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Sara: The World Traveling Ceratopsian


caldigger

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On 24/09/2020 at 3:21 PM, Kasia said:

pretty and shiny ammo from UK (from

Nice I remember finding that ammonite along with a few other bits . You have really shown Sara a wonderful time. The spread

put on for Sara looked delicious. Can I ask what did you take for Sara’s B&B form her box of goodies?

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22 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Nice I remember finding that ammonite along with a few other bits . You have really shown Sara a wonderful time. The spread

put on for Sara looked delicious. Can I ask what did you take for Sara’s B&B form her box of goodies?

I took the enrolled trilo - and replaced it with 4 other fossils :) The package weighs already more than 1 kg...

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10 minutes ago, Kasia said:

I took the enrolled trilo - and replaced it with 4 other fossils :) The package weighs already more than 1 kg...

That’s quite heavy for international shipping. Sara has been eating well at yours I can see. I like to see a picture of your bug, please.   :thumbsu:

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2 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

That’s quite heavy for international shipping. Sara has been eating well at yours I can see. I like to see a picture of your bug, please.   :thumbsu:

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On 9/27/2020 at 11:36 AM, Kasia said:

As winter is getting closer, and Sara will continue her journey, they decided to give her a warm winter cap - Sara was really surprised, but she immediately tried it on

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It is so nice to see Sara enjoying her trip !!!  I love the hat

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Wow @Kasia, that seems like an incredibly successful haul of bones! Well done! 

And I'm glad to see that Sara has had such a fantastic time too!

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Max Derème

 

"I feel an echo of the lightning each time I find a fossil. [...] That is why I am a hunter: to feel that bolt of lightning every day."

   - Mary Anning >< Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier

 

Instagram: @world_of_fossils

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I'm sure Sara will be knocking on my door any day now, she's on her way here from Poland, but I'm afraid I was forced to do a bit of fossil-hunting without her today. She politely asked if she could join me for a virtual hunt instead, and of course I was excited by her wonderful suggestion.

 

I've finally made it up here to the coast of Maine for a few days, after curling up in my Massachusetts home with the doors locked and the window shades drawn for the past few months. I'm now just a short walk to the rocky shore, lined with tumbled cobbles replete with fascinating stories of their metamorphic past. Scattered among them are the occasional Silurian mudstones rolled and battered by the waves, and probably by the glaciers before them. Now and then a few surviving brachiopod imprints can be discovered before they've eroded away.  Sara was eager to find some, even as she was traversing the path from Europe to the U.S.  Here she is, virtually, among the stones:

 

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We were fortunate to find one mudstone cobble with several brachiopods rather quickly, but it was nearly an hour before we found another. 

 

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Sara enjoyed her virtual tour of the beach, and wanted me to post a few photos here on the forum for others to see.

 

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I am hoping to see Sara in person a few days from now, and to share a tiny bit of my home, and my home state, with her.  Our travels will be limited, I'm sorry to say, due to current conditions, and probably won't include any more collecting or indoor museums, but I do have a few interesting outdoor adventures planned for her. I can hardly wait.


 

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Sara and her fossil cache have safely arrived in Massachusetts. Although it's raining we quickly led her around the garden where she enjoyed some fern fronds and lettuce leaves. Although the growing season is largely over here, we will try to spend a little more time there tomorrow. It is a bit chilly now, so we were quite impressed that her previous host, @Kasia thoughtfully equipped her with a lovely knit cap.

 

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She's a bit tired from her long journey, but she did want to meet all my wife's little friends, many of whom have accompanied her since childhood.  (Sara's on the top shelf in the photo.)

Along with several unnamed turtles, she was introduced to Pooh and friends, Ginny and Ginny and Ginny and ...and...and.................

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She kindly posed for another photo here:

 

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Sara was curious about my son's "Year of the Rat" notecard, and asked to have her picture taken with the artwork.

 

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Tomorrow will likely be a quiet day for a little rest and relaxation, and then we'll see what she feels like doing. It's been quite a long journey.

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I believe I heard Sara exhale with a weary sigh this afternoon. This gray day is a bit dreary I admit. A minor ailment has kept me from any excursions this past week, and we woke up to a day without sunshine this morning. Sigh. Tomorrow will be better, I'm sure, and yesterday was pleasant at least.

