This week I've been in Hwaseong city, Korea for the HwaseongInternational Dinosaurs Expedition Symposium. I started this blog back in 2010
as a way to document my experiences working in the dino lab in Hwaseong, and so
it was wonderful to be able to return more than three years later and see
what's new. The symposium highlights research following the conclusion of the
five-year Korea-Mongolia International Dinosaur Project. Many thanks to Dr.
Yuong-Nam Lee, the city of Hwaseong, and all of the other organizers and staff
who invited us to present our work at this excellent conference!
It was a special treat to see the new ankylosaur skeleton prepared and mounted in the lobby of our hotel! Watch out Tarbosaurus, you're about to get a face full of tail club.
Outside the main event room, the city had set up the winning entries from a local crafts contest themed around Koreaceratops. There were some awesome items on display!
It was also wonderful to eat real Korean food again! So tasty.
Hwaseong is home to dinosaur nesting sites as well as the holotype of Koreaceratops. There's a new observation tower on the hill above the reclaimed salt marsh which gives an excellent view of the area. The islands in the midground are Cretaceous egg-bearing rocks, but apparently the hill we're on in this photo, and the hills in the distances, are Precambrian basement.
Heading on out to see some of the nests!
The outside of the visitor centre has undergone a dramatic transformation, and now hosts a gigantic bas relief of Julius Csotonyi's Koreaceratopsillustration.
Koreaceratops has also replaced the old Protoceratops model inside the centre. We also had a chance to check out some really special specimens collected during the expeditions that have now been prepared, but they are secret until published, so I can't share photos here! Needless to say, there are some wonderful papers coming down the pipeline resulting from these expeditions. On to the next adventure!
I’m late to the party again with the recent spate of dino documentaries, but I thought I’d review a couple here on the blog over the next few weeks. Today I wanted to take a look at Dino Gangs, a documentary featuring my PhD supervisor Dr. Phil Currie as well as several scientists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
Dino Gangs explores the idea of gregariousness in tyrannosaurs, and especially the idea that some tyrannosaurs may have engaged in cooperative pack hunting. There are two versions out there, the one shown in the UK and the shorter one aired in the US, and I think I have watched the UK version.
Whether or not you agree with the gregariousness hypothesis, I think Dino Gangs does a bang-up job of showing the process of the science of palaeontology. It introduces a fairly contentious topic (gregariousness in dinosaurs) and the reasons why this idea exists, and then shows the various lines of evidence used to support this idea. We see palaeontologists working in two different field localities (Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park in Alberta, and Bugin Tsav in Mongolia). We see the prep lab in Hwaseong-si, South Korea, where I spent much of last summer. We see Dr. Larry Witmer’s lab in Ohio, and how we use CT scanners and 3D visualization software to learn more about the anatomy of dinosaurs. We see great footage of komodo dragons in Indonesia and lions and ostriches in South Africa, showing how we use extant animals as analogues for behaviour in extinct ones. We even get to see an ostrich leg dissected to examine the muscles. There’s discussion of ontogeny and allometry, taphonomy, and the great variety of social behaviours in extant animals. We also see dissenting opinions from scientists like Dr. David Eberth and Dr. Don Henderson, both from the Tyrrell. That’s a lot of fairly sophisticated concepts to deliver in a Discovery Channel special.
Brian Switek of Dinosaur Tracking has criticized the documentary for making overly bombastic claims that are as yet unsupported in the scientific literature. I think part of this stems from the fact that most people do not know that tyrannosaur is not synonymous with Tyrannosaurus, and unfortunately the documentary does not do a great job explaining that there are several species of tyrannosaurs presented in the film. In addition, I see some problems with the emphasis on the Mongolian finds. The documentary discusses at great length the large number of Tarbosaurus skeletons that have been found, and although they discuss the taphonomy of the Nemegt Formation at Bugin Tsav, there does seem to be some conflation with the Albertosaurus bonebed at Dry Island. The Albertosaurus bonebed is a true bonebed, containing more than 20 individuals in a relatively small area. In contrast, the Tarbosaurus skeletons at Bugin Tsav are generally separated from each other by some distance and do not really form any bonebeds (unless there have been some recent finds which I have not heard about). I was actually kind of disappointed that there was not more evidence on the Dry Island bonebed, which has been excavated extensively by Dr. Currie and formed the basis of a special volume in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences last fall. There are certainly a great number of Tarbosaurus known from Mongolia, and the unusually high ratio of Tarbosaurus to other dinosaurs in the Nemegt Formation is an area of active research. But to me, there is less evidence for sociality preserved in the Nemegt specimens than at the Dry Island bonebed. I suspect the emphasis on Mongolia over Alberta in the documentary is because of the more exotic setting offered by the Gobi Desert.
