Wednesday July 9th
Another great day in the field, spent the morning in the Triceratops quarry, working on the exposed bone and bringing down more overburden. In the afternoon, we decided to explore a new area in the field to prospect for new bones and new micro-sites. We found both, Sean found lots of teeth and Alan and I found a new bone, there is no frill material, so we are inclined to think it is not Triceratops!

Thursday July 10th
Returned to our new area to continue excavating the bone, and excavate around it to see if there are any more bones. We decided to pedestal the original bone, and dig back as we didn't think there were any more bones in this area, we were very happily proved wrong! We found a humerus and several ribs, we are really excited about this discovery and we cannot wait to return to the field and continue digging. Also Jess arrived yesterday, so the field logs will be written by her from tomorrow till August 12th!

2008 Field Log

Saturday July 12
Howdy from dinosaur country! Today was another eventful day in the field. We returned with Marianne from California to our new site. Despite heavy winds, we had a successful day of digging. We found a few new bones, though most are not in the best condition. The site looks to keep producing and we are all still very excited about the new find! Still investigating what dinosaur we have, which makes every new discovery exciting!

Sunday July 13
What a beautiful day to be digging dinosaurs! We continued to work in our mystery dinosaur site and keep finding more bones! Early in the day, Sean found a new bone that looks like a vertebrae and later on, one of our diggers, Ron, found 2 new bones! These bones were in a spot a bit away from our other bones, so the site is expanding rapidly! The Samples, with grandson Collin, and the Jones party accompanied us today and were great dinosaur hunters.

Tuesday July 15
The past three days have been without guests but the staff has been hard at work! Sunday, Al, Sean, Emma, and I went to the field and continued work in our mystery site. We didn't find a lot, but two new bone pieces kept our spirits high. Monday was a "day off" where we visited town and a butte called Smokey Butte, which has very interesting geology. Thanks to Steve and his wife for allowing the four students a couple of hours to be rock nerds. Last night, Janice and her mother (from Pennsylvania) joined the crew and brought our bones from last year back home! Everyone's favorite dino-dog, Barnum, returned with them as well! Today, we spent the beautiful day in the mystery site, which we have decided to call 'Big Al' after our student Al, who will be serving our country in the Marines in the fall. Al found some new bones and some ground was moved. The quarry is starting to take shape and keeps producing more bones!

Tuesday July 8th
A great day in the field! We started off in the Triceratops quarry, removing yet more rock and overburden until we found a new bone, it needs to be fully excavated before it can be identified, we needed to let the quarry dry out over the afternoon, as we had had quite a lot of rain overnight, so that plan is to excavate this bone and identify it tomorrow! So in the afternoon we prospected and worked in the micro-sites where Sean found lots of teeth! We also plan to finish jacketing and removing the rib Amy found from the quarry tomorrow!