#field work

[lichenaday]

Some of the baby birds I met on this recent round of field work:

1. Limosa limosa, black-tailed godwit

2. Haematopus ostralegus, oystercatcher

3. & 4. Numenius phaeopus, Eurasian whimbrel

5. Tringa totanus, redshank

6. Charadrius hiaticula, common ringed plover

7. Pluvialis apricaria, European golden plover

[dykesandditches]

So many colors! I’m starting to love fall on the marsh. The red spot is red saltwort or Rocky Mountain saltwort. It’s a really special species to see as it’s only found in high elevations or latitudes and has to be in soils with high salinity. It’s considered extinct in a few states and is protected in others. The photo doesn’t even capture how vividly red it is. This is a relatively small patch compared to others I’ve seen around, but I thought it was especially beautiful with the turning bulrush and mountains.

[chaotic-archaeologist]

hi reid! i was wondering if you had any tips for staying cool (and sane) on digs in the heat. i have an opportunity to do an excavation this summer but the heat often goes about 95f. as always i ♡ your blog

Hi there,

There's some advice from old posts in my advice master list—go and check that out! My favorite hack is to freeze a bottle(s) of Gatorade and then drink it as it melts throughout the day. BUT!!! If you do that, YOU HAVE TO TAKE A SIP OUT OF THE BOTTLE BEFORE YOU FREEZE IT OTHERWISE IT WILL EXPLODE.

However, the two most important things you can do for yourself are 1) learning the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and 2) advocating for yourself (and others) should you begin to experience them.

As always, feel free to chime in with their own tips and tricks. -Reid

[gaynaturalistghost]

Undergrad field work Pamela Isley!

On her shirt is a fern gametophyte and the funny little saying I made up to remember that they are the sex ones. Also fern gametophytes can be shaped like hearts which is really cute : )

[ochipi]

Times my archaeology made people’s day #1

Open door days on a site in the middle of a town. Bunch of walls, some tiled floors, a cellar and stone wells. All the adults were asking dumb questions (as in; “do you feel the presence of the ancient people while you’re working”,).

In one of my groups was a single kid between a bunch of adults and he was running a bit lost on his own.

At one point he noticed and asked me “why is there so much slate here?”

Excellent question! It’s a city so a lot of roofs were tiled with slate and sometimes even a wall. And when the buildings were bombed in WW1, the slate ended up everywhere.

He had a smile from ear to ear and his eyes shone bright. I was happy too because it was the smartest question of the day. I was happy to do that for him.

[linaruina]

В этом году никуда не еду, но, на удивление, моральное состояние в полном порядке. Даже удивительно.

Фото с экскурсии в карьер.

[somefuckerrocker]

I'm a geology student & my favourite Pokemon is Omanyte so I thought why not show it some geological fieldwork.

This is Gummy, my new lab partner. Also featuring Makka Pakka, my other lab partner & the og geologist

[trying-geology]

Went to Big Bend National Park in October 2023!

[bettergeology]

Netarts Bay is home to one of the finest estuaries in Oregon; a rich ecosystem of oysterbeds and coastal marshes. However, it conceals evidence of the last great earthquake in the Northwest. 320 years ago, on January 26, 1700, the Cascadia Subduction Zone ruptured along its full length, sending a colossal tsunami onto the Oregon Coast and across the Pacific to Japan. The tsunami is recorded in Oregon as a layer of sand amidst mudflat deposits. Here, 7 tsunami layers are recorded, showing earthquakes back over 2,000 years.

Also, a ghost forest is present. Stumps of ash and fir trees are preserved under water and in the mud that have been carbon dated to around 1000AD. These trees were killed by a tsunami event which saturated them in salt water. The earthquakes cause the coast to subside by about 1 meter, into the water, and the slow tectonic action between earthquakes slowly raises it back above the water.

I've been back a number of times since these pictures were taken, and when the data is all published I'll talk more freely about it.

[mineralsrocksandfossiltalks]

Fossil Friday: Brachiosaurus altithorax

Another well known sauropod, Brachiosaurus has captured the imaginations of many for over a century with its incredible size.

Found in 1900 by Elmer S. Riggs in Fruita, Colorado near the Colorado River, the name Riggs chose means "arm lizard with a deep chest." Apt name if you ask me.

