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