summer field work progress 08

[frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>]

Dinosaur List Members,

Been a busy paleontological field season here on the Bliss Ranch.   
With the HUGE rains this year giving us a late start, Hell Creek/Lance  
has been good this field with our Triceratops site being worked with  
several new large bones being exhumed from the muddy bentonitic lake  
sediments they were entombed within.  We are still cleaning (and will  
be for years) the large plastered blocks of bones we removed last year  
and now are adding more to our winter work load. Fortunately, new  
local volunteers have magically appeared in my crew so there is  
hope.    I just removed another 5 foot long rib a few weeks ago in  
beautiful condition which bring to 12 the number of different ribs we  
have recovered in various states of preservation.  This Triceratops  
(now named Doug) seems pretty complete and at least partially  
articulated.  I even found the largest croc molar that I have found in  
the sediments surrounding the tric skeleton.  Go figure, well fed crocs.

I have opened several new microsites and improved several old ones  
with heavy equipment removal of overburden for future fun in the sun.   
More than a few rare Cretaceous mammal teeth have been found,  
thousands of common Upper Cretaceous fossils, many common dinosaurian  
teeth, some rare ones and even a couple of quite rare troodon teeth  
came out under our Dinosaur Bed and Breakfasts guest's sharp eyes.   
These were the first troodontids that we have collected not first  
collected by harvester ants.  We had more dinosaur hunting guests this  
summer than we really wanted but fun was had by all.  Those guests  
were responsible for finding several pretty rare fossils that are now  
housed in the ranch collection by site number.   The

We even recovered some large Pleistocene mammal material as a result  
of the 20 plus professional 4 wheel drive trucks that played at the  
Bliss Ranch June 10 during the Petersen's 4 Wheel and Off Road  
Ultimate Adventure. The vehicles loosened some alluvium which washed  
away enough to expose the Pleistocene Fossils.  I suspect more of the  
fossils are there too but I'll wait a bit to tackle that excavation as  
it is on a pretty steep waterfall.  The trucks really helped me by  
loosening the collapsed soil which washed away and left the fossils.   
I wouldn't have found them with out the trucks coming here. Pretty  
cool and newsworthy.  So next year when we have the International  
Tactical Rifle Championships here (Aug 2009), I hope the shooters are  
as fossil productive!

My website has been totally reworked in a new format and I think you  
will find it quite a bit easier to read and maybe even useful.  It  
reads like a book on your screen.  I hope you enjoy seeing a long  
series of pictures of identified (hopefully correctly) Hell Creek  
Fossils in one place.  Please go to www.wyomingdinosaurs.com .  If you  
don't have fast internet you might be out of luck though as this is  
pretty current webpage technology (takes flash and is big) therefore  
pretty much state of the art.   There are still a few errors and the  
site continues under construction for a few more months.

The season isn't over yet but a nip is in the air and the days are  
getting shorter.......

Frank (Rooster) Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming
www.wyomingdinosaurs.com