CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: Momentary Miracles and Characters at Camp Makela (blog #8)

MORNING RAINBOW OVER CAMP MAKELA. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for rainbows and being here NOW in the miracle of each moment! Stepping out of the tent on the morning of July 23 at Camp Makela, I was greeted by an immense rainbow arcing from one side of the mountainous horizon to the other. Hallelujah! But within minutes, a gray cloud curtain draped over this miraculous natural performance of light refraction that brings us humans so much awe….enjoy the miracle of each moment!

OUR TENT (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

On this rain day, the second since my arrival, the generator came on at 5:00 a.m., casting a large humming sound across the accumulation of tents, trailers and trucks here at Camp Makela. The energy supplied by solar panels had been depleted.  Beginning around 6:00 a.m., various Egg Mountain dig volunteers wandered into the coffee-breakfast trailer where I was writing this blog entry to learn about the day’s plans. Sustained rains allowed them to go back to bed.

During this rainy morning, my Chiboogamoo sat across from me reviewing his field notes and contemplating various ideas related to what he has “read” from the rocks in the past few days here in the Two Medicine Formation. Rain days are opportunities for reflections—like this blog entry I am writing now.

What am I doing here grappling with information about deep time? How do I integrate the knowledge I am gaining about excavation of bits and pieces of Cretaceous mammals and dinosaurs and the exploration my husband Chiboogamoo does regarding traces of ancient vertebrate and invertebrate behavior?

I am intrigued by this entire operation—the environment here in central Montana, the educated paleontologists conducting the dig, and all of those who have gathered from countries around the world, like England, Japan, Sweden, and Cuba. I like being stretched by diving into the unfamiliar and somehow making connections with it through the person that I am.

Perhaps, one of my strongest connections is through the people—the paleontologists and volunteers inhabiting this Cretaceous landscape  and learning from them, whatever they want to share.

This blog entry consists of three of the 15 personalities now residing at Camp Makela, who love working at a paleontological dig site surrounded by rolling hills and geological structures that have been whimsically named, Thunder Dome, Flaming Cliffs, and Butt Rock.

MY HUSBAND, THE ICHNOLOGICAL STAR

AT THE ALTAR OF THE CHURCH OF ICHNOLOGY. Kneeling out in the badlands of the Two Medicine Formation, Tony Martin gets a closer look at fossilized burrows. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

As one who loves to document the every day miracles of my life, I have a favorite subject! Yes, Chiboogamoo, my husband! Ever patient, gentle, and kind, Tony Martin is a delight to wander with on the Cretaceous sediments of the Two Medicine Formation, scanning outcrops for evidence of life that took place 75 million years ago.

 

I trail behind him looking for opportunities to capture a photo of him in this vast and various Montana landscape. His concentration on the rocks beneath his feet fascinates me. He pauses, stoops down to the ground to scoop up a rock, and reads it! Nodding his head, he announces to me something like this, “You can see the backfill here where the animal pushed back the sediment in the burrow. In this one, you can see its leg impressions.” Or, “This is another toe of a hadrosaur track. Look at how the mud was deformed here.”

 

TRAILING THE CRETACEOUS WANDERER. After waiting out the morning rain on July 21, my Chiboogamoo led me into the rolling hills beyond the Egg Mountain dig site in the late afternoon to prospect for trace fossils. I trail behind him to capture him in this dramatic landscape. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

He may gently place the specimen down and walk on, leaving me to follow. He may stop to take a GPS reading, measure the specimen, and make a note of it in his small yellow book that he keeps in his field vest pocket. I too look for rocks that tell stories of past events, for example, colonies of crayfish living together in a system of burrows or wasp cocoons from which the animal possibly never emerged. He has taught me well through his methodical practice and careful explanations.

RECORDING HIS ROCK READINGS. There is just something about Tony Martin that thrills me. Doesn't this photo capture part of my awe? His patience in observation and recording those observations allows me to pause in this Cretaceous environment and feel a certain reverence. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

 ULF, THE STEADY AND EXPERIENCED SWEDE

ULF ON HIS LAST DAY 2014. Ulf puts his excavation tools away on his last dig day at Egg Mountain. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Ulf Schyldt left Camp Makela today (Thursday, July 24) to return to his home country, Sweden. This July 2014 signals his fifth dig season at Egg Mountain, and it shows in the way he moves around the dig site, steadily digging, identifying bone fragments, labeling them, and gently assisting other dig volunteers or “rubble rousers” as I have been calling them on this blog. 

