Read more about dinosaurs in our special issue
HIGH up in the mountains, the skeleton of a large meat-eating dinosaur is gradually emerging from the rocks. Nearby are some other early Jurassic fossils that have yet to be fully excavated – an allosaur, an unidentified predator and a herbivore. It sounds like a regular day in the field, but there’s one big difference. This is Mount Kirkpatrick in the Transantarctic mountains, 4 kilometres above sea level and just 600 kilometres from the South Pole (see Map).
The skeleton, a cryolophosaurus or “frozen crested lizard”, was discovered a decade ago. But the work is difficult and excruciatingly slow because sub-zero temperatures make machinery unreliable and fierce storms keep workers tent-bound for days at a time. Philip Currie, director of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, spent a month at the site on his most recent visit and managed only six days of useful work.
Palaeontologists have a reputation as a rugged bunch, but sometimes even they are pushed to their limits. The dig on Mount Kirkpatrick is one of several recent expeditions that have braved extreme conditions to recover important finds. Dinosaur fossils have been found elsewhere in the Antarctic, as well as the high northern latitudes of Alaska and Greenland. They have been dug out of remote deserts and even war zones. Nowhere, it seems, is too remote or dangerous, as long as the dinosaur hunters bag another find.
And there is good reason to go to the ends of the Earth. Until recently, the best known fossil deposits, and consequently the best-studied dinosaurs, all came from parts…
