Fieldwork Friday #10

A few weeks ago we were working down in the Moab area, most unsuccessfully due to daily rainstorms, which made digging a bit difficult. So we had to bail on the quarry work for the most part and stuck to prospecting and checking out a few track sites in the area.

We prospected a section of Chinle Formation, where we found some wood (picture below) and isolated, indeterminate bone. Nothing to spectacular, unfortunately. And we, inevitably, got chased off by rain. A while down the road the rain blew out and we stopped to prospect a Paleozoic outcrop (I can’t remember the age, Penn. maybe). We found quite a few brachiopods, some crinoids and bryozoans - your typical invertebrate fun (I forgot to take pictures!).

We checked out quite a few track sites while we were over in the area, including the Poison Spider Mesa and Copper Ridge track sites (both in the Jurassic age Entrada Sandstone) that are managed by the BLM.

The tracks at Poison Spider Mesa are interesting because not only are they awesome tracks but also mudcracks, ripple marks and a ton of petroglyphs! These petroglyphs are from the Fremont culture. Some are really great and weird, and many of them have been vandalized by others who feel the need to leave their mark right next to these marks or some even modifying and marking over the petroglyphs. So sad and illegal!

Pictures from the Poison Spider Mesa Track Site:



Pictures from the Copper Ridge Track Site:




So, even though this is more of a paleosite visit trip than fieldwork, I thought I would include it in the series. Hope you enjoy it and have a chance to visit these sites some day!

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster. Please see the "Field Work Friday Rules" about the work I do and collection practices.

A message from the Friends of the S. H. Knight Geological Museum

A statement from the Friends of the Friends of the S. H. Knight Geological Museum:

Statement from the Friends
On Tuesday, June 30 at 5:00 p.m. the University of Wyoming Geological Museum closed its doors. It was a sad moment for all of us who care about the museum. The museum was closed as a result of budget cuts announced by UW President Tom Buchanan on June 4, 2009 that included the museum’s small operating budget and the salary of the long-time director Brent Breithaupt and his part-time office assistant Jennifer Durer.

The outpouring of support for the museum from both the paleontological community and the general public has been overwhelming. Through on-line and paper petitions, Facebook and MySpace groups, blogs and emails, and newspaper articles and letter writing efforts, the President and Provost of the University of Wyoming as well as the Board of Trustees and the Governor are now very aware of the importance of the museum to the people and its role in research and in the education of everyone from children to college students to seniors.

Although the UW administration has not reversed the decision to close the museum, the overwhelming support shown for the museum has allowed the Department of Geology and Geophysics to begin to work with the administration to move towards new ideas for the permanent funding of the museum. These ideas include the establishment of an endowment that would fund the museum operations, including the salary of a director/curator. Obviously setting up and funding an endowment will take time and of course money, but we are hopeful that through these efforts the museum will re-open as a stronger and even more vital part of the Wyoming community.

We want to thank everyone for their support and hard work in helping us reach this point – it could not have been done without you! We will be continuing to gather support through this citizens group, the Friends of the S. H. Knight Geological Museum. There are links to the other on-line support activities on this blog, and we will keep it updated with the latest news about our efforts.

Now is the time to keep our efforts visible – we don’t want to lose this great momentum we’ve gained. If you signed the petition, now write a letter. If you’ve written letters, write more. And keep letting people know about our situation and how important the museum has been to you!

Again, thanks so much for all your support!

Who wants to go on a dinosaur dig?

Anthony over at the RMDRC paleo lab is looking for volunteers who are interested in going on a dinosaur dig in Montana at the end of the month. If you are interested read more of his post here.

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Carnegie Museum in the news

Experts: Carnegie missing out on research opportunities with skeleton crew

This article is making the rounds on the vertpaleo list server, and I thought I would post the link here in case you might have not seen it. It makes one point that is really sticking out in my mind:

"Funding agencies will not give money to an institution that isn't investing in its research," said Jody Martin, chief of the division of invertebrate studies at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which also is struggling to balance its staffing while balancing its budget. "If you're not serious, why should they give you money?"

Such a GREAT point!! I only wish more museums and administrations realized this! I can't count the number of times I have heard about someone leaving a position at a museum (or the museum loosing someone due to death, ect...) and the position never being filled, the position being filled but only temporarily, or the positions money being absorbed and used for other purposes. All of these things suck! In the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology there are over 500 student members right now. And all of these students (myself at one time) assume/think/hope that they are going to be able to get a job in typically a) an academic setting or b) a museum. If museums keep up this behavior of not filling positions what are all of these future paleontologist going to be doing with themselves...... (I hear Don Prothero addresses this in his newest book - Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs - which I have not had a chance to see yet, but I look forward to it!).

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster

Fieldwork Friday #9

Yesterday John and I had a chance to visit with Dr. Jim Kirkland (Utah State Paleontologist). Jim worked in Fruita in the 1990's as the lead paleontologist for Dinomations International Society, in the same building where Dinosaur Journey is currently located. He found and participated in many important paleontological discoveries in the western Colorado area during this time. These include a Dryosaurus nesting site in the Morrison Formation, a bird skull from the Green River Formation, the first Jurassic Ankylosaur - Mymoorapelta maysi (below), along with numerous other dinosaurs from the Morrison Mygatt-Moore Quarry.

image from Gaston Design

While Jim was in town we took the opportunity to have him show us some of the classic sites he has worked, including the Dryosaurus nesting site. We hiked out the site and were happy to be able to find some additional bones.

(above) Jim and John at the site, (below) John and I at the site (picture by Jim Kirkland)

I was very excited to find a nice Dryosaurus coracoid, partial femur (pictured below) and two phalanges (toe bones). John found several small bone fragments and Jim found a nestling Dryosaurus vertebra (very small! I wish I had taken a picture of it).

Jim believes that this site was raided by mesosuchian crocodiles, which would eat the eggs/hatchlings and yearlings known from this site*. We also found a few pieces of egg shell at the site (pictured below).

This was only the second time I have seen egg shell in the Morrison Formation. The first time was at the Young Egg Site, also in Colorado (pictured below).

We continued on to prospect and locate another known site from the area (see below). We hope to be able to go out today to visit additional sites and have a chance to prospect some (if the rain will hold off).

Additional bone found in a Morrison Formation channel sandstone while prospecting.

* Kirkland, J. I. 1996. Predation of dinosaur nest by terrestrial crocodiles. Pages 124-133 in K. Carpenter, K. Hirsch, and J. Horner, editors. Dinosaur Eggs and Babies, Cambridge University Press. [free online here]

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster. Please see the "Field Work Friday Rules" about the work I do and collection practicies.