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Wisconsin Election 4/1/25 Quiz
Quiz by Joe Blum
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WisconsinWisconsin V. YoderWisconsin fur tradeWisconsin Indian's QuizWisconsin TriviaWelcome to WisconsinDred Scott was born enslaved in Virginia in 1799. In 1833, he was purchased by Dr. John Emerson, an army surgeon, living in Missouri. At the time, the U.S. was divided into free states (where slavery was outlawed) and slave states (where slavery was allowed). The Missouri Compromise of 1820 made Missouri a slave state. But it also outlawed slavery in any territory north of it. In 1833, Dr. Emerson was assigned to a fort in Illinois, and later, a fort in the Wisconsin Territory. He took Dred Scott with him. They lived in these areas for years. Even though slavery was outlawed in both places, Emerson never freed Scott. Eventually, Scott was sent back to Missouri to live with Emersonâs wife, Eliza Sanford*. After the doctor died in 1843, Scott tried to buy his freedom. Sanford refused. With the support of his church, abolitionists, and friends, Scott sued to get it. His case ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court. The Arguments Scott sued using two Missouri laws. One said any person held in wrongful enslavement could sue for their freedom. The other stated any person taken to a free territory was automatically free, and could not be re-enslaved. Sanford argued that the Missouri laws applied only to someone moving to free areas by choice. Dr. Emerson was ordered by the army to move to his posts. Sanford also said that military authority was greater than the statesâ. And since they lived on military bases, Emerson did not have to follow state or territory laws. The Decision In a 7â2 decision, the Court ruled that Dred Scott was not free. Chief Justice Roger Taney stated that all people of African descent, free or enslaved, were not U.S. citizens. They did not have rights, like the power to vote or sue in court, so Scottâs case was invalid. But Taney did not stop there. He added that, because enslaved people were property, the Fifth Amendment protected the rights of enslavers. The Fifth Amendment says the government canât take someoneâs property without going through the courts or paying for it. Laws that banned slavery, like the Missouri Compromise, were unconstitutional. No level of government, Taney said, state or federal, could outlaw slavery.Some Arctic Dinos Lived in Herds
By Sid Perkins
Just as interesting, however, is how this was discovered. Scientists didnât look at a single fossil bone.
Instead, they analyzed a large number of preserved footprints on a mountainside located toward the
southern end of central Alaska.
Anthony Fiorillo works at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas. As a vertebrate
paleontologist, he studies the fossils of creatures with backbones. In 2007, he was part of a research
team exploring Denali National Park. âWe rounded the corner and there they were,â he recalls.
Thousands of footprints had been preserved in stone. âIt was amazing.â
Dinosaurs died out more than 65 million years ago (not
counting birds, their modern-day relatives). So, itâs a bit
surprising that scientists know so much about these
ancient creatures. Now, a new study reveals that a certain
type of duckbilled dinosaur lived in the Arctic year-round.
These animals also traveled in herds that included many
age groups, they find. The creatures even appear to have
gone through a âteenage growth spurt.â
Those tracks pepper a steep patch of exposed rock about twice as
long as a football field and up to 60 meters (roughly 200 feet) wide.
They sit at least 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of the Gulf of Alaska.
Between 69 million and 72 million years ago, that now-rocky material
was muddy sediment on a floodplain near a seacoast, Fiorillo explains.
The hadrosaurs walked across the squishy mud. Later, the footprints
they left turned to stone.
Previous studies suggested adult duckbills took care of their young,
says Fiorillo. The new evidence that these dinosaurs truly traveled in
herds with multiple age groups confirms that parents cared for their
young well beyond the time they left the nest, his team concludes. The
researchers published their findings June 30 in Geology.
© Science News for Students
Thousands of tracks cover this
rocky mountainside in Alaskaâs
Denali National Park. They
provide a wealth of information
about the size, age and lifestyle
of certain dinosaurs.
