The first thing that struck me about the Stegosaurus at the Burke Museum was its whitish-gray color. It is one of the most brightly colored fossils I have ever seen, and it gave off the impression that I was looking at real bones.
Fossils aren’t bones exactly, but essentially minerals that have slowly taken the place of organic bone material over long periods of time. Almost like three-dimentional photographs of skeletons. The color variations in the specimens are determined by the type of mineral that replaced the animal’s bones. If the bones were replaced by iron, a reddish-orange mineral, the resulting fossil will be reddish orange. Phosphate, on the other hand, turns fossils black. Chances are, this fossil was formed in an area with a lot of limestone and gray clays, which give fossils a lighter color. Pretty wild, right?
About me
Musician & Youtube Host with a passion for Dinosaur Hunting
Hi there, my name is Dan Avidan. I’m mostly known as the singer for Ninja Sex Party, and a comedian on the YouTube show Game Grumps. What is not as well-known about me is that I am also a huge lover of dinosaurs.
It started when I was five years old and my granddad took me to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I was immediately captivated by the dinosaur skeletons and was mystified that these ancient animals actually existed.