Research and Expeditions

2011 Inner Mongolia field season begins

2011-08-02T15:18:00.001-07:00

3 August 2011. IVPP, Beijing, China.

With the arrival of team members Xiaoming and Mike, the 2011 field expedition to Inner Mongolia is in full swing.

The team this year comprises three of us from Los Angeles, and four from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. We will also have a few geolgists joining us from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Earth Sciences research division.

The tentative schedule is to depart for Xilinhot on Friday, August 5. Some of the sites we will visit include the earl-middle Miocene Aoerban area, the middle Miocene Tunggur Formation, and the late Miocene Baogeda Ula Formation.

The stuffy and warm air in Beijing urges us to again migrate northward onto the Mongolian Plateau where the skies are blue and the grasses are green.

~Jack

North Campus: L.A.'s Urban Nature: New Bird For North Campus List

2011-04-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

North Campus: L.A.'s Urban Nature: New Bird For North Campus List: "165 and Counting... Earlier this week, Kimball Garrett, NHM Ornithology Collections Manager, spotted a not-so-common sight, a pai..."

A new blog was launched to keep the public informed about progress in the construction of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's North Campus.

Stay tuned!

Royal Tyrrell Museum Speaker Series 2011

2011-01-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Friday, January 28, 2011
11:00 a.m.
Jack Tseng
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Tyrants of the Cenozoic: Evolution of Bone-Crushing Hyenas and Dogs

Location:
Royal Tyrrell Museum
1500 North Dinosaur Trail
Drumheller, Alberta
Canada

Link: http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/speaker_series.htm

The discovery continues

2010-10-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

7 October 2010. News relayed from IVPP, Beijing, China.

After the intense work schedule of the field season, the researchers and students have gone back to their posts and resumed the more sedentary lifestyle of indoor paleontology.

However, the process of discovery continues as preparators and technicians work hard in the laboratories to bring many of the most outstanding field specimens out of their plaster-encased coffins, into the light of research.

One of the new preparator/driver of the 2010 field season, Mr. Shengli Wu of the IVPP, has been preparing ZD1001 specimens with high efficiency. When he finished extracting two bovid dentaries from the field plaster jacket ZD1001.6~7, he continued to remove the rest of the matrix as instructed by the chief preparator.

[ZD1001.6~7 field jacket, shown with the two bovid dentaries which were the original targets of the plaster jacket]

Just a few days ago, an additional fossil specimen was uncovered from the remaining matrix in the jacket...

It is a partial left maxilla of a small felid, matching in size to two other individuals of the same type already discovered from the ZD1001 quarry.

[the unexpected felid maxilla uncovered in the IVPP laboratory]

Four teeth are preserved on this new specimen, and the complete canine will be informative in our identification of this carnivoran once all materials have been prepared.

Meanwhile, a partial skull of the same felid is being prepared in the laboratory of the LACM. More updates will be posted after the annual gathering of vertebrate paleontologists from around the world at the meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, happening this year in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 9 to 13 October.

~Jack

2010-09-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

[A disintegrated kiang Equus kiang carcass in the "Valley of the kiang" locality. Zhada Basin, Tibet. 19 August 2010]

2010-09-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

[Expedition geologist Dr. Guangpu Xie takes notes at locality ZD1001, 300 feet above the field vehicles in Zhadagou. Zhada Basin, Tibet. 7 August 2010]

2010-09-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

[Crew members prospect on a patch of highly fossiliferous outcrop (locality ZD1001) above the Zhadagou Trail. Zhada Basin, Tibet. 7 August 2010]

2010-09-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

[Drs. Xiaoming Wang (left) and Qiang Li (right) plan for fieldwork in the Zhada Basin. Ngari District, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. 5 August 2010]

2010-09-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

[Juan Liu of the University of Alberta carries a plaster jacket containing a rhino radius bone that she had just collected. West of Tuosu Lake, Qinghai Province, China. 28 July 2010]

