My Seymour Experience

Gabriel Avritscher

Mr. Roddy/Dr. Ott

A-Term

My Seymour Experience

Going into this trip, I didn't know what to expect. I had never been to nor heard of Seymour and I had no prior experience with the field of paleontology. As to the town itself, I'm not gonna lie and say that I wish I could live there because it's really not the greatest of places. There's really not much to do (save for a museum and a small, makeshift movie theater), but what was by far the best part of the town, and the trip, wasn't the infrastructure or buildings. It was the people. From the always smiling Karl Porter to even the non-residents of the town, Dr. Bakker and Mr. Temple, that's what really made this trip unique. Well, there's also the whole paleontology thing, but I truly think that it would have been a much different, worse trip had we not met or conversed with these people. As great as paleontology is, there's no way to sugarcoat the fact that you're simply gonna not find things for a long stretch of time and you're just gonna be excavating dirt, and that does get boring and tiring. So, without these people at the field with us, the boredom would have been a lot more present. From Dr. Bakker's joke about prison or community service to Mr. Temple's hilarious Air Force stories, it was truly the people that made this trip exciting and enjoyable. Again, not to say that paleontology isn't any of that, but there are stretches of time where your mind begins to wander off and you start taking more breaks, which is something that I believe is just part of the paleontology experience, and being around fun people is probably the best way to manage it. But what's really unique and special about paleontology is when you do find something, When it came to my most exciting find, a Dimetrodon jaw, I didn't really know I had found anything for a while. I almost threw it away, too, but luckily, I didn't. Overall, I really enjoyed this experience, from the large amounts of food to skipping rocks on the Brazos River. Although some things may not have gone as planned during the length of the trip, it didn't take too much from the experience as a whole, an experience which I don't know yet whether or not I'll choose to partake in again. 

My Seymour Experience- Ren

After hearing about the past trips, the Paleontology trip sounded exciting and like a really unique opportunity. It turned out to be both of these things. Working alongside experts such as Mr. Temple, Dr. Bakker, and Mr. Fliss, I was blown away by their endless knowledge on the fossils. Before going on this trip, I didn't really think about the fact that we were working with the HMNS and people who do this for a living. I was also pleasantly surprised when I saw how many fossils were in the small area which we had been excavating. I was also fascinated with their techniques for getting fossils out of the ground without damaging them. I had not known that plastering the area around a fossil and flipping it out of the ground was a common practice among paleontologists. When I was working with Dr. Conolley in Jamaica on an archaeology dig, the way we excavated was a lot different. While excavating in Jamaica, we used trowels to slowly go layer by layer into the soil and sifted through the dirt we had found. Instead of this, we used very small and precise tools such as awls, dental picks, and screwdrivers to slowly dig around any fossils we found. One similarity that I found in both of these excavations is the techniques of taking field notes. Both situations called for taking notes and drawing sketches of finds with detailed measurements showing the relation between the finds. Field notes are very important when excavating because they document the location and orientation of the finds as well as any other important details. After getting the opportunity to work in both the field of archaeology and paleontology, I understand the importance of very small details which may not seem important but can tell us so many things about the fossil or artifact. I loved being able to literally dig into the past and I would recommend this course to other students and encourage more people to go on a paleontology dig!

My Seymour Experience - Emily Wilburn

In all honesty, I was not looking forward to the paleo trip at first. I signed up for the experience and to say I went on this trip but I was not enthused by the idea of it at first. That completely changed by the time we arrived at the ranch. Once we walked in I noticed the stuffed birds hanging from the ceiling and was a bit weirded out but then I saw thing ping pong table and knew it would be a good time. That night Catherine and I played a few games as well as the rest of the group. 

The work in the field happened all throughout the week and I learned so much from it. It was so neat to be able to learn from experts in the field such as Dr. Robert Bakker and David Temple. 

By the end of the trip, I learned what all it took in the field when it came to prepping the fossil to bring to the museum, as well as learned what prepping went into it once it was in the museum before it could be displayed. I learned how to have patience and stay positive even when there was no guarantee I would find anything. 

