Editor's Note: Imagine going on a dinosaur dig! Doesn't the thought of helping to find dinosaur bones millions of years old make your own vertebrae tingle? This month's Fantastic Journeys follows 10th-grade student Shureice Kornegay, from Chicago, Illinois, on a three-week study of paleontology in the field with Paul Sereno (see "People to Discover,") and his wife, educator Gabrielle Lyon. Called "Project Exploration," this program involves much more than just digging up dinosaurs (as if that weren't exciting enough!). Our author hiked the Rockies, visited the Lewis and Clark Museum, made discoveries on Egg Mountain, and did a little bird watching. She made new friends and had lots of fun. Read on to hear more about her magnificent trip to the mountains of Montana.
It was so exciting! I was a Junior Paleontologist on my first field trip to Choteau, Montana! I didn't know what to expect, but I was up for the challenge. On the first day, along with the rest of my Junior Paleontologist (or JP) friends, I headed for the Old Trail Museum to find out what our assignment would be. Paul Sereno, Gabrielle Lyon, and a man nicknamed Wavey Davey [whose real name is David Varrichio] showed us around the museum and told us we would be spending a lot of time there.
Afterward, we headed over to Pine Butte, an area of "badlands," where we split up into two groups. It was a large open space with plenty of hills. Badlands are barren areas with roughly eroded ridges, peaks, and mesas, where bones are likely to be exposed. My group went "prospecting" (looking around for bones) as we climbed up a very steep hill. We took out our pickaxes and dental tools (yes, dental tools), and searched for the best spot to start. I just couldn't wait to start digging up those dino bones!
We found a lot of calcite at our site. Calcite is a very bright, brittle fragment of rock found in sediment. But my friends and I thought that it looked just like bone. We learned a neat trick to help us determine whether the fragments were actually bone -- the "lick test." When you lick a real bone, your tongue sticks to it because bone is porous. Using this technique, we found many small bones that we kept in Ziploc bags. One of my JP friends and I found the tip of a rib! We learned quickly that these bones are very fragile. We used a chemical that acts like super glue to hold the rib tip together as we removed it from the rock.
During the trip, we went on a 12-kilometer hike into the Rockies, and I got to lead the way for a bit. That was pretty exciting! We filled up our water bottles at a freshwater spring along the way to our destination 2,320 meters up into the Rockies. We ended the day with a barbecue back at the museum. We learned about the tribes that had inhabited Montana years and years ago, told some scary stories to see whom we could spook, and roasted marshmallows into the night.
During my journey, I also got to visit Egg Mountain. Egg Mountain is a site where many skeletons of the dinosaur Maiasaura were found, along with nests and babies.
Maiasaura, the "good mother lizard," was about nine meters long, and, like many other dinosaurs, lived in the late Cretaceous Period. At this site, we were trained to recognize small fragments of eggshell, which were very dark, almost black, in the sediment. Prolific bone beds, like the one at Egg Mountain, indicate that the adult Maiasaura dinosaurs probably took care of their young.
I was sad that my expedition had to come to an end. It was so much fun, and I made many great friends. But the best part is still to come. One other JP and I were selected to go back to Montana's Old Trail Museum this summer and work as interns. We'll be assisting in the fields as well as helping to run the museum, and I'll get to stay with a host family while I am there. So it looks like another "fantastic journey" is still ahead.
Project Exploration was created by paleontologist Paul Sereno and educator Gabrielle Lyon to provide innovative, hands-on experiences to city kids, and to inspire student populations that are under-represented in paleontology and the natural science professions. To learn more about, it call (773) 643-3014 or write to: info@projectexploration.org.
HAVE YOU BEEN ON A FANTASTIC JOURNEY? If so, send your report to: Fantastic Journeys, ODYSSEY, 30 Grove Street, Suite C, Peterborough, NH 03458. The report should be 500-650 words long and accompanied by quality photographs or slides, including one of yourself.
