JohnScannella.com
Table of Contents:
Field Work I
I'm involved with the Museum of the Rockies' Hell Creek Project. We are attempting to learn as much as possible about the very
end of the Age of Dinosaurs by collecting as much information as
possible in the Hell Creek Formation - the Formation that contains some
of the last North American Dinosaurs (such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops).
A view of a bit of the Hell Creek Formation in eastern Montana. 2006
Lee Hall (in white again) and I excavating a partial Triceratops. 2007
Sarah Keenan gives me the thumbs up as we get ready to remove a beautiful Triceratops skull (discovered by Jurassic Park III director, Joe Johnston) from its sandy resting place. 2007
Denver Fowler excavates a Triceratops' right dentary (lower jaw). 2008
Alida Bailleul shows me a Triceratops caudal (tail) vertebra she's found in the 'Lon's Trike' quarry, which was discovered by Lon Bolick. 2008
Here's a pretty nice dorsal (back) vertebra from 'Lon's Trike.' You can see that this vertebra is almost twice the size of my rock hammer, but 'Lon's Trike' was only a subadult when it died - which means it would have grown to be even bigger. 2008
I've also done field work in the Judith River Formation ( a bit older than the Hell Creek) and the Early Cretaceous deposits of Mongolia.
Some of the other graduate students at the Museum of the Rockies and I at a hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) excavation in the Judith River Formation. From left to right: Brian Baziak, Liz Freedman, Holly Woodward, Denver Fowler, and myself. 2007
In Mongolia, I had the opportunity to work with Psittacosaurus - which was a small, strange looking dinosaur that is pretty closely related to the much larger, and beautifully weird, Triceratops that I'm more accustomed to dealing with. So it was pretty cool.
I've also done field work in the Judith River Formation ( a bit older than the Hell Creek) and the Early Cretaceous deposits of Mongolia.
Some of the other graduate students at the Museum of the Rockies and I at a hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) excavation in the Judith River Formation. From left to right: Brian Baziak, Liz Freedman, Holly Woodward, Denver Fowler, and myself. 2007
In Mongolia, I had the opportunity to work with Psittacosaurus - which was a small, strange looking dinosaur that is pretty closely related to the much larger, and beautifully weird, Triceratops that I'm more accustomed to dealing with. So it was pretty cool.
It is an adventure of epic proportions just to get from Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, to the outskirts of the Gobi Desert. After two days of driving, we've stopped here for a moment to take a look around. Denver Fowler is on the left. Dave Sands and Bolorsetseg Minjin (in red) are on the right. Bolor is a postdoctoral researcher at the Museum of the Rockies. She is working with Jack Horner to build a new dinosaur research museum in Mongolia. 2007
Breakfast in Mongolia. 2007
Our camp in Mongolia. 2007
When you meet a Psittacosaurus in the badlands of Mongolia, it usually starts out
something like this. Here is just a bit of vertebra and limb bone sticking out of the ground.
Now you need to explore the surrounding area and, if you're lucky, there might be a
good portion of the skeleton preserved. 2007
I got lucky. This Psittacosaurus turned out to be fairly complete. It even has a skull.
