Monthly Archives: September 2008

Carmel Church Day 8 (updated)

Posted on September 24, 2008 by altondooley

Once again the weather is about to truncate our excavation; rain is forecast for the next four days. Tim and I were joined this afternoon by Keith and Carter, and we managed to get a lot of sediment removed, and … Continue reading →

Posted in "Popeye", Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Tagged | 4 Comments

Carmel Church Day 7

Posted on September 23, 2008 by altondooley

Tim and I spent the day working on defining trenches for the exposed bones behind the main vertebra jacket. By early afternoon we had made a trench around the flipper material (above).

Posted in "Popeye", Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Osteichthyans, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Tagged | Leave a comment

Carmel Church Day 6 (Update-10,000)

Posted on September 22, 2008 by altondooley

With the vertebrae out of the way, we were able to go further into the hillside today. Yesterday’s jacket ended at the bottom of the shoulder blade, and I’m pretty sure the light-colored bone under my arm in the photo … Continue reading →

Posted in "Popeye", Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Tagged | 1 Comment

Carmel Church Day 5

Posted on September 21, 2008 by altondooley

Success! Our rather risky jacket-flipping technique worked better than expected, and we successfully turned the jacket containing the whale scapula, at least 8 vertebrae, and bunches of ribs. The whole idea was to use the jacket to control the unavoidable … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmel Church odontocetes, Carmel Church Osteichthyans, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Tagged | 3 Comments

Carmel Church Day 4

Posted on September 20, 2008 by altondooley

We spent a good part of today continuing to add layers to the vertebra jacket. We’re letting it set up overnight, and we’ll try to flip it tomorrow. The shiny stuff behind the jacket in the photo above is aluminum … Continue reading →

Posted in "Popeye", Carmel Church Chondrichthyans, Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Tagged | 3 Comments

Carmel Church Day 3

Posted on September 19, 2008 by altondooley

Most fossil sites have some unique characteristics that make excavations a challenge. Maybe the bones are fragile and softer than the sediment, or the same color as the sediment. They might be miles from any road, or even underwater. Carmel … Continue reading →

Posted in "Popeye", Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group, Paleontological techniques | Tagged | Leave a comment

Carmel Church Day 2

Posted on September 18, 2008 by altondooley

We had a long and fairly frustrating day today. We have gotten into possibly the most dense concentration of bones I’ve ever seen at Carmel Church (and that’s saying something); they’re stacked 4 and 5 deep. I removed two vertebrae … Continue reading →

Posted in "Popeye", Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Tagged | Leave a comment

Back to Carmel Church

Posted on September 17, 2008 by altondooley

There’s a line in one of my favorite movies, The Secret of Roan Inish: “If you’re away from it a week, Nature will take it back.” I was last at Carmel Church 12 days ago; Tim and I returned today to … Continue reading →

Posted in "Popeye", Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Tagged | 1 Comment

Sperm whale update

Posted on September 13, 2008 by altondooley

Friday I was able to spend the entire day working on the Rappahannock sperm whale (fortunate, since my poster at next month’s SVP meeting is about this specimen). I concentrated on the bone labeled as “unidentified bone” in the photo … Continue reading →

Posted in Chesapeake Group, Rappahannock River sperm whale | Tagged | 1 Comment

The work ahead

Posted on September 11, 2008 by altondooley

This is our field jacket storage room, nestled away in the basement of the museum. Although I didn’t count, I estimate there are around 100-200 jackets in here (the boxes are filled with small jackets and bags of small fossils). … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmel Church Osteichthyans, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group, Paleontological techniques | 4 Comments