WEST OF THE MAIN QUARRY. As Ashley and Lee Hall engage in new explorations west of the main Egg Mountain excavation site, Ulf (center right with brown hat) counts how many Troodon eggshell and other dinosaur egg fragments have been collected that day. To add to their excitement, a filmmaker named Vera (bottom right with black hat) interviews the dig crew about their experiences and knowledge of the Egg Mountain dig site. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Thanks to the beauty of the Internet, Ulf found his way to the Two Medicine Formation and being an Egg Mountain crew member. He will be back next year. For the time being, he returns to his day job working in Swedish politics and in his free time playing Dungeons and Dragons and with flight simulations.

Farewell Ulf! You will be missed!

FAREWELL ULF! The Egg Mountain dig crew assembled for this last photo opportunity with one of the anchors holding down Camp Makela during the month of July. Ulf celebrated with the crew the night before by making Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, and green beans. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

EMMY, THE BRILLIANT GIRLSH ANOMALY

DEDICATED DIGGERS. One of the activities of rubble rousers is sifting through the pulverized mudstone for bone and eggshell fragments. Emmy, left, and Eric may be lying down on the job, but they perform their responsibilities up close and quite seriously. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

CHEF EMMY HILL

Emmy is smart, fast-talking and a great story teller. At Montana State University, she is a chef with food services and she is majoring in geology. Everyone here at Camp Makela relies on her for weather information (apparently she excels at meteorology), good cuisine, and entertainment (games of Catan and Cribbage included).

 

EMMY'S RAIN DAY LUNCH

As an Emmy-plus? In addition to being a dedicated and skillful rubble rouser at the Egg Mountain dig site, she takes her fingernail glamour seriously and has an internationally appreciated blog, The Daily Lacquer, about her original nail art.

THE ANOMALY. Emmy is a geologist who sports acrylic nails as a personal style choice. She cares for them at the dig site by wearing gloves. Not surprisingly, there are a few bets on her breaking at least one or more of those nails before the end of dig season. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Stay tuned for additional blog entries about Camp Makela characters. That’s Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me! What are your ephemeral miracles? What questions or observations do you have about these three personalities comprising some of our Cretaceous Summer 2014 crew at Camp Makela in the Two Medicine Formation of Montana?

HALLELUJAH MUSING. Being sure to attend to my introverted tendencies, I take joy in sitting up by our tent at Camp Makela to reflect about my Cretaceous Summer 2014. (photo by Tony Martin)

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: Egg Mountain Introduction through Photos (blog #7)

EGG MOUNTAIN CREW (July 21, 2014). After waiting out morning rains, this crew of soulful paleontologists and dig volunteers assembled to head out to the Egg Mountain site around 2:00 pm for three hours of digging. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

RAIN DAY

Hallelujah for adventurous SOULS dedicated to excavating secrets from Cretaceous sediments! Hallelujah for knowledge of deep time and understanding how this marvelous Earth is constructed and the dramatic lives of dinosaurs that passed away million years ago. How amazing that they left evidence of their existence, and that I have the opportunity to spend time with people who can interpret these past events!

This blog entry offers you photos of taken at Egg Mountain in the Two Medicine Formation, Montana, after the Camp Makela crew had spent most of the day waiting out the rain and for conditions to dry enough to work in the Cretaceous soils.

HIKE TO EGG MOUNTAIN. The dig crew ascends to the Cretaceous dig site for the day, bringing lunch and snacks to sustain them through a rough 8-hour work day hammering through mudstone and limestone. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

HAIL TO KING OF EGG MOUNTAIN. Dave Varricchio provideds an introduction of this season's work to paleontologists arriving to the Egg Mountain dig site. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

DIG CREW MEMBER EXTRAORDINNAIRE. Ulf Schyldt, has returned to Montana from his home in Sweden to work at Egg Mountain for his fifth year. The buckets he is carrying contain hammer, whisk broom, kneeling pad, awl, paper roll, tin foil, specimen bags, and hair spray. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

SURVEYING EGG MOUNTAIN DIG SITE. Dave documents depth and location of the Egg Mountain dig site. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

DIGGING DOWN. As the dig crew extract buckets of mudstone and limestone from the main quarry and go deeper into the Earth, Dave keeps track of the depth of where bone, eggshell fragments, and loose teeth might be found. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

NEST SITE. My Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin) looks down at the main quarry from the site where the first Troodon (a small theropod dinosaur) nest with an egg clutch was discovered by Dave. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

