2008 Little Snowy Mountains Field Report. 8/22/08

The staff of the JRDI Wanted to give all our crew (and others interested) a brief field report and summary of the 2008 stegosaur site as well as the new dates for 2009.

First off, JRDI staff would like to thank all of you for your hard work which allowed us to make some GREAT progress! During week one, we moved a lot of dirt (thanks to Rodney and a back hoe). Most of you had the experience of uncovering new bones. The second week we mapped the site and managed to uncover MORE bones. During the third week, we peeled off bones from the main block for lab prep and created pedestals and jackets for the remaining bones left for next year's excavation. Oh yes, let's not forget the week 3 team managed to find the fourth stegosaur! The bones continue into the hillside with no signs of letting up. From all appearances, we have a stegosaur graveyard! This entire progression is one we could not have done without all of you and we can't thank you enough for that. It's our sincere hope as staff that you all took away an education with this hard work and each year we will continue to add more to the learning experience.

2009 Field Program Work Plans. 8/23/08 During the three weeks of the 2009 Little Snowy Mts. Dinosaur Project we will mainly concentrate on excavation of our stegosaur bonebed, and possibly open up a another site about 30-50 feet along the hill.

Here are links to photos for the 2008 season by week (which are also captioned) so that you can see the discoveries as they are made and perhaps that will also encourage you to join us in 2009

One other update: staff will be working on making a prep lab come to the Billings community! The site has been secured and we will be spending the winter getting it ready so the bones you have dug now have a destination. In addition, we hope to offer fossil prep courses and tours through JRDI. If any of you wish to be a part of this in any way through donations so we can get the lab up and going, it would be appreciated. Hopefully, through this effort many of you will be able to enjoy working in the lab on the bones you helped excavate. We'll keep all of you posted as we go. For now, we've linked here a page with a photo of the location and the signage of our new home in downtown Billings.