Notes from Montana

June 28 - July 4: Part IV

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:39:00 +0000

The other thing that points to why things preserve well out here is showcased in this graffiti carved into the sandstone wall behind our hosts’ home. Things don’t weather much here, and a love caught in sandstone almost a hundred years ago still remains.

Look at this! 1917!! Can you believe it?

We were walking out some beautiful views in an area that our hosts had not prospected, when JoAnne came upon bone fragments. When I went to look, it was not just ANY bone, but a large chunk of what appeared to be the limb bone of a small theropod, and even better, TEETH! And they were definitely meat-eating teeth.

Possible theropod bone, and DEFINITE theropod teeth!

Just as we were digesting this find, Tim and Liz hollered from around the corner “BONE! We found BONE, and lots of it!” and then Megan rounded the corner, and she said “I think I found some BONE!” It was pretty exciting, and when we all got to comparing notes, it appeared that we had found a new site, with evidence of at least two dinosaurs!

Look at the variety of different bones weathering out of this site!

There was more and more bone, everywhere we looked. It definitely met Jack’s criteria for a quarry-able site, and our hosts, who had been told that the best material was gone, were pretty excited.

In one area of the site, we found a lot of vertebrae coming down out of the hill. They were quite large, but it was impossible to tell from what we had what kind of dinosaur they were from. As I looked at them, I was surprised to see what appeared to be a small dinosaur, drawn on one of the vertebrae. I thought that someone had gotten to the site before us and that this was some kind of practical joke, but closer inspection showed that it was a secondary mineral deposit on the bone. It is sure suggestive of a fat long necked dinosaur!

Do you see the tiny dinosaur traced in mineral on this bone?

This was a very cool site. The more we looked around, the more we found. And when we dug just a little bit into the ground, we found enough to indicate that more bone was still in there. All in all, would have to say that it was a really great day! We surface-collected a lot of bone for the
landowners, because when this well preserved bone is exposed to weathering, it doesn’t last long. I am not sure what they plan for the rest of the material, but as this is on private land, it is their call.

Uncovering buried bone at the Madsen site, duly recorded by grad student Liz in her field notebook.

Thus ends our longest stint in the field for this year, but I have one more short trip back to our area before I head back to NC. In the meantime, there surely is a lot to get done. I have such a great life! And it is a real treat for me to share some of that with my students, out here on the high prairies of the place I will always love and call home….despite the less pleasant wildlife we sometimes see!

Baby diamondback says ‘see you later!”

June 28 - July 4: Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:06:00 +0000

One of the best things we got to do during this field week was to prospect for bone on land owned by one of the local ranch families. We rely so much on the good graces of the people who surround us, and they are, without fail, incredibly warm and generous. This family went out of their way, taking an entire day to show us where previous finds had been made, and allowed us to look around on our own.

Distant view of some of the land we prospected. Look how green the valley lands, in this dry, high prairie! These bluffs are amazingly productive for dinosaur bone.

It is an incredibly beautiful stretch of land, like a green oasis in the desert. And it is incredibly rich with dinosaur bone, all of which is extremely well preserved. In the company of our hosts, we saw a lot of dinosaur bone, still in the ground, that hinted at the possibility of more bone to come. Jack (Horner) has a minimum criterion of 3 or more bones, in association, of a single animal, before it is deemed a ‘quarry-able’ site. Many that we visited fit this category.

Need a hand to look closely at this bone—the cliff face is steep and slippery.

This one required a hand up from my grad student Tim (handily cropped out of this image to save him embarrassment), but the bone embedded in the hill also looks like it might belong to a theropod, big for this time period, and, if it is a meat eater, probably Albertosaurus. Its dense outer bone and hollow core look more like a theropod than anything else.

The bone is hollow, with a very dense outer layer—this might mean it is a meat eater,on the line of dinosaurs related to birds.

But, the cliff face is steep and slippery, and some of the sand is highly cemented, so quarrying would be difficult. In another area, it looks even more promising, with two bones that I think might be the blade of the ilium, one of the bones making up the hip, and the other possibly the femur of another large dinosaur. The bones are protected by a large, overhanging ledge, again making quarrying a bit risky, but this is pretty exciting, I think.

Under a sandstone overhang are hidden the remains of a dinosaur that may even be articulated! It would take some digging to know for sure.

It is impossible to tell how much of the animal remains in the cliff. But this setting is tailor-made for the kind of work I do, as our work indicates deep burial in sandstone is the best environment for preservation. The views are spectacular. It is fun to be able to share the love that I have for this land with my students and technician. I think they have caught the bug! One of the best things about being a paleontologist is right here—away from office, desk, computer and phones, and out where one can imagine that the land hasn’t really changed all THAT much since these magnificent beasts walked here…

Megan, Liz, Tim and me. Is this a great job or what?

June 28 - July 4: Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:49:00 +0000

So we had our fun prospecting, and now it is back to the hard work of quarrying. The crew have exposed the bone in the upper quarry and gotten it to the point where we can begin to jacket it. The quarry seems to be running out of bone, and when we get the big jackets out, we will be ready to clean up and focus all the efforts on the lower quarry that is producing some really great stuff. The crew has done a great job of exposing the bones, and they pedestal the blocks so that we can form the jackets around them. As you can see from NCSU student Alex McCall, it is sometimes necessary to be a contortionist to do this job. It’s a good thing we have skinny students.

