It seems that everyone, especially young people, enjoys learning about dinosaurs. They are also important for the economy of Thailand. The Thammasat University Libraries have just acquired a new book on the subject: Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds. Its author, John Pickrell, is a science journalist. The surprising message of his book is that while we think correctly of dinosaurs as extinct, they left many traces in birds that are still around today. Since the 1990s, dinosaur fossils found in China and Mongolia have taught us new things about this field of study. Before, scientists described dinosaurs as having lizard-like scales, dark colors, and cold blood. The new discoveries suggested that they sometimes had feathers in unusual colors, had beaks like birds, and were warm-blooded. In this sense, popular dinosaur movies such as Jurassic Park and Jurassic World: An Imax 3D Experience – the latter film was shown in September at Siam Paragon and Imax Digital outlets at Major Cineplex Pinklao and Ratchayothin, Quartier CineArt, Central Festival Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, and Central Westgate – are incorrect in the way they portray dinosaurs. In reality, they used feathers to keep warm and also attract potential partners. Some of these dinosaurs hatched nests of eggs, the way birds do, and suffered from diseases such as we find in birds today. On his website, John Pickrell writes:

Dinosaurs didn’t die out when an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago. Get ready to unthink what you thought you knew and journey into the deep, dark depths of the Jurassic. The discovery of the first feathered dinosaur in China in 1996 sent shockwaves through the palaeontological world. Were the feathers part of a complex mating ritual, or a stepping stone in the evolution of flight? And just how closely related is T. rex to a chicken? … dinosaurs developed flight and became the birds in our backyards. He delves into the latest discoveries in China, the US, Europe and uncovers a thriving black market in fossils and infighting between dinosaur hunters, plus the controversial plan to use a chicken to bring dinosaurs back from the dead.

An ornithologist – a specialist in the study of birds — Alexander Vargas has written that identifying birds as descendants of dinosaurs is

one of the greatest scientific triumphs of modern natural history. A long history of neatly overcome objections and an ever-growing body of evidence have supported the consistency of this conclusion. This growth of knowledge has been especially large since the late 1990s, including compelling evidence such as feathered dinosaurs, which leaves little room for reasonable doubt. Flying Dinosaurs is a book written in a new age where the idea has become firmly established, and nicely illustrates the ongoing boom on dinosaur-bird research.

Thailand and Dinosaurs

People who enjoy traveling to the north are familiar with the dinosaur museums in the Isan region as important tourist attractions. At the Khon Kaen airport, on road signs, and even in Buddhist temples, representations of dinosaurs are seen. Travelers are drawn there to touch fossilized dinosaur footprints, as The Nation reported in 2014. The Sirindhorn Museum (Phu Kum Khao Dinosaur Museum), as part of the Phu Kum Khao Dinosaur Research Center at Sahatsakhan in Kalasin Province, is a main center. It was founded in 1995, after dinosaur fossils were uncovered at Wat Sakkawan, Amphoe Sahatsakhan, Changwat Kalasin. They were of previously unknown species and made big news in the field of paleontology, or the scientific study of life almost 12,000 years ago. The Sirindhorn Museum was the first such collection in the Kingdom, opened for study and research, as well as tourism. It contains a research building for dinosaur fossils and other vertebrates and an exhibit building. It is located about 27 kilometers north of Changwat Kalasin. As one tourist explained on a blog in 2014:

Credit the Abbot of Wat Sakkawan, Phrakhru Wichit Sahatsakhan, for his discovery of some large bones in 1970. He didn’t know what they were, and let them be until a team confirmed they were fossils in 1978. A couple of years later, a Thai-French group of paleontologists confirmed the bones they found were from a sauropod. Some 14 years later, the area got its first major-scale excavation got underway, revealing over 700 fossils in all. Opened to the public in April 2007, Her Royal Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presided over the grand opening in December 2008.

