Welcome to the Tate T.rex blog!

Since before Xmas we have been working a photography project with Lee Rex.  Photogrammetry, to be more precise.  Photogrammetry is like taking stereopictures only instead of taking two photos and making them look three dimensional with either your own eyes or with special viewer or glasses, you take a whole bunch of photos and plug them into a comptuer which then recontsructs things in 3D.  Here is the first final project Lee Rex Photogrammetry video.   Fluffy did all of this with only our camera and an online photgrammetry program called 123D.  (He added the music… I take no credit for that).  (The only credit I can take for this is pointing Fluffy the right way).  It took him about a month to get it all figured out, including a session with another online photgrammetry outfit that proved to be much less user friendly.  During that time, we took a break from doing actual prep work on the concretion.    

You can see a lot of plant remains on this video (or also on the photo below).  Most of these are not worth saving, but they are worth mapping since many of them are not laying flat.  Kent Sundell suggests this is because they were all brought here as one big flood event as opposed to a series of flood events, and that this major flood event may have brought the dinosaur bones here as well. 

Carbonized plant remains under Lee Rex

So, the 3D photography was one way to map the plant remains.  And a cheap way to do this.  It took Fluffy a full day to take about 60 overlapping pictures.  The very same day he was doing this I got an email from a local engineering outfit, WLC, asking if they could come play with their new 3D Laser Scanner and scan our mammoth.  I called them up and said…”Come on down, and let’s do the T. rex too”.  Making a long story short, we are now doing a high tech 3D laser scan with Steven and Jason of WLC, which will give us similar data, and a whole lot more.  At his point I have no idea where this will all go, but it has been fun. 

And now that we have the 3d mapping under control, we have begun preppping again.  In the past few days a few volunteers have been working on the T rex.  The first goal is to expose the concretion and any bones not in the concretion.  We have exposed a collection of chevrons, seen here:

T rex chevrons

 A nice chevron is seen lying horizontally in this photo completely out of the concretion, while the tips of two others are seen emerging from the concretion above it.  On the right is a chevron lying tilted 90 degrees so that we are looking at the anterior (forward-facing) surface showing how the chevrons are thin forked bones.  This one is also going into the concretion.

Below is a photo of Annette, one of our work study students working on the tail end.  The red circle shows where the chevrons are. 

Below is Annette workingon the rib cage area of the beast.  In the foreground we see our angle-ometer (I don’t know its real name) that Annette also used to measure the angle of some of the plant specimens.  Here we see it sitting on a carbonized piece of plant matter, while another one below it watches the action. 

Dwaine uncovered the concretion on the far end of the block (anterior part of creature), and it is showing some unusual shapes.  I have no photo yet, but soon, I hope.  Dwaine is out there now as I write, so hopefully more of it will be exposed soon.  I myself have not spent any time on the T. rex, but plan to do so this afternoon.  I need to get out there so I can get a better feel of  how we proceed next. 

Once the concretion gets fuly exposed we will take another break and do another session of photogrammetry photos.  Stay tuned…

Well, its been several months since I’ve put anything up on here… things are busy at the ole office.  So here goes… And Happy Solstice to All and to all a Good Night! 

             This past semester we have done a fair amount of work on Lee Rex.  Students Annette Hein and Steve Bennett (a.k.a. “Fluffy”), along with volunteers Al Fraser and Dennis Stotts have done most of the work.  With the creature’s remains upside down from how we found it, they have disassembled the bulk of the metal frame, the wood and foam supports and the bottom (now top) of the plaster jacket.  Then they started digging through the foot or so of mudstone at what used to be the bottom of the rock in hopes of finding more bones.  Nothing yet.  In the shale they have discovered many carbonized plant remains.  Most are flattened stick-like things that are likely not terribly identifiable.  The interesting thing is that some of them are sitting at unusual angles, that is, they are not along the expected bedding planes.  Geology professor Kent Sundell sees this as evidence that the whole pile…mudstone, plants and dinosaur remains… were deposited in a single event, as opposed to several smaller events laying down individual mud layers.  We will not preserve most of the plant remains; they are too fragmentary and non-descript, but we will map them.

            Last week, a few of us attended a talk at the WGA lunch by BLM paleontologist Brent Breithaupt in which he talked of his work with photogrammetry.  Brent later came to the museum and we got to talking and he thought our dinosaur would be a great specimen to do similar things with.  Photogrammetry is the production of a computer based three dimensional model based on slightly overlapping photos of the subject.  Fluffy did a little research and started taking the pictures to create a photogrammetry image.  As he was taking pictures a few days ago, I got an email form a guy with WLC Engineering, Surveying, & Planning here in town who has a 3D laser scanner and is looking for fun things to do with it.   In short these guys will be doing a 3D laser scan of Lee Rex as it sits (and Dee as well).  With both of these techniques we will have a digital record of where the carbonized plant remains all lay, and we can do all sorts of measurements with the data. 

