BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Trissa Ford has always been interested in all aspects of science: archaeology, meteorology and paleontology to name a few. Being able to participate in fossil digs with the North Dakota Geological Survey’s Paleontology Department has been a dream come true, she says.
Diggers taking part in the survey’s public fossil digs over the past decade and half have recovered remains of numerous prehistoric life in North Dakota.
People who want to search for fossils will have the opportunity again during five public fossil digs planned for this summer. The digs will be in the Bismarck area, Pembina Gorge, Marmarth, Whiskey Creek near Medora and Medora.
The survey has three paleontologists including Clint Boyd, paleontology manager; Jeff Person, collections manager; and Becky Barnes, laboratory manager.
“We tend to go back to the same areas that are fossil rich,” Barnes told the Minot Daily News (https://bit.ly/1EKUdU3 ). She said this year will be the 10th year of work at the Medora site.
Ford, of Mandan, said she and her daughter have been taking part in the fossil digs for the past six years. “We have participated in digs all over the state from Walhalla to Rhame to Medora and Huff,” she said.
“We get people from all across the state as well as numerous (other) states,” Barnes said. People also come from Europe to take part in the public fossil digs in North Dakota.
Fifteen years ago, John Hoganson, North Dakota Geological Survey paleontologist who for 25 years of his more than 30-year career with the state agency was state paleontologist, started the public fossil dig program. Initially, the program was to promote tourism in the state. It grew to become an educational program for people of all ages. Hoganson retired last summer but continues working on projects in an emeritus status.
The first fossil dig was held in 2000 in the Pembina Gorge. The program grew to having several fossil digs at various locations in the state.
Person, who started with the survey in 2008, has been on every public fossil dig except one during that time.
“Our reception has been very positive. People have been very excited to be there, they learn a lot and it’s a great way for us to be doing outreach,” Person said.
What better way to spend a week in the summertime, Person said, than, for example, looking over the Pembina Gorge while you dig up fossils.
“Depending on where we are, we find crocodiles, fish, sometimes dinosaurs depending on the age of the site … so it’s a big variety of animals and plants that we’re finding. It’s great because we’re learning much more about fauna rather than getting restricted into one group of animals,” Person said. He said they’re not just finding plants or not just finding vertebrates but are finding a variety which is better to tell the story.
“The public digs are just another aspect of our outreach and those displays across the state is a more permanent way to reach the public, tell about what we’re doing and tell about the history of the state,” Person said. Displays of fossils are in several locations in the state including in the North Dakota Heritage Center.
Person said people on a dig often will ask if they can take the fossils home with them to keep. He said they cannot keep the fossils, but the positive part of it is the fossil finds become part of this state’s history.
“Everything that we collect goes into the North Dakota State Fossil Collection which the North Dakota Geological Survey is charged with maintaining and managing. That is housed here in the Heritage Center in Bismarck” he said. “There are thousands of specimens in that collection right now and that’s what we pull from when we make these exhibits. Every year as we go out on these digs that collection builds.”
Besides the public fossil digs, Person said the Paleontology Department staff also try to get out for a day or two of reconnaissance work to check out or determine potential sites. “We do a lot of investigative work at that time,” he said.
Ford and her daughter have worked on the fossil dig in the Pembina Gorge near Walhalla for the last two years. “Last year I may have found a piece of the skull that will help to identify the type of mosasaur we have been unearthing,” Ford said.
A partial mosasaur was recovered in the Pembina Gorge. Work is being done there to recover more, Barnes said.
“I will definitely be going on a couple of the fossil digs this summer,” Ford said. “I’m really looking forward to the Bismarck dig which will be leaving out of Bismarck and will be exploring different areas within a drivable distance. I’m always on the lookout for a T. rex tooth.”
Ford said she also has been volunteering in the Johnsrud Paleontology Laboratory located in the North Dakota Heritage Center. “It’s been very rewarding being able to open the plaster jackets and see exactly what we found out in the field,” she said.
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Information from: Minot Daily News, https://www.minotdailynews.com
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