NCSU student Alex, clearly head over heels enjoying his work!

They finally got it pedestaled, which means that they necked the bottom sediments to make it funnelshaped. Then, because it was such a big block, they made tunnels in the sediment supporting it, so that they could pass 2x4s and plaster strips through them for support. Finally we are ready to add the plaster, which can sometimes be a real mess. If I am involved, I usually wear as much as ends up on the bones…

Jacketing a pelvis is a lot like being in kindergarten!

More plaster on me than the jacket, maybe! Look at all those white hands!!
Like Mickey Mouse with plaster gloves.

At last the bones are top-jacketed and ready to flip. Bob will come and collect all these jackets with Big Red, because it is probably asking too much of grad students to carry them up a 75 degree incline….I don’t know though, maybe we should try?

June 28 - Jul 4: Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:39:00 +0000

Well, town day was great….I know that after a few days in the field, I will never ever take a shower, or the presence of water in more than bottle-sized containers for granted. But, the sun comes up, and camp stirs and once again it is time to get going. So after a quick breakfast of cold cereal, or maybe a granola bar, we fill water bottles and camelbacks, pack sandwiches for lunch, shoulder into our packs, and cram into the pick up trucks. This morning, the teams split up, because I wanted to prospect to see if I could find a site I’d seen earlier, in a previous summer.

We park the truck and walk across a grass field, crawling up the face of a weathered bluff. A small bird flew out directly from under my feet as I passed a clump of sharp prairie grass, and there, laying on the ground, was a small nest with unhatched eggs. I probably would have stepped on them if the little momma hadn’t given away their presence with her flight. Birds here have a precarious existence. Many are ground birds, meaning that they nest on the bare ground rather than trees. That makes sense, as trees are few and far between in this dry, harsh land, but it sure puts the babies at risk from snakes, foxes, coyotes, and all the other critters equally desperate to eke out a living here.

Hidden nest of the shy prairie ground birds. There are no trees, and their eggs are vulnerable to predators.

I took the high path up the bluff, Megan was walking low, and Ben, recovering from heat exhaustion in the quarry, took off by himself to walk out other outcrops. I came around the corner, and there it was, the quarry I remembered. It had been worked illegally, and bones with commercial value taken while others were left. There were fragments everywhere, indicating the possibility of many bones. There were also still big bones, half exposed to weathering, remaining in the wall.

Possible theropod femur remaining in the wall of an abandoned, and illegal quarry.

It’s a shame, really, this femur is broken and pretty useless at this point, though if they had been recovered correctly, could have contributed significant information about this ecosystem, underprinted beneath our own recent traces of human culture, familiar yet so exotic. Trapped in the gravel beneath this bone there was another femur (thigh bone), larger still, but in much worse shape.

This one might be a hadrosaur, but it is much, much greater in diameter than the above, and resting squarely in a high energy gravel layer.

The above has the hallmarks of a big theropod, probably Albertosaur, the ‘Trex’ of this period of time, but the larger one is probably a duckbill---a BIG duck. Theropods are fairly rare from the Judith River, and the find would have been important if it had been properly taken. But the real find from this abandoned quarry is this small gracile bone that I think is the metatarsal (foot bone) of a smaller meat eater—one that is on the lineage to birds.

Small, gracile bone, probably metatarsal, of a small meateater, maybe an ornithomimid?

It is a beautiful bone, almost complete. This one might be a first, but there is no other evidence at this point for any more of the animal…and this one is not so diagnostic without some additional material. Still, the importance of finds like this is that it documents, at least at some level, the presence of these guys, living together…the first step in understanding the ecosystem and dynamics of this not-well-studied time.

June 23

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:22:00 +0000

I have been really glad to have Megan here this week. She has been a true partner in this effort for a while now, and I am glad that she can see the other end, what is involved in getting the bones out of the ground so I can dissolve them….she has proven to all that she is every bit as diligent and hardworking in the quarry as the lab. She is also an excellent teacher, and students and colleagues alike have watched her to learn the methods we apply so that they can repeat our experiments, either with samples of our bone, or with bone in their local regions. I can’t wait for these results!

Megan delving into another side of paleontology.I think that Megan likes her regular job better—

She is more at home in the lab, showing Ben and Clive what they need to do to repeat our work.

Three days ago, we were treated to a spectacular sunset. I love the sunsets here, the sky is so big, and I think that, just like with human art, the bigger the canvas the more can go into the painting…little did I know that this gentle, beautiful sunset would presage a night-long gale. I woke up to a tent wall smashing into my face, practically smothering me. I spent several hours trying to sleep while one arm kept the tent at bay. It didn’t work. When I woke the next morning….or rather gave up the fight and just got up….my tent was very lopsided. I was exhausted, but we planned another prospecting day and I didn’t want to miss anything, so even though the wind still howled we were off to explore the lands belonging to our private donor. We split into two teams, with Paul, Toni, Jim, Alex and Eric exploring the far side of the badlands, and Liz, Clive, Megan Tim and I hitting those bluffs closer to town. I have never been out in the badlands when the wind has blown so strong, so consistently.