Overall it was an amazing experience and I would recommend this trip to everyone

My Seymour Experience: Tyler Holland

Tyler Holland

Going on the Seymour trip, at first, sounded really fun. Growing up I had always wanted to be a paleontologist and had been pretty much obsessed with dinosaurs and everything about them. After having a nice talk with Dr. Ott and Mr. Roddy about what the trip entailed and what we would be doing, I didn't want to go as much. This was probably because through the talk, my mind only gathered some key words: Scorpions, Spiders, Hot afternoons, and Cold mornings. At this point I'm dreading going and am wondering how I got myself into this, but I packed my things and got ready for a fabulous 8 hour car ride. Once we got there and got into the routine of what we were doing, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. It was pretty much everything that I had wanted to do growing up and I truly did have a lot of fun digging through dirt for hours looking for things that looked slightly different than dirt. A thing that I really loved about the trip was getting to know some of the people we worked with (Paleontologists are pretty funny people). Dr. Bakker bestowed a lot of knowledge on us and was really helpful in the whole process of learning exactly what we were doing/looking for and how to find it. It might have taken a while to learn all of the names of the dinosaurs we were digging up, and even longer to stop saying dinosaurs since they technically "weren't around at that time", but in the end it was a great project that I had fun working on. We also got to spend a lot of time together as a group at the ranch and eat (a lot), spend time outside, and spend time inside because it got cold at night too. I really liked going to Seymour and while I am going to try to go somewhere else next year to learn newer things, I definitely recommend this trip to all of my other peers.

My Seymour Experience - Catherine Hudson

Having joined the Post Oak community in January, there was a limited choice of A-terms. I love traveling so I decided to choose the Paleontology A-term because even though it wasn’t Costa Rica or China, Seymour was still a place I had never been. I’ll admit that prior to this trip I did not ever express a particular interest in the field and had several apprehensions about spending hours brushing dirt around in search of bones that were not even that of dinosaurs. Although I cannot say this trip to Seymour has given me the desire to become a paleontologist, I can say I have a newfound appreciation and respect for them. Their enthusiasm and passion for their work is truly fascinating and it was amazing to see them pick out rock-like pieces and be able to identify them as specifically as the left elbow bone of an amphibian. I personally didn’t mind working all day out in the field, as the long hours went by faster due to the favorable weather and discussions with classmates. As I learned on this trip, there are multiple jobs that contribute to the work on the dig site. For example, hiking and prospecting for new areas, drawing the fossils, taking field notes, searching the spoil pile,  “mushrooming” jackets, etc. With all these options, it is hard to get bored as whenever you got restless doing one task, you could just move on to the next. My preferred tasks were those with an end in sight: digging around a jacket and searching the spoil pile, and taking the jacket out of the ground and finding bones and teeth, respectively. Outside of simply digging, I enjoyed the drives and hikes through the beautiful Texas countryside and the downtime with classmates. I’m really glad I chose this A-term, despite initial hesitation, as I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and made some great memories.

My Seymoure Experience - Andreas Cantu

Andreas Cantu

Digging Deeper 

When I first found out that I was going to Seymour Texas to dig outside all day, I am not going to lie I wanted to leave and never come back to school, but because of some dumb laws saying I could not do that I ended up having to go. But after driving 8 hours all the way to the middle of no where and digging outside to search for animals that roamed the earth millions of years ago, I found that it was actually not bad at all. I learned so much information about paleontology and what it takes to be a paleontologist. I also gained a new respect for paleontologist because, let me tell you I could not do what they do for a job. I also enjoyed being away from the city and spent my time appreciating the country and hillbilly accents. Another great thing about this trip was all the people we had working with us, there were some new comers like us, and some experts like David Temple and Dr. Bakker, and hearing what they had to say about these creatures was truly astonishing. So, yes I did enjoy this trip and what it taught I hope to never forget. 

Thank You 

My Seymour Experience - Brandon

I think this Aterm was a great one. It was definitely a chance of scenery from the big city to a smaller town setting, and going out into the field every day made it...different. I think the best part was being able to be more independent, as I was able to choose when I break to film and when I go back to excavating. I feel like it was a great experience to have, being able to create a video to show the community while also being able to further my knowledge in video creation throughout this trip. It was fun going out in the desert and digging constantly every day, but also going out and creating memories and bonds with my classmates. It was definitely a good final Aterm for me to adventure on before I leave the school.

My Seymour Experience - Asa

Seymour, Texas is a tiny, barren, dust-ridden town in North Texas; on the surface, it is nothing more than a town one drives through, and does not ponder thereafter. Despite the apparent emptiness of the town, I enjoyed stepping beyond that, and acquainting myself with the town’s lovely residents. Whether that be the Colthorpe brothers, who showed the group both the Texas Longhorns and the Brazos River, respectively, Carl Porter, who owns a feedlot and handed out rattlesnake rattles and hats, or the exuberant waitress at the New Maverick Cafe, they were all very kind and welcoming. Furthermore, the trip would not have been complete without Dr. Robert Bakker and Mr. David Temple, two very intelligent paleontologists; their deadpan humor and dry wit was always making the group laugh, and their fervor and enthusiasm for what they love is inspiring.

