Park Paleontology, Spring 1998 Page 1 PARK PALEONTOLOGY Volume 4, No. 2 Spring 1998 Surfers Discover Park Fossils n the last four months Web surfers [email protected]. parks website in several places. visiting the Park Geology website The website also attempts to high- I http://www.aqd.nps.gov/grd Under Construction at light the educational value of park geol- have discovered a great deal of new in- ogy by using broad themes to link park There are several projects in the works formation, especially in the area of park sites throughout the System. However, that could enhance the park paleontol- paleontology. Park Geology is a most of the material from brochures is ogy information on the Web: website designed by the Geologic Re- park-specific and doesnt take advantage We are currently testing an on-line sources Division to serve as a central hub of the multi-park approach to explain- searchable photo database that will for information about geoparks and ing complex geology. One exception is have more than 400 USGS photo- to link parks from across the System the Age of Mammals: Life in the graphs of park geologic features through common Cenozoic Era, with descriptions. Photographs of geologic themes. Park Geology website at which is used on fossils and paleontology projects The original de- http://www.aqd.nps.gov/grd several park bro- would be welcome additions. sign was tested chures. Using A web-based park geology timeline using information this illustration designed by Vince Santucci is be- from fossil parks, and now that a basic rich material, designers were able to ex- ing expanded into a National Park framework is in place we would like to periment with a thematic feature, creat- see Website, page 2 see park paleontology features continue ing a model for other themes (see http:/ to grow. /www.aqd.nps.gov/grd/parks/ The bulk of the websites pages are Age_of_Mammals.htm). Table of Contents park focused content pages called ge- Yahoo! The Park Geology Surfers Discover Park Fossils .........................1 ology fieldnotes. There are currently website has recently become more vis- more than 150 individual park geology ible to Web users. In December the site Fairy Tales Can Come True ........................... 2 fieldnote pages posted on the sites tour was listed by the Yahoo search engine Aquarium in Stone .......................................... 2 of park geology. The initial content for and since then it has been added by other Florissant Compiles New Database ............... 3 these pages was taken from park bro- search engines. Park Geology is grow- chures and site bulletins, with the scan- ing in popularity among teachers, stu- John Day yields unique primate tooth ............ 3 ning and editing done by students and a dents, and visitors that use the Web. The Teaching Fossils Through the Mail ................3 contractor. However, many of the park server that hosts Park Geology and brochures are weak in their coverage of NatureNet now records more than Dinosaur bonebed discovered at Big Bend ....4 geology, so the work of locating or cre- 100,000 hits each week. Linking a Paleo at Delaware Water Gap NRA ............... 4 ating additional text and photos for each parks home page to the geology PARK PALEO Recognition Pin ..................... 4 park is just beginning. If you can con- fieldnotes or to other parks that share tribute any geologic information for the geologic themes is encouraged. The FOSSIL FORUM ............................................ 5 NPS website, please contact geology fieldnotes already link to each Page 2 Park Paleontology, Spring 1998 Fairy Tales Can Come True Dan ChureDINO etween 1990 and 1996 the pale known as gamma particles, can be emit- his face. The staff, needless to say, was Bontology staff at Dinosaur Na ted from fossilized bone and he had de- ecstatic. tional Monument excavated and veloped a machine for detecting these It took many weeks to excavate the prepared the skeleton of a new species emissions. Ray had used his dinosaur skull and ultimately helicopter it back of meat-eating dinosaur. This spectacu- dowser successfully with other paleon- to the lab. By the beginning of 1997 lar specimen is one of the most impor- tologists and he came to Dinosaur hop- one side of the skull was completely ex- tant ever found in the Monument and ing that he could help us solve our prob- posed and its was a site to behold; a two- one of the best from rocks of Late Ju- lem. Ray gridded off the quarry and foot long skull, complete with a toothy rassic age anywhere in the world. Even systematically measured gamma emis- smile. The remarkable dinosaur so, it was, unfortunately, another head- sions over a 30 by 6 foot area. Back at dowser had lived up to its reputation less