 |
Inspiring minds through nature and science. Come and explore.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Alaskan Dinosaur Expedition
July 21 |
| The day was spent collecting Liscomb quarry material as well as pulling a field jacket (a plaster and burlap cover to protect specimens) from 1992 that Roland and Dave (Norton, with the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium) thought they had lost due to erosion. Instead it got buried in a slide and we found it this year. It is a partial pelvis of a hadrosaur. One more reminder that this really is the arctic is the discovery of pockets of ice as we complete the excavation of the specimen.
Speaking of slides, I was working in the bone bed not far from the jacket and I got up to relieve myself. When I got back, I found that about 4 cubic meters of debris had slid right into the area where I was working. Among the dinosaur bones, I’m finding more questions than answers. The Liscomb bed’s bones appear to have been buried all at once, while those at another major site, the Byer’s bone bed, appear to have accumulated over time. The fact that both contain abundant bones from young hadrosaurs is probably significant, but I don’t know what it means yet. We found a large theropod tooth, and a Saurornitholestes (a small theropod) tooth. After our day of work, we pulled up camp and moved to the confluence of the Colville and Kikiakrorak Rivers, where we made a very nice camp. We set the net with the intent of catching fish for smoking when we reach Kikak tomorrow or the next day. With the great weather, camp spirits are running high, and the evenings have been spent swapping stories and creating new ones. It is now midnight and the sun is well above the horizon. It still takes me a moment to realize that I’m in the arctic. |