RUBBLE ROUSERS. Dave depends on youthful energy to hammer out buckets of mudstone and limestone to sort through the rubble for bone fragments and other fossils. These volunteers have been called affectionately "rubble rousers." (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

JACK HAMMER. As needed, the jack hammer is used at the main quarry to get down to the next level, to loosen the mudstone for the rubble rousers. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

SEARCHING FOR EVIDENCE OF A DINOSAUR NEST. Ashley and Lee Hall work on the side of the main quarry, carefully searching for dinosaur eggshell fragments and other evidence of dinosaur nests. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

ACTIVITY AT EGG MOUNTAIN SITE. Look at those rubble rousers work! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

CHILLING BEFORE DINNER. Camp Makela provides comfort for its rubble rousers. Electricity, WiFi, and comfortable chairs are there, and meals are made on a rotating basis by all Egg Mountain crew members. Here Ulf and Chiboogamoo are definitely in the chill-out zone. (photo by Ashley Poust)

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me what your experiences are regarding the ancient past and deep time. Are you connected to those people who might inform you about what occurred millions of years ago? Are you interested?

LOVE ON EGG MOUNTAIN. Hallelujah for love in the Cretaceous. Here my Chiboogamoo and I sit on site of former dinosaur nests. (photo by Ashley Poust)

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: Spending the day in the Two Medicine Formation (blog #6)

DOORWAY TO THE CRETACEOUS. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for firsts! Stepping into that unknown place and walking into a new experience, one that speaks so much of the cycle of life--even if it is 75 million years ago! 

Good-bye to Danielle

That is what I did on Sunday, July 20, 2014, when I climbed out of my tent at Camp Makela. After bidding farewell to some departing volunteers, I headed out into the Two Medicine Formation with my expert ichnologist, Chiboogamooo (aka Tony Martin) and two enthusiastic paleontologists on vacation from L.A., Lee and Ashley, who wanted to learn more about what these Cretaceous trace fossils tell us about animal behavior millions of years ago.

CRETACEOUS STOP #1: COPROLITES
"Get on your 'copro-vision,'" announced my Chiboogamoo as we traipsed across a weathered outcrop in the Two Medicine Formation. We were looking for coprolites - fossilized dinosaur feces - from a species of hadrosaur, Maiasaura, who lived, nested, and yes, pooped at and around this site.

TWO-FOR-ONE TRACE FOSSIL. Observe a fossilized feces, a coprolite, presumably from a Maiasaura dinosaur. Here in this trace fossil, we can observe fossilized wood fiber consumed by the duck-billed dinosaur, as well as insect behavior burrowing into the feces after it was deposited. (photo by Tony Martin)

We were not disappointed since this site has been well studied and the presence of these fossilized feces strewn about the landscape by time are well known. Slowly, we began to adjust our "ichno eyes" to spot rocks black in color because of the carbonization of their ancient organic matter. These dino-trace fossils began to pop out from the other rocks. How rewarding!

HISTORIC MAIASAURA NEST SITE 1979. Celebrating the historic site where Jack Horner and his colleague, Bob Makela, discovered the first dinosaur nests, Lee and Ashley look on as Paleontologist Barbie examines dinosaur egg shell fragments. The commemorative sign is to Tony's right. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Maiasaura, a duck-billed dinosaur, had eaten rotten wood. Pieces of this wood was in her feces, which she had eaten perhaps to regurgitate insect-rich food for her young. Named Maiasaura which, from the Greek, means "good mother lizard," her nests were found in the Two Medicine Formation in 1979, and they were the first dinosaurs nests discovered in North America. This discovery rocked the dinosaur world because it suggested that dinosaurs exhibited social behaviors, staying around their nest sites to protect and nurture their young--hence the heart-warming title of "good mother lizard."  In other words, Maiasaura did not just lay her eggs and then abandon her young. 

DINOSAUR EGGSHELL FRAGMENTS. (photo by Tony Martin)

Examining Maiasaura's coprolites from the perspective of my ichnologist husband is meaningful in many ways, especially in the way it demonstrates the cycle of life. Maiasaura dwelled in an arid monsoonal environment rich with rotting wood full of nutritious insects and fungi that made use of the decaying conifers. Furthering the usefulness of this decaying wood, paleontologist Karen Chin hypothesized that the "good mother lizard" consumed and regurgitated it for her young, with the undigested remains having been excreted in her feces. The cycle of life continued as burrowing insects dived into the dinosaur dung with relish, leaving their burrow for us to observe 75 million years later. What a lesson in recycling the materials of this precious Earth!


