DinoBlog

 Greetings,

  Well, it’s with heavy heart and tired limbs that l bid farewell to the digsite in Shell. It has been an unforgetable experience. Thanks much to Bob Simon for another great year of dinosaur digging. As my last official(unofficial) act I found a Camarasaurus tooth. And I’m not going to even joke about how great it felt. You can see it below:

Below is Bob with what remains of the Camarasaurus fossil. He has another few volunteer coming to help take the rest of it out. I wish them all success. They are closing the page on one of the greatest adventures of my life.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading my blog(except the spammers). It has been an interesting exercise in trying to put down my thoughts and experiences on a daily basis. It also became a chore at times when I’d come in from the field dead tired but happy knowing still many friends and strangers alike were waiting to see what was going on. My neighbor in the campground who visited the site a few times heard from her mother in California that my wife and daughter were coming to the site. Even though I see her and wave when I’d get in everyday at the campground. Such is the power and wonder of the internet.

I’ll try to provide more pictures and information if I get any.

Thanks to everyone and I hope you got to enjoy a little of the adventure.

Most Graciously,

Bosco

 Well whatta day in Shell. My wife and daughter arrived at the dig with a bang. My wife found four Camarasaurus teeth. She was slightly pleased with her find as seen in the photo below: 

My daughter on the other hand was only mildly amused at finding another two Camarasaurus teeth. You can tell from the picture below how she really felt:

In case you didn’t pick up on my poor attempt at humour, they were both very pleased with their findings and so was Bob. He let them each keep one of the teeth to take home with them.

A Big Thank You to Mr. Bob!!

 

I dug away on the bone blob all day and made some progress while Bob found a partial Dryosaurus and did more pedestaling on the last bits of the Camarasaurus.

A totally awesome day as the end of my stay here draws near.

I sign off tonight with a smile on my face and two happy women.

The world is good.

Good night and good digging.

 

Bosco 

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Good Day.

First day since Don left, he’ll be missed.

Started the day trenching around the tail section for jacketing. Used the hammer and screwdriver for a long time. A very tireing process. Bob did a lot of work on the dorsal section of the spine. After much thought he thinks the rest of the spine will come out in two large sections, depending on where it splits when the first sections is removed.

Later in the day Richard came and we used the trackhoe to take out the femur that was in the actual hip joint just as it had been in life. Here is a picture of the bone going for a ride as it was loaded.

 

The rest of the afternoon I worked on MS-10 and found an interesting bone blob as well as a metatarsal ( I broke a couple small parts off).

After Richard trackhoed around the diplodocus neck(the forgotten dinosaur), Bob started trenching on the side that wasn’t worked on yet. He found many bones under the neck which is in the bone bed layer under the diplo deposition layer, including an Allosaurus tooth. It has been a very toothy week at the site.

The camarasaurus part left is very small as seen in the photo below.

Not bad for a fossil that was discovered only June 3rd. Our team of 3 to 5 individuals disassembled the animal in only two months or so, quite an achievement if I do say so myself.

I’m off to Cody again to pick up my daughter from the airport. She just finished another quarter at UCLA and will be at the dig site a few days.

 

So long for now,

Bosco 

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Hi,

  Well after a rip snortin’ rain last night, the weather was actually pleasant today.

I worked on pedestaling another section of the vertebral column in the picture below: 

 Today was Don’s last day and he will be headed out tomorrow for the windy city(Chicago). I’ll miss his humor and the good times we’ve enjoyed at the dig this year.

Richard came out with his six wheeler and we loaded the jacket with the scapula on it for transport to the storage facility.

The weather looked like it might be deteriorating so Bob suggested we go do a walk on the Sundance formation before the rain started.

We got to the Sundance and commenced looking for belmnites (squid butts)  and graphea (shell fossils). We found some belmnites but no graphea.

Here is a picture of by wife during the walk:

Soon after I took this picture the sky turned nasty and the wind kicked up. We made a hasty retreat back to the campground.

That’s all for today.

