Friday, July 31, 2015

Plants Found!


This is a place on BLM land that we have been told is called "Triassic." Ironically, most of the boulders date to the Cretaceous, and the place is pretty close to the Jurassic rock that CLDQ is exposed in. The area really has nothing to do with the Triassic, but I guess someone felt like that part of the Mesozoic was feeling left out.

 Regardless, at the area there is also an exposure of the Green River Formation, and this part of it tends to produce leaf fossils. Interns have stopped there over the years to collect, but you can still find leaves.

 That, and no amount of visitors has destroyed the boulders from the Cretaceous that make for some really awesome bouldering and climbing routes.

 We had just about given up on finding the exposure and subjected ourselves to climbing for the rest of our time there. As we were walking back to the car, pleasantly exhausted from another intern adventure, when I looked down and there were the weathered remains of a leaf fossil staring back at me.

 We had to stop. I had a rock hammer and now that I had some rock to split I was anxious to use it.

 The ones that I found after that point were small but beautifully preserved. They have entire margins, are round and symmetric, There's not really enough there to figure out what kind of leaf they are, but they are pretty. Just goes to show you that sometimes the best finds are only a small part knowing where to look and largely determination with a bit of chance.

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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.