2010-09-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

[Gary Takeuchi of LACM takes notes on the morning's finds in the Quanshuiliang locality area. Qinghai Province, China. 28 July 2010]

Glimpses of the 2010 field season: Jack's photos

2010-09-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

[an exposed partial dentary of a medium-sized bovid at the eastern edge of the Quanshuiliang area, Qinghai Province, China. July 2010]

Inner Mongolia project takes a hit, moves forward

2010-09-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

9 September 2010. Xiaotangshan, rurtal Beijing, China

In early September a small team of technicians visited the Baogeda Ula quarry site that Jack and the crew worked on in 2009, to attempt to extract a large field jacket left there (dubbed "The Southern Block"). What the crew found was an empty hole with fragments of what's left over of the jacket.

After consultation with the local police, the Land Management office, and the local rancher, we concluded that the jacket was destroyed by tomb raiders in Abaga. Many small operations of illegal excavation plague the Inner Mongolian grasslands which boasts thousands of ancient Mongolian burial sites. The cultural bureau has no adequate resources to protect and manage all of them. Unfortunately, our site was targeted by locals who do not differentiate between burial sites and fossil sites.

With the largest chunk of bonebed from our 2009 excavation destroyed, we (those in Beijing) turned our attention to the smaller field jacket (dubbed "The Northern Block") which was transported to the rural field station of the IVPP in Xiaotangshan at the end of the field seasons last year.

[a cocoon hangs quietly outside the warehouse which houses field jackets made by IVPP field teams from all over China]

Dr. Qiang Li and Jack spent the day opening up the Northern Block with help from technicians at the field station, and then immediately began preparation on the jacket. So far, two scapulae and two radii have been uncovered, in addition to rib and vertebral fragments that were exposed during excavation.

[Xiaotangshan technician Ding saws open the top of IM0902 "The Northern Block"]

An in-house technician will be assigned to the preparation of the jacket with Li and Jack's supervision, to collect data on the arrangement and preservation of fossil bones while preparation proceeds for the next few months.

[the surface of the jacket after first day's preparation]

ZD1001 bonebed

2010-09-08T02:25:00.000-07:00

8 September 2010. IVPP, Beijing, China

Fossil specimens from Tibet have all been unpacked and stored in specimen boxes. Now comes the more "scientific" part of curation: make sense out of the fossils.

We have extracted fossils from the ZD1001 bonebed with the purpose of studying its taphonomy (the study of the circumstances surrounding the preservation of different types of fossil deposits). One aspect of examining its preservation involved collecting all bone fragments and elements that were uncovered during the process of excavation, and the documentation of the orientation of the bones as they are found in the ground.

[a scan of Jack's field notes, showing a numbered list of specimens taken out of ZD1001 {left page} and their orientation and position in the ground {right page}]

Digitizing and building a quarry map showing the arrangement of bones from ZD1001 is one step towards understanding the environment in which the fossil vertebrates died and became preserved.

To many Angelinos this is all too familiar; the Rancho la Brea deposits of Hancock Park are full of concentrated pockets of fossils (although la Brea fossils are younger in geologic age than those from ZD1001 by a few million years).

Unwrapping Tibet

2010-09-06T21:43:00.001-07:00

7 September 2010. IVPP, Beijing, China.

The field vehicles arrived in Beijing on Sunday evening, after a ten-day trek from the western border of Tibet across the Tibetan Plateau and down to coastal China. We welcomed the drivers back with an early dinner, and sent them home for some rest.

Monday morning was the usual off-loading of the vehicles which made our fossil finds visible for all in the institute to see. Many passers-by asked about our trip and the nature of our new discoveries. The real work begins, however, with the unpacking and curating of the specimens.

