Long time no write

I realize the blog post here recently have been getting fewer and fewer. Sorry about that. Some understand what's up, some will find out in time. One of the things I have been up to is trying to shed this horribly long  winter. Its finally "wind" season here (in some places its called "Spring"), so we are able to go outside and start doing some field work. In early April we headed back out to the Marble Mountains of California (former post here) and the Frenchman Mountains of Nevada, along with a 'new' site at Emigrant Pass, California. Over all is was a very nice and successful trip. It was nice to head west where it was a bit warmer and the plants were actually bloomed out.

The wind in the Marble Mountains was strong as it always seems to be this time of year. Two of our trip-mates had tents that were not really made to withstand the wind we were dealing with, and they were pretty interesting to watch:
     


Lucky for us all of the tents survived, many trilobites were collected that will help with John's continuing research, and when we arrived home green things were blooming here as well. Over all it was a nice trip. We will have a post up about it in more detail on the Museum's blog soon so keep your eyes peeled for that.

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster, video by Zeb Miracle. Any material we collected are covered under a permit though the appropriate agency (when required) and curated at the Museum of Western Colorado, unless otherwise noted.

Fieldwork Friday #4

Sorry this is late - but it is still Friday (for  a few more seconds...)

What a week! We arrived home from our trip to the Marble Mountains Tuesday. I am home for a week and a half and then we are in and out of town until the second week of May! I should not complain - a little over a week of that is field work.

Our trip to the Mojave was wonderful! We could not have asked for better weather! A little background on the trip – we were in the Marble Mountains south of the Mojave National Preserve of California searching for trilobites in the late Cambrian Latham Shale. My husband has been working there since he was an undergraduate and is gathering data for a presentation he will be giving this fall at the International Conference on the Cambrian Explosion. Last year they collected 147 specimens. This year we collected close to 300 specimens. 

We met Dr. Andy Farke (curator of paleontology at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, California) along the road on our way to the site. Andy worked out in the field with us the first day. I had a great time getting caught us with him. We realized it was out first time to do fieldwork together - and we were in the CAMBRIAN! What is the world coming to? We need to get out to the Cretaceous where we belong. ;)

We had great luck at our first site. The area was frequented by many hobby collectors while we were there and we had the pleasure to be seriated with gun fired from the camp below our pits (as their children ran loose on the mountain side trying to find trilobites). But everyone came away with a trilobite and no gun shot wounds, which always makes for a good day.

The second day we worked out first day’s area, and then moved to an area closer to camp. We had moderate success at this site. We worked pits that had been opened by others (minimizing any surface impact) and found an amazing amount of trilobite cephalons in the spoil piles. It appeared that many of the people who were working the area were looking for whole trilobites. I found 2 complete trilobites on this trip. The rest were cephalons (and some pretty nice ones!).

This area provided a nice view and we saw a nice variety of lizards (2 Chuckwalla’s!), a nice variety of spring flowers, some fun weird beetles, and 1 huge scorpion!! The weather was perfect with the exception of a strong wind we had our third night that threatened to take down our tents, and did take out our shade tarp. We all got a nice coating of dust and a free facial that day.

This trip was also our dog Tikka's first field excursion since we have had him. He is an Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix, and an older dog. He enjoyed going out with us and stayed very close, enjoying any shade he could find. He did not even chase any lizards or bugs, just chilled out and watched us work, snapping at the occasional fly that would bug him. He did really well until the last day. We were returning to a quarry that was up a long shale covered, rocky hill and as soon as he saw where I was headed he sat down on the trail and refused to go any further. We decided, since it was the last day and he was so insistent on NOT going up that trail, to just let him hold down the fort at camp that day. He seemed to be feeling much better, although still sore, that evening.

All in all it was a great trip! Feel free to take a look at my pictures from the trip. I hope to take some pictures soon to share of the curation process and research the trilobites we collected will now be going though.

Olenellus (nevadensis?)

Mesonacis fremonti

Mesonacis fremonti

The brachiopod Paternia pospectensis (below)

Mesonacis fremonti

Olenellus nevadensis

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

Fieldwork Friday #3

Welcome to the third installment of Fieldwork Friday! This week we are headed out to the Marble Mountains of California this weekend to collect trilobites from the Lower Cambrian Latham Shale, below cliffs of Chambless Limestone. Last April the museum took a collecting trip out and came back with more than 147 specimens for the museum collections.

While trilobites are invertebrates and are legally collectible from BLM land (reasonable amounts for personal use, no permit required), when collecting large amounts for research you do need a permit (which the museum had). But what is a "reasonable amount?" According to the Utah BLM website, which has a nice descriptive paleontology section, "You may collect common invertebrate and plant fossils for NONCOMMERCIAL purposes only. A reasonable amount is what you may keep for a personal hobby collection or display in your home. Collecting common invertebrate or plant fossils for landscaping (even if it's just around your house) is not a hobby activity and must be done as a mineral materials sale." [link] If you are wondering if you need a permit, check out this link.

But anyway...last year they got some great specimens. Trilobites collected include:

• Olenellus gilberti
  
• Olenellus clarki
• Olenellus nevadensis
  
• Mesonacis fremonti
  
• Bristolia mohavensis
  
• Bristolia harringtoni
  

And the brachiopod Paterina pospectensis. Below are some pictures of last years trip. I will be sure to post pictures of our trip when I have internet access, hopefully before next Friday.

Camp

Prospecting for trilobites

One of the museums great volunteers, Darrell, and a trilobite he found.

Zeb sorting trilobites

More pictures to come! Have a great week!

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