We began yesterday with a tasty breakfast by the tiny pond in our yard. Sara enjoyed the vegetation, standing by a Devonian slab I collected in central New York a few years ago. 

 

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While the pond is generally a peaceful place, our residing frogs often display their predatory nature. Earlier this summer a bullfrog was observed with a mouth full of feathers. A safer distance seemed wise and Sara made her way out to the garden to continue her meal.
 

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Along with the varieties of lettuce, Sara showed great interest in the towering leek plants, and seemed to take comfort in the apparent safety of a hollow log.

 

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We will likely tour my rather disperse fossil collection tomorrow.

 

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Sorry to hear you've been a bit under the weather, Mike. In more ways than one, it seems.:commiserate:

Hope you and Sara have a fun day tomorrow. 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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It's been 25 years since I visited the "lead" mine in town with my kids, who are no longer kids, of course. Now that I'm hosting the ageless Sara for a couple of weeks, I took the opportunity today to visit the mine again. 

 

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The site is managed by a nonprofit organization, The Trustees of Reservations. link 
Their website explains:

 

"Tantiusques (“tan-te-us-quays”)—a Nipmuc word meaning “to a black deposit between two hills”—was the site of one of New England’s first mines. The Nipmuc tribe originally mined graphite here to make paints. In 1644, John Winthrop, Jr., son of the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, purchased the mine with hopes of extracting lead and iron. Between 1829 and 1860, Frederick Tudor, who made his fortune selling New England ice around the world, shipped around 30 tons of graphite a year to Boston to manufacture crucibles used in foundries. Captain Joseph Dixon worked with Tudor before leaving to produce the first wood and graphite pencil in the country and founding the Dixon-Ticonderoga Company."

 

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The last time I visited the site, long ago, we walked into the mine a short distance, probably no more than fifty feet. The floor was a wet slushy mud composed largely of graphite. My son lost a sneaker in that gray slop. Maybe it's still there. I had hoped for a similar experience with Sara today, while cognizant of the size differential.

 

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Upon arrival, unfortunately, we found that times have changed, and that entry into the old mine is now forbidden and the opening is securely blocked. There would be no lost footwear today. We could still look inside, anyway, with a wishful glimpse into the past. 
 

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At one time the mine, mostly an open trench, was several thousand feet long, 20 to 50 feet deep, and about 6 feet wide, following the vein of graphite. The last mining operation ended in 1910.  A geological study of the site was made in the early 1940s when the international graphite supply chain was broken, but the geologists concluded that any further mining here would be impractical.


It was a beautiful day to be outdoors, and I'm grateful to Sara for the excuse.

 

 

To end the day, I did give Sara permission to roam around in a giant oyster, Crassostrea titan,  sent to me by Doren,  caldigger. Sigh.
 

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15 hours ago, Pagurus said:

was a beautiful day to be outdoors, and I'm grateful to Sara for the excuse.

 

 

To end the day, I did give Sara permission to roam around in a giant oyster, Crassostrea titan,  sent to me by Doren,  caldigger. Sigh.

I would have liked to see inside the mine but it probably is a very dangerous place now but I enjoyed reading the nostalgia that Sara has prompted with her visit to you. 
 

I never thought about  Sara’s visit as been a emotional time too but it must be. I liked seeing your Crassostrea titan a pretty cool fossil as well . I said it before (sorry) but I think it really good to enjoy and to share in the moment  on the forum the kindness that Doren gave to you/us .  
 

Have a nice weekend Bobby 

BTW I have not forgotten about sending you a little thank you for the great gifts you sent me a few months ago. Mrs R made you a little something I just need to add to it. I will get it to you for Christmas. We been busy and keeping a roof over our heads by making reusable face masks . We made about 650 and they are as fun as they can be.
 

 

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4 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

making reusable face masks . We made about 650 and they are as fun as they can be.

 

Thank you, Bobby. I would enjoy seeing a picture of one of those fun masks. Sara is a gift of Doren's that keeps on giving. Sara, and the forum in general of course, keeps showing us just how small our world really is. We're lucky to be here.

