Tomorrow morning, paleontologists from across the state will flock to UCR for CalPaleo, an annual paleontology conference. The Droser lab had a big hand in organizing the conference and all will presenting either talks or posters (except Lucas, who is off becoming famous at AbSciCon). You can check out the conference webpage by clicking the link below:
And here is a list of the Droser labmates and their talk or poster titles:
Robyn Dahl, "STUCK IN THE MUD: PALEOECOLOGY OF MIDDLE ORDOVICIAN GASTROPODS FROM THE IBEX REGION, GREAT BASIN, USA"
Sara Henry, "MORPHOLOGY, ECOLOGY, AND ENVIRONMENT OF ORDOVICIAN RECEPTACULITIDS IN THE GREAT BASIN (WESTERN USA)"
Lydia Tarhan, "EXCEPTIONAL TRACE FOSSIL PRESERVATION AND MIXED LAYER DEVELOPMENT IN CAMBRIAN SILICICLASTIC STRATA OF THE GREAT BASIN (WESTERN USA) AND CENTRAL SPAIN"
Emily Wooton, "TRACE FOSSIL RECORD THROUGH THE UPPER KELLWASSER ANOXIC EVENT (APPALACHIAN BASIN)"
Our resident wizard/Sherlock is off to Atlanta to compete in the finals of International FameLab and we just found out that you can watch his performance live on AbSciCon's webcast! You can tune in this Monday (April 16, 2012) from 7-9pm ET here:
Spring Break 2010 has taken the Droser lab up the California Coast to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I shot some video footage of the beautiful creatures and plan to edit these clips, as well as other shots from then entire trip, into a longer video journal but take a look at these in the meantime:
Bed 4: "Mop Bed," bespattered with mop-identifying post-its
Excavation at West Tennis Courts
Jim testing out the furniture masons' wares
Dust Storm!
Sunset in the dust storm
Emmy, stylin' her most recently acquired item of high fashion ("rescued" from the Leigh Creek park)
Double rainbow!
The Cairns rainforest: Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...
Cairns, viewed en route to the Great Barrier Reef!
On July 2, 2009, the Australian Expedition – Mary, Lidya, R.J., Emmy, Ian, Mary Elizabeth, Matt and D.A. magically condensed their luggage and set off. Although R.J. (and more importantly, his precious burden of laminated photographs) was stopped at security on the suspicious charge of having a watch in his backpack rather than on his wrist and, alas, no one discovered a stuffed isopod during the post-deplaning tidying session, we successfully made it through two flights, SUV and trailer rental and a treacherous system of roundabouts, full of cars driving the wrong way, to arrive two days later at the Princes Lodge, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. Our respite was brief, however, and soon we were racing through the most super of Adelaide’s supermarkets, maniacally snatching goods off shelves and dazedly consulting shopping lists.
The next day we embarked on the six-hour drive to Nilpena Station, pushing to arrive before dark (in order to avoid the crepuscular kangaroos – the Australian equivalent of hitting a moose or cow). Through Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Hawker and at last the Flinders, we sped on and arrived with the last of the light. After hauling bag after bag of groceries into the tiny Shearers’ Quarters (Nilpena is a traditional sheep ranch), we finally organized and stuffed into place the last of the cans, greens, dairy, bread, dozens of bottles of wine and massive pile of GORP ingredients and collapsed into bed, only to awaken in a couple hours, as the jet lag caught up with us and vindictively pounced.
We spent our days outside in the elements – ranging from three-layer (“mild”) to six-layer (“uncontrollable trembling” – especially when the wind howled) weather. A couple times, mulish blankets of thick clouds or startling downpours drove us out of the field and into Leigh Creek to resupply and descend upon the bewildered owners of the small-town post office with sheaves of postcards. But otherwise, battling the dust storms and the bitterly-cold winds, cursing the faux sun and working frantically during the few brilliant, cloudless days, we excavated, scrubbed, picked, gridded, mapped, measured, latexed, drew, photographed, prospected amongst the float and endlessly observed the panoply of the Ediacara Biota. At dusk each day we returned to (of course) gin and tonics and a very welcome hot dinner, courtesy of D.A., downloaded each day’s worth of photographs (I accumulated nearly 5 Gb of mop-related photographs by the end of the trip) and sometimes watched movies on the South Australia Museum’s big screen, with Mary’s projector – classics like Mama Mia and Short Circuit (“I am standing here beside myself”). We tasted quandong milkshakes, celebrated Ian’s birthday and the carnivores sampled the Parachilna Hotel’s “Feral Platter” – emu pate, camel sausage and other similar delicacies.
Time passed quickly, and soon we were racing to tie up all the loose ends in our fieldwork, give the house a thorough beating to (very temporarily) free it from its thick coat of red dust (I easily reached my lifetime quota for silica consumption and pack up. We sojourned in Cairns for a few days of decompression - visiting the rainforest by way of historic train, snorkeling and scuba diving in the Great Barrier reef, wandering the gigantic organic farmer's market, basking in the strange and wondrous humidity the whole while. But soon it was time to go home. On our last day we arose before dawn, caught our flights to Sydney and L.A. and, several hours earlier (!!) returned to daily life: Riverside in August.
Greetings to the Droser Lab! I hope the Sierra trip was a good one this year and that you're getting settled into the routine of a new semester. Its strange not to be starting that with you.
As the subject suggests, things are going well with me in DC. I have been finding interesting fossils in the parks, although getting used to eastern geology again is quite a switch. My field sites are now along creeks, roads, or in the case of C & O Canal along rock faces blasted or drilled off more than a hundred years ago. I love the green of the city, but I have also been experiencing the ticks and chiggers that come along with the green.
Right now I am writing up reports about what I've found in the parks and making recommendations for future monitoring and protection of these sites. My internship has been extended through the fall, so I'm going to stay on and do some interpretive programs about what I've found for the parks to use. I'm looking forward to the change of pace.
Well here's a picture of me looking at one of the canal locks--they are neat because they're all built of local stone and you can see the same sedimentary structures, sometimes better exposed. And for a change of pace, jousting at a Renaissance fair I went to recently with my park service housemates.
In the east fall is coming, and I'm enjoying the crisp air. Hope you're not being blasted with too much heat in CA!
