Kids and Dinosaurs

Today, I had the great pleasure of connecting via videoconference to about 30 elementary students in Argyle, New York. I've done around 120 similar connections this school year, but this session and this group of students were especially wonderful. These students were eager to ask and answer as many questions as possible, and we ran out of time before we could get to all of them, so I am eagerly awaiting an email from the teacher with more questions.

We all know that kids love dinosaurs. For some, it is a phase--for others, it becomes a calling. Paleontology, as I have said many times on this blog and elsewhere, is a gateway science. Whether it is something as formal as the scientific method or as simple as getting their hands dirty digging in a mock dig site, we (as educators) should try to hook the kids while they are naturally interested. An earlier post referenced the new confirmed DNA link between birds and dinosaurs. While a 3rd grader may not understand how DNA works, they CAN look at a T.rex foot and recognize the similarities with birds sitting on the phone wires while they walked into school that morning, or imagine a Thanksgiving turkey that would barely fit inside a school bus.

If the hits on this blog (50 states and 32 countries) and attendance at Dinosaur Field School (guests from across the country and now Finland and the UK) are any indication, the paleontology gateway has remained open for many of you. Post a comment to let us (and the readers) know why you are so fascinated in paleontology and show the school groups who visit us why THEY should keep paleontology in their curriculum.

T.rex - Bird Connection Confirmed

From the National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov)

Scientists have put more meat on the theory that dinosaurs' closest living relatives are modern-day birds.

Molecular analysis, or genetic sequencing, of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein from the dinosaur's femur confirms that T. rex shares a common ancestry with chickens, ostriches, and to a lesser extent, alligators.

The dinosaur protein was wrested from a fossil T. rex femur discovered in 2003 by paleontologist John Horner of the Museum of the Rockies; the bone was found in a fossil-rich stretch of land in Wyoming and Montana.

The new research results, published this week in the journal Science, represent the first use of molecular data to place a non-avian dinosaur in a phylogenetic tree, a "tree of life," that traces the evolution of species.

"These results match predictions made from skeletal anatomy, providing the first molecular evidence for the evolutionary relationships of a non-avian dinosaur," says Science paper co-author Chris Organ, a researcher at Harvard University. "Even though we only had six peptides--just 89 amino acids--from T. rex, we were able to establish these relationships."

Continued on the NSF website.

Post Your Questions

As we wait for our scheduled departure date on June 29th (and it can't come soon enough), we would love to hear from you with your questions. What question about paleontology is vexing you? Are you interested in our favorite camp stove recipes? This blog is your opportunity to ask those questions! Ask away by clicking on the "comments" link just below this post and we'll respond with a full post.

cincyevolution.com

Cincinnati Museum Center's science and natural history research departments have inaugurated a new gateway to their latest news and research at cincyevolution.com.

The features of the site include latest publications, updates from the lab and collection inventories. Designed by Curator of Zoology Herman Mays, the attractive, easy-to-navigate site truly makes the collections and research of Cincinnati Museum Center, and its off-site Geier Center, much more accessible.

Field Crew Introduction: Mackenzie English

Hello, my name is Mackenzie English and I am a geology student at the University of Cincinnati. I am also a Paleo Lab volunteer at the Cincinnati Museum Center. I have been working in the Paleo Lab since February of 2005 and I have been to the Mothers Day Site in Montana four times. My first visit to the MDS was in the summer of 2002 and then again in the summer of 2005. During that season Dr. Storrs asked me if I would like to come back the following dig season for the entire season. So for the dig seasons of 2006 and 2007 I traveled to Montana with the CMC. For the 2006 season I worked in the Dodson Quarry until we finished excavating the young diplodocus and for the 2007 season I went prospecting and worked at the MDS. I am looking forward to this season because the I am an outdoorsman and I have been cooped up in dorm rooms and class rooms for too long. I also hope that we find some interesting and good specimens while prospecting and digging at the MDS this up coming season. Plus I really want some of that great field cooked food. Nothing is better than waking up in the morning for refried beans and Spam.