 

Goodbye,

Adios to Don, hope you have a safe trip home.

 

Bosco

 Greetings and Salutations.

No Blog yesterday. Picked my wife up at Cody airport. Took her out to dinner. She’ll be staying till Sunday when we leave for home in California.

First order of business this morning was to flip the last tail section. I worked on trenching it a few days and Bob finished the job yesterday. Here’s Bob, Don and me flipping the jacket. Richard helped with a pry bar, but didn’t make the photo. 

Dug with my wife in MS-10. Didn’t find much but she had an enjoyable day.

Late in the afternoon my wife said there’s a school bus pulled up down the hill from the site. Luckily there were only 15 or so visitors on the bus. The picture below is of me giving a tour to part of the visitors.

Left the field a little early.

Back to normal work day tomorrow.

 

Ciao,

Bosco

All I can say about today at the site was amazing. Not necessarily for me but for our visiting diggers from Tennessee. A husband and wife had an unbelievable day. The wife found a vert and several bones, but the Husband(Mike) found Seven Camarasaurus Teeth. This was in the same location I dug in all day yesterday. I’ve never seen anyone else in over four years come even close to this many.

Here is a picture of Bob field prepping one of the teeth: 

The rest of us had a normal day for here at the site. I worked early in the morning on the final tail section and Don worked on the dorsay section getting them pedistalled.

In the afternoon I dug next to the lucky digger in a spot where the two big Camarasaurus teeth were found yesterday. All I found was one small bone fragment.

Such is the life of a digger.

C’est la vie

Bosco

Well, it rained this morning, but Bob came by and said we would leave for the dig site at 10am. We had a family of three diggers from Ohio who didn’t get to dig yesterday because of the weather. Boy did they have a big day! The mother, who is a surgeon, found two Camarasaurus teeth. One was the biggest I’d ever seen. Her husband and son also found quite a few bones. It was also the mother’s birthday(Happy Birthday Tracy). All in all a very productive day. I found a few bone fragments at MS10 while Bob dug into the wall and Don worked on the pubis of the camarasaurus so we can start digging under the last tail section.

Here is a picture of the two Camarasaurus Teeth:

Tomorrow we have another family digging for the day. It also looks to be a very busy day of digging to get more of the camarasaur out of the ground. It would be nice to get both ends of the vertebral column jacketed in the next few days.  We’ll see.

 My wife will be arriving on Sunday to do a little digging and have some vacation time. My daughter will arrive on Thursday from LA. She wanted to see the site and we’re fitting it in her schedule between quarters at UCLA. So it will be a great week coming up for me.

Unfortunately I’ll be leaving in another week or so. I’ll have to bid a fond farewell to Shell, but I’ll keep updating the blog with info if I have any.

 

Bye for now, and good night from Shell Wy

 

Bosco

Greetings from the Big Horn Basin. The picture pretty much tells the story. No digging today. It rained off and on most of the day. A day to do laundry, rest and heal.

Hopefully it will be nice tomorrow. There is still much work to be done.

Bosco

Hello from Shell,

  Today was not very productive. Although it was much cooler then it has been we had rain on and off all day. Finally around 3pm Bob said to pack up and we went shopping in Greybull. The sky looked very threatening and Bob is very adept at evaluating potentially problem weather. Luckily the weather never turned much worse.

I dug around the final tail section to ensure it will be ready for jacketing when the other side is done. Don and me dug in MS10 looking for bones. We both found a few before Bob told us we had 5 min. before we should get in the car.

Richard did a bunch of track hoeing to allow Bob to dig for the missing tail section of the Camarasaurus. After Bob started digging he found quite a few new bones that are not yet identified. Richard was eager to help and even picked up a hunting knife to help dig(a very rare occurance).

We have a few guests scheduled for tomorrow if it doesn’t rain.

Here is a picture of Richard the track hoe operator digging: 

Richard is also the person who the Camarasuarus we found last year was named after( Little Richard).

 

Good by and Good night from Shell

 

Bosco