Bridger Basin & Wind River Basin, WY - June 2008

We are back from the field.  Thanks to everyone who had the opportunity to come out and work in the Bridger and Wind River Basins.  Good spring rains aided erosion and the beds seemed to be replenished.  The flowers were gorgeous this year. 

Early June in the Bridger had us battling wind, cold, sleet, snow, and rain but some great fossils were found including new records for our collection of “Parisectolophus” and some better specimens of a snake, crocodile and lizard, all of which were found eroding out at the EP ’93 site.    This was our first try at recording lat and long for better specimens and we certainly acquired a lot of data.  We collected sediment from Casa de Mono (House of the Monkey) so there will be sorting to do.  A strange very large bone, larger than a titanothere, was found and we also found some rare smaller animals such as Palaeictops bridgeri and a nyctithere. 

Late June in the Wind River was fabulous, clear skies, virtually no wind, only a handful of mosquitoes, and no rain and cool evenings brought us some exceptionally good luck.  The typical sites were as productive as they have always been (Sullivan Ranch, Buck Spring Quarry areas) but places like Raptor Heights, Hiland, and near Lysite led to a bunch of interesting data for future work.   The Raptor Heights Hiland area was especially good with new faunal horizons recorded above the main Hiland Red bed and above the Main Raptor Heights reddish Gray bed.   Exceptional stratigraphic work led by Bob Raynolds has resulting on more extensive stratigraphic mapping of the Buck Spring quarry sites and the Early-Middle Eocene boundary at the Raptor Heights-Hiland locality.  A channel sandstone lies at the base of the drab gray and brown beds at raptor Heights that is tentatively considered to be the boundary between Wa-7 and Br1a.  The sequence is fossiliferous throughout so over the long term we should get a nice selection of fossils.

A new horizon was found at the Shoshoni locality (Marin and Victoria’s Collision) and a new area for future work was found just outside of Lysite north of Badwater Creek.  The latter site was named after the Mascot of the Shoshoni, Wyoming Wranglers in honor of the students and school faculty who joined us on the expedition.  We had many visitors in the Wind River including Paul Murphey from the San Diego Museum of Natural History, Dale Hanson and Chris Arthur and others from the BLM, the Shoshoni students and others.  Zane Fross who works for the local ranchers and oil companies and his wife Ginger joined us for an evening of food, libation, and fireworks.  The photographs are coming in and we will have a shared file that you can make a DVD. 

Thanks to everyone and thanks especially to Leana Rupprecht who cooked for us the first week of the field school!

Here’s a list of the people who were with us this summer.  Let me know if I have forgotten someone.

June 6 to 13, Dave Warren, Terri Morzos, Alan Keimig, Lorrie McWhinnie, Pat Ervin, Dena Meade-Hunter, Mark Hunter, Carmen Neu, Brenda Chnnery Allgeier,  Maydee and Christopher Malcolm, Deborah and Lance Anderson, Scott Piskun, Mel Barton, Susi Landers,  Anastasia Webber, Cornette  – I may have forgotten someone so please let me know.

June 15 to 27 – Victoria Carabajal, Sean Buck, Doug Todd, Michael Christiansen, Robert Lee, Cathy Garcia, Marin Love, Olivia Verma, Jamica Zion, Steve Russell, Jane Peterson, Gloria Carbaugh, Ed Hickel, Mel Barton, Janice Tang, Tom Meals, Laura Meyer, Ian Miller, Bob Raynolds, Carole Loskot, Emily, John and Erin Van Regenmorter, Justin Henceforth, Deborah and Lance Anderson, Amy Chew, Brenda Chinnery Allgeier, Tom Hardy, Susi Landers, Leana Rupprecht, Alex Duthchak, Rita Lovato, Dave Baysinger, Matt Brownell, and probably a few others.  Thanks so much for all the help in a great field season.

Richard K. Stucky, Ph.D.
Curator of Paleoecology & Evolution

Department of Earth Sciences
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2001 Colorado Boulevard
Denver, Colorado 80205
303-370-6434 (direct)
303-370-6005 (fax)
richard.stucky@dmns.org

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