Paleo Club Weblog » paleontology

Epic Move

Jason Carr — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:32:27 +0000

Yesterday in what can only be called a Herculean effort we, the summer crew at the Museum of Geology cleared the floor of the old gym of fossils we had been staging there. in 8 short hours we toted 52 pallets of fossil and mineral specimens along with 14 cases to be used in the new building. Many thanks to Lowell from facilities who’s proficiency with a forklift made the job possible.

the last load of cases and minerals about to be taken off the gym floor

The gym looks so empty now.

Out of the old, into the new. The collections move into our brand-new state of the art facility just up the hill.

Our new electric forklift can turn on a dime and place specimens safely atop the shelves.

The official ribbon cutting is scheduled for Sept. 1 at 10:00 AM. With a special party for paleo club members and Museum staff on the 3rd. Hope to see you there!

Moving in

Jason Carr — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:06:39 +0000

The Museum of Geology’s new Paleontology Research Laboratory is finally complete, and now begins the task of moving over 500,000 specimens in.

unprepared specimens will be stored on the upper level, doors on the left lead to the prep. lab.

Over the past few days we have been moving the jackets seen above from an offsite storage facility. Specimens were loaded one at a time onto a flatbed truck, brought to the new building and unloaded onto shiny new galvanized steel pallets. The pallets will be loaded onto the heavy duty racks once the facility get its own forklift.

One of 2 storage units.

Thanks to Facilities for the use and operation of the forklift. It made loading the jackets much more manageable.

Professor Jim Martin oversees the loading of the jacketed specimens onto a flatbed truck for transport to the new building

When unloading heavy jackets we make use of the building's 3 ton hoist.

Going up.

It takes a few of us just to roll this big one

After 2 days of loading and unloading everything from Plesiosaurs and Sea Turtles to Dinosaurs we still aren’t done emptying the offsite storage. We’ve saved the best for last: a Camerasaurus pelvis from the Little Houston Quarry. We believe it weighs over 3 tons and is as big as a small car.

What can I say? Dinosaurs are big!

Museum Organization Day

Jason Carr — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:47:59 +0000

Thank you to everyone who came out today to help get the museum ready for the 62nd annual meeting of the Geological Society of America—Rocky Mountain Section held this year in Rapid City.

The cases were cleaned and several displays were updated. Check out some pictures from the event.

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SVP Bristol, UK Part 5

Jason Testin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:26:55 +0000

Sunday September 27, ~9:30 GMT

Wow it is amazing how fate has the power to bring people together! I know that sounds like a Hallmark card, but so what. I should be well on my way home by now, but I’m still in London. My flight was postponed ~24 hours due to engine issues; better they figured that out now then when we were over Greenland. Yes I was annoyed, and stressed, but in classic cinema style, the crisis has brought a group of complete strangers together. While rushing around London, Heathrow airport after the announcement of out flight postponement, I fell in with a group of ragtag individuals, who I hope to keep as lifelong friends. We shared the experience of being put up for the night in the airport hotel, and trying to get back to Minneapolis where we will all go out separate ways.

On a side I suppose you all tuned in to hear the end of the SVP Conference in Bristol, it all ended last night with “paleo nerds gone wild” at the after party as the Royal Merriot Hotel in Bristol. Tthat is all I will say about that, you know what they say: “what happens at SVP, stays at SVP”!

Chears!

Monday, September 28 – Still in England!

Ok I realy can’t complain, it is better to find out the plane is having engine problems while still on the ground, instead of over Greenland, but my flight was delayed 24 hours. They did put us up in a hotel, gave us dinner and breakfast, and i did make some good friends. It was kind of like a movie where an freak event brings a bunch of strangers together and all the stuff. But now I’m off to MSP/STP International Airport and then back to Rapid City, see you all tomorrow in class!

I need some sleep, Nite Y’all!

Paleo Geeks CAN dance!

SVP Bristol, UK Part 4

Jason Testin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:39:30 +0000

Sept 26th ~3:30 GMT

Hello again from the Land of the Queen. Since I last wrote a lot has happened for me, some of which you will have to wait to learn about when it get published . I will share that Ryan Tucker presented his poster, which I understand went very well, it was certainly, in my opinion, better done by some of those put together by “professionals”.

After the poster presentations, I helped the auction people set up for the silent auction. there were many interesting things to make bids on, from rare article re-prints to hours of prep time to dinosaur tattoos. Pat Monaco even auctioned herself off as a field camp cook. Following the silent part of the auction, and some social time, we had a live auction. What started out as a fairly standard auction with local British society member auctioneer in a tux, was quickly taken ovey Python’s King Artur and crew, taking off by Mont some time form their search for the Holy Grail.

Yes that is Ryan Tucker as the Night Who says NEE!

SVP Bristol, UK Part 3

Jason Testin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:54:43 +0000

Friday Sept 25, ~3:30 GMT

Well, I think the last time I wrote I was off to the student round table session. This was a VERY good move! If you are serious about making paleo your life, you NEED to attend SVP ASAP and go to this! I chatted with John Merck, who like myself was a “mid-life crisis” convert to vert paleo, as well as his colleague Thom Holtz (you Dino people should know him!), between the two of them they help me plan out my Senior and Master’s research. Strangely the “Dino” Jason might be working on mammals!

On another note the sessions are going good, and very informative! I actually can follow along with the “big wigs” so that is good. Soon it will be time for SDSM&T’s own Ryan Tucker to present his Poster, I will get pics. I will also get pictures of the auction later this evening, in which Ryan will be dressed as a character from Monty Python’s Holy Grail.

well as i sign off for now i will leave you ALL with a bit of advice. If you are serious about Paleo and not a “fan-boy” you MUST come to SVP next year, ESPECIALLY the Undergrad!

Cheery O Mates!

p.s. to see ALL my Bristol pics go to My Facebook page i don’t think you have to be on my friends list to see them, but feel free to friend me if you like.

Tea Time @ session Break

Construction Update

Jason Carr — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:37:45 +0000

Progress on the new paleontology lab here at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is moving along quite quickly. Earlier this week the concrete for the 2nd floor of the was poured. The official completion date is August of 2010, but at the rate things are going it could be as early as May.

here are some photos I took this morning of the progress:

we’re all excited and can hardly wait for it to be finished.

Rockstar Paleontologists!

Jason Carr — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:37:09 +0000

The long-running alternative rock band They Might Be Giants is releasing a follow-up to their educational albums Here Come The ABCs, and the grammy-winning Here come the 123s called Here Comes Science. There are some great educational songs incuding one on evolution and common descent called “My Brother The Ape”, and an update to the TMBG classic “Why Does The Sun Shine” — “the sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma”

But the true gem (at least for us) is I am a Paleontologist. This may become an anthem for the entire profession of paleontology, and it’s a catchy tune to boot. Have a listen:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ8rblUtEXA

Paleontology Field Camp—rain delay

Jason Carr — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:02:48 +0000

It’s raining here in Sundance WY. The Litle Houston Quarry is soaked and no work can be done today. But this provides an excellent oppertunity to post some pictures.

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Paleontology Field Camp—week one

Jason Carr — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:10:40 +0000

Week one of paleo field camp at the Little Houston Quarry in Sundance Wyoming has conlcluded. The quarry has been reopened after 10 years, and we spent the majority of the week mapping out the bone bed. (getting the contextual data—where the fossil was found is just as important removing as the bone itself.)

On Friday we made a trip to Devil’s Tower National Monument, a volcanic neck that played a role in Stephen Speilberg’s sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

We’re all excited about next week, when we hope to be able to remove a large sauropod femur.

photos are on the Museum of Geology’s facebook page here