Joining a Field Expedition by Fred Bervoets
Joining a Field Expedition by Fred Bervoets PDF Print E-mail
The adventure of a lifetime
by Fred Bervoets
Already thinking how to spend your summer holidays? Lying lazy in the sand on a beach under the shadow of a palmtree, a cool glass with your favorite drink in your hand staring out into the blue, day after day after day? Waking up with a headache after you had more drinks than you could handle while the loud music still plays on into your ears? Saying when you did get home again that you had the adventure of your live? Perhaps not, maybe you want do something useful with your time and participate in a real adventure, and go out to find what no one has found before. Breaking trough your psysical and intellectual borders and return home afterwards with a truly adventures story.
If that\'s the case you could consider to participate this summer with the Garfield County Museum and Paleo-World Inc. paleontology Field Expedition on the Hell Creek Ranch. Searching for 65 million-year-old dinosaur fossils, focusing on the Hell Creek Formation, Upper Boundary
The past field expeditions have been very successful in discovering rare and exciting dinosaur fossils including, several Triceratops skulls, Triceratops skeletons, Tyrannosaurs material, articulated Hadrosaur skeletons with skin impressions and a variety of other fossils.
Fossils removed from the Hell Creek Formation are known for their quality and uniqueness. The expedition has become very popular with students and the town of Jordan, Montana.
The fieldwork takes place in the beautiful settings of the Badlands. The teams stay in cabins located on the ranch where paleontologists have been collecting dinosaur fossils for over 100 years and a camp cook is on the site.
This year\'s expedition will be running from May 19th through September 14th. Focusing hard on prospecting for new sites and recovering them. The Field Expedition will be conducting active survey research on the Upper boundary using GPS\'s.
This years expedition will be globally broadcasted via the Internet, there will also be a journalist with the expedition to document collecting fossils in the Montana Badlands. We are projecting this to be a highly viewed event. Paleo-World Inc. is hosting the Expedition Participants. They will also be broadcasting the Internet Expedition.
The expedition will encompass all areas of dinosaur paleontology fieldwork. While on the ranch, participants will engage in prospecting for fossils. Chris Morrow leads the prospecting teams searching for new fossils. The field area is a little over 22 thousand acres, most of the land we conduct our fieldwork on is BLM and we obtain permits for collecting. Those who go prospecting with Chris will learn techniques he uses for finding fossils. It involves a lot of hiking, reading topographical maps and using GPS systems.
The terrain is very rugged and finding the fossils is a wonderful experience for everybody. Participants will also work in active quarries (where specimens have been located but not removed). Participants will learn techniques for uncovering fossils, mapping out their position, and removing them using burlap and plaster jackets. While working in quarries, participants will be managed by the field staff. Participants will also be offered the opportunity to take part in fossil preparation. On the ranch and at the museum in town, we have preparation labs. Participants will learn fossil cleaning techniques, restoration, and study of the fossils.
All participants will be equipped with necessary tools and equipment for working in the field. After a hard days work, members of the groups often go for a dip in the Fort Peck Lake which is on the ranch, this really feels good when it is over 110 degrees in the badlands!
This is the first year we are opening the expedition up to the public. Registration fees support the expedition and museum research. This expedition offers the public the opportunity to be part of active scientific research on dinosaur material. The expedition is very physical and very exciting. Participants will be furthering the research of Hell Creek Dinosaurs and dinosaurs in general.
There are several active quarries that will offer participants an exciting time. There ais an almost complete Triceratops skeleton quarry known besides two Hadrosaur skeletons, a Triceratops skull, and a possible Tyrannosaurus rex site. The participants will also prospecting on a daily basis for new sites.
Here you can find all the information you need and fill in the registerform. Have a nice vacation!!!
Portugal
In Europe the Museu da Lourinhã in Portugal gives a great opportunity to participate in fieldwork they also accepts volunteers to participate in the preparation of fossil material of dinosaurs in the laboratory.
Lourinhã is filled with beautiful landscapes, here you can enjoy a vacation you never forget. Large theropods (Carnosauria sensu lato) are known in the Late Jurassic of Portugal: Lourinhanosaurus antunesi (Allosauroidea; Mateus, 1998), Allosaurus fragilis (Allosauridae; Pérez-Moreno et al., 1999), Ceratosaurus sp. and the embryos briefly described by Mateus et al. (1997) show affinities with Lourinhanosaurus. Who knows maybe you find one.
To join you first have to fil in a form that you can retrieve on the url at the bottum of this page. You have to be minimal 16 years old. There is no fee of any kind and lodging will be provided to the volunteers that are accepted. Volunteers are accept anytime in the year.
However during july and august there wil be a maximum of activity for paleontology: big excavations in the field, lab work and prospecting with several teams of volunteers. Normally around 20 volunteers are accepted to participate at one time and there is a previous selection.
During the main part or the year the major job are laboratory tasks: preparation of dinosaur bones by removing outer sediment, gluing, reconstructing, cleaning, etc. Small excavation of single bones and prospecting are, eventually, done in single days. Normally, all volunteers are accepted.