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By Scott Williams, May 31, 2010 10:27 pm

Work has been progessing at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.  Just a reminder, the quarry is a giant late Jurassic Period (147-150 million years ago) dinosaur bonebed.  It is found within the world famous Morrison Formation.  Dinosaurs like Apatosaurus (aka Brontosaurus), Camarasaurus, Diplodocus and the theropod (meat-eater), Allosaurus are found in this formation.  The formation represents fluvial (river) deposits.  When rivers and streams flooded, this allowed dinosaur carcasses to be buried quickly.  Geology lesson aside, we spend up work once we had more help.

Morrison Formation

Now that Dr. Matt Bonnan and his students from Western Illinois University have been at the quarry more discoveries have been made everyday.  In the last three days at least 20 new bones have been discovered including Barosaurus cervical (neck) vertebra, a new scapula (shoulder blade) and what might be a partially articulated Allosaurus vertebral column.

Andy & Tammy

One particular find was made by Burpee Volunteers; Andy and Tammy Prell.  Andy and Tammy have several years of field work experience, first completing two field seasons with Dr. Thomas Carr, Carthage College in the Hell Creek Formation of southeastern Montana and then last year with Burpee.  Andy spent three days working on pedestalling one of the big scapulae and Tammy found a very large thoracic (chest) rib.  This rib was missing its distal (bottom) half, but had a huge rib head.  I would estimate that this rib if complete would be about seven feet in length.  This means that this dinosaur would have an enormous, barrel chest.  In addition to these finds ….one of the WIU Students, Megan Luczak found a very interesting bone.  I have my suspicions, but it needs to be prepped more.  Once I know more….so will you!  Stay tuned.

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By Scott Williams, May 31, 2010 10:15 pm

Tuesday; work continued in earnest at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry.  Several new bones were found in a short time before we were chased out by a late spring thunderstorm.  Fortunately we made it out of the field before our vehicle got mired in the mud.

Double Arch

With time to spare, we decided to visit one of the best attractions in Utah, Arches National Park.  The park sits at the bottom of the LaSal Moutain Range and I must admit this has become one of my favorite parks right behind Yellowstone.  Several formations are present in the park, but two are the most prominent; Navajo and Entrada.  Most of the arches form from the weathering of the Entrada sandstones. If you ever get to Moab you need to visit.  Despite the rain, we were productive and saw what Utah has to offer.

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By Scott Williams, May 27, 2010 5:39 pm

After arriving in Hanksville, we set to opening the quarry.  Our first day we were treated to low 80′s and a nice breeze.  In a short time we re-opened the quarry from its winter slumber.   I am happy to report that all of the plaster jackets we buried last summer survived and none were vandalized.  After exposing and removing these winter jackets we began our excavations.  Almost immediately two new bones were discovered; two scapulae (shoulder blades) to a Camarasaurus.  Camarasaurus is a type of sauropod (long necked, four legged dinosaur) that lived at the end of Jurassic Period (around 147 million years ago).  This herbivorous dinosaur could grow up to 65 feet long and weigh 20 tons.  Interestingly, like most of our finds it appears these shoulderblades belong to a sub-adult (“teenaged”) dinosaur.   We got a lot done in a short time.  I look forward to more discoveries and the arrival of Dr. Matt Bonnan and his students from Western Illinois University.

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By Scott Williams, May 27, 2010 5:23 pm

Foggy Rockies

Well another field season is upon the Burpee Museum.  On Thursday,  May 13th, Josh Mathews and I left Northern Illinois, destination; The Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry in Hanksville, Utah.  In case you missed it, in 2008 Burpee discovered one of the largest dinosaur bonebeds found in North American within the last thiry years.  This monstrous bonebed extends for nearly one quarter mile and is three hundred feet wide.  So far we have begun exacavating several well known late Jurassic dinosaurs like, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Camarasaurus and possibly Allosaurus.  In fact, since 2008 Burpee has excavated over 12,000 lbs of dinosaur bones.  

  This year we did not drive to Utah directly, instead we took a detour to Woodland Park to visit the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center.   We met with owner/Director Michael Triebold to place an order.  We ordered a mounted cast of the “bone-headed” dinosaur, Pachycephalosaurus. 

