We're hunting Dinosaurs!

Last month we had the opportunity to dig for dinosaur bones at the Dana Quarry in Wyoming. We were invited by a dear friend of ours, Kirby Siber, owner of the Saurier Museum Aathal in Switzerland, and world renowned paleontologist.  You wouldn’t think two people who have spent most of our lives digging rocks would have been so excited for this opportunity.  But I have to say it was quite and adventure.  Even if we didn’t get to keep any of our finds! 

The Dana Quarry site was discovered more than 15 years ago by Kenneth Tanner.  It is located on his property near the tiny town of Ten Sleep, in Wyoming, where ancient sand and mudstone deposits form the Morrison Formation date back to the late Jurassic Period approximately 150 million years ago.  Though the quarry isn’t very large, over a dozen individual virtually complete dinosaur skeletons representing a variety of species have been recovered there.  These species include:  Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Amphicoelias, Camarasaurus, Allosaurus, Ornitholestes, Coelurus, Elaphrosaurus, Torvosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Othnielosaurus, Camptosaurus, and Stegosaurus.

Digging dinosaur bones is obvious hard and tedious work.  You have to be very careful as you remove the dirt less you accidently chisel into a bone.  All of the bones are carefully removed, glued, labeled and wrapped either in tinfoil or in plaster cast; so that they can be sent to the laboratory where they are painstakingly repaired and reconstructed to try to get as complete a skeleton as possible.  Afterwards we took a dip in a freezing river and Art went off to hunt fish with his crossbow. 

For Bruce the highlight of the trip was when he and Kirby pulled a vertebra out together.  But for me the most interesting part was when we took a lunch break with us two Americans, Kirby (Swiss), a Belguim, a Serbian, and a Dutch man.   As we discussed the universal problems faced by young people today; economics, drugs, lack of ambition and lack of respect for anything, it was never so apparent what a small world we live in!

 

See us at www.oakrocks.net for fossils for sale. And Happy Hunting!