CRETACEOUS STOP #2: PETE'S PUPA PENINSULA

PETE'S PUPA PENINSULA. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

WASP BEHAVIOR RECORDED IN THE FOSSIL RECORD. (photo by Tony Martin)

LOOKING UP CLOSE AT FOSSILIZED PUPA. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

"Pete's Pupa Peninsula" is a celebration of birth and rebirth demonstrating another cycle of life! This time we are hallelujahing Cretaceous insects of their life and death as evidenced by the presence of their fossilized burrows and cocoons! Just think of how these animals were living their busy lives beneath the feet of dinosaurs! To learn more about the science of this site, read my Chiboogamoo's blog published this morning on this topic: "Burrowing Wasps and Baby Dinosaurs."


CRETACEOUS STOP #3: HADROSAUR FOOTPRINTS ETC....
After reveling in the highest concentration of Cretaceous cocoons in the world at "Pete's Pupa Penisula," our crew headed to the Branvold Bone Bed to see what we might find there and along our journey! We were not disappointed. Our companions, Lee and Ashley had such keen "ichno eyes" and bone recognition, that we lingered in the Cretaceous in the presence of their fossil remains. 

Ashley lovingly kept offering fun phrases to express what we were seeing as we stopped at purple dino-bone fragments peering out at us from the brownish grey sand beneath our feet: "explo-o-saurus," "scrap-o-saurus," and "chunk-o-saurus! Thank you Ashley for you fun and abundant imagination!
 

SCRAP-O-SAURUS! Lee and Ashley taught my Chiboogamoo and me how to spot bones in the fossil record! Thank you! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

What we learn about the past in the present helps us build our understanding of who we are and what came before us!
 

WHERE THE HADROSAURS TRAIPSED. MY honey displays what might be a fossilized hadrosaur footprint. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

LOOKING THROUGH A LENS TO SEE THE CRETACEOUS. My darling is examining a fossilized insect burrow. How awesome that this texture has been preserved for millions of years! Photo by Halleluajah Truth

CHIBOOGAMOO WITH HIS HALLELUJAH HEADING TO THE CRETACEOUS (photo by Ashley Hall)

ATTENDING THE CHURCH OF ICHNOLOGY. Substrate, anatomy, behavior--Amen! Lee and Ashley Hall discussing the Church of Ichnology with my Chiboogamoo. Photo by Hallelujah Truth

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me! Share with me your sense of the birth and life cycle and how you understand how all of who we are gets recycled. Who will interpret our Earth presence 75 million years from now?

HALLELUJAH TRUTH IN THE CRETACEOUS. After lunch, our crew went east of Camp Makela to prospect for trace fossils. I took a moment to explore on my own. Photo by Tony Martin

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: Hallelujah Joins Her Chiboogamoo at Camp Makela (blog #5)

ARRIVAL IN THE CRETACEOUS. (photo by Tony Martin)

Hallelujah for my arrival in the Cretaceous! I have been reunited at Camp Makela with my beloved Chiboogamoo after almost two weeks of separation! 

WELCOME IN GREAT FALLS. A team of paleontologists arrive in their white truck to pick me up and whisk me away to Camp Makela. My honey brought me take out dinner. How sweet! We headed to our camp, about an hour drive away. (photos by Hallelujah Truth)

How awesome are journeys that take us out of our familiar landscapes, both physically and mentally. The world is so vast and wondrous! And I have entered a world 75 million years old! What will I learn from these diggers in the rubble? What will I learn from my own household paleontologist who interprets behavior  and environment from the rocks?

DRIVE TO CAMP AND ARRIVAL. After having a lovely ride through the scenic scapes from the Great Falls airport to Camp Makela, Tony stands proudly in front of our home in the Cretaceous. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

HALLELUJAH AND CHIBOOGAMOO REUNITED

Stay tuned! I will share images, explorations, and possibly explanations! For now, I need to eat brekkie, make a field lunch, and get going with my Cretaceous adventure!

CAMP MAKELA HAS WI-FI

START OF A NEW AND EXCITING DAY

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and share whatever you are inspired to say!

CRETACEOUS SUMMER 2014: Art Making in the Ichno-Fields of Montana, a Brief Interview (blog #4)

ART MAKING SCIENTIST IN MONTANA. (Self portrait upon the request of his wife)

Hallelujah for marriages and resulting collaborations—like this project “Cretaceous Summer 2014” written together by my beloved Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin) an me! Today’s blog entry is about the “art” my beloved husband has been generating in his yellow field notebook whilst in the “ichno-fields” of Montana.