The beginnings of sunset over the river. ….and the last time my tent looks normal…sigh

Best form of art ever!

Sky painting…

It was gale force, it felt like, most of the day. It wasn’t too bad when we were on the lee of the bluffs, but when we hit the tops we all quite literally walked at an angle to keep from falling over or being blown off. We had sand in every fold and crevasse of clothes and skin, and grit is everywhere. But there is something pretty exhilarating about it anyway, and particularly when Tim finds a bone that looks possibly dromeasaurid, the small-ish meat eaters most closely related to living birds. There is not nearly enough to be diagnostic, and try as we might we couldn’t find more of it weathering, but we may go back. If nothing else, the view from the site is spectacular…

Prospecting a new area. Wow…what a view

But, unfortunately my tent did not fare so well in the wind. It is new, and a good one, but one of the anchor straps ripped out of the tent bottom. I will hold my breath and hope that there is no more huge winds until I can get it repaired. Did I mention product testing in the field? If a tent can make a season out here, it is a well made tent indeed. Maybe these companies are afraid to let us test their wares under field conditions?????

Thus ends our first full week out here. I thought I would end with a shot or two of the visitors to our camp. There are rabbits everywhere, and they are not shy at all. They hang out close to the camp—waiting for food I suppose. And, what makes this a very ‘plush’ camp, the metal Quonset hut where we are allowed to store food and gear and get out of the sun, wind, snow, and rain, is also home to many barn swallows. They build their nests in the rafters, and dart in and out during dinner. They are fun to watch—and they seem to equally enjoy watching us!

Bunny friend… they multiply like…well…Like rabbits I guess.

I think this is a mom, with young in the nest, because she sure is nervous…but it is too high for me to see for sure. The nests are a true engineering marvel.

These two are never far apart, and appear very protective of one another…

Well, tomorrow may be another quarry day, or it may be a lab day. I have a lot to do that requires a computer, but I hate to make the students do the hot hard work unless I can help as well. We will see what the morning brings, I guess. One thing about being here, it will be fun, beautiful and relaxing. I can feel the stress melt away. And we have another week yet, with another quarry to open (hopefully) and more experiments to do, as well as new recruits (fresh blood).

June 22 Continued

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:55:00 +0000

Our prospecting comes to a close an hour or so early. We are pretty far out, and while looking in one direction is fine….

We have all clear in one direction, but unfortunately this is NOT the direction the weather is coming from….

Quite literally turning just a few degrees we get an entirely different picture.

….This is. We make a run for the vehicles.

I love the prairie storms. It is so different here, in that you can watch the weather for a long time (usually) before it reaches you. But the storms here build very quickly and can turn violent just as fast. These roads are not passable when wet, and the clays take a long time to dry. We do NOT want to get stuck out here… We made it back to camp, but I am rather disappointed in the lack of dinosaurs! To find a dinosaur, normally one walks the base of outcrops to look for bone fragments, then follow the trail of eroding bone up the hill until you find the region where there is bone below, and no bone above---the bone horizon. When that is noted, then dig back into the wall a bit, to see if there is bone going into the hill that might indicate a long bone, or better, more than one bone, in the hillside. Today, there are bone fragments from dinosaurs weathering out pretty much everywhere we go, but they are small and worn, and there doesn’t seem to be anything at all in the hillsides that would indicate my dinosaur lurking in the sands, waiting to be found. So, it is back to camp, avoiding the rain, and the usual routine of dinner, dishes and conversation around the fire before we fall exhausted into bed.

Just to show you that camp life is not all work, there are daily chores to take care of, like one of the favorites, lighting the burn barrel. With help of acetone or gasoline. This is done very gingerly, with a cautious approach, and a fast getaway.

Here we have Jim, one of our Texas volunteers, approaching the task in an orderly and scientific manner. First, build a torch on the end of a VERY long stick….

Then, light it carefully in a roaring campfire and approach previously isolated barrel with extreme caution…

Then….be prepared to run like crazy—too fast for my camera to catch. What can I say? It can be boring here, and this is a case of make your own entertainment.

We also play brain games….or, as I prefer to call it, learning? It is easy to find bones of recently dead animals here in these hills, along with our long dead dinosaurs. I have several times passed around these bones, and quizzed the students on aspects of osteology. It helps them to learn to ‘see’ bones better, and to realize how much can be learned about an animal, when all you have are bones. This is a good skill for a paleontologist to have! Much of it is common sense. When Toni and Jim first arrived, they weren’t willing to offer much of an opinion, but after a while they were very good at noting small features that let them make statements about the age or function of an animal. It also results in the accumulation of a lot of bones (or teaching tools). These, of course, are also subjected to random experiments by crew, including a ‘design your own vertebrate’ game….which can be rather interesting.

How many different bones can you see in this guy?

June 22

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:39:00 +0000

Tuesday, we get to do my favorite thing—prospect for new dinosaurs. There are a couple of regions I have seen in previous visits that I have wanted to walk out, to see if we can find more dinosaurs, but I have never had time before. So, everyone is glad for a break from quarrying, and we split into teams and head out for promising badlands. It is hot and sunny, so I am hopeful. We are encouraged at first, as we find a lot of areas with bone fragments weathering out. But, following them up and out doesn’t reveal any more of them, so we move on. The dinosaurs in this region are rarer than what we find in the Hell Creek, but when we DO find one, they are usually beautiful, and almost complete. So far, no sign of that though. We do, however, have some of the best views in the country as we sit in the shade and eat lunch…fancy restaurants in the city just can’t offer this kind of ambience.

