From the Field

Monthly Archive: December from

Back in the lab – trying to make heads or tails of it all.

Posted: November 25, 2011 - 09:09 , by royal

After three days of successful fieldwork on the chilly Grand Rapids Uplands, we return – toting a fresh batch of fossils – to The Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg. This is the home turf of my colleague, Graham Young, and almost a second home for me.

Southern Alberta field collection 2011 has arrived!

Posted: November 18, 2011 - 12:00 , by royal

Fossils wrapped in plaster with labels written on the outside

Marked field jackets containing horned dinosaur bones from the McPheeter’s bonebed (MBB) and the South Side Ceratopsian (SSC).

On the Rocks Again — in which a pair of intrepid palaeontologists head for the hinterland.

Posted: November 7, 2011 - 11:59 , by royal

Ah, the romance of fieldwork. There’s nothing quite like waiting for the morning sun to rise high enough to illuminate a cold, wet outcrop, so that one can spend the next 8 or 9 hours kneeling in mud and splitting razor-sharp rock slabs. But we have hot coffee in the thermos, dry gloves in the pack, and — hopefully — there are some new fossils to be found!

From the Field: Farewell Churchill

Posted: September 15, 2011 - 13:37 , by royal

July 27

The weather forecast was pretty much on the money, and a dismal dawn yields to thunder-squalls rolling across the tundra. But, after breakfast and a second cup of coffee, the rain eases and we are a shade more optimistic about our flight out later this morning. Time for one last walkabout of our temporary home.

From the Field: Last day before departure

Posted: September 14, 2011 - 09:03 , by royal

July 26

From the Field: Hudson Bay’s Ancient Treasures

Posted: September 13, 2011 - 16:07 , by royal

July 25

From the Field: Ancient Sea Scorpion Fossil Found

Posted: September 7, 2011 - 08:39 , by royal

July 23

Clear skies at last! Down to the coast to catch good morning lighting and a fortuitously low tide, so we can see in detail how fossil-bearing Upper Ordovician carbonate deposits (445 million years old) at our main locality “lap” against the elevated flanks of a much more ancient rock mass. This highly resistant Proterozoic (about 2500 million-year-old) quartzite body is the remnant of a small island that formed part of an archipelago in shallow Ordovician subtropical seas.

Summerasaurus Part V: The Badlands

Posted: September 2, 2011 - 09:10 , by royal

Walking through the badlands is like walking through a western novel: canyons cut through the prairie, exposing layers of brown, gold, black and white sediment. Clichés keep popping up: tumbleweeds roll by, cactus pop out from unexpected places, and cattle skulls bleach in the sun. Scorpions hide in coal seams, soaking up the sun’s heat from the black rock that camouflages them. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but once you accept the fact that you’re in a place unlike anywhere else in Canada, it all becomes simple and beautiful.

Summerasaurus Part IV: How to Find Dinosaurs

Posted: August 23, 2011 - 12:25 , by royal

Mark Farmer recently returned from an expedition to the badlands of southern Alberta with Dr. David Evans, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the ROM, in search of dinosaurs. Join us as Mark and Dr. Evans put up their notes from the field, detailing discoveries, how dinosaurs are found and excavated, life in the field and more.