Malta - Day 2
7/28
The sun is rising--what a great night! Now, the red light of sunrise comes in from the opposite side of the one-room cabin. I think it will be hot today, but there are dark purple clouds hanging low over the bluffs, and they could either dissipate as the day progresses or hold the violence of wind and hail and lightning and rain that is common here. Those storms don't last long, but you REALLY don't want to get caught in them.
I just remembered---whenever I have mentioned to my friends out East that I will be prospecting out of Malta this summer, they have this very awed and impressed response. I couldn't understand that until one said he didn?t know there were dinosaurs in that part of Europe! Since I grew up here, in Montana, I didn't think at all that maybe someone might confuse the two. Malta Montana is NOT the Malta they are thinking of at all, just a prairie town built around cattle and railroads, right up here on the highline next to Canada. I don't think they'd be too impressed if they could see us now!
Time for coffee and packing for the day. More later.
Boy it was HOT! You know, they compare heats and it is always "well it's a dry heat", but they forget to tell you that that dry heat that makes it bearable out here sucks every drop of moisture from every orifice. Cells cannot produce enough moisture to balance that drained from the body by heat and wind, and 4% relative humidity. Fingernails crack and peel, skin turns scaly, and windburn is a constant companion. I was thinking today that there is a kind of mystique to paleontology: a romantic, "Indiana Jones" notion. But, there isn't much romance in a man (or woman) who has a permanent bend at the neck from always looking down, leathered skin from too much sun, squinty eyes from looking into the distance against the sun, and the far-away dreaminess that comes from always looking for that next great find just beyond the next horizon--oh, and did I mention the welts from mosquitoes and flies, the scratches from scrambling up scree on all fours, and the constant odor of bug spray and calamine lotion? Not the most "romantic" vision.
We had a productive day. First, what appears to be part of a skull--to my best guess, hadrosaurian. Next, Leah, one of the Museum crew, found a beautiful vertebra with a still-attached neural spine, in a vertical sandstone face.
!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/malta_3.jpg!
Miller Lite and her find of a great articulated foot and leg!
How lucky for her--the face of the cliff was in the shade most of the day, with a gentle breeze to keep things cool. The rest of the crew were encouraged with the finds, and scattered across the rest of the coulee, coming back around the other side about 1 pm, when the sun was at its peak and the heat was blazing. First, Paul found a very large rib, but the find of the day went to Andi (Miller Lite), a newbie to paleo. She found 3 large and articulated metatarsals (foot bones), with some phalanges (toe bones) off one end, and the tibia (shin) and part of a femur (thigh) heading back into the mountain. We usually give our dinosaurs field names, so this one has vacillated between "Andisaurus" and "PeeJaysaurus", the latter after her dad. Paul, our preparator, set to work getting it ready to field jacket, and I took off by myself to explore more.
!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/malta_4.jpg!
Andi's find in more detail! Cool!
In the city, I can barely find my way out of a parking lot, but here in the badlands, somehow it is easier for me. I walked a long ways, head down and eyes squinty, and finally started noticing bone chips. Soon I saw the end of a bone, disappearing into the hill. I dug out a bit--a beautiful long bone began to take shape. The way it splintered gave me hope that it was perhaps a theropod!I love the big meat-eaters most. But we won't know till it's prepared a bit more, or maybe we won't be able to tell because the ends are both missing. For now though, I can hope. We don't have too many meat eaters from this part of the formation--and you can never have too many Albertosaurs!
Even tho we enjoy our little hunting cabin with no electricity or water, we headed to town for the glorious and unplanned luxury of borrowed showers. Only one day, but those showers felt heaven sent. Then back to the quiet of the little porch where we watched the sun fade and the stars come out, one by one. My friend Bob--the finder of B-rex and a long time buddy, is here to help with prospecting, and we laughed and caught up late into the night, with Lonnie and Lee no doubt thinking we were crazy. It was good, and I sure had no trouble falling asleep!
Posted at 09:44AM Aug 09, 2006 by tppeake in General | Comments[10]