Son fears no dino bones will be left to find when older. What facts can fuel his interest in fossil discovery?

Question

He's 100% convinced that there are very few fossils left to be found. I know instinctively this is incorrect, but am not an archeologist and would love to show him some facts that illustrate why this is wrong.

Answer 1

Good question heres something i found that may help.

According to a new study, humans will eventually discover about 1,850 different genera of dinosaurs. "Genera" is the plural of "genus" which is a category of animal. At present, only 527 dinosaur genera have been found so far.

But the pace of discoveries has been picking up, with 10 to 20 new kinds of dinosaur remains fossils or bones -- being discovered each year. Of the 1,300 or so dinosaurs yet to be discovered, the vast majority will be found in the next century. Researchers Peter Dodson of the University of Pennsylvania and Steve Wang of Swarthmore College say most will be found in the next 60 to 100 years. Dodson sees that as a job opportunity for kids.

"It's a safe bet that a child born today could expect a very fruitful career in dinosaur paleontology," Dodson said.

Hope this helps. I am too interested in this thanks for a good question ;-)

Answer 2

Hi! It's great your son has an interest in fossils, and that you want to encourage it:)

I think the above post is exactly what you're looking for, I just wanted to add a couple comments:

New fossils are always being found. Maybe you can help him keep up in the news, and show him that way that there is no shortage of fossils out there!

Also, a person that finds and studies dinosaur fossils is not an archaeologist, he or she is a paleontologist. It's a very common misconception, since archaeologists also do digging, but we only dig up humans and their material culture:) So what your son is interested in is actually paleontology, not archaeology. (Still very cool!)

Answer 3

You can go to an archaeology website, where you can find facts about how little species they have actually found. One bit of information i can give you is that 97% of the species that have ever been on the planet are extinct. That means that all the animals that are on the earth now make up about 3% of all the animals that have ever been.

Answer 4

Less than 1% of existing fossils have been located and preserved. With time, patience and funding, there are millions more that can be found. There are so many places that we haven't even begun to look. The earth is a huge place!