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The glorious warm weather we encountered this Saturday prompted us to go check out Doane falls in Royalston, MA. After spending a couple of hours hiking along the beautiful waterfalls, we decided to pay a visit to one of our favorite museums in Amherst. Located on the campus of Amherst College is the Beneski Museum of Natural History which houses an extensive collection of Edward Hitchcock's “Dinosaur tracks from the Connecticut river valley” and a large collection of fossils from mammoths to ammonites to rocks. The admission is free of cost. The museum has 3 floors and is accessible. Even though it's not too big. It has a nice variety of specimens. Words are not enough to describe the museum so I took some pictures of everything that caught my eye. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Please forgive me for any glare that you see in the pictures. Let’s start with Dinosaurs, Mammoths and skeletons of other species. This is the specimen of a Moose like creature. The specimen on top is a Mammoth and the one on the bottom is the ancestor of present day bears. The specimen on top is a Colombian Wooly Mammoth,the one on the bottom right is a saber-toothed cat and the one on the left is an ancestor of modern day wolves and dogs. Forgive me for not including the scientific names. Closeup of the relative of modern day wolves and dogs. A collection of mammals from ancestors of rhinos,cows to camels. Let's move on to a bit older and bigger beasts and everyone's favorite Dinosaurs. A plaster cast of a T-Rex skull and a dinosaur nest. Now moving onto the much awaited Dinosaur tracks... Here's a link to the playlist which has an audio and video tour of some of the dinosaur trackways and things like fossilized rain droplets and water ripples. Audio/Video Tour Here’s a link to the PDF Version if someone wants to read. This post has already become a bit too heavy to edit. So keep an eye out for Part-2. Hope you enjoyed my post so far.

I was able to get into the Alaska Geographic field course, Paleontology in Denali with a short notice cancelation this month. I had done this course two years ago and throughly enjoyed the experience. During he first evening introductions I mentioned I had attended 2 years ago and immediately was teased that I had failed the last time and was back again, LOL. Dr. Pat Druckenmiller, the director of The Museum of the North was the instructor again and was most knowledgeable giving a background lecture of the areas geology and how the dinosaur tracks could have formed. He is holding a likely front foot track from a hadrosaur. Possible pterosaur track. Hadrosaur track. Same track with boot for scale. Ceratopsian likely hind foot track. Another likely track. Some of the attendees looking at another hadrosaur track. One of the first group of tracks identified in the park was named the Dinosaur Dance Floor pictured here, Closer look at the tracks in situ. Making a peal of the possible pterosaur track. Fossilized wood. Metasequoia leaf impression and fossil wood. The snow was late leaving this year with the wild flowers just starting to bloom. We saw two family groups of bears on the trip from the best possible location, sitting in the van while driving the road. This is all that is left of a moose calf after it became a bear snack. It is a hungry world up here. A winter killed Dall sheep skull. I aged the ram at 11 years old which is about as long as they live. A brown bear was digging up ground squirrels here and farther up the valley we explored. A view from the second day hike with snow still present. BTW I passed the course this year by finding a nice pair of Dino tracks:)

Wow... I had a SUPERB run around Texas for the last 2 weeks. The inaugural Permian Fest in Seymour, which was an absolute blast, started us off. Thanks Chris Flis @dinodigger and the other Whiteside folks for EVERYTHING! Then some more Permian in TX & OK. Then various archives and site pilgrimages relating to RT Bird, about whom I am writing a biography. And sprinkled in there, a bunch of wonderful Pennsylvanian and Cretaceous collecting. Thanks to Tully Hair @thair and admin John Jackson @JohnJ for their participation in these adventures. What an amazing trip! 3 xenacanth teeth and a fragment of Eryops jaw from the Permian of OK Jonas Studio T. rex from the 1964 World's Fair at Dinosaur Valley State Park, TX Elongate theropod track with reflection of fossil hunter Edlin Pitts at Dinosaur Valley State Park, TX Complete Cretaceous Phymosoma peeking out of road cut and an ammonite my wife found near Lampasas, TX Pennsylvanian Petalodus tooth from near Grosvenor, TX in the wild and in the hand Complete Cretaceous ?Tetragramma that my wife found near Lometa, TX My wife and John canoeing in central TX hunting for Cretaceous goodies A surprise Pedernales Point (thanks for the ID @JohnJ!) from a gravel bar in central TX RT Bird's "swimming" sauropod trackway at Mayan Ranch, Bandera, TX 2 shots of the Davenport Ranch dinosaur tracks with Davenport descendants

