Dinosaurs are loose in Cincinnati!

Cincinnati Museum Center is looking for our missing dinosaurs!!! Visit our website to join the search:

http://www.cincymuseum.org/explore_our_sites/special_exhibits_events/current_exhibits/dinosontheloose.asp

Happy Hunting...

Dinosaur Field School is in full swing!

Currently, I'm borrowing wi-fi from a tiny cafe near the site because our connection at YBRA has been to slow to add new posts or pictures.



The first week of Field School participants have arrived and they are having a great time!

Sunday - Everyone arrived safely in Red Lodge and settled into their cabins at YBRA and enjoyed the great view from the main lodge before dinner.

Monday - After breakfast, we headed up the the scenic Beartooth Highway and crossed into Wyoming. There, Dr. Storrs gave a geology tour on the Beartooth Plateau at 10,000 feet! The view was incredible and everyone could not stop taking pictures. It is so cold, that we parked our van next to a glacier!!

Tuesday - We headed back into Wyoming and took the group to Clark Fork Canyon to see it's amazing geological features. The shear size of these outcroppings are breathtaking. A variety of formations are exposed and pushed up into a almost vertical position.Then the group was able to get their hands dirty for their first day in the site. Each paired up with a crew member and started to expose bones.

Wednesday - It was a great day for digging. Cloudy and breezy, the site felt to be in the mid-70s. We were baffled, for the weather is never this kind to us. Each participant found their special place in the site and spent the day uncovering their bones. Making huge progress, Janice, D.M. and Mike got to field jacket the first bone of the season. When it was time to leave for dinner everyone wanted to stay and keep digging!

Thursday - I just dropped the group off at the site and we expect to map and field jacket more bones today.

10 years at Mother's Day!

We kicked off Fourth of July with a bang by opening the Mother's Day Site for the 10th year in a row! Very view sites can still uncover so many great specimens year after year, so we consider ourselves very lucky.

First order of business is to cover the site, which is easier said than done. It is an intricate quilt made of tarps, bungees, rope and metal stakes. This will keep our site shaded while we work. Once the tarp was patched, we tied the edges to large rocks and inserted rods and PVC pipe to keep the tarps above our heads. We dubbed it "the big top" for it's massive circus tent appearance.

Then...we started...to dig!!!

The site was covered with feet of fill and we had to move a lot of dirt, filling 5 gallon buckets, one at a time. The key is to careful skim the surface to make sure we do not split a fossil in half with your shovel or trowel. We made huge progress yesterday and I am very proud of the crew. Bones were flagged and more should be uncovered later today.

(Right: Crew member Lamont Meadows searching for fossils)

We have arrived!

Yes, we made it safely into camp last night. Dale Gnidovec, Collections Manager & Curator at Ohio State University also arrived in camp to be part of our crew. After a slight run in with a deer he still beat us to camp. Don't worry, Dale is fine, but his car will need some TLC. He will be prospecting for new fossil sites while in Montana. We will eventually run out of fossil specimens and will need to relocate our efforts, whether we like it or not.

This morning, Pat, our cook, triumphantly entered camp and will start cooking tonight. Then the crew unloaded our trailer and started opening the site, not an easy task. Every year we have to recover the site completely to prevent looters and/or exposure to the elements.

Today, Dale, William, Dr. Storrs and myself went up to YBRA (Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association) to collect field items that we had stored away last year. We filled our van and truck with buckets, field toilets, coolers and more. After trying with no luck to establish Internet connection at YBRA we headed into Red Lodge for lunch to get better wi-fi. An added bonus is the annual Red Lodge 4th of July parade is happening right now outside our cafe. You know you're out west when every parade participant is on horseback.

I will post pictures Sunday!

Home Away From Home

I'm just posting to let everyone know that the crew has safely arrived at the dig site, as of about 6:15 p.m. Mountain Time (8:15 p.m. Cincinnati time) on July 2. From what I've heard it was an uneventful trip and everyone is chomping at the bit to get started. I'll let Lauren fill in the details when she gets a chance.

Montana, here we come!

We departed Tuesday for "Big Sky Country" in pursuit of research and fossils! Our crew includes: Sharon, Mike, Lamont, William, Mark, Dr. Storrs and myself. Additional crew will meet us at Mothers' Day Site.

Our caravan headed west through Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. Until we hit Iowa, the drive was very, very flat. In the end, it made everyone appreciate Cincinnati's seven rolling hills.

Last night, Lamont took his first stab at Indian cuisine and then we stopped and camped in Rock Creek State Park in Kellogg, Iowa. It is a beautiful camp site that overlooks the creek. The crew happily poured out of the van when we arrived, glad to stretch after 9 hours on the road.

To all crew moms and dads, everyone is safe and we have only been nurturing our addiction to books on tape and gas station snacks.

"Load Day"

"Load Day", the careful dance between safety, necessity and engineering. To pack properly, we store all provisions in waterproof containers. Instant mash potatoes and plaster will be worthless to us in Montana if they get wet on the way out, so everything needs to have a dry home. Then add in your Tetris and Lego skills from your childhood and "poof", you can conquer any load out.

We picked up our rental van this morning and will load it Tuesday with crew and luggage. The truck and trailer were also brought out of storage today and we used spiderweb bungee cords and tarps to secure everything in place. Dr. Storrs will be driving the truck with the trailer and I will drive behind in the van watching to make sure our supplies don't become offerings to the highways' shoulders and median.

We will depart bright and early on Tuesday from Geier and will drive for three days. I will post updates once we arrive in Montana.

This is going to be a wonderful expedition and we hope to bring back many quality fossils. We are also looking forward to meeting our new Dinosaur Field School participants!

Wish us luck!

Sunday, a day of rest

Sunday, is the last full day of rest before we ship out. I, myself, now have a moment of clarity to see what personal affects that I need to bring. But no matter how much you plan or make lists, it can hit you while driving through South Dakota that you forgot your cell phone charger! So, with some forethought, family reminders and Post-its, you pack until your duffel bag is bursting at the seams and your spouse has to hold the sides, while you wrestle the zipper closed.

I image the crew is eating at their favorite native nook one last time, being with their family and possibly taking a nap. A combo that I too will follow shortly.

(Above: Michael Papp, field crew volunteer, exhausted from uncovering a previous find.)

Dinosaur Field School Locker

Today, most of the field crew met at Geier, Cincinnati Museum Center's off-site Research and Collection Facility to prep for our departure. Some crew were pardoned from attending this annual event, due to their distance away from Cincinnati. But all can be forgiven when they haul their weight in plaster up to the quarry (insert wink).

Matt from Britain will be joining the Field School again this year, but as a new crew member! I can happily report that he landed safely in NYC on Wednesday, after crossing "the pond" and grabbed a flight out West. This time he opted not to take the Greyhound bus cross country. We'll see you soon Matt! Safe travels.

Our goal today was to drag everything out of the Dinosaur Field School Locker and decide what to bring, replace and/or purchase. This was a rehearsal for "Load Day" which happens Monday. One always forgets how much stuff is crammed in this tiny locker. It baffles me to watch us unload it, for it is a clown car in disguise. It's cargo fills a truck bed and a 10-foot long trailer to their limit. For the crew, it is like opening a forgotten toy chest. They pull out the treasured contents with glee and say, "I remember that!"