This is about as big as our prospected dinosaurs got…sigh.
I know there is more out there, just waiting to be found….

It’s just too bad that this photo can’t convey the shimmering heat waves!

Shade and a spectacular view…what more could you want in a lunch break?

And, this is not anywhere near as hot as it will be, trying to do this same work in a week or two. Still, for all of it, I would rather be here, in the empty, than in any town…we see hawks and terns and rabbits and deer, and even the tracks of the big mountain lion that hunts these gullies. One thing about prospecting is that you train your eyes to see small things. It is amazing how my perspective of the prairie and badlands and the life they contain has changed as my eyes become trained to look for small fragments of bone. Well, not just my perspective, but my stance, as I now walk like a very old person, hunched over and squinty eyed, but that’s another story.

I also find this lone wild rose, growing up in the middle of a sand outwash. I always marvel at how, out here, under such harsh conditions, life still finds a way, and there is beauty to be found in the harshest circumstances. The badlands are a good lesson for life, I guess.

Wild roses always remind me of my mom. They smell better than any store-bought version!

June 21 Continued

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:08:00 +0000

It is quarry day. We have a lot of overburden to remove, and a wall to take back, so it will be a hot day with lots of heavy lifting, hauling, pounding and picking. This is what it looks like working….

Toni and Tim. Grad students and volunteers are good slave labor!

…and this is what it looks like when they pose for my camera…

Here they are posing between swings, looking relaxed and refreshed. This is how you know it either isn’t totally awful, or that I have threatened them….

It is really hot work, as you can imagine. I love to watch these guys…some of whom have never camped, and, because this is mainly an NCSU group, some of whom have never been out of the south…but it is, believe it or not, a healthy lifestyle, working outdoors in the sun all day, (beats playing computer games) and then coming back, eating lots, and falling into bed. Sometimes I wonder why people like this life, and come back to volunteer year after year. Then, I think it must have something to do with this…the freedom, the hard work, it is rare to find this in the cities where most of these guys live.

We have been joined by my colleague Clive, from the UK. He quarries right along side the rest, and has been GREAT to have out here. Because Clive is like me, a rather non-traditional paleontologist more into analytical, chemical ‘stuff’ than the descriptive science that characterizes most of paleo, we have a lot to talk about, mostly boring stuff like methodology, chemical paramters, conditions resulting in preservation, etc. He has provided great input for my students, and lots of ideas for me. And, the best part is always the collaborations that result from discussions in quarries or around campfires. So, we will aim for a paper or two out of this. I am really glad that he came, and we will all be sorry to see him go.

My colleague Clive, working alongside Toni, with a ready smile, always, no matter how tired. Clive, you are always welcome here!

I love the story the rocks tell. This is the back quarry wall. Can you see the change in texture?

My geology friends tell me that our quarry represents point bar deposits, and the switch from sandstone to clay is where the ancient river changed direction, and consequently, energy. I wish I knew more geology. Especially out here, where the rocks are so exposed and not covered with vegetation, they tell such a story, and help me understand the world of the past.

In the Field Part IV - June 21

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:44:00 +0000

After almost 2 weeks back in civilization, I am ready for more of the solitude of the field. I had lots to do in town, but that is done, and so I am on the way to Billings, Montana’s metropolis, to pick up my technician, and head to the field. It is Megan’s first trip to Montana. It is also her first time ever camping, so she is in for a shock…

But, before I leave, we are going on a horseback ride up into the mountains…I appreciate this so much, and in part because it is SOOO different from where I will be spending the next 2 weeks.

Good bye to Bozeman for two weeks…the country here is vastly different than where I will be, and I love both.

Then, I head to Billings, arriving in time to shop for the crew before heading to the airport. When you have a dozen young people working 12-14 hours in the hot sun(finally)moving a mountain, it takes a LOT of food to feed them. So, my car is totally overloaded even before picking Megan up, with all her gear. The plane is on time, and I wedge Megan in amongst all the food, gear, and boxes of lab supplies, and, with 3.5 hours in front of us and Megan holding boxes and a suitcase uncomplainingly the whole way, we are off. The road is slightly different than my usual route, and we bypass the windmills this time, but it is north on a long straight road out of Roundup, almost direct to Malta. We pull in late, about 8, and I still have to set up my tent, so I conscript Tim, my grad student, to help.

My home away from home…did I mention the mosquitoes? They don’t show up well in the pictures—surprising. They are big enough to photograph well, it feels like.

Even though I know better, I still like to be away from the rest, and so I head back down to the river. It is peaceful there, and I love to hear the animals and birds upon both waking and sleeping. The first night it is always a bit hard to fall asleep, and the birds and coyotes seem to have the same trouble. The birds are very fat, as there is an endless supply of mosquitoes to keep them well fed…and, it seems that I perform the same function for the mosquitoes…sigh. Finally the coyotes and the owls sing me to sleep, and before I know it, the lightening on the horizon wakes me up and gets me going.

