In August I served as an assistant trip leader for a group of high school students who worked at the Science Museum of MN. On August 4th, 2003 we headed West toward the small town of Marmarth, ND in search of fossils! Once there we met up with Tyler and Doug from the Marmarth Research Foundation, our guides for this adventure.

Day 1

We began our week in Marmarth by going to an established dig site. We traversed some bumpy dirt roads and passed by some cattle before arriving at the Triceratops site. Half of the people went prospecting while the others stayed at the site digging.

Tim, Jason and Zach pointing out one of their great finds while prospecting!

Zach and Tim showing us a possible femur that was found on the surface.

These are the bones that have already been uncovered at the Triceratops site. These were almost ready for field jackets.

Adi, Nick and Norman uncovering new ground at the Tricertops site.

A rib and another Triceratops bone is field jackets, ready to be carried back to the truck.

The Triceratops was in the side of a hill. Here is the view from the site!

Tim working carefully to uncover bones without damaging them.

Dana using a brush to clean off another Triceratops rib.

Day 2

On the second day of our adventure we headed to the turtle site. This dig site is expected to be the most famous turtle site in the world in terms of the number of articulated turtle shells found so far. It's presumed that there was some type of catastrophic event that caused all of the turtles to be killed and so perfectly preserved - perhaps a flood.

While at the site some people dug for more turtles while others went to measure how far we were from the K/T (Cretaceous/Tertiary) Boundary - the point at which dinosaurs are no longer found, approximately 65 million years ago.

Our first task at the turtle site was to help Tyler move a large field jacket full of turtles.

Here are Nick and Jennifer scraping away layers of sand under the shade-tarp at the turtle site.

Adi and Dana working hard!

Norman, our digging-mate from Australia, hoping to uncover a new turtle!

Here is a picture of the large tree that Doug uncovered at the turtle site shortly before our arrival. While we were there he planned to make a latex mold of it.

Here is a view of the turtle site. It was much cooler in the shade of the tarp!

We spent part of our day recording the stratigraphy. Here we are measuring the depth of each layer of sediment.

Doug used an eye-level to help measure the distance the turtle site was from the K/T boundary. We hiked, each stop representing a 163 cm gain in elevation.

The scenery!

On our way to the K/T boundary!

Way made it! You can tell the K/T boundary by it's dark color. It is made up a Iridium, a mineral that is common deep in the earth but is rare on the surface. At the K/T boundary a layer of this mineral is found all over the world. Could it have been released from the subsurface by a meteor?!

Here we are on our way down form the K/T boundary. The view from up there was fantastic!

 

 

Day 3

We were off to the Triceratops site for another day! Some dug, some prospected and we all baked in the sun! It was a grand time...

One of the many cows we walked by on the way to our site.

One of the fossils we found while prospecting, the pen is for perspective.

Tim pointing at the Triceratops vertebrae he found while prospecting.

Zach taking note of the GPS coordinates at one of the sites we found while prospecting.

Jennifer working to uncover more bones at the Triceratops site.

Amber uncovering ribs at the Triceratops site.

Dana working hard!

The view from the Triceratops site.

Day 4

Amber's 16th birthday! Groups split up and went to different place. Some returned to the turtle site and others went to Medora to visit a museum at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Then we had an evening of celebration for Amber's birthday!

Amber showing off her Scooby Doo and Dinosaur birthday cake.

Can you blow them all out at once?!

One of Amber's birthday presents.

Tim, Nick, Jason and Zach hanging out at Tyler's place.

A friendly game of basketball.

Amber and Jennifer with Lady, our faithful hiking companion.

Jennifer, Dana, Amber, Zach, Tim, Adi, Nick and Jason - Vogue!

Thanks everyone - it was a GREAT trip!