Contact Info

195 Rankin Science
572 Rivers Street
Boone, NC
28608
(828) 262-3049
FAX: (828) 262-6503

Chairperson:
Dr. Johnny A. Waters
watersja@appstate.edu

General Questions:
Geology Webmaster

The 2006 Spring Field Trip to New Mexico and Arizona

During Spring Semester 2006, Dr. Heckert planned a dinosaur hunting trip for geology students to coincide with the 100th anniversary symposium of Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The students (along with Dr. Heckert and Dr. Waters) camped for three days at the Badlands ranch, south of Tucumcari, NM, while working to excavate remains of aetosaurs and phytosaurs, including a large block containing an articulated partial skeleton of the aetosaur Typothorax, which turns out to be one of the best fossils of Typothorax known. In addition to the fossil collecting and attending the conference, the students took tours of volcanoes near Albuquerque and Red Rocks State Park, near Gallup, NM.

Setting up camp.	Plenty of parking at this motel.	Ooops! Maybe another campsite?	Setting up in the badlands	Around the campfire in the evening.
Sunset on the badlands.	Are mornings always this early?	Hey! We found some bones.	Digging around the specimen.	Are we done yet?
Some sun protection for the dig.	A little more digging.	Jacketing the specimen with plaster...	...getting plastered in the process...	...digging underneath to free it...
...now to turn it over.	OK, so it's turned over. Now what?	What do you mean "we carry it?"	You weren't kidding.	How far away is the truck?
Over there?	Lugging the specimen uphill...	...and then downhill.	Easy does it.	A little closer.
Just a little more.	It's down. Now repeat for a dozen more.	Moonrise.	Badlands overview.	And a volcano visit, to boot.