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| March 10, 2010, Wednesday It was a relatively late start last Saturday as I left with my Sequence Stratigraphy class for a trip to the road cut section north of Caprock Canyons State Park. In the road cuts there is an excellent section of the Triassic Dockum Group exposed. I found some bone fragments in the section; however, they were not diagnostic. The section there shows an excellent sequence of conglomerate, sandstone, and mudstone strata with a wonderful variety of sedimentary structures. Saturday was a beautiful day to be in the field. Today was warm and windy. Tonight there is a possibility of snow in the northern parts of the area. West Texas weather!!! Doug has been having some success piecing together some various elements of his sphenosuchian while I have been sorting and identifying material from Gretchen and my last three field trips. Too much to do and not enought time. |
 Plant fossils in the Triassic Dockum Group. |
| February 20, 2010, Saturday The sky was overcast and dreary as the day started. It was cool but not cold as we headed for the field for the first time in over a month due to uncooperative weather. The weather was supposed to clear and it wasn't supposed to start snowing until late tonight or tomorrow, so we were going to make the best of it. It turned out to be a beautiful, calm, sunny, 70 degree day. We had not visited the locality since last October and although we didn't find anything spectacular, we did find some interesting fossils. Gretchen, as usual, made the first find. She found part of a Koskinonodon skull (the orbit was preserved). It was Johanna's first trip to the field with us and she was fascinated by the abundance of coprolites. Soon, Johanna had also found an Arganodus tooth. I found a couple of very poorly preserved unionid bivalves. I believe they are the first we have from this locality. The moisture conditions were not conducive for collecting but I was able to show Johanna some of the Triassic plant fossils at the locality. Then Gretchen came up with what appears to be a large reptilian premaxilla fragment (not phytosaurian). We will have to prepare and piece it together for identification. Johanna found an aetosaur dorsal vertebra. Gretchen went by to see if there were any signs of small fragments missing from her beautiful Tecovasuchus paramedian osteoderm. No luck. Then she went by her Desmatosuchus site and there wasn't anything additional weathering out there. The same was true for her Poposaurus site. I did find part of a paramedian osteoderm at her Adamanasuchus site. We went to the western portion of the locality where I went to check on my baby phytosaur site. I found a piece of maxilla that I hope I am able to piece to the previously collected elements. I collected a number of tiny teeth there also (not all phytosaurian). Gretchen found a portion of a small metoposaur skull nearby. Again we need to prepare the specimen to see if it is identifiable below family level. To the right is also one of the rauisuchid teeth; a fish jaw fragment and scale (on my GPS screen); and one of the tiny teeth I collected (note the texture of my jeans for scale). Gretchen made the "find of the day" with a small flint point you can see on the palm of her hand at right. |
 My "field crew" Johanna and Gretchen  Rauisuchid tooth  Fish scale and jaw fragment.  Tiny reptilian tooth.  The tiny flint point Gretchen found. |
| February 12, 2010, day It was before dawn when I arrived at the museum for work. Our winter continues as this was the view of my truck as I looked back on my way into the Museum. It is hard to go to the field and search for fossils when they are covered with snow. So we must be content with preparing and cataloging. |
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| January 18, 2010, Monday The day got off to a slow start as Gretchen Gürtler and I headed for my research area late in the morning. We stopped and visited the landowner who happened to be on that part of the ranch. I dropped Gretchen off at Site XL because of muddy roads and I drove on around to near Site I. We scoured the locality with very little success. At Site III, I found the proximal end of a Trilophosaurus femur, at Site V I found a vertebra of one of Atanassov's taxa, at Site IV Gretchen found some more Trilophosaurus material (see photo at right top), at Site XII Gretchen may have made the find of the day with what appears to be two articulated caudal or cervical paramedian aetosaur osteoderms, and at Site XVI she found several phytosaur osteoderms. Then I found some dermal armor of a Dasypus (extant). We did much better with wildlife today. We saw Canadian geese, snow geese, a variety of common ducks, mountain bluebirds, cedar waxwings, bobwhite quail, scaled quail, northern harrier hawks, a roadrunner, brown thrasher, and then lots more of the other common species. |
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| January 3, 2010, Sunday Our winter break ends tomorrow. Gretchen Gürtler and I were frequently in the museum over the break working on various projects and research. Deer season ends today; so, we can gear-up our field work again. The recent snows and rains have us anxious to visit several sites. We still have seven phytosaur skulls (or partial skulls) in the field to recover. I was discussing it with Doug last month and our goal is to bring them all in during 2010. |
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