When I am dressed and sorta put together, I head up to camp. THEN I remember why I shouldn’t camp by the river. I have to walk through tall grass to get to the main camp, and there are clouds of mosquitoes that rise up so thick I can barely see through them, with each of my steps. Ugh. These guys are more resistant to bug spray every year that I come, and they just laugh with joy at this new meal offered them, despite my three layers of two different kinds of spray. If these companies REALLY want to test their products, they should try paleo field camp on the highline.

In the Field Part III - June 3 - 6

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:47:00 +0000

I love to see the tiny prairie flowers this time of year….they are so incredibly delicate-looking, but that belies their hardiness…they have to grow in the worst of soils, with a very irregular water supply…yet there they are, like tiny pools of sunshine, prettiest when conditions are harshest. You can learn a lot from a high plains flower!

This region could be called ‘the big empty’ it is filled with beauty but you have to look hard sometimes. And then, we can’t forget the ever-present Prickly Pear, the bane of the existence of every prairie crosser since Lewis and Clark, who wrote about them in their journal, and who never would have made it without the help of the Indians who had footwear that could resist the sharp spines.

Prickly Pear cactus hurt worse than they look like they would.
DON’T sit in one accidentally. Again, don’t ask me how I know this.

They blend in so well that you don’t always see them until it is too late, and their spikes can go right through my field boots. They have some kind of compound that makes them sting a lot worse than they should, and I can still feel them a long time after I remove them from my skin. But still, when they start to bloom and those spines are topped by lacy flowers, they are beautiful.

The other thing about the prairie is that because there are no trees a lot of birds nest in open ground. They rely heavily on camoflauge to keep their secrets from predators, and because they would be sitting ducks (so to speak), so the nests are untended mostly. Obviously enough of them manage to avoid being swallowed by snakes or stepped on by the zillions of cows, deer and other critters to create a new generation. Can you see them?

What a way to raise your babies! Isn’t this amazing?

Besides the living things though, we did (well, grad student Denver Fowler did) find some hadrosaur (duck billed dinosaur) remains. They were not very convenient, located in a densely cemented sandstone lens that formed an overhang, but there was definitely skull material present.

Pointing out hadrosaur bones under the overhang.

That was fun, but again I don’t know if we would excavate it. Not all dinosaurs are cooperative. Well, my last night in the tent before heading back to civilization…it has been cold and wet a lot of the time here and I welcome a hot shower!

That is always the best part of getting out of the field. Still as the sun sets, the birds and beasts come out to play. There is the sound of the mourning dove, haunting as it echoes across the riverbanks. And the coyotes again, singing seranades to one another, and of course, one of my favorite sounds, the deep throated ‘wooop’ of the night hawks as they dive from great heights. They are small birds, relatively, but the dive fast for their insect prey, opening their wings at the last minute to create a sound that is much more appropriate to a large bear. I am glad to fall asleep surrounded by nature. I have the world's greatest job!

Things to do when it is too wet to be out quarrying. Catfish hunting onthe Milk River.
And I always thought catfish were a southern thing!

I will head back to town in the morning, and return again at the end of the month. I can’t wait for the next big find.

Bob will ride back with me to pick up another vehicle for the field. Its always nice to have company, as this five hour drive can get pretty long. We stop in Judith Gap for a break. Remember those windmills from the way up? They have a single blade from one of them, just to convey how big those things really are. Bob is about 5’10, for perspective.

This is B. rex Bob, for scale. Helps to understand the power of the wind here,
that it can drive these things so well.

See ya in a few weeks, again from the high plains of dinosaur country!

In the Field Part II - June 3 - 6

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Finally, we have good weather for prospecting. This is my very favorite part of paleontology—out in the sun, when it is like this—not too hot, fresh air, and nothing but the sound of birds, or silence.

There is so much to see beyond the fossils, and my mind is totally filled with the sights and sounds around us. Our first stop is where we will leave the cars, and then we split up. Bob and I each go alone, it is what we are used to and love. But the students pair up, and double the eyes on the ground.

Prospecting a new area for potential! My favorite part of paleo.

Because our student crew this year ranges in experience, it is also a great way for the ones with more experience to teach the ‘newbies’ what to look for, and how to see. For me, though, I love the challenge of walking to far outcrops and being the first to see what is there. I set my sights on this one…it looks particularly appealing, with the horizontal stripes of organic muds and sand, representing an ancient river channel, with waxes and wanes in current flow. Differential cementation and weathering result in this spectacular ‘hoodoo’ formations, or capstones.

This region could be called ‘the big empty’ - it is filled with beauty but you have to look hard sometimes.

It is steep, so a pretty rough climb but this is what I love…And just look at all that potential! I did find some material weathering out, but it turned out to be very fragmentary and not worth collecting. Darn it.

However, the stuff that I saw that WASN’T dinosaurian was just about as much fun as a good dinosaur.

One thing I always keep my eyes open for is examples of taphonomy in action—the processes that operate today to destroy a carcass also operated in the past, and by studying modern bones and tissues we can understand better what we see in the fossil record. So, as I walked down the road to the outcrop, I became aware of the odor of decaying flesh.. finally, the source!