[boxes of mammal fossils as they were in our Zhada Basin headquarter]

Even though the title "curator" may invoke many glorious (sometimes not so glorious) and adventurous associations in the common enthusiast, its core responsibility is far from those perceptions. Work does not end with the discovery of a new fossil specimen (in fact, that is the simplest and easiest step, in my opinion). The cleaning, labeling, identification, and proper documentation and storage of each and every single specimen that comes into one's attention is the bridge that allows a specimen to be scientifically studied and made known to the world.

I gained a full appreciation of the "background work" of curation and collection through working with Curatoral Assistant Gary Takeuchi, who upheld a high standard of specimen curation even under the more adverse field conditions. This year I am left to curate the specimens on my own terms as both Xiaoming and Gary have returned to Los Angeles.

It is no easy task, and specimens are still being unpacked at this point. Measurements will commence on the in situ specimens from the ZD1001 quarry as soon as everything from this season has been boxed and labeled.

~Jack

Back in Beijing

2010-08-31T00:04:00.000-07:00

31 August 2010. IVPP, Beijing.

The majority of the team has returned to Beijing from Lhasa. Our field vehicles are still on the road back home (they have reached Geermu, Qinghai Province as of last night, and should arrive in Lanzhou today).

We are organizing the few specimens that we brought back from Tibet, and waiting for the rest of the specimens to come back to the institute. It is warm and smoggy in Beijing, with plenty of oxygen in the air (compared to Zhada!)

Last day enroute to Lhasa

2010-08-26T04:08:00.000-07:00

Last night, we stayed in the tourist town of Shigaze to give some members of our team the opportunity of visiting its big temple. This morning, a few miles out of town, the main highway to Lhasa was closed for repair works. We were forced to take the old southern rout to Lhasa, about 100 km of detour but a scenic road taken by most tourists. Since we are in no particular hurry (we'll have three days to cool our heels in Lhasa because of difficulty in obtaining plane tickets), it is worth the extra time to see the scenery -- 6000 meter plus snow peak (Jiangsanglamu), pristine lake (Yangchuoyongcuo), and ancient Tibetan town that had resisted British invasions (Jiangze).
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Over the rainbow

2010-08-23T19:32:00.001-07:00

23 August 2010. On the road

We left the Holy Mountain at 0600 this morning, rushing in the dark to get past the road block at Huoer Village which begins at 0700.

Thick clouds overhead dumped a coat of snow over the peaks as we navigated several rushing rivers.

The road home seems distinctly mellower than our entry into the wild.

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Don't cry for me Zhada County

2010-08-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

22 August 2010. Route 219

We are driving towards Lhasa (still four days away) today, having wrapped up our work in the basin.

Striped basin sediments gave way to misty metamorphic basement rock as we ascended the basin margin; clouds and fog enveloped the colorful peaks of the Aylari Ranges.

Descent into the adjacent valley takes us to Menshi, a small village where Pleistocene fossil horses were found last year. We might stop to examine the Quaternary "overburden" (as Neogene paleontologists often unlovingly refer to Pleistocene sediments) for fossil clues.

On the road again...

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Will Downs memorial

2010-08-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

In 2006 we set up a memorial site for our friend Will Downs, who had a life-long wish of working in the Zhada Basin but passed away without ever setting foot in Tibet. This year our attempt to revisit that site failed due to road problems. Yesterday we erected another memorial with Tibetan prayer flags, this time overlooking the town of Zhada, and retold some our favorite Will Downs stories. Of this year' team members, Guangpu and Xiaoming can share many of the memorable moments about Will.

By mid afternoon, a violent thunderstorm/hail caught us before we had a chance to escape. We were all more or less drenched but otherwise left unharmed (photo of peeping out a make-shift raincoat). Was Will displeased with our selection of wine?

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Sometimes things just work out

2010-08-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

Our original plan of camping at the Xiangze Farm was quickly dashed because a flash flood had damaged a bridge. We had no choice but to activate our plan B, which is to camp at a promising site we briefly visited in our 2007 season.

We are not disappointed. In our first day, everyone got something, including dental and postcranial materials of gomphothere elephant, deer antlers, horse teeth, etc.

