[Hed:] Digging Deep
[Dek:] How the discovery of one small dino might have been the biggest thing to happen to women in paleontology.
[Byline:] —Kristen Desmond LeFevre, Indiana
Podokesaurus Holyokensis (meaning “swift-footed lizard from Holyoke”) roamed the Connecticut Valley during the early Jurassic period 190 to 174 million years ago, leaving its footprints in the soft, reddish mud that hardened into sandstone over time. The dinosaur was about the size of a large house cat, with formidable claws, supple neck, slender torso, and an outrageously elongated tail.
In the mid-1800s, paleontologists began to study what locals had wondered about for generations: those mysterious footlong, three-toed tracks preserved in area rocks. Numerous expeditions …show more content…
Instead, it was kept on exhibit at Mount Holyoke’s museum in Williston Hall where Mignon spent several years curating the collection of minerals, invertebrate fossils and Triassic footprints. Now, the jewel of that collection was her own Podokesaurus. Then, over Christmas vacation in 1916, Williston Hall burned to the ground, destroying every specimen in its holdings. Until her retirement from Mount Holyoke in 1935, Mignon worked to rebuild the lost the collection. However, she was never able to find another skeleton of Podokesaurus.
To this day, Mignon’s find is the subject of controversy. Podokesaurus’ fossil is strikingly similar to a family of dinosaurs called Coelophysis. So similar, in fact, that many scientists wonder if Podokesaurus is actually another species of Coelophysis. Only more Podokesaurus fossils will settle the score.
But not a single specimen has been unearthed since Mignon and Ellen’s 1910 walkabout. Today, casts of Mignon’s fossil still remain, but they are only outer impressions and are lacking the kind of key details that might have been revealed by a CAT scan of the original fossils. …show more content…
Ellen—like any big sister might—replied, “Mignon! Have you lost your mind?”
But she had not lost her mind. She had found the earliest known dinosaur discovered in the Eastern United States. Although it was a small fossil (45 inches long from tip to tip), the impact of its discovery—and the woman who discovered it—was
[Dek:] How the discovery of one small dino might have been the biggest thing to happen to women in paleontology.
[Byline:] —Kristen Desmond LeFevre, Indiana
Podokesaurus Holyokensis (meaning “swift-footed lizard from Holyoke”) roamed the Connecticut Valley during the early Jurassic period 190 to 174 million years ago, leaving its footprints in the soft, reddish mud that hardened into sandstone over time. The dinosaur was about the size of a large house cat, with formidable claws, supple neck, slender torso, and an outrageously elongated tail.
In the mid-1800s, paleontologists began to study what locals had wondered about for generations: those mysterious footlong, three-toed tracks preserved in area rocks. Numerous expeditions …show more content…
Instead, it was kept on exhibit at Mount Holyoke’s museum in Williston Hall where Mignon spent several years curating the collection of minerals, invertebrate fossils and Triassic footprints. Now, the jewel of that collection was her own Podokesaurus. Then, over Christmas vacation in 1916, Williston Hall burned to the ground, destroying every specimen in its holdings. Until her retirement from Mount Holyoke in 1935, Mignon worked to rebuild the lost the collection. However, she was never able to find another skeleton of Podokesaurus.
To this day, Mignon’s find is the subject of controversy. Podokesaurus’ fossil is strikingly similar to a family of dinosaurs called Coelophysis. So similar, in fact, that many scientists wonder if Podokesaurus is actually another species of Coelophysis. Only more Podokesaurus fossils will settle the score.
But not a single specimen has been unearthed since Mignon and Ellen’s 1910 walkabout. Today, casts of Mignon’s fossil still remain, but they are only outer impressions and are lacking the kind of key details that might have been revealed by a CAT scan of the original fossils. …show more content…
Ellen—like any big sister might—replied, “Mignon! Have you lost your mind?”
But she had not lost her mind. She had found the earliest known dinosaur discovered in the Eastern United States. Although it was a small fossil (45 inches long from tip to tip), the impact of its discovery—and the woman who discovered it—was