This poor little cow had gotten too close to the edge of the road, apparently, and the road gave way, plunging him to the creekbed below, and partially burying him in the dirt. I didn’t get any closer, so the pictures are blurry, but he obviously didn’t get preyed upon…so the patterns we see will make good teaching. I LOVE grossing my students out! ☺

In the Field Part I - June 3 - 6

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:26:00 +0000

Well, we had a few more days of rain….It is sloppy and cold in the tent, and COLD during the day. I know that it won’t last but brrr! The camp is a mudpit, and everyone is restless—we can’t get out to prospect or to quarry in this weather! Still, as miserable as it can be, there is something both healing and relaxing in falling asleep to rain on my tent wall. We had one town day, where we went to take care of some business that we needed to do but have put off to catch the weather when we can. We went to Gary and Barb’s to pick up some packages that were sent to us, bought groceries to feed the crews, and went to look at some topo maps at the BLM. A productive day, but not ideal. Still, weather is supposed to break a little so the plan is to go out and open an old quarry that was still producing—we just didn’t have any other places to put the bone. It is perfect for one of my student’s projects, and so when permits come through, we will take back the 40 foot wall to get at some pristine, untouched bone. In the meantime tho we can quarry down 1.5 meters, and things look promising. Lots of beautiful bone, including a spectacular braincase! It was cold in the morning but Jack (Horner, MSU) showed up in camp to check on the crews, and so joined us for some prospecting. He was pretty excited to see evidence that some skull material was still preserved!

We are working three quarries in this area, all of which are producing bone that seems to be appropriate for what I hope to do this summer, and which will make our mobile lab very important. The crew uncovered some beautiful bones in one of the quarries, including this very nice hadrosaur femur.

Hadrosaur braincase, with delicate bony ‘arms’ reaching up out of the sand.

Jack and I, examining the work of our students. This is the fun part!

It is a nice sample, and so I decide to do what makes most dinosaur loves turn pale….I believe that in order to better understand these critters, it sometimes requires that we destroy part of the samples. So after taking lots of pictures, careful measurements, and other documentation, I whack into it with my rock hammer. I took samples of the sediment too, as a control if we find biomolecules or tissues, but it is really clear that the bone is exceptionally well preserved. I collected bone wearing these beautiful purple gloves, and wrapped it tightly in tinfoil to keep light out (UV damages molecules) and then placed it into a jar with silica gel crystals. That will draw out all moisture, and prevent any damage, until we can get it to the lab for analyses. The bone will then be jacketed, and we will sample it again periodically to track degradation.

Next, we went to check out the quarry where my student Liz will be collecting data for her dissertation. She and her crew have a job ahead of them, as they will be cutting into a 40 foot cliff, taking it down to the bone layer.

Hadrosaur femur uncovered from the sandstone...

After sampling. Its no wonder most paleontologists don’t invite me to their digs…

Looking down from the top to the bone layer. All of this will have to be removed to get at our study specimens!

The Museum had previously worked this quarry, which has bones from many different hadrosaurs. It represents a flooding event, probably when, like caribou, these herds of dinosaurs attempted to cross at high water, and drowned.

Some of the bones came to rest against a gigantic tree trunk, which ran through the middle of the quarry. Although the majority of the tree was collected years ago, there remains enough of it still in the sediments to make another good control for Liz’s dissertation.

So, Liz removes what we can get to without a change in permits, and, wearing gloves, cleans and collects the bone for her study.

The sand is like butter. This type of deposit is every paleontologist's dream, because the material is so easy to prepare. As I mentioned, the bone is beautiful, undistorted, and easy to work with. So even though they must remove almost 40 feet of overburden, it will clearly be worth it in the end.

Back to Montana: Part III - May 12 - June 3, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:55:00 +0000

The crew has made good progress! They have opened two quarries. This picture gives a little perspective. Sometimes, when you are working them, the sites don’t seem all that impressive. But stepping back a bit to see all of it is pretty cool!

It is a lot of backbreaking work, but no one complains, and all pull their weight. I think paleontology is the perfect example of a completely egalitarian effort. No patience with slackers in the field….I think it is a great experience that all students should have! (not at all prejudiced, though).

You can tell this isn’t easy work. It is a far cry from the Indiana Jones scenarios. There is nothing at all glamorous about this backbreaking work. I love it tho—men and woman work equally hard, and earn the respect of each other. They move mountains, quite literally. I am always honored to be part of these crews. And I learn at least as much from these students as they ever will from me.

Bob and I walk out a bunch of gullies and outcrops. We revisited a site that our crew had worked about ten years ago. There are still bones coming out. I don’t think the crew missed anything, but maybe there is more than one dinosaur here!

Taking advantage of the shade to look a little closer at these bones….

So, back to camp, and relaxing after a full day…these guys work really hard, and the evening is when everyone just lets down. You never know what will come up in conversation, that is for sure. But I couldn’t resist this shot below….what a great advertisement for this trailer, and joint effort.

Relaxing after dinner in the shadow of the new lab….there are students from all over, and from all disciplines. It is so much fun to watch them all. What a great group!

