Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Buckhorn Conglomerate

"What's that?" asked the kids, pointing at the rock they were sitting under.

 "Well, that's..."

 "I KNOW I KNOW!" shouted the boy. "Its poop!"

 "Well..." I said, looking up at the boulder that was easily twice if not more than twice my height. "I would hate to see what, um..., pooped that out."

 His family laughed.

 Actually, it was a conglomerate from the Buckhorn conglomerate in the Cedar Mountain Formation. That rock caps the mountain tops around our quarry and is from the very early Cretaceous though. It was formed by a mid-strength current, which deposited small pebbles, which were later cemented together by other matrix.

 That said, that kid's guess made me laugh. Apparently for whatever reason he really wanted to see a coprolite.

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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.