This cast will end up being part of the Homer Triceratops exhibit we plan to open in May, 2012.  This was exciting for me as I had the luck to collect a pachy skull dome back in 2001!  After a productive day of researching some of their new tyrannosaurid specimens and marvelling over the mounted 45 foot long Tylosaurus named “Bunker” we headed out.  ONTO UTAH!!

Driving to Utah is always a wonderful because you get to go through the Rocky Mountains.  This year mother nature rewarded us with snow and wildlife.  At about 10,000 feet we drove through a small blizzard.  Of course, Josh and I had to stop and like any good tourists got lots of pictures. 

Big Horn Herd

Baby Bighorn

It was amazing!  We ended up stopping (or should I saw swerving off the road in a semi-uncontrolled manner) because I spotted a heard of Big Horn Sheep about 20 feet from I-70!!  We got some excellent pictures of a “gang” of young males and then we spotted a baby Big Horn….awww.  It was ridiculously cute….so more picture taking.   After adding a few hours of picturing taking we resumed our trip to Utah.

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By Scott Williams, September 27, 2009 8:26 pm

The 69th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology has come to an end. Presentations are now finished. The days were spent attending talks; most of which were at the University of Bristol Wills Memorial Hall, and the afternoons were spent at the University of Bristol Victoria Rooms.

On Friday, I, along with two of my co-authors presented on late Cretaceous lizard skull bones that we collected in Montana. We think it may be a previously undescribed species.

On Saturday, Josh presented on the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry, which is our late Jurassic bonebed from Utah. You can read about our summer adventures out there in our previous blog entries. Both presentations were well-received and there was a lot of interest from our colleagues.

Once all the presentations were done, we did a lot of networking. The Burpee Museum has many potential projects in the works with many well known paleontologists. Some of these projects may be presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of SVP in 2010, which will be in Pittsburgh, PA.
All and all it was a very successful conference, and the Burpee has been “introduced” to the U.K. and European scientific communities. I know I’m already looking forward to next year! …of course, Josh and I still have more time in the UK to enjoy before heading home. Just because SVP has ended doesn’t mean our trip has!

After everything was wrapped up for SVP, Josh and I spent Sunday visiting more of Bristol and the town of Bath.
We visited the St. Mary’s Redcliff Cathedral, which has been a place of worship for about 800 years. We also walked the Christmas Steps, a street which was built in the mid 1600′s. Another highlight of the day was the Foster House. It was built in 1483, and later belonged to a physician to Henry VIII!

Dr. Matt Bonnan and Josh at Christmas Steps.

At the end of the day we took the train to the town of Bath. Bath has a lot of history as well. It was given city status in 1590, and is known for its antiquity. Located near the center is the Roman Bath house. It was constructed around 50-60 AD!
Next to the bathhouse is the Bath Abbey. This cathedral was originally built in 973, and was where Edgar was crowned King of England. Over the centuries it has been nearly destroyed, caught on fire, and rebuilt by the late 1400′s. Bath is another amazing English town where the past comes alive.

Bath Abbey

Tomorrow we travel to Stonehenge! Josh and I are really looking forward to seeing one of the Seven Greatest Wonders of the Medieval World.

Cheers,
Scott

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By Scott Williams, July 1, 2009 1:59 pm

Last Pic Before the Flip Local BLM Officials, Towns People and Burpee Crew Pose

Well Monday was our very last day in the field and what a way to go.  Monumental triumph comes to mind.  After over 7 weeks of back breaking labor the field season was capped by rolling a 4000 pound plaster jacket containing a partial Camarasaurus. 

Before the Flip

The jacket contains its hips, lower legs, ribs and some of the backbone.   We had outstanding help from the town of Hanksville, Mayor Curtis Whipple came out with his set of tractor and forks and Jeff Kiteley supplied the flatbed.  We had observers from the town as well as the local BLM.Needless to say, the flip was textbook.  Not one bone broke! We jacketed up the other side after the roll and in 30 minutes it was on the flatbed.  I am currently on the road home so I will be short with this but what an awesome field  

Mid-Flip

Walking the Pod Out

season, over 140 bones from 5 different sauropod dinosaurs (big long necked dinosaurs) were collected in over 7 weeks. In additional to this our intrepid educators gave tours to 577 people in 12 days.  Stay tuned for a full report when i get home.