Well, it has rained the last two days. I woke up to lightning flashing on my tent wall, and lots of rain, in the middle of the night. it is peaceful, I love sleeping in the rain, but we all know that it won’t be an early day of field work. So the camp is relaxed, with people slowly wandering in for breakfast, and it will be down days of reading, playing cards, and catching up on paleo news. Students swap stories of evil professors and bad field experiences. Occasionally, research projects get discussed. Friendships form, and opportunities for collaboration come out of these experiences.

We are hoping that it will stay dry today, so that we can get on the overburden tomorrow but the clouds are building and the wind is picking up. We have part of the crew in town as one student has an ear infection, but he did pick a good day to do this….

Well, I think that is a long enough report for now. Will catch you up if we turn up more dinosaur stuff, otherwise, I will be back in the field in late June….

Back to Montana Part II: May 12 - June 3, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:11:00 +0000

So, here it is, Saturday, my 3rd week back home…and finally I am off for the field. I haven’t minded, as it has been rainy and cold constantly, but today looks beautiful. It is a 5 hour drive, and we are caravanning up. Part of the crew is already there, a bunch of students have gone to set up camp and open the sites we will work.

Preliminary reports are a little disappointing….I always hope for that fantastic, complete, articulated dinosaur revealing itself with the first shovelful of dirt, but alas, that hardly ever happens….

We head off in a chain. Because I have a bit of a lead foot problem—just a little—it is agreed that I will lead. So, I tune to my favorite country radio station, and I am off! East on the interstate to Big Timber, where we stop for a gas tank top off, and to let everyone catch up. The snow covered Crazy Mountains rise up above the valley floor, oh they are beautiful. We will follow them all the way to Lewistown and beyond. They are spectacular!

Then, it is north on a two lane state highway to Lewistown, the geographic center of the state. Historically an old cow town, but also a railroad hub that serviced the whole state in the early days. I love this little place. It is a last hold out of the old Montana. Cowboys and hard working basic folks, in touch with the rhythm of the land and the seasons….the buildings are awesome,reflecting the importance of this place, once. Then, it is north again, past the now familiar sounding names of the scattered ranch and cow towns. Judith gap, with the awesome windmill farm I talk of each year. You would think that all these windmills would ruin the scenery, but I love to watch their giant blades, turning slowly in all directions at the whim of the wind. I have heard that each windmill cost about $4 million to build, and there are at least a hundred of them, oriented in all directions so that some are always moving while others are still. If you are going to make money from the wind, this is definitely the place to do it.

Then, we pass small towns that I haven’t noticed before, with highway signs pointing the way to Buffalo, and Straw, and Grass Range. The ranching heritage is strong here, as is the connection to the land and the past. Somehow, it is appropriate to be studying dinosaurs here.

Finally, we pull into camp. It is amazingly plush compared to most of the sites we have settled before. This land where we will base our operations is owned by a North Carolinian who is interested in furthering education and opportunity there. He owns a lot of Montana ranch land, and has been so generous in his support of this effort of ours, to expand opportunities in Paleontology to NCSU students. There is electricity—sorta a must for running our lab stuff, and the local managers of the property—Gary and Barb Anderson—are awesome. They have dug and placed an outhouse for us—trust me, this is sure better than having to dig one ourselves—and mowed the grass near where we can pitch tents to keep the snakes away. MUCH appreciated. We can walk across the property to the river, and can swim away the grime of a day removing overburden in the hot sun….I decided to pitch my tent on a bank overlooking the river, far away from the rest of the crew. I am old, and my privacy and sleep are pretty important at the end of the day….

I have a new tent, sleeping bag and cot. Oh, the comfort! I can stand up in there! No more laying down to pull on jeans, and I am sleeping off the ground. It is plush indeed! So, the first night I crawled in, looking so forward to a restful sleep…only to be kept awake for hours listening to this pesky hoot owl, arguing with a pack of coyotes just across the field. It was ‘Hoo-to wooo Hoot’ and ‘Yip yip yip yowwwwwww weee’ back and forth for hours. I don’t know which one finally gave up on the argument first, but finally it was quiet enough to sleep….and oh, what a great good morning! The sun is shining and it will be hot. I feel so incredibly lucky to be here, to have the job I have, and all the opportunities, to leave the city behind and touch my roots, and all that I love so much about this land of my ancestors.

And so we are off, the whole crew. Bob and I will check out the initial sites, and see how the crew are doing, then we hope to prospect for more areas….I am still hoping for that articulated theropod…I love the meat eaters best…

Back to Montana Part 1: May 12 - June 3, 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Schweitzer) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:22:00 +0000

It is hard to believe that almost a month has passed since I have been back to my Montana. Not a lot of down time thus far, as this year, we had a BIG project going. My research into the way things are preserved in the fossil record has not only shown a lot of surprises, but has revealed some unexpected patterns. We have found that our chances of recovering both tissues and cells from dinosaur bone, as well as any molecular information, are greatly enhanced by examining the bone as soon as possible after it comes out of the ground.

So, on the strength of that finding, NCSU and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences found and purchased a 48 ft semi trailer that had been used previously as a wet lab. I was able to get a lot of equipment for the lab from donations (Glaxo Smith Kline and Roche) and from my Packard Foundation Fellowship.

This is the trailer as it looked when it pulled into Bozeman, ready for its remodel.

