Member of the Month - July 2017 - Peat Burns

[Fossildude19]

With the dog days of summer nearly upon us, and many planning their barbeques and holidays/vacations, it is time to crown another outstanding Member of the Month, to hold court and wear the crown proudly. 

 

By unanimous staff vote, we are happy to declare that July's Member of the Month is ...

 

 

 

            PEAT BURNS!!!            

 

Having joined our ranks in December of 2015, "Peat Burns" (you don't say?     )

has graced our Forum with a wide and diverse knowledge of fossils, and paleoecology, and insightful posts and comments about fossils,

not only from the mid-west, but from all over the country and the world. 

Always helpful, welcoming and polite, we are happy and lucky to count this learned gentleman

among our ranks!

 

"Peat" - Thanks for all you do and contribute,  here on the Forum!

Congratualtions Sir !

 

 

 

Care to tell us about your journey here to the Fossil Forum Peat ??  

 

 

[ynot]

Congratulations @Peat Burns!!!

[doushantuo]

Totally merits the badge.

I did notice Peat's marble statue in the town square needed scrubbing/cleaning.

And he seemed to have lost his medal inside the Ombrotroph(third table from the panoramic window,near the "wiggle matching" poster).

 

 

[Fossil-Hound]

Congratulations @Peat Burns Well deserved buddy.

[FossilDudeCO]

Congrats peatburns!

Well deserved!

[Peat Burns]

HOLY ****!  I can't believe it. Thank you so much!  This made my day to be in such good company.  TOTALLY UNEXPECTED. 

 

Since I only now realized that I have never really formally introduced myself, I'll take this opportunity to do so via my story of my path to TFF.  Here goes... (SORRY IF TOO LONG).

 

I have been fascinated by prehistoric life for as long as I can remember (well into the 1970s).  I'm pretty sure it started out with an interest in dinosaurs.  Back then, the only media available to dinosaur fanatics was books (All About Dinosaurs by Roy Chapman Andrews was one of my favorites), Saturday morning episodes of "Land of the Lost" (appointment TV...), and the rare sci. fi. movie such as "The Land that Time Forgot" and "The Last Dinosaur".  The only reason I endured King Kong was for the one scene where they showed a dinosaur... We didn't have the Discovery Channel, Walking with Dinosaurs, Jurassic Park and the endless litany of awesome dinosaur documentaries (or the internet) that kids have access to today. (And I had to walk 5 miles to school, barefoot, in the snow, and up-hill both ways... just kidding, lol).

I quickly learned, however, that there were no dinosaur fossils in Indiana.  I learned this from R. Dee Rarick of the Indiana Geological Survey who I used to write regularly with my questions when i was about 8 years old.  I never met him, but I still have all his correspondence and hope he knew how much I appreciated his having taken so much time to write to me and answer my questions.

Well, the next best thing to dinosaurs was any other fossils that might be found in the glacial debris of northern Indiana.  A couple books that I recall that were inspiring were the "Golden Guide to Fossils", "Fossils Tell of Long Ago" by Aliki, and "Fossils" by Mark Lambert.   I became infatuated with fossils.  Kids at school called me "the fossil freak".  I used to bribe my older brother to go fossil hunting with me (he had no interest in fossils) whenever he did something he didn't want our parents to find out about.  And, of course, part of the deal was that I got to keep whatever he found.  I still have some of them to this day.  I also had a friend whose parents had an abandoned gravel pit.  We practically lived in that pit looking for fossils (and tadpoles, and anything else we could find).

