DINOSAURS: RESEARCHERS CARRY OUT DIG NEAR MARBLE HILL

MARBLE HILL -- When Matt Forir is working he can close his eyes and imagine the world he is trying to discover.

In that world dragonflies are a foot long, turtles have horns growing from their shells, and crocodiles skim quietly across a stagnant pool toward unsuspecting baby dinosaurs.

Forir, a paleontology student at Florissant Valley Community College in St. Louis, discovers bits and pieces of this world in the clay of a farm near Marble Hill. It is the only place in Missouri where dinosaur bones have been discovered.

The first bones were dug from the Olie Chronister Homestead in 1941, when the family was attempting to add a cistern behind a house on the property, Forir said. Tail vertebrae measuring 17 to 18 feet long were dug and the family set them aside, recognizing how unique they were.

After a long journey, those bones eventually made it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Forir said. Some of the finest paleontologists in the world have studied them.

The bones are from a hadrosaur, a gregarious dinosaur that roamed in large groups much like the American bison did. The size of the bones first led scientists to believe they came from a sauropod, a much larger variety of dinosaur that is typified by what used to be called a brontosaurus.

Studies of the bones clarified that misidentification, but the size of the vertebrae indicates a much larger version of the animal than has been seen before, Forir said.

Forir said tooth fragments also have been found at the site of one of the largest carnivores that ever walked Earth: the tyrannosaurus rex.

But Forir isn't as interested in the dinosaur fossils as he is in the turtles that are frequently unearthed from the Chronister farm. He has uncovered two forms of fresh-water turtles that lived during the Cretaceous Period, about 70 million years ago. One of the fragments is the largest piece of a beaded turtle shell ever discovered.

"A lot of people are interested in how these animals lived," Forir said. "Present-day turtles aren't much different from the ones that lived 70 million years ago. I'm more interested in how they died."

Forir and his team of diggers have also uncovered the only known crocodile tooth ever found in Missouri. He said information about the Midwest during the age of the dinosaurs is largely incomplete. Scientists know more about the animals' movements and habits in the west and east than here.

One project Forir said he would like to undertake is to try and trace the migration patterns of the hadrosaurs that moved through Southeast Missouri. If he can come up with a fairly accurate model of their migration he can find other areas to dig.

"Who knows? This might be the worst site in Missouri," he said.

Forir and his volunteer diggers meet at the Chronister farm one weekend of each summer month. He said it is difficult to find diggers but about seven people routinely show up to help. If they aren't local they bring tents or live in the remains of the farm house that started it all.

The digs are uncomplicated affairs with some people shoveling clay into piles and others breaking the clay by hand. The putty-like clay where Forir digs makes for slow going as far as expanding the site. But the fragments found in the clay are remarkably well-preserved, he said.

Fragments of small horns that once protruded from the shell of a turtle that lived 70 million years ago have retained the smooth, soft texture of living material. Forir said the fragments found at the site are not rock-like as are the fragments discovered in the west are.

Pollen samples have also been found at the site that will tell scientists the types of plants that flourished in the region at that time. Forir said the dig site used to be a watering hole about a quarter-mile wide that sank due to seismic activity. It was bordered on two sides by towering cliffs.

Jesse Stewart of St. Louis is Forir's chief digger. Stewart said he isn't as interested in paleontology as his friend, but he finds it less boring every time he does it. He said he accompanies Forir on his digs because he likes the companionship of diggers.

Stewart said discovering a prize sample can be exciting.

Emilie Lefebure of Jackson is a Southeast Missouri State University anthropology student who participates in the monthly digs. She said she got talked into trying it after meeting Forir through friends.