A Few More Voices

In the coming days, two of our volunteers will be joining us online to post about their experiences--from the college geology classroom to the laboratory to the field. Please join me in welcoming Mac and Sara.

Getting Ready for the 2008 Dinosaur Field School

ATTENTION!!! There is still time to sign up for the 2008 Dinosaur Field School. Two sessions are available, either July 6-13 or July 13-20. Call (513) 287-7021 or 1-800-733-2077 x7021.

This year's Dinosaur Field School is shaping up to be one of our most exciting ever. What really makes it so amazing for those of us on staff is the diversity of people who choose to spend a week (or more) of their summer with us. In any given year we can see classroom teachers, engineers, musicians, stay-at-home moms, and anyone from 13 years old to 85 years old (and older). This year we have at least two participants from Milwaukee returning for a second time, and two more coming for the first time from Europe (one from the UK and one from Finland).

Some of our field staff (museum staff and volunteers) will be working on a new discovery made last year in the Beartooth Mountains. Not a dinosaur this time, but an ancient fish...currently "swimming" at around 10,000 feet above sea level. The rest of staff will be digging in at the Mother's Day site and working with the participants from Dinosaur Field School.

There are a few other changes this year...we've moved a little earlier in the season (by about 10 days or so). So, we'll actually be on the ground in Montana by around July 2. This opens up a lot of possibilities for us who are driving out, including one of the largest cookouts you've ever seen on July 4. More news on that as we get closer.

But here we are, in mid-April, waiting for a sustained warming trend in Ohio and dreaming about the 130-degree temperatures we can expect in 3 months or so. We're starting inventories for our gear, reordering supplies and chomping at the bit to get on the road again...

"Taphonomy of the Mother's Day Quarry"

Since we have a wide-range of users visiting this blog, let me first start by defining taphonomy. Taphonomy (tuh-fahn-uh-mee) refers to the circumstances and processes of fossilization. For example, a study of the environmental conditions present when bones or other materials were first deposited and how those conditions affected the process of fossilization.

In 2007, Timothy Myers and Glenn Storrs published their Taphonomy of the Mother's Day Quarry, Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, South-Central Montana, USA which examines the conditions present at our primary dig site in Montana when the bones of these sub-adult sauropods were deposited some 140-million years ago. This isn't light reading, but for those of you who will be joining us this summer (or who have joined us in the past), it might be of interest.

How hot (or cold) is it in Montana?

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is, "Just how hot DOES it get on the dinosaur dig?" The short answer is "HOT!" A typical July in the quarry can easily see the mercury reach levels as high as 125 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Typically, when it's that hot, we put the thermometer away because we don't want to be reminded of how miserable we should feel.

However, it's not always so uncomfortably hot...sometimes it's uncomfortably cold. As I was adding the code for the trackers to the blog, the temperatures in Red Lodge at the Yellowstone-Bighorn Research Association camp were hovering at around 5-degrees above zero Fahrenheit. Over in the Bighorn Basin closer to the actual dig site, temperatures were at 4-degrees BELOW zero.

In order to help all of our readers keep track of what conditions are like, we've added some weather trackers in the right column of the main blog page. The top tracker is for Powell, Wyoming...a nearby town located in the Basin. The bottom tracker is from a weather site located on Mt. Maurice at the YBRA. I have also included them here in this post so that you can take a quick look.

2008 Cincinnati Museum Center Dinosaur Field School Dates Announced

Cincinnati Museum Center has opened registration for it's 2008 Dinosaur Field School in the Bighorn Basin of Montana. If you’re interested in dinosaurs and want to participate in a real dig, this is the trip for you! This week-long session will give you a wide range of experience in the basic principles and techniques of geology and paleontology. Training and collecting supplies will be provided by Cincinnati Museum Center staff under the direction of Dr. Glenn Storrs, curator of Vertebrate Paleontology.

You’ll learn to extract dinosaur fossils from rock using hand tools, how to gather and document field data and how to “field jacket” the fossils in burlap and plaster for shipment to the museum. You’ll come to understand the dramatic and beautiful regional geology through field trips and informal lectures.

