page 38 read stumbling upon the past Javier was a nine-year-old boy who lived with his parents in the hillside town of Ademus in the province of Valencia in Spain Javier was a curious and energetic boy his favorite pastime was to explore the hills and open fields around his town the neighboring village of Rio Deva just 26 kilometers away from Ademus was famous because of a great discovery there in 2003 paleontologists found the bones of the largest dinosaur in Europe in a wheat field near the little village when it was alive this animal was over 38 meters long and had the weight of seven elephants Javier liked dinosaurs more than anything else in the world he also believed that there was an amazing dinosaur bone buried somewhere near his own town of Ademus his dream was to be the first person to find it one summer morning Javier was exploring in a field near a ravine just outside of the town he looked up to see his two friends Fernando and Pepe running toward him with a colorful kite let's fly it Javier they shouted Javier enjoyed playing with his friends he quickly forgot about his exploring and grabbed the string of the kite as he ran the kite lifted into the sky the boys cheered suddenly the kite spun around and dove into the ravine I'll get it shouted Javier he ran down into the ravine as he reached for the kite his foot caught on something he fell to the rocky ground with a crash his two friends ran up as he rubbed his head are you okay Pepe asked I think so said Javier he looked down at a rough gray object sticking out of the ground I tripped on that he said it looks like a rock said Fernando Javier looked carefully at the object I don't think it's a rock he said excitedly I think it's something else let's pull it out said Pepe no said Javier it's better to leave it right here Javier and the boys ran home to tell Javier's parents Javier's father spoke to the mayor of the town who contacted the paleontology foundation the next day a paleontologist from the foundation came to the town he followed Javier to the ravine and examined the boys discovery it could be a dinosaur bone he said if it is we'll need to determine how old it is how do you do that asked Javier this bone was buried in sedimentary rock which lies in layers under the ground we'll look for volcanic ash below and above this rock layer through a special process we can find out the ages of those layers of ash then we'll know that the dinosaur died sometime between those two ages soon many paleontologists began excavating the area around the bone they found more bones as well as a skull it was a unique dinosaur they didn't know about television reporters came to the town and spoke to Javier about the bone he discovered this dinosaur will need a name said one reporter what do you think it should be called that's easy said the man from the paleontology foundation we'll call it the Javier Soros you