 

Our Studio Sign (art by HT)

Allow me, however, to regress, to an early time in our Ichno-Art Cat Palace (as we call our home) in 2010, with the fanfare my Chiboogamoo and I used to name our studio--“THE MEME STUDIO: In the Evolution of our Marriage, We Pass on Memes, Not Genes”!

And, this following statement introduces our thinking behind our MEME STUDIO:

We take art and science and create MEMEs! Woefully childish--I mean childless, we propagate ourselves by consolidating what we know into drawings and paintings, and yes words. We have begun THE MEME STUDIO as an experiment in our marriage. Because we forgot to have children, we are remembering ourselves in MEMEs.

COLLABORATION IN THE MEME STUDIO. In 2011, Chiboogamoo and I created the "Holy Trinity of Ichnology," using the trilobite to illustrate the three principles of substrate, anatomy, and behavior. (Photo by Lisa Alexander Streib)

 

TRILOBITE AND TRAIL (art by the Meme Studio)

As I prepare to journey to Montana to join Chiboogamoo at Camp Makela, I asked him to answer a number of questions about himself as an artist and scientist. Below are the questions he chose to answer. 

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: How have you been using drawing in your work in Montana these past two weeks? Can you explain your daily creative process?

ICHNOLOGIST TONY MARTIN: I use drawing in my field notebook every day as a way to observe and process what I’m observing. This may involve very basic labeled sketches, but once I start adding details to these, this often triggers a leap in logic. I’ve had some of my best “a-ha!” scientific moments while drawing in the field.        

HADROSAUR TRACK, FIELD DRAWING. (by Anthony Martin)

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: Do you share your drawing with colleagues at the field site? What are their responses? 

ICHNOLOGIST TONY MARTIN: I do often share my drawings with colleagues when in the field, because it is far easier to show someone a picture of what you’re studying than to talk about it. It’s even better than showing someone a photo on a digital camera, because often the other person can’t quite see what’s significant in a photo. For this field work, I’ve also enjoyed showing my field drawings to the student volunteers here, because I want to give them examples of “good practice” for taking field notes.            

PUPAL CHAMBERS. (by Anthony Martin)

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: What is the future of these field drawings? 

ICHNOLOGIST TONY MARTIN: I could seen some of them being rough drafts for illustrations I’ll include in scientific papers, but they could also serve as inspirations for future creative artworks. For instance, my field work in Montana from previous times inspired a piece of art I did for the Darwin exhibit at Fernbank Museum of Natural History a few years back.  

PARASITOID (art by Anthony Martin). "Parasitoid"was inspired by fossils in Cretaceous-age (75 million-year-old) rocks of Montana (where my Chiboogamoo is now!). These fossils hold evidence of where the larvae of an insect – probably a wasp – developed inside the cocoons of other insects and likely consumed them. Insects that employ this form of predation are called parasitoids. This insidious behavior clearly served as a model for the titular xenomorph antagonists in the Alien movies. As a result, the composition, color choices, and title for the artwork acknowledge the movie poster for Alien, which featured a green-yellow cocoon hatching and the warning, “In space, no one can hear you scream.”

The artwork thematically links to Darwin for a statement he once made about parasitoid wasps: “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.” The figures depicted in this work show the stages of parasitoid behavior represented by the Cretaceous fossils (from left to right): a small cocoon within a larger one à an exit hole from the larger host cocoon à and an exit burrow leaving the host. The artwork and the science behind it are thus meant to echo Darwin’s struggle to reconcile his spiritual beliefs with the factual basis of natural selection, as well as look really cool.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH: How have I influenced you, your science and your art, other than my abundant enthusiasm for it all? 

ICHNOLOGIST TONY MARTIN: Support and encouragement is essential for both science and art, but also sharing it with others completes the process of each. A scientist who never shares her or his work is never going to be a successful scientist, and I think the same is true for artists. So your abundant enthusiasm and willingness encouraging my sharing have improved me as both a scientist and artist! 

TA DA! The two of us in the MEME STUDIO  in 2010. We have since had to relinquish our studio which was rented outside our home but hunger for another place to collaborate on Cretaceous art or any ichno-art in the future.

That’s Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me about your drawing out in the world! How does “drawing where you are right now” figure into your Daily Creative Practice?