As usual, a light rain starts in the evening, accompanied by a nice rainbow and a sunset that looks like a "V".

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Good Morning India

2010-08-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

17 August 2010. On route to Xiangzi

We rode out from Zhada at 0900 this morning. We are driving to Xiangzi, in the northwest corner of the basin.

We will camp there for a few days, and prospect for fossils in that area.

The road to Xiangzi is long but scenic; along the way are mountains of the Indian Himalayas in the distance. Pakistan is also just around the corner!

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A village tugged deep inside a canyon

2010-08-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

While Gary, Jack and Li Qiang's team is busy excavating their quarry (see previous posts), the rest of the team led by Xiaoming is roaming the country side to find additional fossil sites. We stumbled upon a new road that lead to a canyon previously inaccessible. At the end of this road is a beautiful little village (named Duoxiang) next to a most lush patch of pasture in this part of the country. A lovely little pagoda stands at the foothill (photo) as well as some ancient ruins nearby. Unfortunately, we did not find any fossils in this canyon, but no regrets for such a lovely day.
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Days of our lives in the quarry

2010-08-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

12 August 2010. The most awesome quarry in Tibet (the one and only)

The excavation crew (Qiang Li, Juan Liu, Fuqiao Shi, Gary Takeuchi, and Zhijie Jack Tseng) spent (so far) five working days in the quarry. We have recorded 100 specimens extracted in place so far, with more to excavate in the coming days.

This quarry is probably the first and most significant of its kind in Tibet to date; the fauna collected from a 6 by 6 feet hole in the ground so far composes 14 different vertebrate animals (six of which are brand new to the region). Among them are a bird, three kinds of rabbits, a zokor, a felid (an adult and a juvenile), etc.

We are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of specimens in such a small areas; Gary is getting flashbacks of his days in the La Brea pits.

A few photos of our work area!
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Main street, breakfast

2010-08-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

10 August 2010. Zhada, Tibet

We are authorized to continue our fieldwork. A slow morning with partly cloudy skies awaits us.

More excavation today; gotta get those 11 jaws outta there!
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Main street, breakfast

2010-08-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

10 August 2010. Zhada, Tibet

We are authorized to continue our fieldwork. A slow morning with partly cloudy skies awaits us.

More excavation today; gotta get those 11 jaws outta there!
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A bump on the road

2010-08-08T19:12:00.001-07:00

9 August 2010. Zhada, Tibet

We spent the whole day yesterday excavating ZD1001, the highly productive bonebed discovered by Juan Liu. In a day's work, we had uncovered 11 jaws of bovids and a mustelid. Among other elements were limb bones and axial elements of horses, rhinos, and more bovids.

Of course, among the most important finds are the small mammals; besides the two types of lagomorphs (rabbits and pikas), there were also squirrel teeth and post-cranial elements. Isolated teeth of these small mammals pop up everywhere as we carefully sort through the surface sediment with dental picks. We also collected bags of matrix to screen-wash for any missed microfossils.

Today, we are spending at least the morning (and potentially the entire day) dealing with the local police. We decided to check in at the police station last night after work, but the police shut down our operation by giving the reason that we are missing a piece of paperwork. More hurdles to jump, but hopefully things will work out.

It is overcast in Zhada today, with temperatures in the 60's degrees F. It has not rained so far today. There was a brief power outage this morning, but power is back on now.

[posted from Zhada's Internet Cafe]

Snapshot of Zhadan life

2010-08-08T03:07:00.000-07:00

8 August 2010. Zhada, Tibet

Life happens a little slower in the desolate town of Zhada.

Cars waiting at the town's only gas station are outnumbered by pigs, chickens, and geese.

The town sits quietly above the Sutlej River, watching every cloud that passes by, many of which bring rain and snow even on a cozy August day.

The excitement and stress of our fieldwork are greeted by a more peaceful way of living in this tiny town.

