The Ceratopsian dinosaur skull cast known as Judith is visting WSU Tri-Cities

Join us for a lecture
3:10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in the East Auditorium.
Admission is free and open to the public.

The life-size model will be on exhibit February 15 – May 14

Letter from Judith, the Dinosaur

Paradise Point Ranch
Fergus County, Montana

Dear Visitor,

I am named Judith for the Judith River Formation of the Missouri Breaks region of central Montana where my fossil was found.  My dinosaur name is lost in antiquity.  My biological name, by which I mean my genus and species, is being determined by the scientific community.  

My journey has been long.  I lived during the Late Cretaceous period about 75 million years ago.  In those days, the Montana climate was almost tropical, with warm temperatures and lush vegetation.  Using my large beak, I was able to cut down many kinds of plants and brush. You see, I needed to eat vast quantities of vegetation because I was as big as an extremely large rhinoceros. 

My life was not always easy as the people who discovered my fossil found out.  Please look at the 3-inch hole in the lower left portion of my frill.  Something pierced this area, punching out my flesh and bone.   It took a long time to heal and left a hole when it did.  Although I am not vain by nature, I always thought this piercing made me look rather stylish. 
I also had a dreadful wound on my right humerus, the large bone that connected my forearm to my shoulder. Something, a predator perhaps, injured me, and the wound became severely infected.  See the channel running about halfway down the outside of the bone?  This was where the wound drained, eventually deforming my bone.  My joint became enlarged and malformed.  Arthritis set in.  I had constant and severe pain for the rest of my life, and the people who found my fossil speculate my lack of mobility could have contributed to my death. 

My body lay on a layer of silicon-rich bentonite and mudstone after I died.  But do not be sad for me, for we all are destined to die.  My flesh nourished many scavengers, and as they ate, they scattered my bones – with the exception of my head and frill.  These were left largely intact, and over time, they were covered with another layer of the same type of soil. No one knows if floods, mudslides or other natural events covered me, but I know you will agree that the model of my fossilized bones shows the remarkable details of my countenance.  

How did this wonderful preservation occur, you may ask? If you have ever seen a rose preserved in silicon sand, you will surely understand. Just as the silicon replaced the rose petals, minerals in the soil above me slowly replaced the calcium in my bones with a mixture of harder minerals similar to agate.

Now, cast your mind forward 75 million years.  In 2005, Dr. Bill Shipp and his compatriot J.C. Gilpatrick were hiking Dr. Shipp’s Paradise Point Ranch.  They spotted what appeared to be part of a fossilized bone jutting out from a hillside in the Judith River Breaks.  Soon, they realized the bone was my femur, and so they began exploring further for my fossilized remains.

Over the next two years, Joe Small, whose true vocation is paleontology, led the excavation of my fossil. Digging the bones was a painstaking process because I was buried head first on a steep slope. Diggers had to cut away a significant bit of the hillside to get to me.  Mr. Small observed that the undisturbed extra layers of soils protected the fossils from deterioration by weather and erosion.

As each bone was found, Mr. Small and his crew carefully recorded it with pictures to ensure its relationship to other bones was well known. Then the bone was painstakingly separated from the material encasing it for 75 million years.  Next, where needed, the bone was stabilized with glue to maintain its integrity.  Finally, it was encased in a plaster cast to ensure it survived removal and transportation from the dig site.

Peter Larson of the Black Hills Institute supervised the casting of my skull bones and humerus.  Then, he and his team assembled them into the model you see before you.  A splendid sight, I must declare!

Because fossils of this caliber should be available to the academic community for study, Dr. Shipp arranged for my bones to be curated by the Weis Earth Science Museum of Menasha, WS.  They are currently under the protection of Mr. Christopher Ott, who also is the principal author of a scientific paper, now in draft form, describing my likely genus and species.
One of the more interesting aspects of Mr. Ott’s paper is an examination of my humerus by Dr. Edward Iuliano, a radiologist at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, WA.  Dr. Iuliano used CT Scan – or Cat Scan – to determine how my injury progressed and how it affected my life.  This modern technology revealed telling details about my bone structure and led Dr. Shipp to the conjecture that I had lived a long life before I died.

My journey has not ended.  My genus and species will soon be assigned by the scientific community, and it may solve a 120-year old mystery.  Ah, but that is a story for another day. 

Thank you for visiting me today.  If you want to know more about my journey, visit my website at: judiththedinosaur.com/JudithTheDinosaur.aspx. 

Your faithful friend,
Judith
Judith, the Dinosaur

 

Judith the Dinosaur comes to WSU Tri-Cities this Thursday
Contacts:
Bill Shipp, Judith Discoverer and Management Consultant, cell 509-521-0167, bdshipp@msn.com, judiththedinosaur.com
Melissa O’Neil Perdue, WSU Tri-Cities Marketing & Communications Manager, cell/text 509-727-3094, moneil@tricity.wsu.edu   
Karla Shelton, WSU Tri-Cities Chancellor’s Office, 509-372-7258, chancellor@tricity.wsu.edu

RICHLAND, Wash. - A life-size model of a dinosaur skull will be on display at Washington State University Tri-Cities, with its arrival marked by a free, public lecture at 3:10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in the East Building Auditorium, 2710 Crimson Way, Richland. Students of all ages are especially encouraged to attend.
"Judith” is a Ceratopsian fossil from the Late Cretaceous Period. It was found in 2005 near Winifred, Mont. It is on loan from the discoverer, retired Richland physicist Bill Shipp.

Shipp will speak about the experience of finding the fossil on his property at Paradise Ranch in Fergus County, Mont. Also speaking will be Joe Small of Tacoma, an amateur paleontologist and manager of the Judith dig.

Judith has strong local ties thanks to Edward Iuliano, a radiologist at Kadlec Regional Medical Center, who ran the fossil of Judith’s injured humerus through the CT scan. This gave the team a depth of knowledge about Judith’s life - allowing them to tell a fascinating story about what the dinosaur’s life might have been like. In "her own” words:
 
"My journey has been long. I lived during the Late Cretaceous Period about 75 million years ago. In those days, the Montana climate was almost tropical, with warm temperatures and lush vegetation. Using my large beak, I was able to cut down many kinds of plants and brush. You see, I needed to eat vast quantities of vegetation because I was as big as an extremely large rhinoceros.
 
"My life was not always easy as the people who discovered my fossil found out.  Please look at the 3-inch hole in the lower left portion of my frill. Something pierced this area, punching out my flesh and bone. It took a long time to heal and left a hole when it did. Although I am not vain by nature, I always thought this piercing made me look rather stylish. "
 
The cast of the skull has been on exhibit this winter in the Kadlec Regional Medical Center lobby in Richland. It will be on display in the WSU Tri-Cities East Building Commons through May 14. Judith’s actual skeleton is at the Weis Earth Science Museum in Menasha, Wis. Learn more at judiththedinosaur.com.