Arrests made for digging up dinosaur tracks in Holyoke Sydney Snow, WWLP, Channel 22 News, August 30, 2021 (video) 2 charged with vandalism at fossilized dinosaur tracks site Authorities in Massachusetts have arrested two men they allege were digging in an area of protected fossilized dinosaur footprints By The Associated Press, September 1, 2021 Pioneer Valley Dinosaur Footprints, Holyoke, Massachusetts Park map Yours, Paul H.

Hey guys! My first scientific publication has just been released online by the journal Geological Magazine in association with Cambridge University Press (see link below). My study describes the first probable deinonychosaur tracks from Canada, which my colleagues and I found and documented at a large dinosaur tracksite (about 72.5 million years old) near the city of Grande Prairie in Alberta, Canada. Four traces occur in possible trackway association, while another isolated track that is in exactly the same direction is located nearby on the same bedding plane, suggestive of at least two individuals (although we cannot say whether any sort of pack behavior was occurring). The two most complete tracks are didactyl, meaning they preserve only two toe impressions. Based on this, the size of the tracks and their occurrence within dinosaur-bearing strata of Late Cretaceous age, we conclude the tracks most likely pertain to a small deinonychosaur of some kind as these dinosaurs walked primarily on digits III and IV, with the second toe (digit II) being raised off the ground and bearing the enlarged "killing claw". Based on the relative shortness of digit IV compared to digit III in our new tracks, we also suggest the trackmakers were more likely to be troodontids rather than dromaeosaurids, as troodontids generally possessed a digit IV that was somewhat shorter than that of a typical dromaeosaurid. Within the rocks where these tracks were found (in Unit 4 of the Wapiti Formation), teeth of troodontids are fairly common at some sites, so although the discovery of their tracks is certainly novel it was also not completely unexpected. The paper is paywalled, i apologize for that, which is why i have provided a short summary above. If you are studying at an educational institution though you may be able to gain access that way. Probable deinonychosaur tracks from the Upper Cretaceous Wapiti Formation (upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada | Geological Magazine | Cambridge Core

The snow and ice has arrived where I live in Alaska so need something to look forward to for next year. Will share a trip I had in April when the pandemic closed my office so did what was recommended with social distancing about as far as you can go in Alaska. I made arrangements for fuel and loaded up my home built aircraft called a Glastar with a friend and his son to accompany in another aircraft and headed down the Alaska Peninsula on an adventure. About half way down we came across a dead walrus and were able to salvage the tusks which is legal and will make nice cribbage boards some day. Even though the Japanese are not still making and using glass float winter storms kick up old ones that have been buried and we picked up a few for the garden. Camp set up in the brush to help protect from the horrendous winds that can occur along the Alaska Peninsula. I bring a nice camp with a screen tent for cooking and to protect from the bugs which on this trip had not come out yet due to it still being cold at night. Frost in the morning. We had a day of fishing for trout with the nice weather to enjoy without the normal winds. The fly is one of my own creations. Back at camp with real food , moose tacos. With the weather still holding the following day decided to fly all the way to the end of the Alaska Peninsula beach combing and see what we could find from the air hoping for another walrus. It was not to be but we did check out Unga Island which is on the Pacific side by Sand Point where there is 5 miles of beach with petrified wood. This exposure is where the fossil wood is. Active volcanoes in the background. On the return trip back up the peninsula stopped at Aniachak Bay to look at the dinosaur tracks exposed at low tide. After a mile and half walk started to find the trackways and a couple of big tracks in blocks. Hope this picture assay give you something to look forward for when the snow melts. Cheers; Bob

Made an incredible discovery at home tonight when I noticed tiny baby dinosaur tracks about only 5.1mm long on a ripple slab I had found. I've never seen baby footprints so small before, so I'm amazed. No wonder I didn't notice them for nearly two weeks after I had found them this month! Since there seems to be a partial adult on the edge it makes me wonder if this dinosaur was walking with its new born baby.