A toast to the badlands!
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End of Day 1: new locality

2010-08-07T03:32:00.000-07:00

7 August 2010. Zhadagou

On our morning excursion we drove to a dead end where a storm during the previous night had washed away sections of the trail. We then turned back and stopped at a promising outcrop which jutted up 200 feet above the road.

Everyone packed their lunch and began tackling the steep hike up to the platform. It took Jack and Gary 18 minutes to get to the top, with falling rock hitting Gary in the right knee once along the way (he is ok).

No sooner had we walked a few ridges over the edge did the first discovery happen: Juan Liu (University of Alberta) had found some vertebral and limb bone fragments which led her to a hillside littered with fossils of all sizes and varieties.

The entire team eventually gathered at her locality, and spent the day prospecting and excavating at ZD1001, the first locality of the season.

By 1700, we had recovered ten different mammals and one kind of small fish. Among the mammals are three-toed horse, rhino, two bovids (one spiral-horned, the other smaller and straighter-horned), a hyena, a cat, a badger, a rabbit, a pika, and a squirrel.

Tomorrow we will split the team, one to continue excavation of the bonebed, the other to explore adjacent hills.

A great first day full of new findings to boost our morale! The weather held up nicely, although ominous clouds caused a brief period of panic when snow was dumped on the peaks just east of us, within an hour's reach by foot-hike.

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Day 1: Zhadagou

2010-08-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

7 August 2010. Zhada, Tibet

We finally had a good night's sleep at our home away from home.

Gary and Jack set up the preparation laboratory in their room; acryloid glue was made, curation table was set up, and supplies (plaster bandages, wrapping paper, stationary, specimen bags, etc.) were tallied.

This morning we are driving along Zhadagou in rainy weather (muddy too!), on the western trail of the two routes to the north of town. The Sutlej River is muddy and rapid, indication of continued precipitation in the area.

We hope to revisit the locality ZD0701, where abundant fossils were recovered in 2007.
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Arrived in Zhada

2010-08-06T07:12:00.001-07:00

6 August 2010. Zhada County Seat, Tibet

We finally arrived in Zhada today at around 1730. We left Holy
Mountain in the morning, driving west through the village of Menshi,
passing Baer Military Station, and over the hills into Zhada County.

In response to some inquiries (sorry, but limited access here in Tibet
means we cannot successfully post your comments; we really appreciate
the attention though), we did drive most of our journey to Zhada on
G219, sections of which seem to have been under construction for
years.

We encountered a slight mishap on the mountain pass leading into
Zhada; our head vehicle was stopped by a road construction crew which
was paving the one-lane road; our driver got into an argument with the
foremen, and a scuffle ensued which ended peacefully with both sides
backing off. We saw it as a lesson for our city folks to adapt to the
slower way of life in these remote parts of China. Patience is a
prerequisite for this line of work!

This post was sent from an Internet Bar in Zhada; we are staying at
the Chongqing Motel for the duration of our stay in the Zhada Basin.
There are plans to camp out in the remote northwestern area of the
basin sometime within the next 20 days, weather permitting. Thick
clouds passed overhead as we drove in today, and we hope tomorrow the
weather will hold as we begin the first day of fieldwork in Zhada
Basin!

-The LACM team

Glimpse of Holiness

2010-08-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

6 August 2010. Holy Mountain

Two photos from the streets of Holy Mountain. Use of oxygen is recommended when in a hot bath.

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Holy Mountain

2010-08-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

6 August 2010. Holy Mountain

After another 18-hour day of driving, we arrived at the foot of the "Holy Mountain" in the county of Pulan. It was already midnight by the time we had a quick dinner.

Road construction made it slow on the go, and the wet weather all around made river crossing detours difficult. The IVPP team, which had previously spent two weeks in the Lunpola Basin, is fatigued and impatient. One can only hope arrival in Zhada will bring morale back up.

