A Paleo Hodgepodge

Yesterday was my first Dig for a Day!! Wahoo! The day started early at about 7:30am. We loaded up our SUV and took a mom, dad, and 6 year old son up to the WBS (West to Beside Sauropod) quarry. The family had a blast. The little boy wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up and knew so many different dinosaurs. He was a trouper, we were out in the field for about 6 hours!

The particular quarry we were at has been known to produce Camarasaur bones (below). These dinosaurs can weigh up to 20 tons and can be up to 50 ft in length.

It was fun to be with a family who was enthusiastic about paleontology. This week I also did work in the prep lab on a humerus. None of us are quite sure what dinosaur it is from, but we know it's from some type of Sauropod. I have been using air tools, such as a chisel and stylist. I enjoy being in the prep lab and getting experience, but it really hurts your hand after a while let me tell you. Also, the noise is pretty bad too. Especially when the sand blaster is on, the air ducts, and all the air tools.

Today was a laid back day to say the least. Another intern Dan and I went to the BS (Beside Sauropod) quarry. We tease him that he has the quarry with the most crap...

We forgot many things today as we went out into the field and wound up going up and down the hill numerous times, which cost us about 1 hour since it takes about 20 min to get up and down. We finally mapped different bones using radial mapping, where we measure from north stakes at the sites to certain points on the bones. We have to map out where all the bones are for each quarry and record it. We also used the total station, which is an expensive piece of mapping equipment that probably costs more than I'll make all summer. Here is me next to a sauropod bone today in the field. I made Dan my personal photographer for the day.