Unexpected Group Field Trip

The nice thing about working in Utah this summer is that one of my mentors and professors, Dr. Lindsay Zanno, does field work near by under a permit issued by none other than my boss.

 (CLDQ is run by BLM, who issues all such permits. Complicated politics that we don’t need to discuss; let it just be said that this is the only way to legally excavate the remains of vertebrate animals on public land.)

Two summers ago, I had the privilege of experiencing real camping and field work for the first time (prior to this I had been based out of a motel and went to the field site every morning.) This was due to her willingness to take a newly graduated high school student into the field with her on the word of Dr. Cavigelli (who I did the hotel field work with) that I had a steady enough hand and a passion for what we were doing. That, and she knew that I’d been working at the museum lab in NC for a long time, and that I had up to that point managed to be present for every talk she had given, generally in the front row.

I guess that was enough for her.

Field camp is like the coming of age initiation of just about any type of field scientist, and honestly I feel like everyone should have to be pushed out of their comfort zones by such a professor at some point in life. You learn a lot about science and yourself.

This summer, I got to watch Kaitlyn and Mac put in that position. Kaitlyn had done geology field work before, yes. But… working with Dr. Zanno is just an experience that you have to have to understand. She has a way of keeping everyone busy and pushing them to their limit in a healthy way. I know that my first time out with her, I realized that my limits weren’t nearly what I thought they were, but further. I remember learning to laugh when facing difficulty, to watch out for myself, to keep tabs on how others are doing and take over from them when they need a break. I learned how to open a quarry, a skill that I had the opportunity to use and surprise Dr. Mickle with this past spring. The list goes on. But everything I learned goes back to me being pushed out of my comfort zone that summer and into realizing just what I really am capable of.

This summer, it paid off.

Dr. Zanno had some extra tents from a couple of fieldworkers who had helped her earlier in the summer that she left up for us to use, and willingly got extra food so that there was enough for three more pairs of hands. Apparently, having us there was worth it to her. I’m glad, because I’ve missed her influence. This year I’ve gotten to see her more in the lab than usual as a result of some extra projects I’ve been doing, and I enjoy that time. Plus, I enjoy the chance to spend time with other NC paleontology students, as I got out in the field. Even better, this time she had invited out an extra geologist that I had never met before that has a connection at a museum that I’ve only been able to dream of working at some day. I’d say that’s a step in the right direction.

Dr. Zanno’s work is focused on the Mussentuchit, where she looks for therapods that are currently not known to the fossil record. The record from this member, which represents that latest part of the early Cretaceous, is really sparse, so there’s not a lot about dinosaurian evolution known from this area. The geology is that of what is basically a river system, with fine grained sediment and the occasional sandstone lens or pebbles. Let’s just say the bones have a habit of being a little weathered and beaten.

Regardless, when you do find something, its going to be awesome. I had the opportunity to work with Lisa opening up a new quarry known as Mini Troll. There isn’t a lot there right now, but we just opened it and there are a few bones. I actually got to work it a little while by myself due to the circumstances of the day. I greatly, greatly appreciated the trust involved in Dr. Zanno’s and Lisa’s decision to leave me there. I’m looking forward to seeing the material prepped out when we get home.

As a group, we interns also helped flip a sauropod jacket. We weren’t really planning to work on the Morrison when the museum started sending our crew out here, but there was a large family that illegally tried to pull this guy out. Now the job of preserving the damaged yet still beautiful bones falls on us, which means hundreds of hours of prep, lots of man power to move several tons worth of material back from the field, and making space down in collections. It is easily the biggest set of bones that I have been involved in excavating and prepping. I’m actually really excited about this set, because the bones that we already have from it back in NC have had us stumped for several months as to which sauropod it could be from. Camarasaurus is easily the most common of the three species, but the bones looked too different. I left while they were still puzzling over this. The challenge was not helped by our lack of a sauropod expert. 

Then I started working with Carrie at the museum in Utah on my days off. I caught a glimpse of the side view of some of the vertebrae one day without thinking about it, and something clicked.

They looked exactly the same as the bones that I had spent countless hours helping to prep in the lab. Dippy was our dino. Or at least, one of her close relatives was.

So I asked when I got to the field what they thought it was, just to see if there was any chance of me having made an accurate diagnosis.

“Well, we’re thinking it’s a diplodocid…”

I couldn’t help being excited. We’re on the same page. When we all get home, I’m going to show Lisa my pictures of what I was looking at. Its good to feel like I’m on the same page.