abctriplets Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 From our Hell Creek Dino Hunt in Montana, (Summer Road Trip Part 3), we drove back into South Dakota to visit another section of the formation. This was the second of our two days exploring the Hell Creek Formation. For this day, we went to PaleoAdventures (http://www.paleoadventures.com/). We were in South Dakota, and PaleoAdventure's field station was not far from downtown Belle Fourche, and really easy to get to. We just followed the dino signs... Driving up the hill, we came to the small lab/field station/museum/giftshop/bathroom. Inside, we looked around at the fossils (some were for sale), and were given a brief tutorial on what we'd be finding out in the field. Walter, the lead professional paleontologist, had a handful of volunteers with him today, and there was 1 other family who would be joining us on the trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abctriplets Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 We then hopped into a couple cars, and took off for the dig site. It was a long drive. But the 90 minutes was filled with entertaining conversation with the other family, q&a sessions with our paleontologist driver, a brief gas station stop (including the last real bathroom of the day), many, many bad dinosaur jokes, and a tour of the surrounding area's history. We even passed by several old missile silos.... We finally made it out onto a series of dirt roads, past lots of antelope, through a number of farm gates, and onto the "Tooth Draw" site. The last bit was quite adventurous, and I was quite glad that I was not the one doing the driving. We parked on a nice grassy plain, was shown the path to the "bathroom", and then walked down to the day's dig site. The volunteers headed off elsewhere to work on another site, so it was just the 5 of us, the other family of 2, and our paleontologist guide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abctriplets Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 We helped set up some shade tents, and did a bit of surface surveys on the ground while the rest of the site was situated. We found a number of gar scales, and some other bits. We practiced with using buckets and sieves, to check out what was in the dirt around us. It was going to be quite a hot day, so we appreciated having some shade. Then we got to work on an area of the wall. We were told the mantra of "scrape, scrape, scrape. Brush, brush, brush, GLUE!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abctriplets Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 This site was an old river channel, so we found a bunch of worn and tumbled bones, but also some nice treats. So we worked on our section of the wall, carefully scraping away to reveal items. And then eventually sifting through the pile of debris at our feet. Every few minutes we'd interrupt the paleontologist from his work (trying to finish a few items exposed from the prior day's dig). And every now and again he'd find something, and quiz the kids, where the winner got the tooth or bone he had found. And he'd glance at our finds and identify them for us, often grabbing out a small ziplock bag and a sharpie to label and protect the find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abctriplets Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 Now, there were a few rules about what we could collect. Anything commercial, he would keep for resale. Luckily (?) we didn't find anything really valuable. There had been the option, say if we had found a T-rex tooth, that we could have then purchased it.... Then, anything of scientific value, he'd keep to send to a museum. One of my daughters found the claw of a tortoise, which qualified as something that would eventually head to a museum collection for study. She wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abctriplets Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 But we did find other cool stuff that we got to keep! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abctriplets Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 We then took a break for lunch back at the cars. Freezer pops miraculously appeared, and helped us cool off from the heat. We had gone through all of our gatorade, and were working on our water-backpacks. The other family had tired out, but we still had energy to head back to find more items. We also learned a new-found respect for super glue.... Clean-up time came all to fast, and we had to make sure we had fully sifted the debris piles we had made. One of my kids had started work on a vertebra, but was unable to get it out by the end of the day. However, this would have been a commercial find, so we wouldn't have been able to keep it anyways. We finally returned to the field station around 8pm, and then picked up a few last t-shirts and books. It had been a long, exhausting, 12-hour day of dinosaur hunting. What made this experience different from our prior day's dig, was that we felt we were actually being educated and doing science. Finds were able to be identified, they were labeled and collected, discussion throughout the day focused on paleontology, field techniques emphasized working slowly & carefully & methodically, etc. etc. etc. With our new knowledge, we wished we could have returned to the other site.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 Nice trip report, too bad You did not get to keep the "good" finds. Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 Great trip report- looks like you had a blast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 Love the shade tents. Looks like fun, but to bad you cant keep the good stuff. RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 Nice report, Walter does a nice job with the dig. Great for kids and adults Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesuslover340 Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 I know the feeling, being unable to keep what you find We went on a dig in Kansas under the condition that anything worth over $1,000 we couldn't keep. My personal best find? A near-complete Pteranodon wing That being said, I like the crocodile material! "Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another."-Romans 14:19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDudeCO Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 Great report, thanks for brining us all along! Looks like a really great trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abctriplets Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 And here are the kids' finds, all cleaned up. Need to better identify a few things, and then to work on the material that my wife and I brought back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 Awesome finds! : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smt126 Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 Thanks for posting part 4. I had looked at that but my daughter is only 7. Looks like some nice finds. I bet the kids were pooped by the end of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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