Northern Indiana wasn't exactly ideal for a fossil enthusiast.  The closest bedrock was 250-500 feet below the blanket of glacial till and outwash, and all the fossils in the glacial debris were beat-up and worn by glaciers and water.  My parents didn't quite know what to do with me and had no idea where they could take me to find fossils, so I was stuck looking in the till.   It's amazing that I managed to get some of the nice fossils that I did in the till and outwash.  I worked hard for them, though.  I still have them to this day.  I often wonder if I had lived where there were fossils in situ, such as a Devonian or Ordovician lagerstatten, whether I might have become a traditional paleontologist.  As it was, I began to turn my attention to aquatic biology, especially peatlands and peatland succession.  In that discipline, I was able to combine my interests in life of the past (examining sediment cores stretching back to the late Pleistocene) and aquatic ecology.  So, that is what I have focused most of my research on.  Hence the name "Peat Burns":  We used to joke with the kids that came to the environmental education center where I worked when I was in college.  When we had programs on glacial geology and bogs, we'd ask the kids if they knew "Peat Burns".  When they all shook their heads and said they didn't know "him", we'd bring out a dry block of peat and ignite it and talk about uses of peat as fuel for cooking and heating (one time the joke backfired when some little kid in the back was yelling, "I know Pete Burns!  I know him! He lives right next door to me!")...

Now that I am settled in my career and in a situation conducive to it, I have been seeking to broaden my horizons by investigating older palaeoenvironments and finally fulfilling those childhood dreams.  I've also had the privilege to begin building a small museum, which has required much fossil identification.  This is what initially brought me to The Fossil Forum.

I thought I knew a lot about fossils until I came to TFF where I was quickly humbled by the wealth of knowledge.  So much so, that I have become a bit "gun shy", especially considering how reliant I am on my trusty dissecting scope.  So I have learned to use qualifiers such as "appears to be..." "looks like..." or "is reminiscent of...", hahaha.  The ability that many of our members have to make such good identifications from photographs (often bad ones, at that) is impressive.  Since joining, I have become addicted to TFF, especially the Fossil ID, Hunting Trips, and Fossil Prep forums.  And I have learned so much.

Thank you to all the founders, administrators, moderators, and members who have made - and continue to make - this forum an educational and entertaining place and community.  I hope to meet some of you someday in the field.

With kind regards and many thanks,

Tony (aka "Peat Burns")

[Peat Burns]

Thanks @ynot, @doushantuo, @Fossil-Hound, @FossilDudeCO, and @Fossildude19!  Much appreciated. 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Congrats Tony and welcome !

 

Coco

[Ludwigia]

Yay!   And thanks to you Tony for telling your fascinating autobiography. This just supports my experience that our forum members are among the most active and diversely interested people that  I have met.

[doushantuo]

Great biographical insight,PB

I got interested in peatlands and wetlands through the purchase of a secondhand book which was basically a very fat issue of the In***na**onal J**rn** of C**l

G**l**y ,published by El***ie*.It very soon became apparent to me that there was a close connection between peat and coal.Also,I became every interested in Carboniferous botany,ecology and correlation problems. That a lot of lignite deposits are excellent lagerstatte made matters "worse".

Deposits orginating from/modified by hydroclimate are fascinating,from ALL points of view.

 

 

 

 

[doushantuo]

minor threadjacking:someone with your lofty stature(MOTM) probably has this one already

[Kane]

Congratulations, Tony, and our thanks for all that you do here on the forum.  And thanks for giving us a peek into how you developed this passion from such a young age, a passion that has certainly never left you. From rooting around in the till to putting together your own small museum, you've certainly come a long way - although I would wager that thrill and enthusiasm has remained the same after all these years. 

[gavialboy]

Congrats @Peat Burns.

[Darktooth]

Congratulations Tony! I enjoyed reading your story!

[digit]

Wait? What?

 

I voted for Peat for MOTM and now we've been baited and switched to another Tony? Just wait till Ynot hears about this.

 

Congratulations on joining a select class from a really great bunch of members on this forum. Growing up in Chicago, your origin story shares many points in common with my childhood. I managed to find a few fossils embedded in the limestone rip rap around a lake in a campground out near Rockford, IL back in my childhood and I was probably the only one there who packed a hammer and chisel whenever we camped there. I still have some of those up on a shelf in my closet. I too had an early pre-teen goal of being a paleontologist but was drawn to electronics (and eventually computers). As in your case (and many others on this forum) we soon wise-up and return to our love of finding really old things hidden in the landscape.