The experience is open to adults and teens, ages 13-17 who are accompanied by an adult. You will be working outdoors and living in a rustic camp setting in mountainside cabins. We are working along the northwestern flank of the Bighorn Mountains of south-central Montana on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

WEEK 1
July 6-13
Week 2
July 13-20

Cost
CMC Members: $1250
CMC non-Members: $1350
Fees includes all instruction, collecting tool rental, lodging, meals and transportation to and from camp once in Red Lodge. Transportation to Billings, Montana, from your home and back is not included. Lodging is dormitory-style, with separate men’s and women’s cabins. Private cabins may also be available by early registration.

Registration
Space is limited, so please register as early as possible. A full registration packet and medical release form will be mailed upon request. A $600 per person non-refundable deposit is required, together with the registration form and signed waivers to secure your reservation. Please call the Museum's Information and Reservation office at (513) 287-7021 or 1-800-733-2077 x7021.

November 6, 2007

The work never stops. The Allosaurus project, which staff and volunteers have been working on for approximately two years, has been installed on the floor. Hundreds of museum visitors were able to view the assembly as it happened earlier this summer in our "Bone by Bone" exhibit, but the full skeleton is now in its permanent home on the Lower Level of the Museum of Natural History and Science at Cincinnati Museum Center.

The skeleton is approximately 50% authentic fossil and 50% replica bones cast from other Allosaurus fossils borrowed from the Yale Peabody Museum. Originally unearthed in Utah, the Allosaurus had remained in storage until it was decided to resurrect the large carnivore and allow it to "prowl" the halls of Union Terminal. Dr. Glenn Storrs, Withrow Farny Curator of Vertebrate Paleontogy and Assistant Vice President of Natural History and Science, commented that "major league cities are often defined by their baseball or football teams. I believe that every major city also deserves its own dinosaur."

While there are several fleshed out dinosaurs in the exhibits at Cincinnati Museum Center, this is the first complete dinosaur skeleton on display for the public. As visitors round the corner, they are greeted by the Allosaurus staring back at them at eye level. The exhibit utilizes the latest scientific interpretations to place the fierce predator in a head-down stance, using it's hips as a fulcrum and balancing its tail in a horizontal position.

Another unique feature of the skeleton is that individual bones may be quickly removed by museum staff for research without having to dismantle a large portion of the skeleton. This construction project was made possible in part to the financial support of local schools and individuals who wanted to see the skeleton on display.

One of Our Own...a TRUE Rock Star

Mackenzie English, one of our Dinosaur Field School volunteers, was recently featured in a n official release from the University of Cincinnati entitled "English + Geology = Science Success". The following is from that article:

Mackenzie English has accomplished a lot in his brief time on earth — on earth, under earth, digging earth. This summer, and the summer before, he traveled to Montana with adjunct faculty member Glenn Storrs. Storrs is the Withrow Farny Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) and each year takes a group of volunteers to collect dinosaur fossils. Mac, besides being a second-year geology major at UC, is also a CMC volunteer, so he was asked if he would like to join the team. Sara Oser, another UC geology undergrad and CMC volunteer, also went.

"Mac is passionate about paleontology, which makes him a great fit for Cincinnati," says Storrs, assistant vice president for Natural History & Science at the Cincinnati Museum Center. "The collaborative environment between UC, the Museum Center and the local amateur community is unequalled, providing unique educational and research opportunities for students with Mac's maturity and dedication. We're glad to have his help."

For the complete story, click here.

This is just one story from the many hundreds of volunteers who help Cincinnati Museum Center fulfill our mission everyday...whether under the hot summer sun of Montana or with young children in the Duke Energy Children's Museum. Congratulations to Mac (and Sara) for their inclusion in this release, and many thanks for their hard work over the past several years.

Re-Adapting to Life in Civilization

With the best of intentions, I had planned to quickly follow-up on Weeks 2 and 3 of this year's Dinosaur Field School. They were very successful weeks, with many wonderful fossils being unearthed, but being back in civilization has required a bit more adjustment than I had envisioned. I'm readapting to home life and work life, catching up on the nearly 2000 emails I received while away (not including the more than 1700 pieces of spam) and returning more than a dozen voice mails.There are many great films and Sunday cartoons about what life is like in an office cubicle, but until you've spent 5 weeks under the Big Sky of Montana, it really doesn't hit home.