Annette has gotten deep enough on one end of the jacket which was relatively plant-free, and has exposed the start of three caudal vertebrae.  And in a few other spots we have also dug down to the concretion itself.   As of this writing, the work is on hold until we digitally document the accumulation of plant matter.    

The work study students have also spent some time prepping some of the bones we found outside of the concretion.   The two cervical vertebrae, which are both only partial bones (possible two parts of the same bone) have been prepared on one side.  Some of the ribs are completed and the students are just starting on the scapula.   

 This picture shows the tail vertebrae that have been exposed.  They are truly hard to see so I have circled them in red.  Either they don’t photograph well, or I don’t photograph them well.   

This picture shows a bigger picture view of the project.  Some of the plant pieces (blackish strips) are visible, as is the bottom side of the concretion (round surface in foreground).   The visible vertebrae are not in this shot.  

We have a webcam set up on the specimen which uploads a new photo every ten seconds.  You can see it at http://www.caspercollege.edu/webcast/webcam/popup_02.html… You might catch someone out there doing work or giving a tour.  The username and password are needed… they are both “cc”, no quotes.

JP is out in the field, and he will have a big surprise when he gets back! Here are two links to copy and paste that will take you to both the Trib and Channel 13′s coverage of Lee Rex being flipped. Don’t forget to watch Fluffy’s interview on the Trib’s website.

http://trib.com/news/local/casper/article_ca350ec8-5b2a-5399-b4e0-fe9f1048e2fb.html

http://www.kcwy13.com/newscasts.php?id=911

(The Lee Rex part starts at 8:46, so you can fast forward to it if you like.)

This report came in from Team Kansas… three gals we had help at the site who were from Kansas.  Pam from Manhattan says:  (How can I not post this, she says so many nice things about us/me). 

“Team Kansas made it safely back home after three wonderful days of becoming part of the Lee Rex family.  What an experience!  The group could not have been more welcoming, the weather more cooperative (well, it may have been just a touch HOT and we did have a fabulous lightning show one night), the thrill of a potential find more exciting or the involvement in the process more complete.  JP is doing a GREAT job getting the T-Rex out of his/her resting place and letting everyone have the hands on experience of making it happen.  Maryann found a new bone the first morning we were there.  We found a few chunkosaurus bones (real dinosaur bone but too small to be identifiable to a particular dinosaur), a few pieces of leverite (leave her right there, it’s nothing) and of course, the thrill and then disappointment of finding a concretion that looks, sounds and feels like a bone.  Many thanks to all for making this a once in a lifetime experience.  We look forward to coming back to Wyoming and seeing Lee Rex at the Tate Museum.   Team Kansas (Pam, Ashley and Julie)”

Team Kansas and the supervisor (cleverly leaning on a shovel as the chief should be doing).

Trust me, Ashley, I won't saw your hand off this time.

Bart out of focus (it's a special effect, really)

And Gabe and Emma are working on Lee Rex bones.  These two have been volunteering at the Tate for years and have prepared a few projects in that time. 

Gabe working on a "plant stem?"

I can’t remember if I have mentioned that we found a lot of unidentifiable long skinny things in the quarry.  We think they are plant remains but are having hard time saying why, except that they are long and skinny and mostly do not change thickness over the course of sometimes 6 feet.  In cross section, they are not bone-like at all.    Anyway, here is Gabe, or at least his hands, cleaning one up.   Zeb and Steve (the original Steve) are also working on some of the stuff we collected in the Lee Rex quarry.

Its been a week since the blog was updated.  I’ve been busy busy busy.  Last Wednesday we brought Lee Rex to Casper.  It took us few days to get him/her locked into its cage and stablize that for truck transport.  Black Hills Trucking brought out a big ole crane and a flatbed truck for the picking up and hauling.  It went swimmingly well.  We have taken camp down and brought ourselves into Casper as well.  We will likely go back next summer to look for more bones, but we have not decided on the details of that yet.  Will it be a public dig as this was, or not? 

Last Monday evening we had one heckuva storm out at the site.  We watched the clouds build and spin for an hour while the wall of rain mostly went north of us.  A few folks made a run for it, heading into Lusk before the storm hit.  Eventually the wall of water hit us with a fury.  Along with rain we had very high winds and hail an inch in diameter.   We all seeked shelter in our vehicles, which at times seemed not enough.  If a tornado came through, in the vehicles might not have been the best place to be.  But there we sat.  For a while you could not see 20 feet away, as our vehicles swayed in the storm.  When it was all over about 20 minutes later, the kitchen tent was down and many kitchen things had blown downwind.  I had five small tents set up; four of them were trashed by the storm.  Three other tents did not survive.    The usually dry gullies in the area were raging torrents of brown water.  It was incredible.  Most of us agreed this was the worse storm we had experienced.   The folks who headed into Lusk came back the next morning and reported that they had seen a funnel cloud in the storm that smacked us.  I don’t think we were hit by a tornado, but there was one nearby.  Four of our people had been out hiking about when the storm hit.  They seeked shelter behind sagebrush since that was the only thing around.  Sagebrush is not a very good shelter provider.  They were drowned rats by the time they made it back to camp.  After the storm they played in the raging floodwaters.     

