Sunday, August 9, 2015

Arches National Park

Near the location of a recent Utahraptor find are some even older rocks that have eroded into shapes that have struck wonder into folks for thousands of years. The valley was once the home of Native Americans who left petroglyphs, homesteaders, and now to a national park. 

 The arches formed as a result of the rising and receding seas, leaving behind evaporite rocks (basically, salt.) Later, sand dunes covered the land during the Middle Jurassic, which would become the Entrada Sandstone. That was exposed at Humbug Canyon as well, below the Morrison.

 After the layers were in place, they were uplifted, eroded into thin strips. Those then were weathered where they were weakest, in many cases forming the arches that now stand against the Moab, Utah, horizon.


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My Story (Very briefly...)

Lots of people claim that they wanted to be paleontologists at the age of 3. So did I. The problem is, I never really grew out of it. My third birthday party had dinosaurs. Everywhere. I grew up digging in fossil dirt from Aurora, NC, looking for coral and shark teeth. I practically lived at my local science museums (and still do, only now I get to do research, fossil preparation, and work in collections!) When local paleontologists discovered a dinosaur with a "fossilized heart" (no longer considered such) when I was little, I got to meet the man who led the work. And then, years later a dinosaur bone with soft tissue turned up. I was officially hooked.
No longer was I dreaming about dinosaurs. I was actively pursuing the science behind prehistoric creatures. I didn't want to read about it, I wanted in on the action. So I started working at the museum, and finally going on my own adventures. And thus, I needed a place to share them and maybe inspire others the way I was inspired. I have gone from watching fossils be prepared from one side of the glass at the museum to working on them on the inside of the glass. I am a student working toward my goal. I can finally start to call myself a paleontologist.