On our way out to Montana, a lovely woman in Middle-of-Nowhere, South Dakota noticed from Dr. Storr's driver's license that he was from Kentucky. "We were there a couple of months ago," she commented. "It was pretty, but there were too many trees." We got a good chuckle about it for a few days, but when I returned to Cincinnati--which has not only trees but a lot of houses, shopping centers and people--I, too, got a sense of claustrophobia.

It wasn't only the closeness of everything and everybody, but the idea of getting back into a schedule that isn't based on when the sun rises or sets has also been a big readjustment. Jokingly, we refer to the locals in Montana as running on "Red Lodge Time", meaning "I'll get there when I get there." Life in Montana, and elsewhere in the West, runs on a schedule all its own...and that's something that I, for one, certainly miss.

Now, those reports from Weeks 2 and 3 are coming...in Red Lodge Time...but they'll be up soon.

Cheers!

Last Things First...

Well, the 2007 field season has come to a close. I know that there are some big holes in the play-by-play, but a family emergency brought me out of the field a little earlier than planned and I've spent the past two weeks or so sorting that all out.

I brought the van back early last week loaded to the gills with plaster field jackets and gear which wouldn't be needed to close the site down. Mackenzie and Sara stayed behind to help close the site down and returned with Dr. Storrs, to my knowledge, sometime late on Sunday evening (Aug 19th). There were several bones exposed and leaving them behind, even if under protective winter jackets, just wasn't an option so they made sure that everything came out before leaving.

I will be providing a final tally of fossils collected, which included some REALLY nice finds, in the next few days and will then go back to recap some of the week-by-week finds and activities including a great week with CMC's Youth Program during Week Three. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the CMC Board of Directors and senior leadership at Museum Center for their continuing support of this worthwhile project, including allowing me to tag along (and hopefully contribute) this year. On behalf of myself and Dr. Storrs, I'd like to thank Sally, Emily, Lynette, Susan, Ian, Bill, Kim, Tom and John for attending the Field School this year and for their efforts in the quarry. An additional thanks goes to the field crew who volunteered a good portion of their summer to making this enterprise a success: Dale, D.M., Angela, Mac, Sara, Sam, Gary and Mike. I hope that each of you can make it out again next summer as we try to teach Sara a few more camp stove recipes (and yes, vegetables ARE a food group) .

In addition to the backtracking I will do in the next few days, we will continue to update the blog throughout the year in preparation for next year's Field School. There is a possibility that we will have a "teachers only" week, pending some grant funding, so be on the lookout for details.

The Hiatus...

I apologize for the extended hiatus. Technical and travel issues have prevented posting, but will resume soon...

Pictures: Week Two in the Beartooths

(click photos for full-size images)


Me, with a sinus infection standing at 9100 feet, with a two-week beard and eyes about ready to explode from the pressure.



The classic U-shaped valley carved by a glacier. This is the Rock Creek Valley.



This is an example of a mafic dike (black intrusin in the center) created when magma forced it's way up through the granite rock which forms the Beartooth Mountains.




Here's Dr. Storrs, a sometimes solitary figure, surveying the Beartooth Plateau, somewhere over 10,000 feet.




Here's the Week Two group, looking into the cirque at the head of the Rock Creek Valley. This is where the glacier which carved the valley would have originated.



Here's Tom, trying to get a great shot. He's a few feet from the edge of what is about a 500 foot drop. This cirque serves as a training facility for the US Olympic Ski Team.


In the distant center, you can see the "Bear's Tooth", the namesake for this mountain range.




The Week Two group and Glenn at Vista Point, somewhere around 9100 feet, observing the various features found in the Rock Crek Valley.

