August 9, 2006 - More Evidence of Pachyrhinosaurs Uncovered Options

[Jason_Petula]

This morning we emerged from our tents to beautiful blue skies. The storm had finally broken. After some morning coffee in the camp kitchen, an eight-man tent, we headed back to the bluffs to catch up on lost work time. As we approached our normal landing point for the Kikak-tegoseak dinosaur quarry, we saw first hand the dynamic nature of these bluffs.

The precipitation from the storm caused a large portion of our trail, allowing us access to the top of the bluff, slumped into the Colville River. We forged a new trail around the slump and negotiated the slippery route back to the quarry. Upon arrival, we immediately worked on extracting the bones from the quarry.

The morning was full of excitement because we uncovered many more occipital condyles. Tony commented, and joked at being frustrated, about the amazing bone density at this quarry. Any where you step you are standing on bone! No matter how hard we try to jacket and extract bone, we keep uncovering new bone that slows are progress. What I find interesting is that the pachyrhinosaurs all appear to be juvenile – at least the ones I have uncovered. How did these animals die and why did the killing mechanism seem so selective? Only more evidence can offer an answer. One thing is for certain, something strange happened at this location in the Arctic Cretaceous. Oh yeah, something unrelated to dinosaurs happened a mile down river from camp. A grizzly bear has started eating a caribou carcass. Isn’t that special!


The pachyrhinosaur had unusual frills adorning its head.

[Janet_Warburton]

Note to Forum Readers:

You might have noticed that Jason hasn't posted a journal entry since 10 August and hasn't been able to respond to questions. I'm only assuming that due to weather conditions on the North Slope, that the team hasn't had enough power generated from the solar panels to recharge the computer and phone that Jason uses to send journal entries. Once the sun comes out - we may hear from him again!

Until then, stay tuned!!


Janet