August 16, 2006 - Liscomb Quarry, More bones scattered across the North Slope Options

[Jason_Petula]

This morning I awoke anxious to learn more from Paul about the work he is conducting related to reconstructing the paleoenvironment of the North Slope. The morning ritual was the same as in the Dino Camp. Coffee, oatmeal, and off to work. Unfortunately, getting to work is difficult when the motors on the boat refuse to start. No matter what technique is used, it appears the only way to get the motors running is to take turns pulling the starter for a minimum of an hour.

Once the blasted motors started, we headed past 70 degrees north to another dinosaur quarry. This quarry is near the river level so there is no need to climb the perilous bluff. While Paul measured sections of sediments, Dave and I excavated a little in the quarry and noticed it is quite different from the Kikak-tegoseak quarry. Here, the bones are stratified. In other words, the larger bones are located at the base of the layer and smaller bones are near the top. Why this layering exists poses an interesting question to the research team. Paul and colleagues hope to find an answer to this riddle by studying the sediments in the region. Both the Liscomb Quarry and the Kikak-tegoseak quarry comprise of river sediments. Yet, the bones are arranged differently. It seems that with each discovery new questions surface. The two questions still evading an answer are: (1) how did these dinosaurs die? and (2) what processes deposited their bones in the manner we find them?


Dolores van derKolk (University of Alaska - Fairbanks) displays the end of a dinosaur bone fossil she
discovered at Liscomb Quarry.