Island a fossil paradise
England’s Isle of Wight hot spot for dinosaur bones
BROOK, England (AP) - Nestled
off southern England, a picturesque
island is evolving into one of the
world’s great dinosaur fossil discovery
sites.
Mention the Isle of Wight to most
Britons, and they’ll think only of sail
boats and beach holidays. But to pale
ontologists hunting for fossilized
dinosaur bones, the small island is
about as good as it gets.
“If you are European, this is the
place you have got to be,” says paleon
tologist Steve Hutt, clambering over
the rocks along the island’s southwest
beach.
In many of the world’s best fossil
sites in China, Mongolia and the
United States, remains are found over
thousands of square miles.
The Isle of Wight’s fossils are con
centrated in two tiny strips, one six
miles long along its southern coast and
the other just half a mile on its eastern
coast.
The island, which lies three miles
off the English mainland, doesn’t pre
tend to compete in terms of quantity -
just quality.
Its rocks are yielding fossils from
the early Cretaceous period -from 100
million to 140 million years ago -
which are rarely found elsewhere.
Most sites produce fossils from the
late Triassic period, between 200 mil
lion and 225 million years ago, or the
Jurassic period, 135 million to 200
million years ago.
“The island is a window on the
Cretaceous world, which doesn’t occur
anywhere else in the world,” says Hutt,
employed by the local government as
the island’s sole paleontologist.
David Norman of Cambridge
University’s Department of Earth
Sciences says the island is important
not only in historical terms, but also
because “new dinosaurs continue to be
discovered there and are well-pre
served and articulated - that is, then
bones are joined together.”
Last year, a previously unknown
cat-like, flesh-eating dinosaur was dis
covered in a crumbling cliffby an ama
teur fossil collector. And in 1997,
another previously unknown dinosaur,
Neovenator salerii, a smaller version
of Tyrannosaurus rex, was found on
the island.
While many excavations in the
United States are backed by big-name
universities with budgets to match, the
Isle of Wight’s digs are on a much
smaller scale.
Hutt does most of the work him
self, aided by a volunteer or two. Every
summer, he picks from the best of
paleontology interns, both from
Europe and die United States.
And while other institutions have
major museums to house their collec
tions, the Isle of Wight’s finds are kept
in much more modest surroundings -
one floor above a town library.
Hutt has one ally most other digs
don’t have - the sea.
Every fall and winter, the ebb and
flow of the tides, together with the
gales that blow north from the English
Channel, remove layers of rock from
the cliffs, unearthing new fossils.
“The rocks are exposed continual
ly, so the goodies fall out,” Hutt says.
Wandering along the coast at
Brightstone Bay, where dinosaur foot
print casts lie on the beach, Hutt points
to the 50-foot cliff face, striped with
white, red and dark brown wealden
rock, which is one of his favorite areas
for digging.
In 1998, a local collector found a
turtle’s skull there dating back 120 mil
lion years.
“Looks like we’ll have to name
that, too,” Hutts says, referring to the
tradition of naming newly discovered
dinosaurs after the people who found
them. “It’s our way of saying thank
you.”
Liquor control ignores club query
LUjUUR from page 1
Assistant City Attorney Joel
Pedersen testified in opposition to
the petition but urged the commis
sion to make a ruling because of the
question’s statewide impact.
“You are charged and have the
ability to interpret the Liquor
Control Act,” he said. “I encourage
you that you have jurisdiction over
the issue. I believe it does ask for an
interpretation of the act you are
charged to enforce.”
When asked to comment after die
ruling, Pedersen said he would have
to review what the commission had
done.
Other city and UNL officials
continued to protest the idea of the
bottle club in their testimony before
the commission.
“When we heard about the pro
posed bottle club adjacent to our
campus, we became concerned,” said
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs James
Griesen. “The last thing we need is a
place where students can drink three
nights a week into the early morning
hours.”
The petition, filed March 3, stat
ed that the hypothetical club would
specifically target UNL students.
Members of the club would be
allowed to consume their own alco
hol on the premises between the
hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.,
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Griesen testified that, if passed,
the petition would compromise the
university’s fight against binge
drinking.
This year the university was
awarded a $700,000 grant from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to
reduce high-risk drinking among
UNL students.
“We’ve been working on this for
a long time,” Griesen said. “We have
more people coming to the realiza
tion that education alone just doesn’t
work. We need a combination of
approaches to successfully reduce
high-risk drinking opportunities.”
