Digging with his dad, a preschooler finds a dinosaur bone
By Fort Worth Star-Telegram, adapted by Newsela staff on 04.20.15 Word Count 665
(From left) Bill Johnson, Wylie Brys and Tim Brys work at a site where a dinosaur bone was
found in Mansfield, Texas, April 8, 2015. Tim and his 4-year-old son, Wylie, found the bone
near a construction site. Photo: Khampha Bouaphanh/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS
MANSFIELD, Texas — Wylie Brys is not even in kindergarten, but he has made the discovery
of a lifetime.
Last fall, the 4-year-old from Arlington, Texas, and his dad were searching for fish fossils, the
remains of ancient fish. The preschooler found a bone that has gotten scientists pretty excited.
The 3-inch bone turned out to be part of a Nodosaurus. The 94-million-year-old dinosaur looked
like a “fat, squatty cow with armor,” said Michael Polcyn, a paleontologist from Southern
Methodist University (SMU) in Texas. Paleontologists are scientists who study fossils.
First Find Since 1990s
At first, the paleontologists were doubtful that the bone was from a rare dinosaur. They did not
think much could be found on a construction site less than 100 yards from a busy road.
They thought the bone was probably from a plesiosaur, an ancient marine reptile. Plesiosaur
fossils can be found all over the Dallas area, SMU paleontologist Dale Winkler said.
Scientists were not expecting to find much of the Nodosaurus, Winkler said. “It looked like the
bones had been spread around. We started digging and one bone connected to another bone that
connected to another bone that connected to another bone,” he said.
The paleontologists, along with volunteers from the Dallas Paleontological Society, started
digging on April 3. They found more than 50 percent of the Nodosaurus. It was one of only five
ever found in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the first since the 1990s.
Wylie's dinosaur is the most complete of all, said SMU paleontologist Louis Jacobs. He wrote
"Lone Star Dinosaurs," a book about the history of dinosaurs in Texas.
“Much of the skeleton is there,” Jacobs said. “We don’t know how much. We took out legs, the
backbone and ribs.”
The Size Of A Small Horse
Winkler, Polcyn and members of the paleontological society pulled out most of the body
Monday. They found a thighbone Wednesday morning in the thick red clay soil about a yard
from the original bone.
“We didn’t think anything else was in there,” Winkler said.
The paleontologists wrapped the bones in plaster. They moved the 6-foot-by-3- foot, 18-inchthick lump to Jacobs’ lab at SMU. There, they will take the skeleton apart, clean the bones and
try to put the dinosaur back together.
The scientists say they probably will never know why the Nodosaurus died.
Nodosaurs were like the armadillos of the dinosaur world. They were short, squat and covered in
armored plates with soft bellies. The reptiles, which are not related to today’s armadillos, ate
plants and were about the size of a small horse, Jacobs said.
The bones were found in what was then the Western Interior Seaway, part of what is now the
Gulf of Mexico. Fossils of fish scales and bones were found all around the Nodosaurus.
"We'll Keep Looking"
Although Wylie found the first bone last fall, the paleontologists could not start digging until
recently. They needed to get permission from the people who owned the land. The landowners
have given the bones to SMU.
The Nodosaurus bones were found on the top of a hill in Mansfield. The area had been scraped
flat during construction of a nearby store and washed by the rain, Tim Brys said. Several bones
were lying on top of the ground, he said. He reburied them and wrote down where they were.
The only one who is not impressed by the rare discovery is the boy who found it. Wylie was
asked whether he would rather find dinosaur bones or dig in the dirt. “Dig in the dirt,” Wylie
said.
“Wylie hasn’t said a whole lot about it,” said his father, Tim Brys. “I don’t think that he gets this
is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
Wylie has his own name for his dinosaur. He calls it Ralphie after another reptile, his favorite
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle — Raphael.
The father and son plan to keep digging for fossils, Tim Brys said.
“I can’t guarantee we’ll find another dinosaur, but we’ll keep looking,” he said.
Quiz
1 Select the paragraph from the section "The Size Of A Small Horse" that explains what will
happen to the Nodosaurus fossil.
2 Which sentence from the section "We'll Keep Looking" helps explain how the Brys father and
son found the fossil?
(A) They needed to get permission from the people who owned the land.
(B) The landowners have given the bones to SMU.
(C) The area had been scraped flat during construction of a nearby store and washed by the rain,
Tim Brys said.
(D) “I can’t guarantee we’ll find another dinosaur, but we’ll keep looking,” he said.
3 Why did scientists think "the bone was probably from a plesiosaur" at first?
(A) The scientists would have been very excited to discover plesiosaur fossils.
(B) Plesiosaur fossils are easier to find for a 4-year-old.
(C) Plesiosaur fossils are bigger than nodosaur fossils.
(D) Plesiosaur fossils are more common in the area than nodosaur fossils.
4 Why would Wylie rather "dig in the dirt" than find dinosaur bones?
(A) He has already found a dinosaur fossil so it is no longer a special experience.
(B) The chances of finding a dinosaur bone are very small.
(C) He does not understand how rare and special the dinosaur bones are.
(D) Digging for dinosaur bones is much harder work.