Why the 2023 Season Rocked
2023 was as productive as it was quick, but time always flies when you’re having this much fun! We’re extremely thankful for the time we get to spend every year in the field and in one of the most beautiful places in the world - Red Lodge, Montana. The crew members that join us each summer are what really enrich the experience and make our fossil finds possible. We do this for the adventure, discovery, and lifelong dreams…but most importantly, we do it for the science of it all. So, what amazing things did our crew find this year?
Crew member next to a new femur at Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day, by far one of our favorite sites, has surprised us yet again. Last year, our team worked on four beautiful Diplodocus femora after years of working the site with no femur at all. Thanks to our amazing crew members, we now have two more to excavate for next year!
Through no fault but our own… we noticed something peculiar about the Mother’s Day area; we’re surrounded by faults! Faults are fractures in a volume of rock in the earth’s crust, a displacement caused by the movement of rock bodies such as the building of the Bighorn Basin. This discovery is a huge step in our search for more information about Mother’s Day, another page in the story of events that transpired here 150 million years ago.
Local friends helping us get semi-articulated vertebrae ready for jacketing at Fossil Flats
Once again, Fossil Flats is the gift that keeps on giving! This year, we made serious progress on expanding the quarry and were rewarded with a number of new elements - including several semi-articulated (bones in the same position they were in life) tail vertebrae. This small sauropod site, presumed Camarasaurus, lies on a layer of laminated sandstone, which tells us that the Camarasaurus was likely being transported by water and was deposited on a sandbar and would explain the partial articulation. Just when we think the site is about to dry up, it surprises us again!
M&M, discovered in 2022, has proved to be part of our newest dinosaur “hotspot”. This theropod site is suspected to be Allosaurus, the most common theropod and apex predator of the Morrison Formation. In the first week, we were able to locate not one but TWO femora! However, here’s the twist… The two femora, or thigh bones, have a significant size difference, meaning that we may have two individuals on our hands!
Crew members after jacketing a sauropod toe at the Skyewalker site
In addition to all of these new bones at our existing quarries… Yet another sauropod site has been opened! After several years of prospecting in the Andersen area and finding chunks of fossil float in this specific spot, some of the source material has finally started to surface. We, along with our awesome team of daily expedition crew members, started rooting around one day in the area only to find parts of the animal’s hips. Since then, we’ve revealed a femur, a couple of vertebrae, a toe, and even a tiny tooth. Further prospecting of the area also yielded a theropod toe, so it’s looking like double the fun here at the newly dubbed Skyewalker site!
After the fastest and most efficient extraction day in Elevation Science history, staff members got each completed fossil jacket loaded onto the trailer headed east. While we missed seeing that gorgeous Montana sunset to send us home, we felt accomplished in that we were able to achieve all of our goals and more for the 2023 season. We could not be more thrilled with our staff and crew members this year, and the planning for the next expedition has already begun. Stay tuned for more exciting updates on our finds this year!