End of Week 3

The end of the week marks two things; The Youth are off to the pig races and the dig season is almost over. This also means that we will be trying to get everything out of the quarry in the next week as possible without uncovering anything else. We are working on removing several large bones; the scapula that I have been working on is ready to flip, Glenn is working on removing a humorous and helping Olivia with a possible illium and ischium, and William is working on two femra that are crossed. We ended the day with a Dinowheel run and brought down several fossils. Fortunately, we had a visitor show up last night; she is a longtime volunteer at the Cincinnati Museum Center and has been out at the site for five years in the past. Sara Oser has agreed to stay for a couple days to help us with digging out the fossils that taught her most of what she knows.

Dr. Storrs and Olivia plastering a fossil

William using the Mighty Jack and air compressor to remove the hard rock from tight places.

Ben and Sara working on removing some limb bones.

The end of day Dinowheel run.

The before and after plastering for the scapula that I have been working on.

Prospecting

Today we decided to go prospecting in the morning to see if the rain from the beginning of the season uncovered any new finds. Lamont found a tooth from a tenontosaurus and Dr. Storrs found a juvenile ankylosaur tooth. The morning’s activities made most people tired, so around noon we decided to make our way back to the Mother’s Day Site.

Week Three

With a new week comes new people. This week the Museum has sent out five youth, who are also part of the Cincinnati Museum Centers Youth Program. They have been helping us this week with getting some of the larger bones out of the site.

Emily and Amanda (Youth Leader)

Kyle

Taylor

Richard and Aron

End of week 2

With week two over, the participants are sad to leave. They removed many bones from the ground and found a couple large ones that the youth will have to get out next week. Two ulnas (forearm/elbow), several more vertebra, a couple of ribs, and more toes were removed. What could turn out to be a good sized humerus was exposed right before we had to leave the quarry yesterday. I am currently working on a scapula (shoulder blade) that is going to be rather large (it keeps going into the ground) and I will post pictures and update on its progress. The finally of the week was going to the pig races again, where Sophie got a real taste of the American West.

Breaking News!!!

Dale Gnidovec is currently giving a talk about dinosaurs to the participants. He is starting with the history of how dinosaurs were first found and will end with talking about some of the largest dinosaurs and dinosaur like animals.

Week Two Participants

Kevin and Grace (www.thecurestartsnow.org)

Sophie (She's from the UK)

Crystal and Zander (the computer and dino nerds)

Paul (The Paleolab Volunteer)

Week Two

With week two half way over, the participants have continued to work on what lasts weeks participants could not get out and also on many new bones. Some of these include 11 caudal vertebra from the end of the tail, an ungual (toe claw), pubis (pubic bone/ very small), chevrons (on the bottom of caudal vertebra to protect the Haemel Artery and add muscle support to the tail), and many other bones.

Yesterday we had some rain, which led to the bailing out of the quarry. The crew and participants created a bucket brigade and we emptied the quarry.

The Crew

Goldstar Chili and The Cure Starts Now

The Cincinnati Dinosaur Field School would like to thank Charlie Howard and Goldstar Chili for their support of The Cure Starts Now (www.thecurestartsnow.org) and for giving participants the ability to come to the site. The Cure Starts Now is a great cause for fighting pediatric brain cancer and I recommend everyone to help out.

We would personally like to thank Charlie

Howard and Goldstar Chili for sending us many cans (48, I counted) of Goldstar chili; we will be well fed.

The Crew

Off to the races

...Or at least the pig races.

End of week one: 2011 style

With week one over the first group of participants is leaving. They have enjoyed the scenery, the bones, the plastering and moving of very large fossils to the trailer. The week ended with the ever so popular pig races. The first week of digging produced over 50 bones that have been removed and there are still more left for next week’s participants to dig. Some of the bones that have been found and excavated (most anyway) include two femra (thigh bone), a very nice cervical (neck bone), many caudal vertebra (tail bones), the very large (300-400 lbs.) block of basal caudal vertebra, a very small pubis (pubic bone), a tibia (shin bone), and many metapodials and phalanges (foot and finger bones).

The Week One participants

Mark (the Invisible Man), our videographer

Sandy and Russ: The three year veterans

Bill and two of his grandsons

Goodbye Mr. Papp

Mike Papp: Here July 9, 2011; not so here July 10, 2011.

Week One

We are now halfway through week one and the participants are doing great. They have helped us map and excavate many bones in these three days. These have mostly been caudal vertebra (tail bones) and foot elements. The largest project so far is that of six (maybe seven) caudal vertebra that have a small fault running through them. The plan is to plaster them tomorrow and them dinowheel them to the camp either Friday or Saturday so Mark (our videographer) can document everything we do.

Haikus of Bacon

We now have camp set up and the site has been uncovered, now we are finishing up the preparations for the first week of participants.

Breakfast from today; Has inspired us to write; Haikus of bacon. Each of us has written a haiku about bacon for your enjoyment. Unfortunately, one of our own does not like bacon; it is a sad day in the field when someone says they don’t like bacon. She says she does not like the taste.

Bacon in the field,
Greasy, yet tasty to eat,
Life is very good.
GS

Bacon you’re my friend.
Congestive Heart Failure.
Bacon you liar.
MP

Bacon is my love.
You make everything better,
Even my sandwich.
MEE

I’m in love bacon.
Finally here it comes. Yeah!
Bacon and I, yup.
LM

On my dinner plate;
Go those tasty bacon strips.
Thanks a lot, piggies.
WS

I dislike bacon.
A big nasty mess of grease.
Bacon is horrid.
OS

Back in Montana

1745 miles after leaving Cincinnati we are here at the Mother’s Day Site in Montana. We were able to get our tents up right before a small storm set in and we ate a great dinner of Spam and peas and corn. Today we are setting the rest of our camp up, shopping for other food stuffs, taking things from the camp to the dig site, and heading to the YBRA (Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association for any one new to our blog) to collect the rest of our gear.

Due to fire regulation laws, we had to improvise our camp fire…

Two days and 1250 miles

With a straight drive the first day, there is not much for us to comment except for the high humidity of Iowa(felt like walking into a wall when you get out of the car) and the masses of people already enjoying fireworks at the Rock Creek State Park (where we decided to set up camp for the first night).

With the second day of driving done; we have reached our camp, located in the Badlands of South Dakota. The drive was smooth and we had no major delays or weather. We stopped along the way in Mitchell, SD for food, the Corn Palace and a “necessary” look inside Cabela’s (a place that we love to visit).

We hope you all have a great 4^th of July,

The Crew