I have started recently being able to hunt dinosaur footprints and while I don't want to cover the ones that are naturally visible I may want some of the lower quality or hard to see tracks to stand out. Anyone prepare tracks themselves or know of a good clear coating? I've heard of rustoleum but I am unsure if it's paint or spray I should be using.

Hello, I'm wondering if there is a way you can make a dinosaur track (or any type of fossil track) pop out a bit more. I'm usually against altering fossils, but what if the track was faint? Is there a way you can make it show a bit more? p.s. I do not possess any dinosaur tracks, this is just something I've been wondering about.

They keep finding great things on Skye! http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-43620237

My beautiful wife scheduled a three night stay at a cabin in a Thousand Trails campground near Lake Texoma. We were to arrive on Sunday and check out on Wednesday. So, I figured that, since I hadn't been fossil hunting in months, I would schedule a trip to central Texas to follow the Texoma trip. I set up a rendezvous point in Fairfield, Texas to meet my dad on that Wednesday, and head off toward Brownwood and Cisco, Texas. I figured that the fossil hunt would begin then. But that's not quite how things played out... My two oldest daughters and I met my wife and youngest daughter in Salado, Texas on Saturday, October 14th. They had left the previous morning to spend a day with my mother-in-law in Waco and Salado. We spent Saturday night in Salado and then parted ways with my mother-in-law on Sunday morning and headed toward Lake Texoma. As we drove through Waco, my wife asked if we wanted to take a detour. She had never been to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas, and she thought the girls would enjoy seeing the dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River. I got really excited. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and at that time, the river was high and the tracks were not visible. So we adjusted our GPS to take us to Glen Rose. We pulled in and stopped off to get a map of the park. We then drove straight to the spot where Roland T. Bird made his first discovery. It was amazing. The water was low and gave us a clear view of the trackways in the river. Above you can see both the sauropod and theropod tracks, They are a little obscured by mud, but they are still very visible. We left the R.T. Bird site and went to another place called the Ballroom Track Site, where so many tracks go in so many directions, it was like the theropods were dancing. It was in slightly deeper water, but it was still beautiful! The rippling water was crystal clear and the girls couldn't help but get into the water, even as a cool front brought chilly winds down the river valley. My wife loved it. She told me that Dinosaur Valley State Park was our next camping destination. Before we left, we stopped off by the iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex and Apatosaurus models built for the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York. They were permanently installed at Dinosaur Valley in 1970 at the park's dedication. We left Dinosaur Valley and drove the rest of the way to our cabin at Lake Texoma, arriving just after dark. We settled in and tried to decide what we wanted to do the next day. It was Monday, and we figured there had to be something for the girls to do nearby. We quickly discovered that our options were limited. It had turned too cold for the pool at the campgrounds. The putt-putt at the campground was okay, but the girls quickly tired of it. And most of the other recreational equipment was not well kept, or available. So, we decided to leave the campground to find something for the girls to do. I had mentioned that I would like to check out the Permian site at Waurika, Oklahoma. It was only two hours away, and this was the closest I had ever been to the site. My wife was a bit miffed by the lack of things for the girls to do, so she said "Let's go." I jumped at the chance. I had done no research on the site, other than what I had read about it on TFF. I wish I had consulted the TFF experts before we left, because I had no idea of the best places to look. We focused mainly on the sandy floor and reddish rocks, and found nothing. When we returned to the cabin, I asked where we should have looked. Jesuslover340 informed me that the gray colored exposures were the places to find the best material. So, we came away empty handed, with only one major discovery. My wife wouldn't let me take it home, though... Continued in next post...

