The First Dinosaurs in Outer Space

Dinosaur Fossils Have Travelled in Outer Space

It may seem bizarre, but dinosaurs have travelled in outer space. At least two types of dinosaur fossil have been taken up into space by astronauts. There have also been a number of experiments conducted by scientists working outside of the Earth's atmosphere conducted on bird embryos.

Maiasaura - First Member of the Dinosauria to Go Into Outer Space

Maiasaura was a large Hadrosaur (member of the Hadrosaurine group of duck-billed dinosaurs - distinguished by their lack of adornments and head crests). It was discovered by the American palaeontologist John Horner in 1978 and officially named a year later. The remains of this dinosaur have been found in western Montana, in the late Cretaceous rocks of the Two Medicine Formation. Few dinosaurs left traces behind providing clues as to how these animals lived and behaved, however, Maiasaura is a definite exception to this. Over 200 individual skeletons have been unearthed to date, from hatch-lings right up to mature adults. Jack Horner and his team discovered a Maiasaura nesting site that has yielded a great deal of information about how this type of dinosaur raised its young.

"Good Mother Lizard"

It seems that Maiasaura looked after its babies (the name means "Good Mother Lizard"), very apt in this dinosaur's case. Fossils recovered from the nesting site, show that these animals made nest mounds out of mud, and may have covered any eggs laid with vegetation to keep them warm. Hatch-lings that have been fossilised show teeth wear but their legs are not fully formed (undeveloped legs is feature seen in the chicks of many birds). This indicates that the babies were fed at the nest, as they were unable to forage for themselves. It can be surmised from this data that the parents looked after the youngsters to a degree. The nesting site seems to have been vast, with many thousands of animals at the site, this indicates that Maiasaura lived in large herds, or at least congregated at communal nesting sites.

Maiasaura's other claim to fame is that this dinosaur was the first to be taken up into space. A piece of fossilised bone from a baby Maiasaura along with a piece of Maiasaura eggshell was taken into space by astronaut Loren Acton on a NASA mission in 1985. Not a bad record for Maiasaura, being totally unknown just 7 years earlier, and then the first dinosaur in space. The second dinosaur to travel in space was the skull of a Coelophysis, (Triassic Theropod). The skull was sent into space on the US space shuttle Endeavour on 22nd January 1998. It travelled to the Mir space station, one of a number of trips made by space shuttles to the orbiting station in the Shuttle-Mir programme.

Other Reptiles in the Cosmos

Dinosaurs were not the first representatives of the Class Reptilia to travel in space. Tortoises were used in some of the research programmes as manned space flight was being developed. The first tortoise in space was launched by the Soviet Union in September 1968, as part of the research programme monitoring the potential effect of long space flight on humans. Tortoises were ideal "guinea pigs" for such experiments, due to their ability to survive hostile conditions and to live on little food and water, characteristics recognised by early explorers on Earth, who often sailed with tortoises and turtles on board ship to provide a source of fresh meat into the journey. We have no record of what happened to this particular tortoise after the capsule in which it had travelled returned to Earth.

Experiments Conducted on Chicken Embryos in Zero Gravity

As far as we can tell no adult birds have been sent up into space. Chicken embryos were sent up into space as part of an experiment kit to test the development of chicks in zero gravity by the Americans in 1989. This particular experiment had been scheduled to take place three years earlier but it was lost when the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch on January 28th 1986. Other fertilised bird's eggs have been sent into space on subsequent occasions, no birds as far as our research shows. It would be fascinating to find out how birds cope with zero gravity. Effectively, once in motion they would not need to flap their wings, perhaps they could use their wings to stabilise themselves as they were subjected to zero G.

Future Space Dinosaurs

A number of intriguing experiments have been proposed for future missions into outer space. For example, studies on how animals like tortoises can grow to great ages with possible implications for prolonging human life. There have also been proposals for more genetic research to be carried out on bird embryos under zero gravity conditions. Dinosaurs and outer space, a winning combination exciting children and enthusiastic young astronomers everywhere.

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