Happy Holidays!

Have a happy holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a hearty Happy Thanksgiving wish to all of my American friends and family (and anyone else who is celebrating). Enjoy the day!

Dinosaur Research Institute's annual fundraising dinner

The Dinosaur Research Institute's annual fundraising dinner will be held on November 7, 2009 at 6PM at the Earl Grey Golf Club in Calgary. Tickets are $150 per person with tax receipts available for a large portion of the ticket cost. The funds raised go towards dinosaur research based in Alberta or for researchers from Alberta to conduct research outside of the province (such as visiting distant museums, etc.).

The Dinosaur Research Institute also maintains the Rene Vandervelde grant, which provides funds for Alberta-based dinosaur researchers to present at conferences as well as the Darren Tanke Neoceratopsian Scholarship which provides funds for ceratopsian workers to visit distant museums, present at conferences, etc.

During the dinner, several presentations from past recipients will occur and a paleontology student from Alberta will be present at each table. A silent auction will be held after the dinner with numerous interesting items available.

For more information, visit www.dinosaurresearch.com. Hope to see you there!

Bristol SVP

So, another SVP conference under my belt. I believe it was my 8th. Having SVP in Bristol, England, was a lot of fun even with the glitches (the venue was way too small - I don't think they ever envisioned that 1100 people would attend!; they 'lost' my registration, but my boyfriend was registered twice - go figure; the walk between venues was about 10 minutes - so you had to plan ahead which can be hard after partying all night). However, it was all worth it. I saw many interesting talks and it was good to see everyone and find out how their research has been going. Plus the sightseeing was awesome. I love that I spent time in buildings that are older than my country! : )

Next year SVP is in Pittsburgh, which I'm sure won't be quite as scenic, but should still be a good time. Lookin' forward to it!

Thank you field assistants!!

I just wanted to send out a great big "Thank you!" to all my field and lab assistants this summer. You all helped out tremendously and will be mentioned in the acknowledgements of my dissertation! : )

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.