NCSU paid to drive it out to Montana, where Jack Horner and the Museum of the Rockies agreed to undertake the remodeling of it to fit our specific needs. The trailer arrived the day before I did, and from that time till this, we have been involved in some pretty intense remodeling. Mostly I worked with my buddy Bob Harmon, of ‘Brex’ fame, but we had lots of help from friends like Dave Butzin and Nels Peterson, and from students like Ben Novak,

Elaborate filtration and monitoring system, with lots,and I mean LOTS of plumbing.

Tim Cleland and Liz Johnson.

It was amazing.The trailer had been used previously to me by an investigator at NCSU who was involved in a fish ecology project. The trailer was extensively adapted to this, with a very specialized water system, capable of drawing in lake or river water, and passing it through a series of water treatment filters. Then, it would be put into large storage tanks where the water was constantly monitored through a complex system of knobs and gauges to maintain pH, oxygenation and other qualities. Then, it was specially reinforced with steel to hold all that water weight. And there was a very large double sink system, again supported by steel.

Two large (175 gal) water treatment tanks,
and associated plumbing and monitoring equipment

So, the first week that I was in Bozeman was spent ripping. My destructive genes were in full operation, and I got to use all kinds of ‘guy’ tools—saws and drills and screw guns and the like—to help dismantle this system. My excitement was tempered a little bit when we found that the water system had not been fully drained since its last use, several years prior to our purchase. So, most of these tubes still had pressurized water in them, and in that water, there had been ample time for microbial growth. Ugh. As we sawed into the old plumbing, brown thick sludge that smelled like sewage came squirting out…..ok, GUSHING out….all over everything, including my hair and clothes. Ugh.

Debris from the trailer. Yes, we took this all out, one piece at a time.

Itty bitty baby bunny, trying to be brave in the
commotion and debris piles. I didn’t notice him for
the longest time,. He was NOT about to move and
get anyone’s attention!

This is not something that grad school ever prepared me for, again. On days like these, or when sawing rotten ostrich legs and the like, I find myself truly wondering what grad school DID prepare me for????

We had originally decided to do rather minimal remodeling this field season, and come up with a more extensive and permanent plan over the winter months…but I came in one morning to find that Bob had started work about 4 am, and had dismantled the fish sinks and their steel support grid, and hauled them out, as well as the frame for the sliding glass doors. It made a HUGE difference in the amount of room we had to work in. I was VERY excited. As I helped him lift the steel braces to carry them out of the trailer, one dropped square on my knee, leaving a very large bruise. That, coupled with a lot of open sores from where the yukky microbe-laden water landed on my hands, made me such a glamorous sight…

Of course, nothing went as smoothly in reality as it did in my imagination. In the back of the trailer they had a 200 gallon water tank that would carry potable water to a small sink for dishwashing, and to the bathroom sink. However, when we put in water, it sprung a giant leak, completely filling the bed it sat in, and all the tubes and pipes, with water. The tank was specially made, and we REALLY didn’t want to replace it (and all the pipes and plumbing associated) so we tried one epoxy after another, each time convinced it would hold…and it did, sorta, except for one small leak that moved out of the line of epoxy each time we tried. So, after many valiant attempts, out came the tank. In pieces, because they had apparently built the bathroom walls around the tank. As you can tell, this was a bigger process than we had thought..always is. Always something….

The floor from the trailer was pretty shot, with the water tanks and steel supports, so we laid new subfloor, and then got tile from the local big box stores. I helped with laying subfloor, and thought that the next day I would go get a linoleum squisher thingy..(note….I write my papers scientifically, but I don’t talk that way). Once again Bob surprised me, because when I came in the next day, early, the floor was done. Bob laid it and then squished it down with a rolling pin on his hands and knees. Sheesh. Some guys have all the fun. We then built special supports for the two new water tanks that will feed our ultra pure water system, and Ben got the job of following in Bob’s footsteps with the linoleum glue and rolling pin.

We also had to order countertops, of course, that will be our lab benches. So Ben got that job too, building the frames on which the tops would sit. That is when I finally began to imagine the end product of all this work. We could actually see how big the lab would be, and how much room we would have for all the assays we will run on the new bone, and how much data we hope to collect from all this. It is hard to believe that this all came together in such an incredibly short period of time. It is a pretty historic thing, I guess, that marks the joint collaboration of four institutions, with one common goal, and that is to facilitate our understanding of the rock record, and the animals and plants that once shared this planet with us.

And, finally it is starting to look real! Benches are in, and the laminar flow hood will provide us with clean space for extractions. But, the final, finishing touch was probably the most exciting for me…the NC Museum of Natural Sciences art staff designed a special logo for the side of the truck. It is beautiful, and they did a great job of really capturing what we are all about. And…we will probably have a little easier time in small town northern Montana towns, if we DON’T have a US Army logo on the outside. They can be a little touchy up there…..

So, here it is, the finished product on the outside! Is that cool or what??? A tyrannosaur, a duck-bill, and the logos testifying to the joint effort here. AND….the first ever, totally cool, dedicated Molecular Paleontology Field Station. So, it pulls out tonite, and we will have it on site tomorrow. I can’t wait to unpack the equipment, get it organized, and start working! Let’s just hope the dinosaurs cooperate.