Lincoln Police Chief Tom
Casady said he was concerned about
the impact the petition would have, if
passed, on both the UNL andLincoln
communities.
“Aside from the university’s con
cerns, I have the additional problem
to provide police protection to the
city,” Casady said. “I don’t want this
type of activity in our community at
all hours in the morning.”
UNL Chancellor James Moeser
said he was delighted to hear the
commission’s decision. He said he
appreciated the efforts of Griesen,
coalition members, students, the
Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska and the
Academic Senate in opposing the
/
bottle club idea.
“I think a lot of people helped kill
this,” Moeser said. “I am very
pleased to see community concern
and support.”
An employee at Barry’s said
Webb was out of town until Monday
and unable to comment.
Webb’s legal counsel, Terry
Schaaf, said he agreed with the com
mission’s stance.
“I’m interpreting that to mean
that they don’t think it involves a
liquor license matter,” he said.
Schaaf said he was surprised by
the response from city and university
officials.
“It seems like much ado about
not very much,” he said.
Schaaf said he is not an advocate
for Webb on this issue. He merely
helped Webb write the question for
the commission.
Webb was exploring whether or
not a bottle club would be a legal,
viable business opportunity, he said,
but he was not saying whether or not
a bottle club was a good idea.
“The time to debate the propriety
of the proposal is later,” Schaaf said.
“He just asked if it was legally possi
ble.”
NEBRASKA
Spirit Squad Try-outs
Mascot,
Yell Squad &
Dance Team
Try-outs
April 15-17
in Mable Lee Hall
Registration &
First Cuts on April 15
@ 5:00 pm
*For more
information
call Trace or
Beth
@ 472-0775
L
AAA
'4^
KFRX
Friday, April 9th
9:00 pm to 1:0O am
Fun. Food and Frizes
s 2.00 in advance
$ 3.oo at the door
Charity sale to fund
child’s wheelchair lift
■ The benefit is being
sponsored by the Lincoln
Family Resource Center
and will primarily be made
up of donated items.
By JoshKnaub
Staff writer
A benefit yard sale Friday and
Saturday could give one Lincoln girl
the lift she needs.
The sale, sponsored by the
Lincoln Family Resource Center, will
raise money toward the purchase of a
van with a wheelchair lift for 3-year
old Taralynn Worrell.
Dan and Sheila Worrell,
Taralynn’s parents, rely on a 1984
Chevrolet Cavalier for transportation.
Taralynn was left unable to walk at
age 1 after contracting encephalitis, or
inflammation of the brain, said Sheil^
Worrell.
Chellotte Snyder of Lincoln
Developmental Disabilities Services
said the family had a definite need for
the van.
“It is becoming very difficult for
them,” she said.
Taralynn has several weekly phys
ical therapy and doctor’s appoint
ments, Snyder said.
Snyder said the height of the spe
cial seat Taralynn needs made it diffi
cult not to bump her head against the
ceiling of the car.
Additionally, the van would pro
vide more safety and better support for
Taralynn, Snyder said.
Ann Widoe of Lincoln Family
Services said the van and lift acces
sories would cost nearly $20,000.
She said local businesses had
donated more than $2,100 as of
Thursday afternoon.
Widoe said Sheila Worrell sent
more than 900 letters about the yard
sale to various businesses, officials
and citizens. The response has been
very good so far.
“Anything you could ever imagine
has been donated,” Widoe said.
Items include chairs, couches, a
TV set, books, adult and children’s
clothing and toys.
Widoe said donations were tax
deductible.
The sale, located at 511 West
Belmont, will run from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. Friday and Saturday.
A raffle for a Beanie Baby will be
held during the sale.
j" COUPON "|
j LASER SHOWS i
I Buy One Ticket - Get One Free i
I This weekend Only (April 9-10, 1999) I
I PHISH I
Shows at 8 & 9:30
j Mueller Planetarium j
www.spacelaser.com
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Women’s GynNHjp
NCAA Regional*
Arizona * llinois * Iffinois-Chkl
Michigan * Nebraska * Oklahi
Sat, April 10 at ? pm
at Bob Devaney Sports Ce
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.April 10 at 10 am "
ir-Pound Tennis Courts
Baseball vs. f|
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Fri., April 9 at 7 pm
Sat., April 10 at 2 pm
Sun., April 11 at 1
at Buck Beitzer Stadium
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Softball vs. Old
Sat., April 10 at
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