Geotimes
For Students
A Summer
of Fossils
Summer is approaching.
It’s time for geology students to go outside. Here are ideas from Marina
and Celina Suarez, twin sisters who have loved fossils since they were in first
grade. The sisters are working on their undergraduate geology degrees at Trinity
University in San Antonio, Texas, and will graduate in May 2003. Here, Marina
and Celina each tell the story of one of their favorite days during their summer
internships last year.
This summer, Celina and Marina will both do some paleontology research at the
Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Utah. “Yes we will be going together
this summer,” Marina says. “I promise we didn’t plan it that
way. It just worked out that way.” The sisters plan to attend graduate
school to study paleontology and geology.
Searching for fossils in the Baldlands
Discovery in the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry
Searching
for fossils in the Baldlands
Marina Suarez
At 5 a.m. my alarm began to beep. It was early for a day off, but I only had three
weeks left of my summer internship at Badlands National Park in South Dakota,
and I wanted to do as many things as possible with the time I had left. Today
I was joining my friend Patricia Jannett and her thesis advisor Dennis Terry for
field work. As an intern and volunteer interpretive ranger, I had offered to help.
Patti and Dennis graciously allowed me to tag along with them and their colleagues.
Patti, Dennis and their colleagues contend that they have found evidence of the
K-T Boundary in South Dakota in a layer of rocks they call the “Disturbed
Zone.” On this day, they were taking samples. I was to look for fossils,
my favorite activity since I was a first grader, digging in the dirt at recesses
with the help of my twin sister Celina.
Patti and I met Dennis at the Sage Creek Wilderness Area, collected some
equipment and water from the back of his truck, and headed off.
We started hiking, with Dennis pointing out fossil roots and root traces. He wanted
to show us a fossil turtle he found last summer. He was slightly ahead when he
shouted.
“Ah! It’s been poached!” We stared down at the depression about
one foot in diameter, empty now where the turtle had been removed.
“Maybe one of the paleo techs recovered it,” I suggested, trying to
erase our disappointment. As interpretive rangers, we try to teach people why
it is important to leave fossils in national parks for scientists and for others
to enjoy. As part of my internship, I would give talks to park visitors about
fossils. At the end of each talk, I would tell them about the Pig Dig, the park’s
active paleontological site. This site holds the remains of an archeotherium,
a pig-like animal, and of other animals from the Oligocene. I was usually assigned
to the Pig Dig in the afternoons, giving visitors information and pointing out
recent finds. On my days off, I helped out in the excavation. Visitors discovered
the Pig Dig about eight years ago, and reported the find to park rangers. Now,
many people can visit the site and scientists can learn about the extraordinary
mammals that walked there around 33 million years ago.
Shaking off our disappointment at not seeing the turtle, we continued over the
rolling hills of the prairie. After about a 30-minute hike, we made it to a spot
where the Disturbed Zone was visible. Dennis pointed out the features. The Zone
included mudstones and paleosols interbedded with sandstones, as in most of the
park. But here, rock was jumbled up into a colorful mixture of pinks, yellows,
greens and tans. The sandstones were rolled up into what Dennis calls jellyrolls.
Dennis and Patti started to take sediment samples, and I started to look for fossils
at the side of a hill cut by a small stream. As the morning wore on it got hotter.
Soon, the water in the stream was dried up and I still hadn’t found anything.
I was starting to feel a bit embarrassed.
Finally, I found something. It was a greenish fleck about 1 square centimeter
that looked like a piece of ammonite shell. We were not positive, but it was better
than nothing. Later that day, Dennis explained why I was unable to find many fossils.
The area had been uplifted and exposed to weathering and soil formation (hence
the paleosols). These processes destroyed many of the fossils.
This was just one day in an unforgettable summer. The internship was a great opportunity
and I hope others are inspired to participate. You get to meet other people interested
in geology, visit some of the most beautiful places in the country, and teach
others, especially kids, about geology. The Student
Conservation Association and the GeoCorps program from the Geological
Society of America both offer internships like the one I did last summer.