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7 minutes ago, Pagurus said:

 

 

Thank you, Bobby. I would enjoy seeing a picture of one of those fun masks. Sara is a gift of Doren's that keeps on giving. Sara, and the forum in general of course, keeps showing us just how small our world really is. We're lucky to be here.

I add a couple of masks into your Christmas box from the Rico’s if you like. We are lucky indeed. 

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Yesterday, following in the footsteps of her Jurassic cousins, Sara led us on a tour of Dinosaur Footprints Reservation, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Eubrontes, Grallator, Anchisauripus and other fossil prints are highly accessible to anyone stopping by for even a quick visit. 
With several hundred footprints in the sandstone, it's hard not to step on them, or in them, as Sara soon found out.

 

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We found the preserved ripple marks to be intriguing as well, along with the parallel trackways.
 

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This site by the side of a well-traveled road attracts thousands of visitors each year, and the tracks have endured quite a lot of foot traffic along with their exposure to the elements. In this cool autumn season, with the awesome New England foliage, the drive to the site was a pleasant one.
 

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With its easily reached location, this has been a well-known and well-studied site for more than 180 years. In 1836 Edward Hitchcock of Amherst College referred to it as "the quarry in Northampton, on the east side of mount Tom" when he described the source of his type specimen of Eubrontes giganteus.  It is now sandwiched between U.S. Route 5 and railroad tracks beside the Connecticut River.

 

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The large Eubrontes footprints are the most obvious to even casual visitors, and several Eubrontes trackways are plainly seen, along with a few Anchisauripus and Grallator trackways.

 

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Sara seemed to enjoy posing for my wife and I, along with several other visitors to the site.
 

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It has been a pleasure hosting Sara this week, and although it might be a bit slow for a jet-setter such as she, I do believe she is enjoying herself, and the beauty of the season.

 

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53 minutes ago, Pagurus said:

Yesterday, following in the footsteps of her Jurassic cousins, Sara led us on a tour of Dinosaur Footprints Reservation, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Eubrontes, Grallator,

Looks like a beautiful place. Nice autumn colours in the picture with train line. I love to see them tracks really cool. Cheers Bobby 

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Beautiful places and scenery - I do envy you such pretty autumn weather and I'm glad Sara continues to visit more exciting spots :thumbsu:

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With a change in the wind, Sara has packed her bags and resumed her travels, happily serving as a friendly ceratopsian ambassador to our forum members worldwide. We said our goodbyes this morning, and she is now onward to Alaska.

 

Yesterday, anticipating her departure, Sara wanted a last look at a bit of my rather diverse fossil collection.

 

We gingerly stepped into my tiny home "office", doing our best to avoid the gordian knot of printer and computer cables, and Sara quickly found the safety of a wooden shelf to stand on. I think she liked the Green River fossils.

 

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She soon found another shelf and staked out a position under my painting of a Redfieldius gracilis and a specimen of the same I collected several years ago.
 

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Sara found a bit more of my collection in the adjoining room, with a little of this and that. Jurassic fish, Devonian invertebrates, shark teeth, ammonites, belemnites and more. Mostly, but not entirely, self collected.
 

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Our little ceratopsian climbed atop a small cabinet originally designed for sheet music, and now housing a bit more of my collection. 
 

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Another Redfieldius lies in a display case resting on top of the cabinet.
 

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We didn't have a chance to look down in the cellar or under the couch for more of my collection, but Sara appeared to be satisfied.

 

BON VOYAGE, SARA !

 

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7 hours ago, Pagurus said:

BON VOYAGE, SARA !

Have a good trip up north!

 

PS. The link to the list is now buried somewhere in all these pages and it's somewhat tedious to find it again. Could someone please post it again here. Maybe it would also make sense to repost it each time she moves on?

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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49 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Have a good trip up north!

 

PS. The link to the list is now buried somewhere in all these pages and it's somewhat tedious to find it again. Could someone please post it again here. Maybe it would also make sense to repost it each time she moves on?

https://flask.io/Vo8Y4p1Bspho 

 

is this the right link :thumbsu:

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5 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

https://flask.io/Vo8Y4p1Bspho 

 

is this the right link :thumbsu:

 

Thanks, Bobby. And thanks, Roger, for the reminder. The link is also posted on the very first post of this thread, at the end of Doren's instructions, sending Sara on her way.

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