Maybe you can make out the series of vertebrae near the end of my brush. Compare the size of those to
the dorsal vertebra of 'Lon's Trike' that's posted above. Triceratops was big. 2007
Packing the trucks and preparing to head back to Ulaanbaatar. In just a few weeks, our expedition had discovered more than 80 specimens of Psittacosaurus. 2007
Jeff Lane, Inga Sorenson, and I at the 'Ashes Trike' site in the Hell Creek Formation. When prospecting for dinosaurs, the person who finds a site gets to name it. I happened to be listening to David Bowie's song "Ashes to Ashes" on my mp3 player when I found this Triceratops poking out of the hillside. 2009
Scapula (shoulder blade) of the 'Ashes Trike.' Even though some fossils, like this one, are pretty big - they're still very fragile and they need to be protected for safe transport back to the laboratory. So, after you find a dinosaur fossil, you usually want to encase it in a 'jacket' of burlap and plaster. 2009
Cameron Pahl takes a short break while carrying the 'Ashes Trike' scapula jacket back to the truck (which was parked roughly a mile away). The combined weight of the shoulder blade and the jacket protecting it was about 100 pounds. 2009
You never know when you'll come across a rattlesnake in the badlands of Montana. 2009
Weathered partial Triceratops sacrum (the fused vertebrae of the hips). 2009
Here I am tunneling under the sacrum (fused hip vertebrae) of a large Triceratops. It can sometimes be tricky to encase very large specimens in a jacket. First you put on a 'top jacket' to protect the exposed bones. Then, you usually want to get the specimen secure enough so that it can be flipped over and you can complete the jacket (with a 'bottom jacket'). Sometimes, if the fossil is too large to be flipped, you need to tunnel under it and continue making the jacket while hoping not to be crushed from above. 2009
Kari Baker and I consider how to safely remove a small tail vertebra from the 'Warwick's Duck' site - a hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) discovered by Warwick Fowler. Removing small, delicate bones can often be trickier than dealing with gigantic bones, because they are so fragile. 2009
Alessandro Carpana examines options for reinforcing one of the larger jackets at 'Warwick's Duck.' We reinforce large jackets with wooden beams and metal rebar in order to give them extra strength and support. Alessandro is a geology student in Parma, Italy - in the summers he travels to the badlands of Montana to study the dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation. 2009
Lee Hall (in white) and I, having succesfully flipped one of the large 'Warwick's Duck' jackets, turn our attention to dealing with the monstrous jacket holding the animal's hind legs. The jacket weighed over 2,000 pounds. 2009
We were lucky enough to get a helicopter to help us move some of the largest jackets from the field to trailers waiting back at camp. 2009
something like this. Here is just a bit of vertebra and limb bone sticking out of the ground.
Now you need to explore the surrounding area and, if you're lucky, there might be a
good portion of the skeleton preserved. 2007
I got lucky. This Psittacosaurus turned out to be fairly complete. It even has a skull.
Maybe you can make out the series of vertebrae near the end of my brush. Compare the size of those to
the dorsal vertebra of 'Lon's Trike' that's posted above. Triceratops was big. 2007
Packing the trucks and preparing to head back to Ulaanbaatar. In just a few weeks, our expedition had discovered more than 80 specimens of Psittacosaurus. 2007
Jeff Lane, Inga Sorenson, and I at the 'Ashes Trike' site in the Hell Creek Formation. When prospecting for dinosaurs, the person who finds a site gets to name it. I happened to be listening to David Bowie's song "Ashes to Ashes" on my mp3 player when I found this Triceratops poking out of the hillside. 2009
Scapula (shoulder blade) of the 'Ashes Trike.' Even though some fossils, like this one, are pretty big - they're still very fragile and they need to be protected for safe transport back to the laboratory. So, after you find a dinosaur fossil, you usually want to encase it in a 'jacket' of burlap and plaster. 2009
Cameron Pahl takes a short break while carrying the 'Ashes Trike' scapula jacket back to the truck (which was parked roughly a mile away). The combined weight of the shoulder blade and the jacket protecting it was about 100 pounds. 2009
You never know when you'll come across a rattlesnake in the badlands of Montana. 2009
Weathered partial Triceratops sacrum (the fused vertebrae of the hips). 2009
Here I am tunneling under the sacrum (fused hip vertebrae) of a large Triceratops. It can sometimes be tricky to encase very large specimens in a jacket. First you put on a 'top jacket' to protect the exposed bones. Then, you usually want to get the specimen secure enough so that it can be flipped over and you can complete the jacket (with a 'bottom jacket'). Sometimes, if the fossil is too large to be flipped, you need to tunnel under it and continue making the jacket while hoping not to be crushed from above. 2009
Kari Baker and I consider how to safely remove a small tail vertebra from the 'Warwick's Duck' site - a hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) discovered by Warwick Fowler. Removing small, delicate bones can often be trickier than dealing with gigantic bones, because they are so fragile. 2009
Alessandro Carpana examines options for reinforcing one of the larger jackets at 'Warwick's Duck.' We reinforce large jackets with wooden beams and metal rebar in order to give them extra strength and support. Alessandro is a geology student in Parma, Italy - in the summers he travels to the badlands of Montana to study the dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation. 2009
Lee Hall (in white) and I, having succesfully flipped one of the large 'Warwick's Duck' jackets, turn our attention to dealing with the monstrous jacket holding the animal's hind legs. The jacket weighed over 2,000 pounds. 2009
We were lucky enough to get a helicopter to help us move some of the largest jackets from the field to trailers waiting back at camp. 2009
