One of the most fertile dinosaur areas in the United States are the badlands of the Pine Butte Preserve near Choteau, Montana. Once a year the Nature Conservancy, owners of the land, invites a small group of amateurs to participate in a hands-on workshop that teaches you to identify and unearth dinosaur bones. It is an amazing place. Many bone fragments are strewn along the ground like pebbles. And bone, teeth, and eggshell protrude from the eroding hillsides.

Most of the people in our seminar had fallen in love with dinosaurs as children. Since every discovery could be a major find, it is not quick or easy work. We were taught how to dig and what to look for before working in the actual bone bed. And work it was. Montana weather is undependable—cold and windy one minute, warm the next. But layers of clothing came on and off automatically as we became caught up in the excitement of discovery.

The richness of these 500 acres is due to a volcanic eruption that took place around 80- million years ago. The theory is that a herd of duckbilled dinosaurs, the “cattle of the Cretaceous”, was caught in the explosion. The intense heat stripped the meat ...[continued]