In addition to excavating the ubiquitous amounts of fossils hidden within the dig sites, and experiencing the sense of gratification when we uncovered these fragments of our past, the trip offered the group of students a chance to relax. We had relaxing evenings on the ranch every night, playing Ping-Pong and a selection of board games, and watching the occasional movie. Additionally, these evenings, and, more generally, the trip as a whole, allowed for the group to experience an accentuated sense of camaraderie. In my case, the trip gave me time to think. As someone who is attempting to fulfill the requirements for the International Baccalaureate Program, and someone who will soon be making decisions about where to go to college, having a little time to think freely is something I am truly grateful for.

It took me four years to go to Seymour, Texas, and partake in the Paleontology A-Term. From my freshman year until a couple days into the trip, I had preconceptions of the A-Term and Seymour that were, in essence, directly contrary to those that I have now. Despite initially thinking that I would never be a student on the aforementioned A-Term, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip in its entirety.

Day 6 Pictures From Our Hike - Emily Wilburn

Day 9 - Asa Forman

The POHS Paleontology A-Term waved “goodbye” to the Ranger Creek Ranch this morning, as we prepared to pack into an already crowded van for six hours.

Before getting on the road, we made two detours. We stopped, first, at a wind turbine, and were each blown away by its sheer size and power. Secondly, we stopped at the cemetery, and were tasked with finding the grave of Ina Roddy Harrison, Mr. Roddy’s great aunt. After a forty-five minute scavenger hunt through several gravesites, I found the overturned gravestone of the one-hundred-and-six-year-old woman, and was rewarded with a drink of my choice. We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to visit these gravesites; apparently, people are dying to get into them. Following the two short detours, we were on the road again; in fact, we all just could not wait to get on the road again.

While we were on the road, we listened to a selection of the greatest albums ever produced, including The Beatles’ Abbey Road, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, and the Wings’ Band on the Run, among many others. Additionally, Mr. Roddy gave us a key lesson on how the top three albums listed on the Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list came to be. We learned that the albums—Revolver (The Beatles, 1966), Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys, 1966), and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles, 1967)—were made in an attempt to 1-up the other until Bryan Wilson, the mastermind behind The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, decided that no album could trump that of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

We stopped last in Fort Worth. We zipped in-and-out of In-N-Out Burger, ensuring that we would have enough time to examine the housing development—I mean Ammonite bed—several minutes from the restaurant. We found several pieces of the extinct marine mollusk, but not one in its entirety. After a thirty-minute search of the bed, we hopped back in the van, and drove back to Houston. During our drive, Catherine and I played, I kid you not, seventy-five games of Gin Rummy to conclude the trip.

Albeit I arrived in the field a day late because of severe GI problems, I thoroughly enjoyed excavating the fossils of our ancestors in the red dirt of the Craddock bone beds.

Pictures, Days 5-8

 We visited an old, defunct Catholic Church outside of town

 We watched a movie in the old city hall, downtown Seymour

 A big toe bone of a Dimetrodon.  We use a tool for scale and place a compass to it to know which way it was facing.

 Morning meeting with Dr. Bakker at the Maverick.

 We got to visit the Salt Fork of the Brazos River thanks to a local rancher.

 Rugged country on the back property of our cabin, near the Wichita River.  This land is of the Pleistocene Era.  Think mammoths.

 Cookin' smores after dinner.

Working the Brightside at the Craddock Bone Bed

Day 7 blog

Day 7 - Blake

Today we got up and had a breakfast of waffles and fruit. In the morning we went to the Craddock bone bed and continued working on the fossils. One group of people helped flip a jacket, while the other group uncovered fossils. I was working on a dimetrodon fin spine with Gabe. For lunch we went to the White Side museum to eat lunch and learn about the Palio lab they have there. In the lab we looked at a jacket of a largely intact dimetrodon, as well as what types of things they are working on. We looked at some interesting teeth under a microscope and walked around the lab, looking at all the other bones they had collected and were putting together. During the second part of the day we went and closed up the dig site because we were not going to be working there for the rest of the trip. After working for a few hours we left the dig site and prepared to go out for dinner. We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Back at the ranch we looked at the stars for around fifteen minutes trying to find the constellations. Dr. Ott and Mr. Roddy were teaching us about the constellations and the North Star. 