Discovery
inthe Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry
Celina Suarez
When Mike Leschin, a geologist for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Price,
Utah, called me last summer to offer a Student Conservation Association visitor
education position at the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, I didn’t hesitate
for a second. Sure, it wasn’t as academic and research-oriented as some
other projects I could have chosen to do over the summer of 2001, but it was
an opportunity to do something I really love: paleontology.
I’ve
always been interested in rocks and fossils. In first grade, my sister and my
friends found a large rock on the playground full of marine fossils. We used
pencils, plastic cafeteria spoons and forks, pens, other rocks, anything we
could find to pry the fossil out. Unfortunately, the teachers didn’t think
this was a very “safe” playground activity, and so they made us stop.
In second grade we studied dinosaurs. I was hooked on dinosaurs; they were so
interesting. I did whatever I could to get my hands on anything about fossils
and dinosaurs.
Celina Suarez smiles as she works in
the quarry.
My childhood fascination has continued into college, and has now become my career
aspiration. Working at the famous Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry was the opportunity
I was looking for. It is one of the largest deposits of Allosaurus fragilis
in the world. I worked as an interpreter at the visitor center, explaining the
history and mysteries of the quarry. After visitors finish their tour of the
center, they can walk through the quarry buildings. The north building is open
to the public, and has a catwalk in it so visitors can see bones in-situ, and
see what a dinosaur dig site looks like. The south building is not open to the
public, but while staff and volunteers from the University of Utah were there
digging, they openly invited people in to see what new things were being discovered,
and were happy to answer questions.
Scott Sampson, a paleontologist at the University of Utah, generously added
the other three BLM volunteers and me to their excavation permit and allowed
us to dig too, as long as we were officially trained by Mike Getty, director
of collection at the Utah Museum of Natural History and the leader at the site.
After a day of learning to dig properly, we were allowed to begin.
During my internship, I spent some days giving tours at the visitor center and
other days working on cleaning bones taken out of the quarry. But my favorite
days were those I spent digging in the quarry.
My main job was to lower mudstone in the area to a certain level, so that Bucky
Gates, a master’s student at the University of Utah, could start excavation
on his research square. Bucky’s project on the taphonomy of the quarry
was the reason university paleontologists were there that summer.
My first really big discovery didn’t come for a few weeks, but it was the
coolest feeling. It was my turn to dig that day. I busied myself moving small
chunks of mudstone with my awl, and making sure there were no other pieces of
bone in the chunks I took out. I moved a small piece of mudstone and revealed
a section of a bone that had small divots lined up in a row. These divots were
the places where nerve endings came out from the roots of the teeth. It was
a jawbone, probably of an Allosaurus. I was so excited. I covered it
with some vinac, a consolidant, and got up to run to the visitor center and
spread the joy to the other volunteers. But when I got to the entrance of the
building, I saw some visitors coming down the trail toward the building. I had
to stay and answer questions, so I shared the joy with them. They left, and
I ran up and got one of the other volunteers, Jon, who stay and answer questions,
so I spread the joy with them. They left, and I ran up and got one of the other
volunteers, Jon, who also had a little more experience excavating, to help me
excavate the jaw further. As we cleaned, we discovered that it still had its
teeth. We found that it was the dentary or lower left jawbone of an Allosaurus.
I had a great time digging, and I am even more determined to become a paleontologist.
It’s a great feeling looking at something that hasn’t been seen for
more than 100 million years. Imagining the Allosaurus in the flesh, walking
around on the ground we were digging through, is just amazing. If you ever get
a chance to pass through Price, Utah, you should go to the quarry. You might
be able to see people actually digging while you are there.
For information about internship and volunteer positions, check out SCA
and the GeoCorps program from the Geological
Society of America.
