Box 5b is done. We started in early November, and after 8 months there is now an empty spot in front of box 14. The "June gloom" weather during the last days of 5b matched the sadness we felt in knowing that the excitement of 5b would soon be gone. We had a good time discovering its intriguing asphalt infused stratigraphy and cool fossils including:
- Clyde, the partially articulated camel
- Alphie, the juvenile mammoth
- Little Timmy the juvenile coyote
- Pepe the weasle
- and a yet to be named rattlesnake.
The last noticeable fossils in 5b were freshwater snails and plant in asphaltic sediment and the bottom layer consisted of virtually sterile partially asphalt infused greenish gray clay.
Here Laura works with volunteers Cheyenne Robinson and Pat and Mary Simun to extract the last remains of fossils at this level
Michelle joined them for a time out to capture the adoration for our special safety glasses
Volunteer Herb Schiff hammers through the final remains
And then there was none.
Depending on who you ask one highlight of finishing a box is discovering who has been living underneath it. As the final bottom boards were lifted there was an unveiling of slugs, crickets, brown widows, black widows, and some other unidentifiable by me spiders and insects.
Well hello!
Box 14, the large box situated behind 5b and next to box 1 is the next to be opened. It is a partially slumped deposit which means complete measurement of fossils will be limited to what we know is for sure in situ. The idea is to quickly work through the thousands of fossils we will find slumped in the easier to excavate asphaltic "sugar sands" and the area it sits will then be used for bucket storage.
We also look forward to meeting the other half of 5 on the other side of the compound someday hopefully soon to learn more about deposit 5 geology and see if we can find more of Clyde and Alphie.
Posts
6 comments:
Be VERY careful with ladders on box 14! Miss you guys!
-Ryan
Wow... You guys actually finished digging through a deposit. o.o Congratulations!!!
I love the Page Museum, I love the work you guys do--I've been to the museum and the site since I was a little kid about 11 years ago. Your work continues to fascinate and amaze me. Best wishes! =)
-Kenneth
aw i remember visiting 5b with andie, sad to think its gone!! but lets hope that Alphie and Clyde will resurface!!!
-Adrienne
I'm just wondering... why did they only find part of the camel and teenage mammoth? Where is the rest?
At the Tar Pits, they almost never find individual skeletons of animals.
Instead, the usual deposit is made up of a tangled jumble of bones from many animals that happened to get stuck in the same asphalt seep, then trampled and shifted over tens of thousands of years. That's why finding camel and baby mammoth material that probably all came from one camel and one baby mammoth is so exciting, because it might add taphonomic data that can help them study what happened to these particular animals after they died. :-)
* Clyde, the partially articulated camel
* Alphie, the juvenile mammoth
* Little Timmy the juvenile coyote
* Pepe the weasle
* and a yet to be named rattlesnake.
Aww, now come on, that's just not fair! I wasn't there for all that...and wasn't this the one that we (wasn't Annie there?) shoveled all that fill out while standing atop it?
No fair, I say. No fair!
Post a Comment