SHUREICE KORNEGAY, AGE 15 AMUNDSEN HIGH SCHOOL CHICAGO, IL
Source Citation
KORNEGAY, SHUREICE. "Dig This!" Odyssey Sept. 2000: 40. Gale Power Search. Web. 8 Feb. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA65130929&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A65130929
Editor's Note: Imagine going on a dinosaur dig! Doesn't the thought of helping to find dinosaur bones millions of years old make your own vertebrae tingle? This month's Fantastic Journeys follows 10th-grade student Shureice Kornegay, from Chicago, Illinois, on a three-week study of paleontology in the field with Paul Sereno (see "People to Discover,") and his wife, educator Gabrielle Lyon. Called "Project Exploration," this program involves much more than just digging up dinosaurs (as if that weren't exciting enough!). Our author hiked the Rockies, visited the Lewis and Clark Museum, made discoveries on Egg Mountain, and did a little bird watching. She made new friends and had lots of fun. Read on to hear more about her magnificent trip to the mountains of Montana.
It was so exciting! I was a Junior Paleontologist on my first field trip to Choteau, Montana! I didn't know what to expect, but I was up for the challenge. On the first day, along with the rest of my Junior Paleontologist (or JP) friends, I headed for the Old Trail Museum to find out what our assignment would be. Paul Sereno, Gabrielle Lyon, and a man nicknamed Wavey Davey [whose real name is David Varrichio] showed us around the museum and told us we would be spending a lot of time there.
Afterward, we headed over to Pine Butte, an area of "badlands," where we split up into two groups. It was a large open space with plenty of hills. Badlands are barren areas with roughly eroded ridges, peaks, and mesas, where bones are likely to be exposed. My group went "prospecting" (looking around for bones) as we climbed up a very steep hill. We took out our pickaxes and dental tools (yes, dental tools), and searched for the best spot to start. I just couldn't wait to start digging up those dino bones!
We found a lot of calcite at our site. Calcite is a very bright, brittle fragment of rock found in sediment. But my friends and I thought that it looked just like bone. We learned a neat trick to help us determine whether the fragments were actually bone -- the "lick test." When you lick a real bone, your tongue sticks to it because bone is porous. Using this technique, we found many small bones that we kept in Ziploc bags. One of my JP friends and I found the tip of a rib! We learned quickly that these bones are very fragile. We used a chemical that acts like super glue to hold the rib tip together as we removed it from the rock.
During the trip, we went on a 12-kilometer hike into the Rockies, and I got to lead the way for a bit. That was pretty exciting! We filled up our water bottles at a freshwater spring along the way to our destination 2,320 meters up into the Rockies. We ended the day with a barbecue back at the museum. We learned about the tribes that had inhabited Montana years and years ago, told some scary stories to see whom we could spook, and roasted marshmallows into the night.
During my journey, I also got to visit Egg Mountain. Egg Mountain is a site where many skeletons of the dinosaur Maiasaura were found, along with nests and babies.
Maiasaura, the "good mother lizard," was about nine meters long, and, like many other dinosaurs, lived in the late Cretaceous Period. At this site, we were trained to recognize small fragments of eggshell, which were very dark, almost black, in the sediment. Prolific bone beds, like the one at Egg Mountain, indicate that the adult Maiasaura dinosaurs probably took care of their young.
I was sad that my expedition had to come to an end. It was so much fun, and I made many great friends. But the best part is still to come. One other JP and I were selected to go back to Montana's Old Trail Museum this summer and work as interns. We'll be assisting in the fields as well as helping to run the museum, and I'll get to stay with a host family while I am there. So it looks like another "fantastic journey" is still ahead.
Project Exploration was created by paleontologist Paul Sereno and educator Gabrielle Lyon to provide innovative, hands-on experiences to city kids, and to inspire student populations that are under-represented in paleontology and the natural science professions. To learn more about, it call (773) 643-3014 or write to: info@projectexploration.org.
HAVE YOU BEEN ON A FANTASTIC JOURNEY? If so, send your report to: Fantastic Journeys, ODYSSEY, 30 Grove Street, Suite C, Peterborough, NH 03458. The report should be 500-650 words long and accompanied by quality photographs or slides, including one of yourself.
SHUREICE KORNEGAY, AGE 15 AMUNDSEN HIGH SCHOOL CHICAGO, IL
Source Citation
KORNEGAY, SHUREICE. "Dig This!" Odyssey Sept. 2000: 40. Gale Power Search. Web. 8 Feb. 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA65130929&v=2.1&u=22054_acld&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w
Gale Document Number: GALE|A65130929
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