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