August 1, 2007

Today's Mother's Day Site (MDS) temperature: 96 degrees

Back in the field for a full day at the quarry. I did make it out, though decided to come back to the YBRA this evening (hot meals, soft bed and warm showers...who could blame me?). We awoke in Red Lodge to temperatures in the mid-50's, and evidently, it got pretty cold out at the camp site as well. While the temperatures did rise into the mid-90's, a constant breeze (and our new shade tents) made it fairly comfortable. Everyone is making excellent progress on their fossils, with some excellent new discoveries today including a fairly nice skin impression found by Bill and Kim.

Back at the YBRA, after an all-you-can-eat ice cream sundae dessert, John, Tom, Kim and Bill took part in a hotly contested game of horseshoes. After nearly two hours, John & Tom came out on top by a score of 20-19 (we think), though Bill and Kim were making a bit of a run at the end.

Prospecting was pretty productive. Mackenzie found some rather large pieces of what appears to be a long limb bone (species unknown), and another nice stash of petrified wood. The crew also found some trace fossils from a small animal or perhaps an insect crawling in the mud and leaving a trail behind. More turtle pieces were also recovered.

Angela and Gary have been working on some pretty interesting bones which, in the Mother's Day Site tradition, are overlapping one another making for slow progress. Sara and Sam are working in and among some somewhat complex areas but are making nice progress. Mike has been working a few nice pieces but has really stepped in to help the DFS participants with some tips and pointers. I continue to move from one area to another, trying to expose the starts of bones for others to work on, though I would like to at least get one out of the ground myself before the week is over. Glenn is working on the large block of cervical vertebrae that we started working over a week ago, although the new air compressor and tools is making that move a little easier now.

July 31, 2007

Today's Mother's Day Site (MDS) temperature: 110 degrees

Well, today I had a recurrence of sinus and chest congestion which I first picked up before leaving Cincinnati. The dust, changes in altitude and temperature, and numerous other factors have affected several of us in camp over the past two weeks. We had a beautiful morning up on the Beartooth Plateau, climbing once again to well over 10,000 feet and surveying the 3.8 billion year old rocks lying right next to the much younger sedimentary rocks. We all managed to spy a marmot playing on the rocks, and a few even spotted a pika. For those of you not familiar with this small "rock rabbit", it is a cousin of rabbits but is much smaller and lives primarily in very mountainous areas. They're very skiddish and not very camera friendly.

I ended up staying at the YBRA after the morning drive in order to get some rest and let some cold medicine work its magic, but the rest of the gang headed out to the Mother's Day site for a few hot hours in the quarry. John was hard at work on a metatarsal (foot bone), Tom is working on some limb elements which are still too buried to identify, Kim is making some great progress on some gastralium (belly ribs) and a chevron, while Bill has his hands full with a very delicate and complicated cervical vertebra.

In news from camp, Angela and Gary managed to corral a baby rabbit which had somehow become impaled by several cactus spines. After having the spines removed, it fed on a fair bit of watermelon and appears to be doing better. Another couple of days of TLC and it should be ready to go back out...that is if Angela will let it out of her sight.

Today was a MUCH better day on the prospecting front, with Dale, D.M. and Sam finding more bones today than they had in the previous four days. Included among their finds were more turtle scutes, a few dinosaur vertebra and select other small bones, and a few unidentifiable pieces of float. The problem with this excellent prospecting spot...it's about a 40-minute walk across the badlands. Any volunteers?

I'll be posting some photos from today, hopefully first thing in the morning (Mountain Time). Assuming that I'm feeling better, I will be camping tomorrow (Wednesday) night and therefore not posting again until Thursday. Keep cool thoughts.

Week One to Week Two: The Transition

The five DFS participants in the first week had what we hope was a wonderful time. Despite the difficult temperatures on Monday and Tuesday, the week ended up to be fairly comfortable in the quarry…after all, it is a dry heat.

By the time everyone left the quarry on Friday, 40 individual bones, possible gastroliths, plant fragments and other pieces had been recorded and mapped. One of the most interesting pieces (unearthed by Slaly and Emily) was an as of yet unidentified fossil which is unlike anything ever recovered in this particular quarry and one which could be a first for sauropods in North America. This piece will be going back to Cincinnati with us in a few weeks for preparation and further study, and we’ll keep you posted as to our interpretations once that is complete.