Here are some pix from the last few days of the Lee Rex Dig 2011. 

watching the storm brew

Half the crew was watching the storm develop, while the other half were loading I-beams onto the dinosaur cage:

kitchen stuff heading downwind

The rain, wind and hail made for low visibility, and downwind distribution of many kitchen items. 

The normally dry gullies turn to floods of brown water. 

A gullywasher

Steve, Jodie and Steve enjoying the water. 

waterfall of delight

These guys (three out of our four hikers) all had welts on their bodies from being pelted by hailstones. 

The storm also took down two out of three outhouses… Yukkk.  Fortunatley no one was in them. 

I hate when this happens.

One of my trashed tents.  The tents were fine, but the rain flies got shredded.  Note the trashed tent in the background.    Between the central cook tent and my tent, there was a lark sparrow nest.  She’d been there for a week or so.  Every time I walked by I would look for her, but only ever saw the eggs, or saw her flush.  After the storm… there she was, sitting on the nest.  I went back to get my camera and when I got back to the nest I saw her fly away… point is, she and her three eggs survived the storm.  I guess she didn’t take a hailstone to the noggin.    

lark sparrow nest... storm survivor

what used to be our kitchen and sunshine shelter.

Here we are after the storm assessing the damage.  All of our stuff in our trashed tents was soaking wet.  We had to hang out sleeping bags and clothes to dry on the Lee Rex fencing. 

Dennis welding

Shortly after the storm, the Lee Rex cage was completed.  One upright support didn’t fit cuz the jacket was just a touch big at the pelvis area, but our handyman Dennis welded on an extra piece and all was well.  This cage is all take-apart-able with wrenches, except for this weld.

We spent most of Tuesday shoring up the jacket within the cage, basically making it secure so that if the truck had slam on the brakes, the jacket would not move inside its cage.  On Wednesday July 13th, the crane came by to pick up the jacket.

Enter from Stage Right... the crane

The crane guys hooking up the cables to the Lee Rex cage

A clean and balanced pluck.

The dinosaur cage came up smoothly and balanced.  With this we popped a bottle of champagne.  The champagne had been designated for skull discovery, but alas…

...and onto the awaiting flatbed

This is, by the way, the largest jacket I have even dealt with.  I think we could have done it without the Cage, but it would have taken twice as long and been twice as scary when it came time to pick it up.  As big as this jacket is, I don’t think we could have done it without a crane.  Thanks to Dennis, Pepper Tank and Black Hills Trucking for all their help. 

As we were finishing up one of the neighbors came by in his plane to see the dinosaurian antics. 

buzzed

Back in casper, the crane put the Cage onto a low-boy flatbed and that was backed into our temporary prep lab, where the dinosaur will be worked on for the next few years. 

I will keep on blogging as we move into the prep stage, but maybe less often.  The next step is for our team to prepare the jacket and Cage for rolling over.  We are going to prep the animal from the bottom, so stay tuned.    

JP Cavigelli

Just a quick note, folks, while I check my 300-plus emails.  Since there is no one out at the site any more, there will be no Saturday Visitor Day this week or anytime soon.  Thanks to all the good folks who did come out and see the site over the past month.

Just a quick word this morning.  The dig has been ended for this year.  The Big Rock containing the central part of Lee Rex has been picked up with a crane and moved to Casper.  And we had a heckuva storm the other day.  More later with pix… got lots of things to do today.

Guest blog is Jodie the cook:  9:00 p.m. July 10, 2011. The sun has just set behind funny rock.  Bart has lines on his face; J.P. is plastered; Louis just scored a rare double jowler; Annette just lost all her points; Kent is going slow.  Zeb is in-stead, Mary Ann gave us teeth, Cage is unmentionable, the rocket scientist is content with the evening, Candy is taking five and the night hawks are diving.  Jodie is laughing with them all.  Steve and Jodi washed out the water tank and filled it up with new water at the lamb hang out. Nine year old Sam rode on the water trailer on the way back to camp.  We got a lot of plastering done under the jacket while others expressed their thoughts while continuing to build a steel cage around it all.  Paleontology is the only science where you get plastered and hammered during the middle of the day all while playing with dirty hoes.

Editor’s note by DKS:  Lee Rex will be coming to Casper College on Wednesday, July 13, 2011.  It should arrive on the north side of the Career Studies building (South of the Tate Museum) at approximately 4:00 p.m.  Feel free to come up and watch them move the concretion on to a low boy trailer and back it into the new Lee Rex Barn.