In 2014, due to the popularity and usefulness of the Sirindhorn Dinosaur Museum, a new partnership was announced with the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, central Japan, making the two research centers sister institutes. The Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, in the city of Katsuyama, is considered it is one of the world’s greatest dinosaur museums alongside Canada’s Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and China’s Zigong Dinosaur Museum. Thawatchai Arunyik, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, declared:

For many years, the Sirindhorn Museum has played a pivotal role in the study and research on geology and palaeontology, and geological tourism. Each year, tourists travel from afar to see the many dinosaur fossil exhibits here. This agreement to establish a sister museum relationship with the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum will certainly help enhance the awareness of the museum and the people’s interest in geological tourism, resulting in more tourism spending in Kalasin.

Phu Wiang Dinosaur Museum

Another much-visited touristic highlight is the Phu Wiang Dinosaur Museum. In 1976, Dr. Sudham Yaemniyom, a geologist working with the Thai Department of Mineral Resources, discovered a piece of bone on a stream bed, later identified as part of a left femur of a large, four-legged plant-eating dinosaur with a long neck and tail. This is seen as the very first discovery of a dinosaur in Thailand. In 1981, Dr. Choengchai Krikong, another geologist, headed the Thai-French Paleontological Project, in cooperation with the Thai Department of Mineral Resources, to explore fossils near the top of Pratoo Teema mountain, Amphoe Phu Wiang, Changwat Khonkaen. They turned out to be bones of huge herbivorous dinosaurs, alligator teeth, tortoise shells, and teeth and scales of ancient fish. A museum was duly established in honor of these finds. The Phu Wiang Dinosaur Museum has been open to the public since 2001. Among items on display are vertebrae, teeth, and footprints of dinosaurs, mostly about 130 million years old. The animals ranged in size from a modern-day chicken to a creature about 15 meters long. The Phu Wiang Dinosaur Museum has areas for research and investigation, fossil collection, replication and conservation, a library and permanent exhibition, administration offices, and tourist areas, including a cafeteria. The museum still bears the name Phu Wiang after its former location, although in 2006 it became part of the Wiang Kao district, about 80 kilometers west of Khon Kaen provincial capital.

As a CNN report noted in 2010, Khon Kaen is so proud of its status as dinosaur capital of Southeast Asia that the city’s professional Thai Division 1 League football team, Khon Kaen FC, is nicknamed the The T-Rexs (ไดโนเสาร์พิฆาต).

Phu Faek Forest Park

For further explorations, the Phu Faek Forest Park is located in Nam Kham Village, Na Koo District, Kalasin Province. The Phu Faek Forest Park features footprints measuring almost 18 inches on a rock made by a large two-legged dinosaur dating back about 140 million years, probably a carnivore. This mountainous area includes some 16 dinosaur footprints dating back about 140 million years. Important discoveries are continuing, as The Nation explained in 2010. Dr. Warawut Suteethorn, a senior geologist announced with international colleagues that unusually large and old fossils in good condition had been found in Phu Noi, about 150 million years old. These included a 120cm-long front leg, a 80cm-long shank bone, five ribs, four toes and two spinal bones. They indicated a previously unknown species. As The New York Times pointed out the same year, after some decades of research, local farmers in the northeast have learned to value fossils. Dr. Varavudh Suteethorn, a palaeontologist, is quoted:

It used to be a taboo — people didn’t want to bring them home. After we worked for about 10 years in the area, people started to know more about it.

Around 200 million years ago, when Bangkok was under sea level, dinosaurs were plentiful in the northern part of the country. The New York Times observes:

Paleontologists have documented five new genuses of dinosaurs and six previously unknown species since research began in the 1980s in partnership with French scientists. About 10,000 dinosaur bones have been collected nationwide in three decades, scientists say. In terms of the breadth and scientific significance of discoveries, China remains a more important center for dinosaur research in Asia, according to Mr. Varavudh, but Thailand could contribute more if it had more trained paleontologists. He counts only 10 dinosaur experts in the country. Mr. Varavudh and others hope that the younger generation will embrace the region’s dinosaur past more enthusiastically.

For now, Dinosaurs in Thai Culture and Tourism, an article in the scholarly journal Tourism Culture & Communication suggests that until recently, the Kingdom’s dinosaur museums have proven more popular with Thai tourists than farang visitors, in part because of their relative remoteness. To address this situation, plans have been made to open museums closer to large cities, where tourists gather.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).