Newbie Dinofest Report

["Sherry Michael" <MICHAELS@preit.com>]

I usually read this group via the archives, but I decided to unlurk...

The Symposium was my first lecture event- sort of a warm up to my first SVP 
meeting. I thought I'd give a (hopefully) brief report from an amateur-amateur 
paleo perspective. You can all reminisce. :)

I started off by going to the Thursday New Jersey historical/ marl pit trip 
with Dr. Gallagher and Dr. Parris (Otherwise known as "Dr. Bill's Quicksand 
Tour"). We went to pay our respects to the _Hadrosaurus foulkii_ site and then 
went digging in the marl at Inversand. Wow, they don't call that stuff 
greensand for nothing- the mine looked like an X-Files set!

I had a great time at the symposiums. I was a bit disappointed that many of the 
papers where just rehashing of stuff I have heard before. For me, it was the 
thrill of actually being able to pick the brains of people that I've never had 
access. Some of my favorite sessions were: Neal Larson on ammonites, Jack 
Horner's bone stuff, Chin's coprolites, Sereno's dinos playing Basketball, some 
of the various sauropod talks, and many more. Was anyone in the baby sauropod 
footprint discussion?  Dolph Seilacher ripped into the poor presenter (sorry I 
don't recall his name). I know Dolph is well respected, but he sounded pretty 
off base making sweeping statements about the validity of dino tracks. It 
almost got ugly.

I hate to say it, but I almost zonked out during Gould's talk. He lost me when 
he started the "eight stories" bit. He was beating a dead horse at the end. 

Dinofeast was the best part- I couldn't resist the pull of our prep lab and had 
to show Tracy Ford and Thom Holmes a theropod tooth we found. Anyway, I should 
have known that as soon as the bones came out, swarms started to come by to see 
what we were working on. Bakker and his entourage came in, and many others. 
What a thrill to have such a parade to see our work!

I guess I will end by saying that I'm even more inspired than I was before. I 
haven't been able to complete anything at work all week because I've ben 
thinking about dinosaurs. :) I learned quite a bit listening in on hallway 
conversations and talking with people. It was a great experience, and it was 
nice meeting a few of you.

-Sherry Michael
ANSP prep lab manager