 

Thanks for the detailed backstory, it's good to get to know a bit more about the person behind the avatar. With luck, we'll find a way to meet-up in the field--and then we can discuss our favorite episodes of "Land of the Lost".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Pagurus]

 

Thanks for the backstory. TFF members sure are an interesting lot. When I worked at a residential environmental ed program many years ago we often sang a song about a "rare bog, ratlin' bog.." after exploring a small local bog. I wish they knew Peat Burns back then. 

[Ancient Bones]

Congratulations Tony! A very interesting background story, thank you. 

[Peat Burns]

@Coco, @Ludwigia, @Kane, @gavialboy, @Darktooth, @digit, @Pagurus, @Ancient Bones, thanks very much everybody.  It's my pleasure to participate in the forum with all of you.

[Doctor Mud]

Well done my friend!

 

Seems like we have followed similar paths. Although I think I was a bit more spoilt in terms of pre-quaternary fossils while growing up in New Zealand.

 

Im looking forward to more interesting chats with you in the future,

 

Cheers!

[Peat Burns]

5 hours ago, digit said:

Wait? What?

 

I voted for Peat for MOTM and now we've been baited and switched to another Tony? Just wait till Ynot hears about this.

 

Congratulations on joining a select class from a really great bunch of members on this forum. Growing up in Chicago, your origin story shares many points in common with my childhood. I managed to find a few fossils embedded in the limestone rip rap around a lake in a campground out near Rockford, IL back in my childhood and I was probably the only one there who packed a hammer and chisel whenever we camped there. I still have some of those up on a shelf in my closet. I too had an early pre-teen goal of being a paleontologist but was drawn to electronics (and eventually computers). As in your case (and many others on this forum) we soon wise-up and return to our love of finding really old things hidden in the landscape.

 

Thanks for the detailed backstory, it's good to get to know a bit more about the person behind the avatar. With luck, we'll find a way to meet-up in the field--and then we can discuss our favorite episodes of "Land of the Lost".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Thanks, Ken.  It sounds like you know all too well the "handicap" of "growing up glacial".  I've enjoyed reading your posts about Florida fossils.  I love hunting the Peace, but it's been awhile.  Perhaps we'll cross paths down there some day on a "routine expedition" 

 

With kind regards,

 

Tony 

[Doctor Mud]

16 hours ago, doushantuo said:

minor threadjacking:someone with your lofty stature(MOTM) probably has this one already

Van Geel is an inspiration for part of the way I approach my work.

He is the leader on non-pollen palynomorphs, or in plain language all that "junk" that finds its way onto a pollen slide. Clues to past environments can come from unexpected directions and it always pays to have an open mind.

Who for example would have thought that dung fungus would be preserved in wetland sediments and that it might tell an interesting story about the extinction of megafauna?

[Peat Burns]

4 hours ago, Pagurus said:

 

Thanks for the backstory. TFF members sure are an interesting lot. When I worked at a residential environmental ed program many years ago we often sang a song about a "rare bog, ratlin' bog.." after exploring a small local bog. I wish they knew Peat Burns back then. 

Oh, there's so many cool things that can be done with the topic of bogs when teaching environmental ed (carnivorous plants, peat and it's uses, the uses of Sphagnum, including dressing of wounds, ancient superstitions, the bog people (Tolland Man, etc.)).  You may know that the term "boogeyman" is derived from the term bog. Good stuff.

[Peat Burns]

17 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

Well done my friend!

 

Seems like we have followed similar paths. Although I think I was a bit more spoilt in terms of pre-quaternary fossils while growing up in New Zealand.

 

Im looking forward to more interesting chats with you in the future,

 

Cheers!

Thanks very much.  Sorry I haven't responded to your latest message yet.  I've been "bogged down" with processing some recent collections.  Looking forward to continuing our discussion on "rotten plants and stuff"  and autogenic processes.  

 

"...all that "junk" that finds its way onto a pollen slide."  

[doushantuo]

"bogged" down

[Raggedy Man]

Congrats Tony!