rebelgtp Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Hey all just checking in I have not posted in awhile, things have been crazy with the end of the school year and a death in the family. Oh also I have been in the field twice since the last time I was in. The first time I was out in the John Day fossil beds and surrounding areas. I did actually find several samples to collect though mostly plant material and a couple gastropods (sadly one of the gastropods has been lost). It was a fun little trip and just before the weather out here really got crazy. In fact the area we camped was under water as of last weekend. We also found some pictographs which was cool. The second trip was just a quick one for an afternoon. The place is on private property about an hour from where I live. At this location we were actually sifting material as the fossils were fairly small. I pulled quite a few vertebrate samples including some bone fragments from a bird, various sun fish bones and some bones from a vole. It was a fun and very dusty day. Aside from that I am still working in my lab and will start my log post this week. However as an added bonus you guys will get to watch progress on the mammoth and bear fossils I mentioned before as well as I've been asked to help with them over the summer as well. We also maybe using the location method I have developed to see if there are any other remains at the location they were found. Anyway I will add some photos to this thread later of the latest samples I have found and of the locations I was at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glacialerratic Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 rebelgtp, you have my condolence. Looking forward to seeing some pictures! Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossil fury Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 rebelgtp, you have my condolence. Looking forward to seeing some pictures! Tim That makes two of us. “There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.” -Ronald Reagan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Show me the bird (stuff)! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelgtp Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 (edited) Well here are the first batch of photos. I need to still bring the fossils from the first trip back in the house they were at the school for awhile and I'm to lazy to go out to the truck and bring them in right now Anyway first off here are the fossils I collected at the second trip, unfortunately its an area I can't talk about as the owners don't want it to be swamped with people coming to dig out their cliff face. This location was once a lake and quite a few water critters found and a few terrestrial mammals that fell in or got washed in. Any way here are some location photos from the first trip. This was with a class from EOU and is actually out to an area that I use to live so I already knew it well. This is the location of the original paleontology center. There are several barns out back that were used as labs. The new paleontology center (Thomas Condon Center) that is less than a mile away. Thomas Condon Center Some shots from the displays inside Inside 1 Inside 2 Inside 3 Inside 4 Inside 5 Their lab, man I wish I had that gear for my lab. Lab 1 Lab 2 The next two outcrops provided quite a bit of plant and fish fossils. The second location was also prime for scorpions and I almost got stung by one. The second spot you could hardly pick up any rock and it not have a fossil in it. Outcrop 1 Outcrop 2 This is the Painted Hills out here in Oregon. This is a national park location though there is a fossil location just outside of this that you can collect from though its about a mile or more hike in across the park lands. Painted Hills I was bored at night when camping and took a photo of some of my gear piled up in my tent for some reason. Gear This location is called the Island in Time Trail. This area has supplied many of the fossils that are in the Thomas Condon Center. Island 1 Island 2 Island 3 And finally here is a diatomite outcrop that also provided MANY gastropod fossils as long as you are willing to climb about 10 feet up. Diatomite Edited June 9, 2010 by rebelgtp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 ...here are the fossils I collected at the second trip... Do I see eggshell fragments? "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelgtp Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 (edited) Do I see eggshell fragments? Yep you do. Hmmm for some reason it is only showing the first two images I will work on converting all the others to links I suppose. Edited June 9, 2010 by rebelgtp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Yep you do. Hmmm for some reason it is only showing the first two images I will work on converting all the others to links I suppose. While you're at it, how 'bout a nice close-up of the shell frags? Is that site Oligocene? "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelgtp Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 Actually if I remember correctly this site is pliocene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Pliocene? Cool! They looked enough like these that I was getting some good exercise in, conclusion-jumping Please tell me what you can (without violating the land owner's trust) about the site. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelgtp Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 Well the site location is actually behind a hotel in a city near where I live. As they were preparing the site to build they cut into the face of a steep hill to clear an area for grass and a storage area behind the hotel. One day a geology prof from I believe OSU was staying at the hotel and walking his dog out by the cut and noticed something sticking out. It was a fossil and he let the hotel owner know about the discovery. Since then the owner of the hotel has allowed EOU students to come out and excavate the cut area (has even offered to remove more to give better access)and allows the students to keep the fossils that they find. Generally any of the big stuff, like a beaver skull found a couple years ago, stays with the university in its display cases though sometime students keep that stuff as well. The site has very distinct levels, one is great for finding fish and other marine life and others are great for finding terrestrial critters like llamas, voles, hare etc. Every now and then someone staying at the hotel will wander back there and see a bone sticking out of the ground and will let the owner know about it. In this area the site is fairly well known to those interested in paleontology and if someone finds something on their property sometimes they will take it to the hotel owner to get help identifying them. Well actually it looks like the site is posted on our school website so I guess it is alright to let you guys know the location is the Always Welcome Inn at Baker City. Here is actually a link to the recent finds and pics the Prof took while we were there, including a pic of me as I was brushing material away. http://www.eou.edu/geology/RecentAlwaysWelcomeInnFinds.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Hey! I know about the place! If you Google "bird fossils" long enough, and follow some of the results out far enough, you learn some interesting things... >Click here, go to page 3< "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelgtp Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 Well that is cool that it turns out to be a location you have heard about already. You would be hard pressed to take a shovel full of dirt from there and sift it down and not find a fossil or a dozen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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