The damp night in Holy Mountain was a bit uncomfortable, but the LACM/FSU group is in good spirit. We hope the weather holds up for our half-day trip to Zhada, where we could prepare glue and equipment for fieldwork tomorrow.

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Slow but steady

2010-08-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

5 August 2010. Zhongba, Tibet

After being stuck at a road construction blockade for 2.5 hours, and being delayed at a border checkpoint for more than 3 hours, we finally settled down in Saga near midnight.

To make up for lost time, we got back on the road at 0630, only to find snow in our path. Maneuvering the mountains was difficult before dawn because of low visibility, and snow turned to rain in the river valleys and plains.

We stopped in Zhongba to have brunch, and to patch leaky tires. The thick fog clouds the road ahead, and the team leaders are eager to began fieldwork.

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Field Dispatch: Lazi ahead

2010-08-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

4 August 2010. Lazi, Rigaze Area

After a good night's rest at Shenhu Hotel in Rigaze, we got on the road again at 0730, riding in the rain through a mountainous terrain of metamorphic basement rock.

The weather is overcast with occasional drizzle; a light breeze brings a chill through the caravan. Temperature lingers around upper 50's, cold enough for Xiaoming to bring out his jacket.

We passed several sleepy villages, stopped for gasoline, and pressed on.

Everyone is still healthy, even under ever-increasing altitude.
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Field dispatch: leaving Lhasa

2010-08-02T20:43:00.001-07:00

3 August 2010. Lhasa, Tibet

We spent the whole day yesterday filling out applications for border travel permit. Everything went relatively smoothly except for the withdrawal of our 4th vehicle.

After finding a car at the 11th hour, we set a call time of 8 am for loading the vehicles.

After half a day of more permit paperwork, we are driving westward out of Lhasa and towards Ali, a good three days away.

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Field Dispatch: Lhasa, Tibet

2010-08-01T00:33:00.001-07:00

1 August 2010. Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region

On 31 July, we set foot for Tibet from a small roadside hostel in the area of Budongquan (meaning "never frozen spring") at 0600, and had breakfast in the village of Wudaoliang (elevation 13800 feet). We met several teams of cross-country cyclists there, sharing the thin air.

We pressed on without much stopping, except at Tuotuohe (the source of the Yangtze River) and Tanggula Mountain Pass (at 15693 feet elevation) along the way. We met an outcoming team of paleontologists from the IVPP and Nanjing in the city of Naqu; they had just finished up excavation of fossil fish in Lunpola Basin, and were driving towards Kunlun Mountain for additional fieldwork. We had a quick bite to eat while there, and received stories and advice from the Lunpola team.

After several hours of driving through restricted speed-limit zones and navigating in the dark with busted headlights, we pulled into the Tiancheng Hotel in southwestern Lhasa at 2345 (almost mid-night!). We unloaded our gear and settled down for a few hours of much-needed sleep.

For the rest of the day (still 1 August), our vehicles are being serviced, while several small groups of team members go out to buy last-minute supplies for the upcoming trek to the Zhada Basin, in southwestern Tibet. The overall health of our team is excellent, as would be expected for a seasoned expedition crew. The LACM team spent about one week in the lower-elevation Tsaidam Basin, in part to acclimate ourselves for working conditions above 13000 feet. From an elevation of "sea-level" in Beijing, we spent some time working at 9000-10,000 feet elevation; we will travel through terrains at 13,000-14,000 feet elevation for the next 4 days.

~Gary and Jack

On route to Kunlun Mountain

2010-07-29T18:07:00.001-07:00

30 July 2010. On the road again

After four days in Tsaidam Basin, we are packing up our bags and heading to Tibet!

We will meet the main IVPP team on route to Lhasa; they have been working in Lunpola Basin collecting fossil fish.

As I type, our vehicle is experiencing problems with the 4-wheel drive mechanism, we have a few days to spare, but hopes are the car won't require extensive repair.

-Jack
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Field dispatch - more mammals!