And that brings me to perhaps a less obvious but equally frustrating aspect of the documentary. I have written before about the absence of female palaeontologists in the popular media (and sadly, Dino Gangs is no exception to this), but also true is the absence of non-Caucasians in many documentaries. All of the Mongolian footage was shot during the Korea-Mongolia International Dinosaur Project’s recent expeditions, but Dr. Yuong-Nam Lee, the leader of the expedition, does not receive any name credit even though he appears on screen frequently. Nor is he featured in any of the interviews. I was particularly surprised by the description of the Gobi Desert, which is apparently “completely isolated from the outside world” and is “such a hostile environment that not even the local tribespeople can survive there”. The Gobi is rugged and relatively unpopulated, but to say these things overly romanticizes Mongolia. The Mongolians who continue to live the nomadic lifestyle certainly live very different daily lives than those of us in North America, but to use the word ‘tribespeople’ makes them sound primitive. Nearly every traditional ger that we passed had several dirtbikes, a satellite dish, and solar panels in addition to the horses, goats, and camels hanging around.
A final quibble: there was far too much reusing of animation from Clash of the Dinosaurs, Dinosaur Planet, and even When Dinosaurs Roamed America. Two abelisaurs, which are NOT known from Mongolia, were featured during a discussion of Tarbosaurus, Triceratops was presented as Protoceratops, and Parasaurolophus and ?Maiasaura stood in for Mongolian hadrosaurs. I know animation is expensive, but perhaps a nice illustration would do instead? For people interested in dinosaurs, it’s really, really jarring to see Triceratops, the last of the ceratopsians, presented as Protoceratops, one of the earliest.
In the end though, I liked Dino Gangs. I think the focus on the single question “were tyrannosaurs pack hunters?” was a real strong point for the documentary, since in essence this is what we do in science. We ask a question and then try to answer it. It was really nice to see this question explored in depth using many different lines of evidence, including counter arguments from dissenting voices. The Gobi desert looked great on film, and it was awesome to see Brian Cooley’s sculptures of Albertosaurus in the Cretaceous Alberta gallery at the Tyrrell get so much screen time. I would definitely be interested in hearing what non-palaeontologists took away from Dino Gangs.
I'm happy to announce the publication of another new Korean dinosaur, Koreaceratops, by my friends and colleagues Yuong-Nam Lee, Michael Ryan, and Yoshi Kobayashi.
This little fellow was actually discovered very close to where I spent much of my summer this year, at Jeongok Harbour in Hwaseong-si (somewhat close to Jebu-do). Koreaceratops is diagnosed by some features of the ankle as well as the tall, deep tail. It's a beautiful specimen even though it lacks a skull - here's hoping that a head is found sometime!
The Dinosaur Egg Visitor Centre in Songsan has a nice model of a protoceratopsian with eggs and hatchlings, which I suppose we can now call Koreaceratops! There's also a bit of information on the specimen, although the actual fossils are not on display. You can, however, take a look at some fossil eggs both in the centre and a short walk away in situ.
I also wanted to post some pictures of the other Korean dinosaur named a few weeks ago, Koreanosaurus. I love the life reconstruction that was made for this guy!
I’m very sad to say that today is my last day in Korea. The last seven weeks have been truly wonderful and I will have many fond memories of my stay in Songsan. I’ve eaten some excellent food and some very strange food, seen wonderful sights, and got to prepare some really great ankylosaur fossils at the lab. Robin and Scott and I have had a great time.
I’m so grateful for all of the people who have helped me out for the last two months – Dr. Lee for hosting me on this research abroad visit, Yun for all of his help at the lab and around town, and Choon-Hyung, Pak-Jin, and Jin-Young for their patience at my lack of Korean and their excellent lunchtime cooking!