Day 8 - Brandon

Now marks the end of our final day in Seymour. To start the day, the group went prospecting at a new location named Ross Ranch. This ranch contained New Permian fossils, which were dated earlier than those of the Craddock Ranch. After a couple of hours of prospecting and finding many fossils such as amphibian ribs and different animal teeth, we ventured to the Salt Fork of the Brazos River. There, the group just had fun skipping rocks and walking along the riverside. After that, we all came back to the cabin and split into two groups. One group went on a fantastic hike around the land where we were staying, and that group ended up viewing a live bobcat and tarantula. The other group stayed back at the cabin and cleaned out the van. Then the group ended up watching an enticing movie called Dodgeball: An Underdog Story. We ended the day with amazing fajitas, doing sudoku and playing Murder.

Day 6 - Emily Wilburn

Our morning began with a late breakfast consisting of biscuits and gravy, fresh fruit, bacon, and orange juice. Today we scheduled a day off from digging that way we would have an entire day to explore the town and take a hike. After breakfast, we began our hike through the land behind the ranch we are staying at. We took the van about half a mile out, hopped out, and began our walk through a small canyon. It was such a beautiful hike and a great way to spend our time away from the dig site. It was pretty muddy and I can definitely say I broke in my new boots. While walking we found prints from turkey, wild boars, raccoon, and bobcats. Once returning from our hike we headed out again to Dairy Queen! We each ordered a basket of chicken tenders and a Blizzard and left pretty full. Next, we went to an abandoned church that we heard about from Mr. David Temple (he visits it every time he comes up to Seymour). Brandon took some amazing footage around the church on his drone that we will hopefully be able to post on our blog at a later date once its finished being edited! We then headed back to the ranch to eat an early dinner. I think I speak for us all when I say we were extremely unprepared for this meal. Each steak was the size of my head and there was probably enough of it to feed our school of 80. Not a single person was able to finish their plate. I can assure every parent reading this that we will not be returning home hungry. After dinner we headed to Seymour's city hall building where they have a small theatre inside. Every Friday and Saturday they have a free showing. Tonight it was the second Fantastic Beasts movie. As it turned out we arrived an hour late thinking the show began at 7 instead of 6 - we were all thoroughly confused the entire time. However, from what little of the movie we saw it was still pretty good. We're now on our way outside to do some stargazing!

POHS Paleo Day 5 - Ren Shimada

Today was a little different from the other days. As we were finishing our breakfast, we received news that unfortunately Mr. Temple would not be able to join us in the field. As we tried to figure out what today's plan would be with Mr. Temple out, we also received news that Dr. Bakker, who is the curator of the paleontology exhibit at the HMNS, had arrived from Colorado. When we arrived in town, we sat down with Dr. Bakker to join him for breakfast. It amazes me how like Mr. Temple, he has so many interesting stories and facts to tell us. We sat with him for about half an hour as we listened to him talk about his knowledge of the dig site and him joking about how he has a degree from Harvard and that we don't. When we actually started working at the site,  he gave us another orientation of each site that we had been working at and explained how each layer and bed of rock contained different fossils. I ended up working on a variety of different things today which included continuing to "mushroom" (dig around and underneath) the plaster containing a baby dimetrodon spine and back-fin and laying down more messy layers of plaster. While the plaster was drying, Asa and I went to help out with clearing the walls of another site. Within a few minutes, Asa had already found a dimetrodon vertebrae as well as a thin spine. Although it took me a little longer, Miss Lee who we were working with, helped me to find what we also think is part of a thin spine of the same dimetrodon. (named Dr. Bob) We hope that tomorrow's forecasted rain does not wash away the work that we did today but we will just have to hope for the best. Once we closed up shop and finished for the day, we went along with Mr. Whitley: the owner of the land of the site, to go see his longhorn cattle. Although none of us became the new "Calf Whisperer", it was relaxing to just go and hang out with and feed the longhorns.

Pictures, Days 1-4

 Playing ping-pong at our ranch house

 Interacting with the local wildlife

 At the ranch

 In the silo

 Playing Murder

 Gabe and Blake learning to survey

 The crew on Brightside at the Craddock Ranch

 An arial view courtesy of Brandon's drone

An introductory task of sifting through a spill pile at the Craddock Ranch

 Students digging around a cast before removing it

 Ryan and Tyler looking for fossils

 Andreas and Tyler working on an ancient Xenocanthus (shark) bed

 Dr. Ott and students play at music park during lunch

 Mr Roddy unearths what is purportedly the largest Dimetrodon rib from Craddock Ranch

