Robert DePalma
July 2, 2005
Base camp, South Dakota
More work at the hilltop site. Dr. Cichocki and I removed
as many bones as we could, the rest needing to be jacketed
in plaster bandages for the trip back to the lab. When fresh
supplies are brought back from town, we will be able to jacket
the necessary bones and continue. Among the most recent dinosaur
genera discovered are Tyrannosaurids, Ankylosaurs, and Pachycephalosaurs.
In the evening, a tremendous prairie storm hit camp, with
winds estimated by us to exceed 75 miles per hour, worse than
some hurricane force gales. Our tents protested under the
unbelievable force, and actually blew flat during the ordeal.
Hail stones pounded the tents as Dr. Cichocki and I scrambled
to keep our field notes and ourselves dry. Dry stream channels
turned into raging torrents of water, wiping away all in their
path. A terrible groaning noise was heard, and then a snap
like a gunshot as one of the metal support poles of my tent
snapped like a twig. After nearly two hours of bombardment,
the prairie was, once again, at peace.
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Robert DePalma
July 4, 2005
Base camp, South Dakota
For a change of pace, Dr. Cichocki and I ventured out into
the open grassland in search of rock exposures and new potential
dinosaur sites. An all-day hike, our path took us to the North
and east of camp, following exposures along dry riverbanks,
towering siltstone buttes, and green meadows. The first bone
discovered was actually quite a bit more recent than the dinosaurs
we have been excavating. In the face of a cliff, in sediments
we estimated to have been deposited at least 100 years ago,
was one lone bone of a buffalo. A relic of America's past,
from a time when buffalo flooded the planes by the thousands,
and exhibiting some interesting properties, we documented
the bone and took it with us.
Hour after hour, we prospected for more bones. First discovering
weathered bone chips and then following them up the hill to
their source, we searched for usable specimens. After more
than 6 hours of prospecting, and what seemed like endless
miles of prairie traversed, I spotted a large chunk of fossil
bone marrow....and then, a partial weathered rib....then,
a fragmented, weathered vertebra. I called over Dr. Cichocki
and, blanketing the area, we located countless fragments of
broken weathered bone. A few salvageable vertebrae were found,
and then, before me in the sediment, rested the entire left
mandible of a Triceratops. We had found a second
skeleton! This one, unfortunately, had been out to weather
for too many decades, and little bone can be salvaged. The
preserved bones are of good quality, and every possible part
will be brought back to the lab. Although not usable for a
full skeletal mount, this discovery can be a tremendous help
back in the lab. Bones from this animal can be used to replace
missing bones in the other juvenile skeleton when it is finally
mounted. This is done in nearly every museum around the world,
and is called compositing. Even the Triceratops in
the Smithsonian Institution is composed of several animals!
The first two weeks of the 2005 field season have produced
some of the best results and most exciting specimens so far!
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