Tomorrow Robin returns to Canada and Scott and I head off to Beijing for two weeks of research and the Flugsaurier Symposium. Stay tuned for more updates!
The beaches are found on Jebudo, or Jebu Island, a short bus ride from Songsan. We had a wonderful afternoon looking for shells, admiring the scenery, and getting sunburnt.
There were some very nice rock formations, and apparently some hawks like to nest on the rocks behind me. At high tide you cannot drive on or off of the island, because the causeway becomes flooded (the “Miracle of Moses” as folks like to call it here).
I realize the last few posts have been a bit dinosaur-light, but luckily we were able to find this excellent specimen of Euoplocephalus with armour in situ.
And Scott found a very nice Centrosaurus!
I also kind of childishly insisted on having dinner in the boat restaurant...
I realize a lot of the food posts probably make it seem like the cuisine over here is all live octopi and anglerfish and things that are very unusual to the North American palate. While everything is certainly different, not all dishes are as extravagantly odd. Hushik nangmyeon are cold dessert noodles that I have heard are very common snacks in the summertime. There are really thin noodles, cucumbers, radishes, melons, half of a hardboiled egg, and sesame seeds. It is quite tasty and certainly nice at the end of the meal!
The noodles can be challenging to eat, however. Too slippery!
Ok, I need to include one more extravagantly odd dish. Can you guess what the spicy meat on the grill is? Hint: it’s not squid, as we initially thought....
The Hwaseong dinosaur egg site is just a 15 or 20 minute walk from the visitor centre across the salt marsh. The nests are found in these little island outcrops, which look as though waves were crashing on them just yesterday.
Scott and Robin ponder the taphonomy and geology of the egg-bearing strata. The outcrops all show multiple fining-upward packages and we saw eggs in at least two levels.
We were surprised that eggs could be preserved in such a coarse conglomerate. You can see how angular the clasts (rocks) are within the outcrop, which indicates that the pebbles and cobbles were not transported very far or for very long. We were thinking they were debris flows, but we will need to read up on the geology of the area. Weathering of the outcrops makes the rock look almost volcanic.
Despite being found in such coarse rock, the nice round eggs are uncrushed and not broken up. They also seem to be found in a finer sandstone, with the coarse conglomerate around them. Could the nests have been dug into the conglomerate? Were the nests preserved during debris flows or floods? How did the eggs survive in such good condition? Geology is full of problem solving fun!
On days ending with a two and a seven, the Sagang Market just next to our motel hosts a farmer’s market. All kinds of rice, vegetables, and fish are for sale, as well as clothes, shoes, and garden or kitchen tools. I’m always amazed by the variety of fish available!
The fish comes dried, fresh, or on sticks. The red things are dates; we’ve had them in a beef soup (galbi tang) and the flavours actually went really well together.
Some of our food adventures have to do with the unusual product names for certain things around here. Our favourite commercials are for DK, which looks like Mountain Dew, and Pocari Sweat, which is an ‘ion supply drink’. Robin and I decided to give it a go, despite its rather unappealing name.
“I like sweat”? Well, bottoms up!
Pocari Sweat was sweet, but had a distressingly black pepper-flavoured aftertaste. We were not huge fans. But I guess at least it didn’t taste like sweat...
Regular work was put on hold on Friday as the museum hosted a pretty sizable conference, the International Symposium on National Natural History Museum in Gyeonggi Province. Korea currently does not have a such a museum, and one proposal is to situate the museum near the current lab and visitor centre at the egg site. The presenters included the director of the Natural History Museum in London, the director of the Museum National D’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, and the social science analyst at the Smithsonian in Washington, as well as several researchers from Korea.
I was interested in particular in the discussion by the British Museum’s director, on the role of natural history museums today. He brought up some interesting points about educating the public about biodiversity, climate change, and extinction, and in generally increasing interest in science. I was surprised to hear that there has been a marked decrease in student interest in the sciences in the UK, and was wondering if the same has been true for Canada and the US. I sometimes wonder if natural history museums preach to the choir, in that only people who are already interested in educating themselves will actually go to the museum. If museums want to educate the public, and perhaps have an active role in preventing science public relations disasters like Climategate, then they need to somehow be reaching the people who aren’t interested in science literacy. I don’t know how this can be achieved, but it is interesting to think about. What attracts people to natural history museums?
