Utah Trip!

Hi everyone (all 3 of you),

Apologies are in order for the long break between posts. The week following my last post was finals week at WIU - always a crazy time. Since finals week, I have spent two weeks in Hanksville, Utah with the Burpee crew digging up dinosaurs and doing geology sleuth work in the field. The weather has been unbeatable, and our group is fantastic. Tomorrow is our last full day in the quarry before heading back to Macomb. I thought I would be remiss if I didn't post at least once while here.

We have found numerous new bones, including several partially articulated limb elements, pectoral and pelvic bones, ribs, verts, and a camarasaur dentary with other associated (possible) skull fragments. With the high rate of new bone discoveries, efficient mapping has become a high priority and dominates the days of several of our team members. Additionally, we are starting to get a good sense of what occurred at our site ecologically, and we've been able to support these hypotheses by correlating the strata of our site with several other sections in the area.

Also, we've taken trips to Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef to view the geology and get a sense of Utah's strat column in its entirety. The sites are truly jaw-dropping.


Not to pass the buck, but for anyone who might be interested, I'm posting the link to Dr. Matt Bonnan's blog below. He has been much more diligent at making daily blog entries about our dig progress.

I'll have more about our trip when I return.

Dr. Bonnan's blog: http://jurassicjourneys.net/

Comments

  1. Dr. Matt BonnanJune 10, 2010 at 8:24 AM

    Thanks for posting a link to my site ... and for passing the buck. Just kidding. =)

    There is now a link to your blog site on my Jurassic Journeys blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ashley MorhardtJune 10, 2010 at 11:21 PM

    Sweet deal all around, haha.

    ReplyDelete

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