I’m not sure when the last blog entry was, but a lot has happened at the Lee Rex site.  I got back from a few days in Casper for a fun surprise.  The team had started to set up the cage we are using to put this big rock in.  They were tunneling under the Big Rock and some of the vertical support pieces were set up.  It looks pretty darn impressive.  Kent and I both thought that the cage was too big when we saw it in parts, but seeing it in place it looked like just the right size.  Good job Pepper Tank.  So we’ve been working on tunneling under the rock to provide support underneath.  Meanwhile other folks are still looking in the shale for more new bone with no luck, I hate to say.  Last night, a few of us went into Lusk for the Legend of the Rawhide which is a wonderful western experience the reenactment of how Rawhide Buttes got its name.  We might have a new date for the crane to pick up the big rock, the jacket and the cage that it’s in.  We’re not sure of that date, but I hope to keep you folks updated.

Most of us spent the evening of the fourth of July in Lusk.  We had heard that there was to be a fireworks show that the whole town was excited about.  Using fireworks made by locals.  This I had to see.  I like fireworks.  I like to be close to big 4th of July fireworks.  I like to feel the big reports.  I was not disappointed.  Not at all.  We all agreed that The Bomb Squad in Lusk did a fantastic job.  I tip my hat to those guys.  I would be willing to bet this could be one of the best fireworks shows in a small town.  And the four gals who sang the Star Spangled Banner did a bang-up job, too. 

We’ve had a few hot days in the quarry.  Took a two hour lunch break on one of those days.  Watermelon breaks at 3-ish o’clock are especially valuable on the hot days.  We are expanding the quarry in the northward direction and will soon be expanding to the west as well.  We are still not finding any new bones.  I have been in Casper for two days, so I do not know what’s been found today and yesterday.  But the weather has been much cooler.  We have also run an undercut around the Big Rock and plastered the undercuts.  This is the first step in getting in under the rock.

We are planning to pick up the Big Rock on July 15th.  Which means we have to plaster it all up and then put the frame around it and then fill it with foam.   

And now a few pix:

rib

Here is the rib that was being discovered as I left the site ten days ago.  There was some discussion as to whather this might be a Triceratops rib.   

plant things?We have been finding a lot of these plant things. (The three long brownish things in the photo above). There has been much discusson as to what they actually are. They are hard and thin and flat and long. Some are up to six feet long. There is no bone structure in them, but they are harder than the mudstone they are in. Root casts? Plant stems? Palm leaf stems? Feather shafts? Wouldn't it be cool if we could show they are large feathers from the late Cretaceous, in the same bed as a T rex? But alas, that is just an idea at this point. There are lot of othere things in there with similar structure, but random different shapes. 3:04 PM... bring on the watermelon. plaster on the Big Rock. Beginging to plaster the Big Rock. Notice the two vermin in the bottom right of the photo. They are still examining the end of the femur, and since they could not move fast enough, they have been plastered into the jacket. For more info in the vermin check out Jamie Burmeister's web site....vermin.me. After the dig we will be adding a few pix to his site, too. water

just another storm

geological cross section

beginning the undercutSteve and Steve (guess which is Steve) are undercutting the jacket. We undercut it a little bit at a time, then plaster that bit then ove over. This way only a little bit of the jacket is ever threatening to cave in at any time. No cave-ins... yet. visitor day

Its been a while since a blog entry was made.  Between the intermitent phone connection out at the site and folks here at the Tate taking days off around the 4th of July, there’s been a gap.  Here is what was submitted but not yet transcribed for June 30th:

The question has been asked in camp …. “Why did we kill the local rattlesnake yet allow a deadly black widow to live in the quarry area (and even move her to a  new home)?”  My answer is becasue the spider is at home in her web in her rodent burrow.  We know exactly where she will be at all times.  We moved her for two reasons: 1) the quarry is moving towards here territory and she has an egg sack.  When those babies hatch, there would likely be black widows all over the place.  The snake, on the other hand is very mobile and crytopically colored.  He/she could turn up anywhere anytime, and do harm to someone.  Some folks like to kill things… I am not one of those. 

We had a small crew today.  The high school kids left.  Originally I was a bit apprehensive about having ten high schoolers around, but they turned out to be great kids.  Good job digging, you guys.  We started plastering the Big Rock, while more folks are still looking for more bones. 

We had howlaceous winds last night.  Again.  Dennis has brough us a pile of metal parts and pieces to build a cage for uor beast.  Gonna keep him/her from escaping.  And make the beast comfortable for when we roll it over.  The metal cage is designed and fabricated by Pepper Tank here in Casper.  They are a local outfit that does steel fabricatrion of tanks for the oil industry and other businesses.  Thanks, Pepper Tank.