Also, we got to wear these totally rad translator radios so we could hear the interpreter translate the Korean speeches. Stylish!
We’ve had a couple of really nice sunny days in Hwaseong, the first properly sunny days since I arrived in Korea. So, you get some nice outside pictures today!
Construction on a boardwalk out to the egg site is moving along very quickly, and I suspect the boardwalk will be finished later this week or next. The boardwalk will provide a nice dry and non-muddy surface to walk on, and will also protect the surrounding marsh.
As an interesting aside, just beyond the egg site islands is a small creek, and beyond that is the boundary for a Universal Studios theme park that should be completed around 2014. This whole area will probably be completely unrecognizable in a few years, with the addition of the theme park, natural history museum, and other amenities going up.
Just off the patio at the visitor centre is this really cute giant dinosaur egg sitting area. Watched over by Charcharodontosaurus? Robin for scale.
The beginning of the road leading to the museum is marked by these charming fellows, a possible stegosaur and sauropod. Part of the words written on them are Kong Lyong or Kong Ryong, which means dinosaur, but we have not figured out the rest yet.
Much of the area around Songsan is rural Korea, and almost every usable bit of land has something cultivated on it. The sun has never properly come out yet since I’ve been here, and as such everything always has this interesting misty or hazy look. On Sunday Robin and I went for a walk along one of the hillsides, on a road that kind of wound through a bunch of little farms.
There don’t seem to be any big ranches, but rather lots of small pens of cattle.
And of course, rice is everywhere. Every rice field has a pang lo, or white crane, although I have not yet been able to catch one on camera.
Songsan is also a big grape-producing area, and there’s a good chance that if you don’t see rice, you’ll see grapes growing instead.
The view from my hotel room looks out on a little vineyard tucked into an unused space, and across the road to the left of this picture is a little garden growing beans, peppers, cabbage, lettuce, and green onions. I suspect a lot of what I eat in the restaurants may come from very close by!
Just as we were packing up to leave for the weekend last Friday, lab manager Yun found this little friend in the lab’s garden. I am not sure exactly what sort of bird it is, but it what somewhat like a merlin or small peregrine falcon. It let us walk up almost right to it, which made us think it was injured in some way. At one point it flew off a little bit, so we knew its wings weren’t broken. It had been raining all day and clearly this guy had gotten pretty soaked.
Yun managed to pick it up with his lab coat and then Robin got a pair of rubber gloves for holding onto it.
We determined the cause of the problem as soon as we lifted the bird up – its left leg (the one visible in this photo) was almost completely detached at the ankle, with bone and cartilage showing. We have no idea how it managed to do this, but we felt awful because it was clearly in a lot of pain – it did not even fight being held like this.
As luck would have it, a group of science teachers was visiting the lab this afternoon, accompanied by a city official of some sort. He offered to take the bird to a wildlife vet an hour or so away from the lab, so we got the little fella packed up into a dog crate and off he went. I suppose we won’t find out what happened, but I hope he makes it ok.
Dinners continue to be an interesting experience each night involving much gesturing and confusion and references to my slightly inadequate phrasebook. The dinner above was a beef and mushroom soup served with purple rice, kimchee, pickles, sesame battered beans, and some sort of turnip-like root vegetable. Very tasty! And also inexpensive – the total cost for this meal was $14 for the two of us.
Besides the anglerfish adventure, my favourite style of meal is galbi (this is pork, or tawe-jee galbi). The raw meat is brought to your table and grilled in front of you. When it’s a little bit cooked, the server holds it up with tongs and cuts it with scissors into bite size pieces. You then take a lettuce leaf (or any other various leaves, including sesame leaves which are my favourite so far) and load it up with sauce, shredded greens, pork, kimchee, or whatever else from the side dishes you feel like eating. Then you fold up the lettuce and attempt to fit the whole heaping pile in your mouth at once.
My favourite of the side dishes so far are the tiny fishes and squids! They are very salty and fishy tasting in the best of ways.
KIMCHEE! I think this is a very fun and sociable way to eat, and I’m actually surprised I haven’t come across any Korean-style restaurants that serve food this way in Canada.
