Notes from Montana
M. Schweitzer's Field Notes

July 9

Last night was a LOT better! I am glad because I wouldn?t be walking much if it were as loud and windy and rainy and lightening filled as Saturday! It is a beautiful day. There is the slightest of breezes waving the grass, and clouds, but none threatening. We will check out a new site today, and the exposures are supposed to be better than yesterday. With a new site comes the hope that the dinosaurs that have so far remained elusive will surely be found! This is a productive area, and we never come back empty handed from a day of prospecting. The last non-avian dinosaurs lived during the time these rocks were laid down.!http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july9-1.jpg! We are high enough in section that in many of the exposed badlands one can see the dark bands of coal that mark the K-T boundary, the great extinctioneven that left us with no more of these grand beasts. It should be a GREAT day.

Well, I didn?t come back with my T.rex, but it was a productive day. We revisited a site where my friend Mark had previously found a fairly complete turtle just above the K-T boundary, and began the process of putting a plaster jacket around the bones and loose shaley mud it rested upon. !http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july9-2.jpg! While we were there, the  rest of the crew wandered off and Liz found the remains of a second partially articulated crocodile in the shales, and Denver found the skull bone of an as yet unidentified dinosaur.

Then we moved down the road to another site, and in our wanderings stumbled across (literally) the  perfectly articulated and preserved bones from the foot of a small, plant eating dinosaur called thescelosaurus. They were weathering out of mudstone, and bone doesn?t last long in this type of sediment, because it absorbs moisture, and as it goes through wet and dry cycles, causes the bones to shatter into a million sharp shards and then crumble away. So, we began immediately to excavate around the bone that was exposed. !http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july9-3.jpg! When we were fairly certain that there was only a foot, we sent Liz back to the truck to get plaster and burlap, and began to jacket those bones as well. The crew went off prospecting while Mark and I worked to expose and pedestal the bones. We stabilized the bone and applied a thick layer of plaster to encase the bones and the sediments, thus stabilizing it for movement. at last the jacket was done, we will let it dry overnight and come back to finish tomorrow. We decided to prospect one more site before heading back to camp, and their broke off into groups to explore. In our wanderings,we found and noted four triceratops skulls. Unfortunately, we were about 50 years too late to collect them. When bone weathers out of muddy shale, the wet-dry cycles of the clay-y minerals cracks and explodes the bone, until there is nothing left but mounds of bone shards. It is sad, so much information is lost, but we can note their presence. One of the goals of this project is to get a better picture of the overall paleoecology of this region, and so we note the presence of dinosaurs we can identify to group, whether or not they are good enough to collect. It also allows us to form ideas about herd/family structure, growth rates, and other biological factors not discernable with only one dinosaur. The Hell Creek is rich in both diversity of dinosaurs and preservation, so it is excellent for this type of study.

Back in camp everyone takes a few minutes to unload, wash up, and just unwind. Jay, who owns the land where we camp, stopped by to visit. We are so appreciative when landowners give us access and  permission to look for our critters. This family has been particularly generous, and have put up with us for three seasons now. It can?t be easy to be invaded by this many each summer, and I can?t say enough thanks for all they do.

Now, there are fossils to be sorted through, field notes to complete, and then its time to help with dinner, which tonite is a traditional Norwegian dinner. I can?t spell or pronounce it, but I CAN eat it, and it was great. The sunset was beautiful, and I love just wandering around this old farm. The family had parked all their old equipment here. !http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july9-4.jpg! They no longer use it, and they have space to store it, so they do. They are part of the landscape now, and part of prairie life. !http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july9-5.jpg! It is really a pretty classic view of life out here.

I also have to throw in this picture of the outhouse that was from LAST year. The crew spent a day digging out a new outhouse last summer, for reasons best left to the imagination. It has been replaced by a new model, which is way upscale, with even electricity and an inside light?and a mirror on the wall with ducks etched inside! It is awfully plush. Since the crew is made up of mostly men, and since the cabin is used mainly for hunting camp for the family here, you can see how the argument for ownership of the new  outhouse fared! !http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/resources/schweitzer/july9-6.jpg! Tells you how the ?wimmin? rate in the grand scheme of things!

Posted at 11:28AM Jul 25, 2007 by tppeake in General  |  Comments[5]