Monthly Archives: September 2010

Reworked fossils, Part 3

Posted on September 30, 2010 by altondooley

Yesterday we saw that the Carmel Church bonebed, which is only about two feet thick, contains a whole variety of shark teeth from different ages. Reworked fossils are often treated by paleontologists (including me) with a certain amount of mild disdain, … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmel Church Chondrichthyans, Carmel Church Geology, Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group, General Geology | 4 Comments

Reworked fossils, Part 2

Posted on September 29, 2010 by altondooley

I had planned for this piece on reworked fossils to be two parts, but when I saw how big Part 2 was getting I decided to go with three parts instead. So today we’ll look at some examples of reworked … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmel Church Chondrichthyans, Carmel Church Geology, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group, General Geology | 5 Comments

Reworked fossils, Part 1

Posted on September 28, 2010 by altondooley

When discussing fossil deposits with the public the subject of reworked specimens occasionally comes up. Reworked specimens are often (but not always) easy to spot. Shown above are two teeth from the same bed at Carmel Church, both from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmel Church Geology, Carmel Church Quarry, General Geology | 2 Comments

“Picasso” update

Posted on September 22, 2010 by altondooley

We’ve made a lot of progress the last few weeks on “Picasso”, the Carmel Church baleen whale we’ve been working on since last year. We’ve finally begun rebuilding the skull in our sandbox, and it’s starting to look more like … Continue reading →

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

There’s always a bigger fish

Posted on September 19, 2010 by altondooley

I spent all of last week writing a manuscript on one of the Carmel Church specimens, which is why I didn’t get a post up last week. On Saturday I submitted the manuscript, and during the coming week I hope … Continue reading →

Posted in Carmel Church Osteichthyans, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | 2 Comments

Science and the liberal arts

Posted on September 13, 2010 by altondooley

My first course in an earth science subject was Introductory Geology, taken during my freshman year at Carleton College. Carleton is a small liberal arts school in Minnesota, but one of the things that attracted me was their strength and … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, education, and philosophy | Leave a comment

Lycopodium

Posted on September 8, 2010 by altondooley

Yesterday I traveled to Roanoke to meet with Dr. D.B. Poli, a botanist from Roanoke College. From there we headed out to New Castle, in Craig County, Virginia to look for living examples of lycopods. DB and I are working … Continue reading →

Posted in Modern critters, Paleobotany | 3 Comments

Making molds and casts Part 2

Posted on September 3, 2010 by altondooley

Here’s the second part of my 2-part video series on making molds and casts. I’ve also added an archive link to my posts that involve paleontological techniques, including both field collection and lab preparation methods.

Posted in Paleontological techniques | 2 Comments

Making molds and casts

Posted on September 2, 2010 by altondooley

I’m going to do a two-part video post on making molds and casts. In the videos I’ll be casting the beaked whale tooth we collected from Carmel Church late last year. These videos should run on mobile devices including most smart phones … Continue reading →

Posted in Paleontological techniques | 2 Comments