I’m Jake Newman. The Portland Logbook is my love letter to this city: the food worth hunting down, the history that refuses to die, the corners you only find if you’re paying attention.

Where Are the Dinosaurs?

Here is one of the stranger facts about Maine. For all the ancient ledges and the rocky coastline around Portland, there is not a single dinosaur fossil in the entire state. No bones. No claws. No footprints. Nothing at all.

And it has nothing to do with dinosaurs avoiding us. The explanation is much simpler.

If you look at the geologic time chart from the Maine Geological Survey, the only periods where Maine actually has fossils are the very early Paleozoic and the very recent Ice Age. Those are the blue boxes on the chart. Cambrian through Devonian at the bottom. Pleistocene and Holocene at the top. Everything in between, including the entire Age of Dinosaurs, is a blank space for Maine.

That blank space is not a small gap. It covers more than 300 million years. The rocks from that whole stretch of time either never formed here or were removed by erosion.

The story goes like this. Early Maine was under a shallow sea. That is why we find trilobites, brachiopods, and other marine fossils in bedrock around the state. After that, the land rose, folded, and turned into mountains. Once rock is above sea level, it stops preserving fossils and starts breaking down. Whatever younger layers did form were worn away over millions of years.

Then the glaciers arrived. Massive ice sheets moved across Maine and scraped the surface down again. Any remaining rocks from the dinosaur era were ground off, carried south, or destroyed entirely. Glacial erosion reset the landscape, so Maine picks up the fossil story again only in the Pleistocene with clams, snails, and the occasional mammoth or walrus.

So did dinosaurs live here? Almost certainly. They lived in what is now Massachusetts and Connecticut. They lived in Nova Scotia. There is no reason they would not have walked across the land that became Maine. The problem is that Maine does not have the sedimentary layers that could have kept their bones.

Once you learn that, the city looks different. The ledges at Willard. The breakwater at Spring Point. The cliffs at Two Lights. All of that dark, folded bedrock is older than dinosaurs by hundreds of millions of years. And the clay beneath Portland is from long after they disappeared.

Other places get the skeletons and the museum pieces. Maine gets the bookends. The ancient sea life and the Ice Age shells. The middle chapter is simply gone.

Dinosaurs were here. The land just erased the evidence.

What part of this blew your mind the most?

Open the Doors, Tuan Yuan. We’re Freezing Out Here.

I keep walking past Tuan Yuan Hotpot on Forest Ave and honestly, I’m starting to feel like it’s gaslighting me. The sign is up. The whole place looks basically finished. The website still says “coming soon.” And every time I look inside, it’s dark. Not even a hint of life. Just an empty place staring back at me like I’m the problem.

Portland knows restaurant delays. We survived the Twelve wait. We’ve watched Old Port openings drag on so long it felt like watching snow melt in reverse. But this one hits differently. I walk by it three times a week. I want it to exist. And I love hotpot.

And it’s not just me. Friends keep asking about it like we’re all in the same neighborhood group chat.
“Did it open?”
“Anyone hear anything?”
“I swear the lights were on… never mind.”

Here’s why we care. Sichuan Kitchen is one of the best restaurants in Portland. It’s not the place people name-drop, it’s the place locals actually send you to. And Tuan Yuan comes from the same family. If it carries even a little of that magic, we’re in for something special this winter.

And the whole time, the Tuan Yuan sign hangs on Forest Ave like a promise we’re scared to believe in.

So here’s my plea, said with love and hunger.
Tuan Yuan, please open.
We’re cold.
We’re hopeful.
We’re ready to sit around a pot of broth and thaw out.

Check out Tuan Yuan

THIS WEEKS CONDITIONS
☀️ SUNRISE: 7:03 AM
🌅 SUNSET: 4:04 PM.
🌊 SEA TEMP: 49.6 °F (Casco Bay,)
✨ Local Favorite of the Week: Masala Mahal

Shoutout to Paige in South Portland for sharing the Logbook with eight friends, one sister, and a few of her clients. Portland is still a village and word of mouth is the only real engine left.

🏡 Thinking about buying or selling a home in Maine? Just hit reply, I’d love to help.

🐾 Adoptable Buddies of the Week! 🐾

🐶 Princess – 4 yrs
A big golden girl with a soft heart. She starts out shy, but once she trusts you, she melts. Princess needs a calm home, patient people, and no cats. Dog intros required. Kids six and up. She is one of those dogs who just wants to feel safe and loved, and once she does, she’s all yours.

🐱 Ducky – 7 yrs
A gentle grey longhair who needs a quiet landing. She’s a Tiny Tiger, so she takes time to warm up, but she blossoms with patience. No young kids, but she might enjoy another steady animal in the house. If you like earning trust slowly and honestly, Ducky is your girl.

🐱 Riggs – 8 yrs
An orange guy with opinions, in the best way. Sweet when he wants affection, spicy when he’s had enough. Adult-only home, and he wants to be the only pet. Once you learn his rhythm, he’s a loyal, funny companion who keeps life interesting.

🐕 Interested? Check them out here

If the link doesn’t open anymore, it means they’ve already been adopted!