I have a secret place in Texas in which I've found many excellent fossils of sea creatures, such as clams or mollusks and other shellfish. I may also have found bones of some kind, and saw impressions that may have been dinosaur tracks. I am no paleontologist and would not know what made the impressions, but I know that dinosaur tracks were found in other nearby areas. In particular, I found large, intact, fossilized shells there that match some of the photos of "bivalves" I've seen online. I found many smaller cone shaped shell fossils, and oddly shaped rocks that may have been bones. Plus other things, such as rocks that seemed to contain tiny plant or animal fossils. The fossils were plentiful and easy to find, with little or no digging needed, so I may be the only one who knew of this place, which is in a washed out gulley in a remote part of a public city or county park (NOT a state park). My question -- can people legally gather fossils from such a place? Would paleontologists be interested in knowing about such a place? I no longer live near there and worry that one of Texas' new toll roads may have destroyed the site by now. Should I have said something, to prevent that? Unless somebody else has discovered the place, there are probably still some fossils around the site, even if a toll road was put in, but they may no longer lay atop the ground like they once did. I accidentally forgot to pack my fossil collection when moved, so I have no samples or photos to show anybody.

World’s biggest dinosaur footprint discovered in ‘Australia’s own Jurassic Park’ By Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post, March 27, 2017 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/03/27/worlds-biggest-dinosaur-footprint-discovered-in-australias-own-jurassic-park/?utm_term=.fd44d15ca339 Kimberley fossil tracks are Australia's 'Jurassic Park' By Jonathan Amos, BBC Science, March 27, 2017 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39405167 The open access paper is: Salisbury, S.W., Romilio, A., Herne, M.C., Tucker, R.T. and Nair, J.P., 2016. The Dinosaurian Ichnofauna of the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian–Barremian) Broome Sandstone of the Walmadany Area (James Price Point), Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 36(sup1), pp.1-152. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2016.1269539 Yours, Paul H.

I have been asked many times to verify what someone thinks are dino tracks. Many times they turn out to be equipment scratch/cuts or natural water formed stones. Never did I ever think I would have permission to find and recover a dino footprint. We did not have to cut them out or cast them the natural casts were laying there just waiting to be picked!!!!! We found two sets of trails going North and South. 30+ and counting prints and casts. About half have been exposed to heavy wash and are obscure but they are there none the less. As we explored the area we did manage to find the strata and turn some stones and voila there they are. More to come Private property with permission. I am stoked to the max. The one pictured bottom left is one that I turned a stone and there it was! [i got to keep this one] I left it with him to keep the find together. I found several but it was his discovery and he deserves the credit. This is the same guy that found the starfish ["Copellaster" Adamsi] in the Britton member of the Eagleford in Dallas Co. Tx. [s. Adams] My preliminary guess would be Hadrosaur prints.. I will post more pics 'in situ" when he sends me the ones he took. [As usual I had no camera with me] These pics were taken in his front yard. Jess B.

So I am having an AWESOME trip in Bandera Texas. I found the first petrified wood I've ever heard of being found here, I went to a public park and uncovered a sauropod trackway that is flanked on one side by a theropod track. I found I cave that is made of coral with gastropods and clams in the coral, and a very large gastropod beside the river. I have even managed to rescue a couple stranded longnose gar! I am going to keep updating this topic over the next couple days, and I am going to attempt to make casts of the dinosaur tracks!

Blouin, M. L., 2012, Peeking at the Cretaceous. Research Frontiers, University of Arkansas, (Spring 2012). http://researchfront...k.edu/17031.php http://researchfront...k.edu/11497.php In addition, there is: Boss, S. K., J. A. Kvamme, C. Suarez, B. F. Platt, G. A. Ludvigson, and M. Suarez, 2011, Salvage Survey of an Early Cretaceous Dinosaur Trackway Site in Arkansas. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. vol. 43, no. 5, p. 264. http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2011AM/finalprogram/abstract_195946.htm Yours, Paul H.