the beast had much of a family life.

“To find out how they made a living and how successful they were would be exciting,” he said.

Peterson said Horner’s knowledge and work around the world makes working with him interesting and a learning experience.

“He’s not a normal person,” Peterson said. “There’s so much diversity there.”

Horner walks through grass and hot, stagnant valleys in rattlesnake country looking for bones. Colleagues say he has a knack--even a keen sense--for finding them.

“Jack’s the best I’ve ever known,” Leiggi said.

Horner, who said he found his first dinosaur bone at age 8, remains fascinated by them.

“I’ve always loved dinosaurs,” he said. “Dinosaurs are cool.”