Fossil Dig 2010
28 June 2010 (My Wedding Anniversary #28!)
This day finally arrived. The day we have been anticipating for two years. Laurel and I had a restless night and attributed that to our excitement. We had breakfast and packed our lunches, soaked our cooling vests and met the team around 8:30. We followed Jim (the photographer) and Gina (his daughter) out to the site about 20 minutes from town.
The site is on land much like many other ranches we have prospected the past three years. There is lots of grass and cactus, lupine and sage. The betonite is very hard when dry and sharp if you fall on it just right. There are areas that have many pieces of iron siderite littered over the hard betonite and sandstone. These create a very unstable footing, especially when the area you are walking is an incline. Walking requires your full attention, which to be honest is not where you want your focus. Remember, we are trying to find fossils. It is important not to slip and break something, so I find myself in constant conflict...safety or treasure.
We arrived about the time the Caterpillar driver was positioning his equipment to begin removing the hill near the site and part of the overburden. Since we looked pretty silly standing around watching him, Steve gave all of us permission to look for fossils for one hour. The troops scattered over the formation to try our luck. I found the usual scrap fossil pieces and this year have decided not to bring home every piece I find. I did find one partial vertebra of some very small creature; perhaps a salamander. Returned to the Tinker site to see the progress. I don't believe anyone struck gold (so to say), at least no one was sharing.
After some discussion of how best to use the team for the day, we were included in the screening process. Since the excavation is being conducted much like an archaeological dig, there are many aspects that require lots of data collection and documentation. On one particular small plateau, four holes were dug each 12 inches deep. The holes are numbered and the contents of one bucket of soil from each hole is screened for fossil material. If anything is found it is noted on a corresponding numbered zip lock bag and then the holes are filled in again. If fossils had been discovered in the sifting process, then extensive grading would not proceed there. We did not find any fossils at that depth so I believe that plateau will be scraped by the CAT.
Note that the plateau we worked on is sited above the wash where Tinker was discovered. Part of the work today was to determine if there is more T.rex material in the higher parts of the general site. Some very weathered and small T.rex pieces were found at an even higher level where the CAT was scraping. Steve and Ron (Tinker's owner) decided that this material was probably not from Tinker and the two juvenile T. rex. However, those pieces were bagged and labeled.
Some of the students were in the main wash (dig site) removing plant material, and others carried tools down from the vehicles. A few students were sent back to the fish site to continue working on the paddle fish jacket. Others were sent to town for supplies and a new wheelbarrow tire. Lunch at noon, was earlier than our usual 1:30, since we were on the same schedule as the CAT driver.
The screens were moved down to the main dig site and we sifted many more buckets to collect any additional fossil material. Both sifting groups found some small fossil bone scrap and some botanicals. Again each bucket of soil was numbered and if fossils were found from that bucketful, the zip lock bag was numbered to match. It was great to be assisting in this effort and it is clear that many hands are required to accomplish this large project. Thank goodness for the CAT driver. He literally moved "hills".
That effort ended our first day on the job. The CAT driver continued working and Steve allowed us to collect for another hour. Even though we were hot and tired, the lure of 65 million year old treasure is hard to resist. We grabbed extra water bottles and headed out again. I found the usual spills of weathered fossil scrap. However in one little rivulet I found a very unusual small complete bone that looked like a metacarpal (hand bone) or metatarsal (foot bone). I initially thought it might be a vertebra but it had small indentations that made me think of a hand or foot bone. It is also strangely colored and lighter than many fossils so I was afraid it might be a modern bone in masquerade. Just inches away from that was another tiny fossil (size of a pea). It looked like a vertebra to me. Into my film canister they went for safe keeping until I could show Steve.
I continued my quest and knew it was getting close to time to return to the cars. I got a call on the radio from Laurel who had found a "spill" of something. I found her just around the corner from me and helped her pick up some Triceratops frill, and as we found out later, skull. She has some very nice pieces which will be beautiful when washed. We checked out a couple of ant hills...no goodies.
We returned to the cars to find Steve and Ron watching the CAT driver continue removing the overburden. The more he can remove the easier it will be for the students wielding shovels. The cost of the CAT is around $1,000 a day. Money well spent but I don't know how many days are in the overall budget. Guess we will find out tomorrow.
I asked Steve to take a look at my tiny treasures and he was impressed with both little finds. He thinks the one is indeed from a therapod (meat eating dinosaur)and is either a metacarpal or metatarsal. Ron agreed but I note a bit of hesitation in both of their voices. Perhaps Rob can weigh in with his opinion next week. They are of one opinion concerning the vertebra; infant hadrosaur tail vertebra. Once again I am the queen of little "stuff". I am very pleased with them and as I write this they are in their bath getting ready for display in their individual gem cases. My beautiful 65 million year old tiny treasures. Thank you Fossil gods.
The field day was finished for us and after a brief stop at the local market, we headed back to the Tipperary Lodge Motel for a welcome hot shower and dinner. Early call tomorrow with an 8:00 briefing for the days goals in the field, requires an earlier bedtime...no more midnight blogging for me.
Extra note tonight: Happy Anniversary Walt. I love you and thank you for supporting my crazy passion for really old stuff.
Cheers,
Christine, Momasaurus
No comments:
Post a Comment