wonder a skeleton missing the the lab he analyzed the data to remove and we now had the missing piece to our skull; something which happens all too the emissions from the rock itself. This great dinosaur puzzle. frequently in paleontology. There was done, there remained one high reading Rays machine will not find all fos- no clue as to what had happened to the a hopeful sign. Was it a fragment of sil bones, since some do not emit gamma skull. Was it still buried deep within the a bone....a piece of petrified wood...or particles, and others are buried too deep rocks of the quarry? Had it been washed the missing skull? To answer that ques- to detect. However, in the right situa- away by the river before the skeleton had tion, Ray returned to Dinosaur in July tion, with the right conditions (and a little been buried in sand? Or had the skull 1996 and relocated the spot. He told us bit of luck), it can work wonders and been destroyed even before the skeleton the emission reading suggested that we have the skull to prove it!n had been washed into the river? No one whatever was there was close to the sur- knew and all hope had been lost that the face and that we should proceed care- Aquarium in stone skull would ever be found. fully. Incredibly, the first hammer blow Marcia Fagnant Enter the knight on a white horse, hit bone, and within an hour it was clear Ray Jones, a radiologist at the Univer- that we were looking at the back of the FOBU sity of Utah, with an interest in dino- missing skull. At the end of the day Ray uring the summer of 1996, a saurs. Ray knew that small particles, rode off into the sunset with a smile on Dguided hike to an active re- search Website quarry was added to the week- continued from page 1 end programs at FOBU. The purpose geology time machine, where earth of this program is to give visitors an op- The work of paleontologists and cu- history and the history of life on portunity to visit an active site on the rators; earth can be experienced through monument and interact with a working How to get involved: Meetings, fossil parks. paleontologist. Because the Monument preservation issues, general interest is surrounded by active commercial fos- The USGS National Mapping Pro- publications. sil quarries (many allow visitors to pay gram is supporting the development a fee to collect and keep fossils), this of park geology pages for several Send program provides an opportunity to in- parks. Part of this work will include Please get involved in the park ge- troduce the visitor to concepts associ- general geology pages explaining ology website by sending in ideas, re- ated with the scientific study of fossils. the geologic time scale and provid- ports, articles, photos, meeting an- At the quarry, visitors are provided ing of plate reconstruction diagrams. nouncements, and corrections. Expert with a background and history of the site review and additional material will have and how it fits into the larger strati- Ideally, the paleontology sections of to come from people like yourself. The graphic context of Fossil Basin. The the website would help to conserve Geologic Resources Division can scan park paleontologist or a research assis- park fossil resources by creating more text, photos and slides, and prepare new tant describes the scientific methods of informed visitors. A few ideas that still webpages for posting on our server or collecting fossil specimens and associ- need authors include: yours. If you dont have web access but ated scientific data. Visitors are then in- Information about collecting and re- would like to be involved, we can make vited to assist the scientist in the collec- search permits; a CD-ROM with the current website for tion of specimens and recording data. Alternatives to collecting: Museums you to review. The two hour quarry program at- that hold NPS fossil collections; Contacts: [email protected] tracted 65 participants in 1996 and in Arranging field trips; or [email protected] 1997, program participation more than doubled with 158 visitors.n Park Paleontology, Spring 1998 Page 3 Florissant Fossil Beds compiles new database Herb Meyer FLFO ossil plants and insects have lished specimens from Florissant in or- The database includes information Fbeen collected from the der to facilitate future research and pro- inherent to each individual specimen Florissant fossil beds since the vide a meaningful taxonomic inventory (taxon, museum numbers, collector, lo- 1870s, long before the establishment of of Florissants diversity. The project is cality, etc.) as well as all information the National Monument in 1969. These still underway, and to date 3500 speci- pertaining to the publication history of large collections of fossils are housed men records have been added.