26 - 27 September: RBF Dig is a Wrap!
Ryan, Tiffany and I suffered through a half day of extreme GOO to pull out Mikey's scapulae and the rest of his thoracic vertebrae and ribs. This was definitely the worst part of this dig! I sat with my face much too close to the smell of hydrogen sulfide and partially decomposed connective tissue while feeling around with my gloved hands in the wet, sticky, black GOO for the thoracic vertebrae and heads of the attached ribs. When Ryan and Tiffany needed to shovel away more of the overlying dirt, we had to lay boards down so they wouldn't disappear into the muck!
Pulling a rib from the GOO!
Tiffany cleaning around a tibia.
Remains of connective tissue that was attached to scapula.
More ribs, vertebrae & scapula. covered in GOO!
The next day I worked alone as all I had left to recover were the last of Mikey's hind legs. Little did I realized that I still had to dig away about 3 feet of dirt/clay that still covered his pastern bones and hooves.
Added to the slow process of chopping through dense clay, I had to be careful not to miss any of the small, clay-ball-sized tarsal bones (hock), proximal sesamoids and the navicular bones. But I was able to recover all of them and finally Mikey's hind hooves.The actual "digging" part of the dig may be over, but the real fun of cleaning and studying the bones is ongoing. Stay tuned for updates on what the bones tell us!
