Zooks! CFDC's 2010 Field Season Beginneth!


       The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre's 2010 Field Season has begun! The summer students are finally here (after acing all their university exams)-- and we're still expecting some interns! From left to right: Katie , Matt, Jaclyn, Andrea, Kathryn , and Sacha.
        It's been one incredible first week for us summer students, and the year-round staff are excited to have us back too! The new dig team includes Katie Magitoaux (Junior Field Technician), Kathryn Lapenskie (Junior Field Technician), and returning students Matthew Duda (Senior Field Technician), Andrea Hrenchuk (Senior Field Technician), Sacha Debreuil (Youth Program Coordinator) and myself, Jaclyn Kozak (Youth Program Co-ordinator). I'm responsible for blogging every week, because I'm the English student in a large sea of science degrees. 
 
       Already on the first day, we had some success with finding fossils, with the guidence of Assistant Curator, Joesph Hatcher. On Monday we surface collected a mosasaur vertebra. The Mosasaur vertebra was found in the Pembina Member, it was pinkish in colour and had decent preservation.
      On Friday we found some more mosasaur vertebrae, semi- articulated!(some what connected) Lapenskie, our geology major, was most excited about the 7ft cut of bentonite layers, “It had perfect horizontal layers and distinct contacts between the bentonite and the shale.”
        There are big plans and high hopes for this year's field season. The CFDC has added new dig sites just ripe for excavation. There is big plans for large geological field work on the Pembina, Millwood, and Odanha Members, including more bentonite sampling for regional correlations of the beds. The CFDC has already spotted our next big finds-- including a mosasaur, Xphactinus, and a plesiosaur partially submerged under a cattle pond. However, until we get these fossils out of the ground, we won't be able to tell how complete they are or even if the preservation is  very good for research. 

       Throughout our season, we'll continue our successful museum and dig tours, excavating and quarry mapping at our regular sites, and we'll be hitting up the International Childeren's Festival, Kid's Fringe and Corn & Apple Festival again.
Come on down for a visit this 2010 Field Season, meet our staff  and be a part of discovering history!
-Jaclyn Kozak

Comments

Eulalie said…
sounds like there's a lot of fun to be had! I can't wait to come on down all the way from Kansas city! Hurrah!