Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Digging the middle half of a Triceratops

We've finished the Triceratops dig that I announced in my last blog post. We got pretty much everything from the rear of the neck to the back of the hips, minus the limbs. It looks like the specimen was well laid out in order, unfortunately with the head end going off the edge of the cliff. Just a couple thousand years too late, but oh well. There was an unconformity at the top of the site that destroyed the higher bones, including shearing the bottom 4/5 of the femur away. Sometimes nature isn't nice to us. Enjoy the pics!

Scary bobcat driving to get rid of overburden

Mike not finding anything, Jacob on the hips

Naptime in the shade while employees roast

Hips isolated

Cap jacket on hips and attempting to recover a whole rib

Big jacket done after a seriously long day


Prep on the main hips block is going slowly, but we hope to have this monster chunk of bone out on display later this week.

Progress on the jacket but still lots to go