2010-07-29T17:55:00.001-07:00

28-29 July 2010. West of "Tuosu Lake West"

Today Juan Liu (University of Alberta) led us to a rich hillside littered with mammal fossils.

She initially found a /Hipparion/ dentary, followed by a deer skull. We then combed the area, finding deer antlers, gazelle horncores, rhino long bones, and proboscidean parts.

This new site appears to be very similar in lithology and faunal composition to the lake shore area, and now appears to be geologically younger than Quanshuiliang, based on preliminary observation.

We spent a good two days making half a dozen plaster jackets to extract those specimens.

A toast was made over dinner to the team member who made this important discovery!

-The LACM/IVPP/FSU team
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Field dispatch - new find

2010-07-29T17:38:00.001-07:00

27 July 2010. Tuosu Nor west shore

Today was a hot day, and it would have been more unbearable if we weren't by the Tuosu Nor (latter meaning "lake" in Mongolian). We kept driving east from previous day's locality, and reached the southern twin of the Keluke-Tuosu lakes.

We discovered a new locality marked by a rich collection of fossil deer antlers and more fish bones! Furthermore, we also collected a partial bovid dentary accompanied by an equid maxilla.

The equid is most likely some kind of /Hipparion/, meaning we have a faunal connection to the Quanshuiliang fauna. However, the latter appears unique in its endemic bovids, and the new locality, without a hint of those taxa, could represent a different environment and/or a distinct geologic age altogether.

Mosquitoes (swarms of them) are still keeping us company.

-The LACM/IVPP/FSU team
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Field dispatch - Tsaidam day 1

2010-07-29T17:22:00.001-07:00

26 July 2010. Quanshuiliang, Qinghai Province

We returned to the highly fossiliferous site to prospect. We drove east to the edge of the continuous exposure to try our luck.

We succeeded in finding a baby rhino skull, several horncores of the bovid /Qurliqnoria cheni/, and isolated fish bones.

The day was also marked by the abundance of mosquitoes, and beautiful blue sky.

-The LACM/IVPP/FSU team
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LACM team meets in Beijing

2010-07-23T01:47:00.001-07:00

23 July 2010. IVPP, Beijing, China

With the arrival of Gary Takeuchi early this morning, the LACM team is complete and ready to depart from Beijing for Qinghai Province tomorrow.

Email posting test

2010-07-21T01:43:00.001-07:00

21 July 2010. IVPP, Beijing, China.

In preparation for on-the-road blogging, we are testing the email-post
method of publishing blog posts. This allows us to travel without a
dedicated laptop and internet connection, and enables us to post updates
through a portal at any internet cafe along our journey.

~Jack

Good news for the upcoming season

2010-07-21T01:29:00.000-07:00

21 July 2010. IVPP, Beijing.

We were informed this morning by the Tibet Autonomous Region's Science and Technology office that our permit application for scientific research in Tibet has been approved by the foreign affairs office. This means we will be able to travel through Tibet and revisit Zhada Basin after a two-year hiatus by the LACM crew.

To celebrate the re-opening of the region to paleontological research, I went out and cut off my ponytails. A "normal" looking haircut will likely help the team avoid unnecessary attention on the road and at military checkpoints.

A small price to pay for another chance to walk along the magnificent Himalayan foothills.

Onward to the plateau!

Jack

Packing equipment and supplies in Beijing

2010-07-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

20 July 2010. IVPP, Beijing.

It is a busy week before the start of the field season. The first Tibet team had already left for the Lunpola Basin on 15 July. The second team, composed of Dr. Xiaoming Wang, Gary Takeuchi, Z. Jack Tseng (LACM), Juan Liu (University of Alberta), Dr. Yang Wang, and Chunfu Zhang (Florida State University), will regroup in the City of Xining on 24 July.

The field vehicles for the second team are being rented on the Tibetan Plateau, so all the equipment and materials have to be carried by us. We have already packed several dozen plaster bandages, a few two-way radios, and our tents and sleeping bags.