 Gabe and Blake unearth a nice neural spine from a dimetrodon

 Asa and Ren help on a fossil bed

 Emily and Catherine prospecting for fossils

 An evening activity feeding longhorn on a nearby ranch

Paleontology Day 4 - Catherine Hudson

Our second day in the field was very much the same as the first. We woke up, against our will, at 6:45 to Dr. Ott shouting from downstairs up to our place in the silo, telling us to get up and at them. This morning's breakfast consisted of more southern delights - breakfast tacos and some fresh fruit. We left the ranch at exactly 8:02, 2 min later then our goal 8:00 sharp but 1 min earlier than the previous day (improvement!). We once again met with David Temple and the paleontologist crew at the Whiteside museum and then drove over to the digging site all together. Once at the site, we immediately got to work on various different projects. I worked with Emily, Ren, Asa, and Dr. Ott to continue the digging out of the plastered jacket that we started yesterday. This process was very long and tedious, taking us all day, and will still need to be finished tomorrow. Throughout an entire day of digging around the plastered jacket, we mostly hit rock and dirt. Our greatest find was a coprolite (fossilized poop) that we almost threw out thinking it was dirt, but then was spotted last minute by David Temple's trained eye. A more exciting find was Mr. Roddy's Dimetrodon spine that was uncovered about a foot long by the end of the day. Today we broke for lunch around noon and drove back into Seymour. We picked up some pizza, courtesy of the gas station, one of the towns limited places to eat, and then ate it at some benches across from the museum in the sound garden. We also had some fun messing around with the musical instruments that were built into the ground. The afternoon was spent digging some more and then we finally left the site for the day at 5:30. We ate burgers, salad, and s'mores, for dinner! Then played ping pong and another round of the board game "murder".

POHS Paleo Blog Day 3 - Gabe A

Today was our first Digging Day, or our first field day. We had to get up very early, at least for my standards, so that we could maximize our digging time. Apparently, this was considered a late start for paleontology standards, so we had to meet up with our other crew members that were already at the Whiteside Museum, a really cool paleontology museum in Seymour that was recently constructed, a project that some of our fellow High Schoolers helped with in years past. Here, we learned even more about the native species of dinosaurs and other animals. We also got to explore their fascinating lab, which was not only a lot more spacious than the HMNS one, but they also had some fascinating fossils on display, which included multiple Dimetrodoms. Once we wrapped up with our tour and our final civilized bathroom break for a while, we headed out to the field, which is in a place called Craddock Ranch. When we got there, we began work on a place called the Spoil Pile, which is a pile with a ton of small fossils that came to the surface after previous landowners literally blew it up back in the 1920s, so that they could find large bones that were deep in the ground. For me personally, I didn’t really find anything of importance or interest save for a few tiny fragments of ribs from an amphibian until I moved to another area, where I found an entire Trimorhorachis (which is apparently an amphibian) tooth. I found it intriguing because it was so well-preserved and smooth, despite all that has happened in the millions of years since it was left in the ground. We kept looking in the pile, making a lot of small discoveries, which included a fibula from a creature whose name I forgot and then a subsequent hunt for its skull, a hunt that ended unsuccessfully, for now. By that time, lunch rolled around, and when we returned, we were split into various areas and tasks. I was assigned to this wall of dirt along with Blake, where we were handed with an important task of carefully digging the wall out, which was important because parts of a Dimetrodom skull were found directly underneath it, so who knows what else was in the mud, things that could be broken very easily. To be honest, it was pretty boring for a while because I literally found nothing, but then I began to inspect what looked like a rock. To me, it seemed out of place because it was so much larger than any other rock I had found. After scraping some mud off of it, I was about to throw it into the bucket, in which we deposited all of the mud, when one of the more experienced adult members of the HMNS group came over. I asked her if it was a rock, and she was intrigued by it, so she called over Scott, who is very, very knowledgeable, so much so that he literally knows exactly what a half inch long fossil is, even when it looks like a rock to us. He decided that it was actually a whole Dimetrodom jaw, and then Blake announced that he had found an entire Dimetrodom tooth, which was not only enormous and ferocious-looking, but it fit right onto the jaw. This was by far the highlight of the day.Once we took some pictures with it, I walked back to the Spoil Pile along with more members of our group and re-explored that area. We didn’t make any significant discoveries, but we found various small fossils. At around 4, David Temple took us on a short hike to some of the surrounding areas, all filled with fossils. We stopped at a hill where he said we could find some fossils of this animal that resembled a flying saucer, (I didn’t catch the name), and after some searching for a little while, I found half of one, and Andreas later found another one. Apparently, these animals hibernated, but unfortunately for them, there was a drought one season that killed them. We walked back after that and wrapped things up for the day. We ate Mexican food for dinner (I had fajitas with Tyler), and then we rode back home (our temporary one in Ranger Creek Ranch, just to clarify). We should be doing more exciting things tomorrow as well, but the only specific that I know is that we will be right back in the field.

Gabe A