Riggs worked for the Field Columbian Museum now known as the Field Museum of Natural History of Chicago. Riggs was actually looking for Eocene mammals when he was informed of the dinosaurs near Grand Junction. Little did he know he would find the biggest dinosaur to date!

As you can see, there really isn't a ton of material found from Brachiosaurus. In fact, most of what we know has been extrapolated from the African cousin, Giraffatitan which was believed to be a species of Brachiosaurus until 1991.

Despite the apparent lack of material, what has been described has come from Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. The holotype skeleton (the first one) consists of a right humerus, a right femur, the right ilium, the right coracoid, the sacrum, 7 dorsal vertebrae, two caudal vertebrae and several ribs.

In 1883, Marshall Parker Felch who worked for Othniel Charles Marsh, found a sauropod skull in Garden Park, Colorado. It was incorporated into the Brontosaurus skeleton at the Yale Peabody Museum but in 1975 a couple of paleontologists said it was closer to Camarasaurus than an any diplodocid skull. One of them brought it to the attention of Kenneth Carpenter, a well known paleontologist in Utah and Virginia Tidwell. In 1998 they tentatively assigned it to Brachiosaurus sp. as there are no overlapping elements with the holotype it's impossible to determine if it belongs to B. altithorax.

There are some possible dorsal verts from Dry Mesa Quarry, Colorado, possibly a nearly complete juvenile from the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, and possibly a foot from the Black Hills in Wyoming.

As you can see, finding more Brachiosaurus material would be awesome and we believe we may have one in our bonebed.

This rib alone is about 3m and still diving into the hillside. Hopefully, we will be able to get it out this year.

This could potentially be part of the scapular coracoid. Again, it's diving into the rock so it is difficult to tell. But the sucker is pretty big.

We also pulled out an articulated sequence of caudal vertebrae from the same general spot that all these bones are located. Fingers crossed that a skull is in there somewhere waiting for us to find.

Thanks for reading and tune in on Monday for a bit of focused talk on Macronarian sauropods like Brachiosaurs!

[lichenaday]

Found this borzoi puppy alone in the Icelandic highlands. No microchip and appears unsocialized. Will be keeping it no owner comes forward.

[dykesandditches]

Milfoil! This is Northern Milfoil its cousin, Eurasian Milfoil is highly invasive. They’re hard to tell apart sometimes. I thought it was neat how you could see it under the water

[chaotic-archaeologist]

Hi, I'm going to be doing a dig school in Italy in a few months, and I've been trying to find a good pair of steel-toed boots. I'm transmasc, and my feet are really small (6.5), so I can't really wear men's shoes, and it's really hard finding quality women's work boots, ESPECIALLY with a steel toe. Do you have any recs?

My own boots are Timberlands, which are basically the same in women's as they are in men's, but they don't have steel toes. Is this a requirement for your field school, or can you get other boots? I know plenty of working archaeologists who don't wear steel toes.

But there is also absolutely a market for women's steel toed boots out there. If any of my followers want to chime in with their own boot recommendations, please do!

@archaeo-geek and @archaeologysucks as two working professionals I wonder if you have any advice?

-Reid

[changeling-lux]

Hello! I am a graduate student and am conducting fieldwork for my Folklore and Folklife class. My topic is: Fanfiction and Folklore Among Members of the Rationality Community. If you are/ were involved with the Rationality Community and are 18 years of age or older (class requirement for paperwork reasons), I would love to interview you for my project!

It would mean so much to have your participation; please DM me to set up an interview time!

[ochipi]

Times my archaeology made people’s day #2

I worked on a dig next to a tennis/padel facility in the summer holidays. A kids tennis summer camp was in full swing opposite of us. One time after lunch, the kids were having a free moment and the tennis coach came up to our pit.

He introduced himself as a recently graduated history teacher and was curious to know if we were doing archaeology, because he had never seen a dig before. We were happy to confirm that we had an Iron Age settlement. This was already cool to him, but I had just found a little pot (shattered) and gave him a piece to look at.

He had a look on his face similar to a kid in a candy shop. He of course knows his stuff, but none of what he touches or does is “old”. It almost looked like he had a Disney princess moment and I was happy to give it to him.