Moroccan & Mongolia sites - Finding Fossils

false

There is clear parking at Wren’s Nest.

~ 420

What is the age of the fossils at Wren’s Nest (in millions of years)?

Jurassic

What time period are the petrified trees from at the Jaramillo NP?

Kenya

What country is Lake Turkana in?

false

You are allowed to collect fossils at Qhemegha, but not at Lake Turkana or Jaramillo NP.

false

The best time to travel to Jaramillo NP is July or August.

Elliot

What was the formation that was discussed at Qhemegha?

pseudosuchians, sauropodomorphs, mammal ancestors

Which of the following was/were found at Qhemegha in addition to therapod dinosaurs?

no

Are fossils only found in “rifting” areas where they can be revealed?

mammal specimens from the virtual Lake Turkana lab

• Homo erectus skull (only clear fossil)

• blue wildebeest (extant) skull

• giraffe skull

• striped hyena skull

• African elephant tooth

3 days, 7 localities

How many days was the trip we went over in Morocco & how many sites were showcased across those days?

Tinjdad (Devonian)

Day 1

• trilobites

• ammonites (true ones are from the Mesozoic)

• small coral bits

• fragments of nautiloids

Tougach (Cambrian)

Day 1

• yellow-colored trilobites ranging in size

• prior excavations

Tizi n’Tfarakhine (Cambrian)

Day 1

• occasionally has big Acadoparadoxides trilobites

• had to climb a hill

• prior excavations

  • mini quarries = opportunity

Alnif (Ordovician)

Day 2

• famous for Flexicalymenes

• on the side of a mountain (short walk up ravine)

• fragments of trilobites

• several excavations

• preservation was not very good

• bag of fossils got lost

Serdrar (Silurian)

Day 2

• orthoconic nautiloid marble (gray layer)

  • bookends

  • dishware

  • toilets

  • bathroom sinks

• on the bank of the river bed

• cephalopods

Serdrar (Devonian)

Day 2

• named for a spiny trilobite

• Silurian base that transitions to Devonian

  • younger as you go further

• prior excavations

• fresh material — dig a cavity & extract large chunks of rock

• requires a lot of prep bc in matrix

Atchana (Devonian)

Day 3

• trench that goes on for miles

  • actual layer is thick slab at bottom

• many trilobites

• loose nautiloids

Morocco people

Mohand Ihmadi — degreed geologist

Eric G — found his 1st ever trilobite

Local Berber schoolboys — offered some of their finds

Canadian family — Alnif

Youssef — Atchana; helped dig out slabs w/ potential trilobites

Karin — Atchana; Mohand’s wife

Tevshiin Govi, Mongolia

Jurassic & Cretaceous rocks

• many dinosaurs from the Gobi Desert

flowering plants (angiosperms)

Mongolia fossil goal

coal

very compressed & metamorphosed plant material deposited in a peat swamp

lignite

less compressed & metamorphosed:

• beneficial for studying fossil plants

  • can be separated into parts & studied w/ light microscopy and other methods

*fossils can also form in regular sedimentary rock

Mongolia sample collection

• certain # of bags w/ samples

• pic of location

• GIS coordinates

vertically

Macrofossils must be packed ___ on edge in boxes when put in a car.

baby wipes

Cleaning up consisted of wiping down w/ …

Mongolia plant fossils

• strap shaped leaf

• ginkgo relative

• ancient conifer

• pine spruce

• gnetales

• filmy fern

Mongolia people (?)

Roy Chapman Andrews — 1920s paleontologist who collected dinos