By Jean Boonstra
In Season 9 of Discovery Mountain Gadget found the dinosaur bone belonging to the Professor. Jake delivered the bone and stayed around to learn how an archeological dig site can show that God created our world.
“Professor Z, Professor Z!” Jake called out.
“Oh, Jake,” the Professor answered with a sigh. “Let me guess, you have another question for me?”
Jake smiled, “Can I lift the dinosaur bone out of the ground today?”
The Professor knew that Jake was excited to uncover the T-Rex bone. Everyone at the site had been talking about the bone discovery for days! “Yes, Jake it should be,” he answered kindly.
Jake and the Professor walked over the dig site. The area was covered by a tent and little flags marked the places in the ground that dinosaur bones had been discovered. They’d covered the T-Rex bone in plaster to protect it, and now it was ready to lift out.
“Alright Jake,” the Professor cautioned, “listen to my directions.”
“I’m ready,” Jake answered.
“Gently lift the bone, Jake, be careful!” the Professor said.
“I’m being careful!” Jake answered and triumphantly lifted out the dinosaur bone. The plaster covered and protected the fragile bone and there was no mistaking it—it was a T-Rex femur.
“Set it down carefully,” the Professor said. “Now, I need to measure the depth of the hole where we found it. Oh dear!”
“Professor, what is it?” Jake asked concerned.
“Oh, I forgot my measuring tape!” the Professor said still looking again in his shirt pocket.
“I’ll get it for you,” Jake said enthusiastically, jumping up quickly.
Crunch!
“Oh no! This is a disaster” Jake wailed, looking down. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes! He’d just stepped on the T-Rex bone and it was broken in two.
The Professor wanted to holler, but he saw how terrible Jake felt. He put a hand on Jake’s shoulder and reassured him. “Jake, there will be other bones.”
Looking at the broken T-Rex femur, the Professor noticed something unusual. “This is unusual,” he said lifting the two pieces to look inside. “There appears to be soft tissue inside this bone!”
The Professor and the others gathered around looked at the bone. “This would mean that the bone can’t be millions of years old as some people say,” someone commented.
“We need to get this bone under a microscope,” the Professor said hurriedly. He added, “Jake!”
Jake, standing to the side with his head hanging hardly looked up to reply. “Yes,” he barley answered, “I’m sorry that I ruined everything!”
The Professor smiled. “Jake you didn’t ruin everything. This might be the most important bone we’ve found yet, and we didn’t know it until we looked inside!” The Professor wiped the dust off of his hands and reached out to shake Jake’s hand. “Thank you!”
Jake straightened up and with a grin shook the Professor’s outstretched hand. “You’re welcome. Jacob P. Donovan, Official Dinosaur Expert. Yes, indeedy.”
Listen to the full mini adventure called, “Dinosaur Dig.”