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!