How many dinosaur bones are still undiscovered?

The BBC report in August 2009 that paleontologists in Australia have discovered a new species of dinosaur—a large, plant-eating sauropod nicknamed Zac. This follows another recent discovery of three new species in the same part of northern Australia. It seems as if paleontologists are always stumbling across new skeletal remains, but how long can this last? Will we ever run out of dinosaur fossils?

Not for a long, long time. There are currently about 3000 "full" dinosaur specimens—complete or near-complete skeletons or just a complete or near-complete skull—in museums around North America. Scientists estimate that there are at least triple this number still uncollected around the world. It's hard to say how long it will take to track all these down. But currently scientists are discovering new full specimens at a rate of about 14 per year. Pinning down the exact number of all uncollected fossils—not just complete specimens but bits and pieces like teeth or tail bones—is nearly impossible, but the figure is in the millions.

Paleontologists have a far more precise idea of how many more dinosaur types or "genera" are left to discover. (Scientists use the term genera—the plural for genus—instead of species because most dinosaur types are represented by a single species; they're "monospecific." An exception is the Tyrannosaurus rex, a species of the genus Tyrannosaurus.)

Using statistics, scientists estimate that in the 165-million-year period that dinosaurs roamed the Earth, there were about 1844 different genera, from carnivorous dinosaurs like the Velociraptor to herbivores like the Stegosaurus. Since humans started searching for dinosaur bones in 1824, it's estimated that we've found remnants from 29 percent of these types. If we keep at this pace of new discovery, it's likely that we'll hit something like "peak dinosaur," with 50 percent of all dinosaur genera discovered, by 2037. Within the next 100 to 140 years, we will have found 90 percent.

Not all remaining dinosaur bones are actually worth collecting. For paleontologists, discovering new species is the first priority, followed closely by digging up complete or near-complete fossilized skeletons. But fragments of common dinosaurs aren't particularly important for scientific research. So if a paleontologist stumbles upon the bones of, say, the hadrosaur Maiasaura, one of the most common fossils, chances are she'll move along without picking up the bones for closer study.

Bonus Question: Where's the best place to look for dinosaur bones?

The United States, China, and Argentina have lots of fossil deposits, followed by Canada, England, and Mongolia. These six countries account for 75 percent of the world's dinosaur finds. Australia, Europe, and Africa are less fertile.

The top six are ripe for dinosaur discoveries because they once had interior waterways—essential to create fossils—and continue to have rock and sediment from the time when dinosaurs were around. Good locations also tend to be places that are dry now—the Gobi desert; rock formations in Alberta—because researchers don't have to dig up trees or move buildings to access possible sites. Places that are covered with vegetation may have a ton of dinosaur fossils, but getting at them is difficult

-original article posted here