Collection of Scollard material at Dry Island

I've been working a site in the Scollard Formation of Dry Island Buffalo Jump Park that is looking quite promising. It was worked about 6 or 7 years ago by Dr. Don Brinkman and Allison Fotheringham (both of the Tyrrell Museum), but not really looked at since then. So far I've surface collected and found a nice theropod tooth (pictured above) and an ankylosaur scute as well as a lot of other small bits. We've also collected about 15 smallish (25-35 lb) bags of matrix. I'm going to be getting more bodies in the field with me this week and will collect even more material to wash during the winter. It would go much faster except we have to carry the bags up the Hill of Doom which has about a 35 degree slope on the path out and is about a half a kilometer long. I can only walk the hill once a day. I'm hoping my younger and fitter field assistants will be able to do it twice a day for the next week. : )

New blog regarding 2010 scow trip

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Barnum Brown floating down the Red Deer River in Alberta to prospect and collect dinosaurs, Darren Tanke and I will be re-enacting this event during the summer of 2010. We've started a new blog that will keep everyone apprised of the status of the trip. It's called "Dinosaur Hunting by boat in 2010: Alberta, Canada" and can be found at http://2010dinohuntingbyboat.blogspot.com/. We are planning to use this blog before, during and after the trip to post pictures, discuss plans and just generally let everyone know how things are going. It's going to be a fun and educational trip and I hope that everyone will join us on the blog. We are open to discussion and hope that you will feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

No SVP awards banquet

I have to say I'm a bit annoyed at SVP at the moment. I recently read an email from SVP President Blair Van Valkenburg that states they couldn't find a room big enough to hold all of us, so they are going to change the awards banquet to a simple ceremony. While I'm really looking forward to the conference, the fact that we don't get an awards banquet this year is kind of annoying. I understand that the economy is in the crapper, but I find it hard to believe that the university doesn't have a room large enough to hold us all. Where do they hold their graduation ceremonies?

I feel that I paid a lot to register (even as a student) as well as $1100 (CDN) for the flight, and will be paying around $115 (US) per night for the hotel, plus then food and incidentals. I think the least they could do is have a banquet. The food doesn't have to be spectacular - I'd be happy with sandwiches and chips. And I'd bet good money that when the economy does pick back up that the banquet will still be history. Actually, I found it rather amusing that she mentioned that there will not be food during coffee breaks (just cookies) because I can only think of one meeting where there was real food during coffee breaks and that was at Bozeman. I remember everyone being surprised and delighted at the food and snarfing down.

I won't even go into the whole Attenborough lecture fiasco - especially since I ended up getting tickets much to my surprise.

Oh well. I'm still be attending and looking forward to seeing everyone and being in Bristol, even if it means I have to give up the banquet.

INHIGEO 2009: Fossils & Fuel

The INHIGEO 2009 conference is being held in Calgary on August 10-14. The symposium will be concentrating on fossils and fuel. Darren and I will be attending and he will be giving 4 solo talks and is a co-author on another. I'm looking forward to learning about the world wide history behind fossil and fuel discoveries.