The pig races in Bearcreek were as exciting as ever, though the crowds were somewhat smaller than we are usually accustomed to. No one won any money, unfortunately, but it was an experience which none will soon forget.

Photos will soon be posted to the DFS page on shutterfly.com (http://dinosaurfieldschool.shutterfly.com) and those in attendance should be posting their photos there as well (nothing embarrassing, I hope).

As for week two, our participants all arrived safely in Billings, though with some additional airline delays. Tom, John, Kim and Bill joined us at the YBRA on Sunday evening for dinner and a little conversation before settling into their cabins. Today (July 30) was their introduction to the geology of the Bighorn Basin and of the Mother’s Day Site. On Tuesday we will be heading first up to the Beartooth Plateau and then again out to the dig site by lunchtime.

We have also been joined by a few more field crew members who are camping out at the Mother’s Day Site. D.M., a high school biology teacher from Newark, Ohio was on the original crew when the site was first opened by Montana State University more than a decade ago. Mike, a geologist and alum of Ohio University, has joined the Cincinnati-based crew each year since back in 1999 when he and Dr. Storrs made the cross-country trek together. Gary, an undergraduate geology/biology double major at the University of Dayton, is an alum of the Cincinnati Museum Center’s Youth Program through which he first attended DFS several years ago. He has definitely traveled the farthest of of any of us to get here, having been in Cameroon (Africa) within days of his arrival in Montana. That brings our total at the camp site to 8 (9 when I’m camping). It’s the largest contingent in years, and their presence is certainly making work go much faster and smoother than it would without them.

An update on the prospecting front…it’s hard work. New fossils are coming slowly, but there are many promising signs and, hopefully, next year should see us opening a new secondary site looking for something other than the massive sauropods found at the Mother’s Day Site. Sara, Mackenzie and Sam have taken a brief respite from prospecting to focus on our current quarry, but may again be heading out on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I will be spending a few more nights out at the Mother’s Day site this week, but will be posting as possible when I am able to get back to the YBRA.

The Sacrifices of Field-Based Scientists

A belated happy birthday to my wife, Staci. Don’t worry, I did call her and sent some nice flowers, but since it is she who has sacrificed the most to allow me the opportunity to come to Montana again this summer, I wanted to make special note of it here. Which actually brings up another interesting topic, the sacrifices made by field researchers—whether they be paleontologists or a member of any of the other sciences which require fieldwork. It's wonderful as an undergraduate or graduate student, and even as a young working professional. No responsibilities except the work. However, as these scientists mature in their personal lives and start a family, the field work becomes slightly more burdensome.

As young undergraduates, field camps and field experiences are an adventure. Mackenzie, one of our field crew this year, just returned from a three-week trip to India and the Himalayas before joing us for Dinosaur Field School. Sara, likewise, spent several weeks in Utah for a field course this summer. Not to belittle their sacrifices, which are real and financially significant, but they are much different than those made by more established field researchers. Angela, who has just graduated, has been away from home for a total of nine weeks this summer. She is also now in that transition period, having to coordinate her moving arrangements, grad school registration, caring for her pets (thanks, Ben), and numerous other responsibilities.

Now, I can only speak from my experience, especially this summer, but leaving one’s significant other, children, and other responsibilities behind for a month or more at a time can be quite difficult. The advent of cell phones and the Internet (when available) have made this separation somewhat easier, but many field scientists still have difficulties with these sacrifices and even refuse to make the sacrifices and hang up their hiking boots and field gear for more administrative or non-travel oriented tasks. Likewise, the families left behind during these prolonged experiences have to make sacrifices as well. Finding alternate child care, a doubling of reproductive chores at home, keeping track of a dinosaur blog, etc. are added strains on the life of loved ones.

This isn’t intended to be a moaning session, but the realities are just that…real. Field experience is crucial to the development of young scientists at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Fieldwork by museums, universities and individuals is critical to the furtherance of science and our understanding of the world around us. My hope, instead, is to make the readers of this blog a little more aware that, despite the adventure of living in the desert for five weeks and discovering interesting things, field-based science is not just fun and games…though it does have its moments.