COURTESY OF PEROT MUSEUM OF
NATURE AND SCIENCE
EVIDENCE FOR HERDS O F DINOSAURS
Small meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods had left behind a few of the tracks that Fiorilloâs team
found in Denali. Birds had left some others. But the vast majority came from creatures called
hadrosaurs. These large plant-eating duckbilled dinosaurs had been quite common during the
Cretaceous Period. That helps explain one of their nicknames: âcattle of the Cretaceous.â
For the new study, the researchers focused only on the hadrosaur tracks. More than half of the
footprints were preserved so well that they had clear impressions of the skin on the dinosaursâ feet.
Most tracks had a similar level of preservation. That suggests all were probably left within a short
period. Other fossils in the nearby rocks, including insect burrows, suggest these hadrosaurs had left
their footprints during the summer. These are trace fossils â evidence of ancient life other than a
preserved carcass or bone.
At the time these dinosaurs lived, Fiorillio says, the average temperature in the warmest months was
between 10° and 12° Celsius (50° and 54° Fahrenheit). Thatâs about what conditions are like today
along the border between Canada and the lower 48 U.S. states, he notes.
The team measured a large sample of the duckbillsâ footprints. They fell into four distinct size ranges.
The largest tracks, presumably made by adults, measured about 64 centimeters (25 inches) across. The
smallest tracks, 8 centimeters (3 inches) wide, were likely left by young duckbills. They would have
been no more than a year old. Tracks of two other size groups were probably made by juveniles and
near-adults.
These data suggest the community of hadrosaurs included four different age groups.
© Science News for Students
A hadrosaur footprint made
roughly 70 million years ago. For
scale, the long blue bar at right is
10 centimeters long; each small
blue or white bar measures 1
centimeter.
COURTESY OF PEROT MUSEUM OF NATURE
AND SCIENCE
© Science News for Students
THESE DINOSAURS DIDNâT MIGRATE
About 84 percent of the tracks sampled for the new study had been left by older hadrosaurs â adults or
near-adults. Roughly 13 percent came from the youngest members of the herd. And a mere 3 percent
came from herd members considered to be juveniles, says Fiorillo. The rarity of tracks by these tweens
suggests that the young of this species had a rapid growth spurt. If true, they would have spent relatively
little time at this vulnerable size â and therefore left very few tracks.
âWhatâs really neat is how many small tracks there are,â notes Anthony Martin. An ichnologist â or
expert in trace fossils â he works at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.
Other scientists had analyzed fossil bones from duckbills. These studies had hinted that the equivalent of
adolescent hadrosaurs would have experienced growth spurts. But the new findings are âthe best
evidence that Iâve seen,â says Eric Snively. Heâs a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Wisconsin-
La Crosse. âThis is a great study,â he adds, âand further evidence that juvenile hadrosaurs grew up in an
eye-blink.â
Also previously, researchers had proposed that Arctic dinosaurs migrated farther south for the winter.
Thatâs because even if the region was much warmer than it is today, nights in the high Arctic would have
been 24 hours long. So, with no sunshine for several months, Alaska would have had long periods of very
bleak, chilly weather.
But finding juveniles in the herd
strongly suggests that these
dinosaurs remained in the Arctic all
year. Thatâs because adolescents and
preadolescents wouldnât have had
the strength or stamina to make
those long treks, Fiorillo maintains.
Field work is often harsh. Paleontologists studying the dinosaur
footprints here on an Alaskan mountainside sometimes worked
in cold and fog.
COURTESY OF PEROT MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE
© Science News for Students
The presence of very young dinosaurs might have been expected, he notes: If this were a nesting region,
the babies would have hatched sometime just before summer. And remember, thatâs when these tracks
were left. But that wouldnât explain the juveniles, he says.
The teamâs findings âsuggest that these dinosaurs were overwintering in Alaska somehow,â says Snively.
At the time, the average temperature in the region remained above freezing even during the winter, he
notes. But, he adds, âthis study raises interesting issues about how the dinosaurs could live in the region
when it was pretty dark for several months at a time.â