Our next challenge: to find and purchase acetone in Xining, before we head out and began visiting fossil localities. We need acetone to dissolve the glue that we use to stabilize fragile specimens in the field.

~Jack

"Hello World" from Beijing

2010-06-29T00:52:00.000-07:00

29 June 2010. IVPP, Beijing, China.

Even though the Blogspot website is entirely blocked in China, we were able to send updates from Beijing using a connection to the University of Southern California VPN server. Hopefully this means we will get to post real-time field updates again, after a two-year "blackout" of the blog.

Beijing is as I vividly remember it, smoggy and hot during the summer. I set up a temporary work area today, clearing a desk overflowing with fossil bird specimens (oh so typical of an institute bursting at the seams with fossils).

~Jack

Alma Mater: research in Berkeley

2010-06-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

21 June 2010. Berkeley, California

I am spending some time studying hyenas and lions in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) at the University of California, Berkeley, just before the start of our 2010 fieldwork season in China.

The MVZ has a unique collection of African carnivores, especially those of spotted hyenas. Fieldwork conducted by researcher Lawrence Frank in Kenya and Tanzania in the 1970s onward involved the collection of dozens of spotted hyena specimens from those areas, establishing a "time slice" of those populations, and providing valuable data for morphologists and paleontologists studying past populations of spotted hyenas and their ancestors.

[spotted hyena mandibles laid out on the counter for study]

~Jack

Celebration of a growing museum

2010-06-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

26 May 2010. Drumheller, AB, Canada

My wife and I took a short excursion south of Edmonton and visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum located in the badlands of Drumheller in southern Alberta.

Whereas my wife arrived with the goal of learning a research technique from the resident fish aging expert Dr. Michael Newbrey, I had a more leisurely schedule of browsing the museum's Tertiary mammal collection and the new exhibit celebrating the museum's 25th birthday.

[Dr. Michael Newbrey (left) and Juan Liu (right) working on identification of annuli on fish scales]

Before arrival, I had a grand vision of prospecting for fossils in the badlands in beautiful Alberta spring weather. Missing from my calculation was the presence of mosquito swarms; we ended up playing tourist and dropping by a few sites for photos, but did not do any prospecting.

[Horseshoe Canyon, exposing Cretaceous fossiliferous sediments ~15 km southwest of Drumheller]

I ended up spending most of my time in the exhibits, where several spectacular specimens were displayed in the temporary exhibit highlighting fossil discoveries by Albertans over the past 25 years.

[Prognathodon, a marine reptile (mosasaur), skeleton from the Late Cretaceous sediments of Lethbridge, Alberta. TMP 2007.034.0001]

[Bobasatrania, a strange diamond-shaped bony fish, from the Early Triassic of Wapiti Lake, British Columbia. TMP 1983.205.0180]

[An undescribed titanoideid, a pantodont mammal, from the Paleocene of Joffre Bridge, Alberta. TMP 2001.025.0003]

[Skull of Edmontonia rugosidens, an ankylosaur dinosaur, from the Late Cretaceous of Dinosaur Provincial Park. TMP 1998.098.0001]

[Tyrannosaurus rex, skeleton of a theropod dinosaur individual dubbed "Black Beauty", from the Late Cretaceous Crownsnest Pass in Alberta. TMP 1981.006.0001]

[Eotriceratops xerinsularis, a basal ceratopsian dinosaur, from the Late Cretaceous of Dry Island Buffalo Jump, Alberta. TMP 2002.057.0007]

[Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, a ceratopsid dinosaur, from the Late Cretaceous Pipestone creek of Alberta. TMP 2005.053.0001]

Among other specimens displayed were dinosaur eggs, trackways, and some very impressive fossil plant cones preserved and prepared in 3D. The exhibit stands as a fine testament to the important discoveries already made improving our understanding of the Mesozoic "North America", and a hint to what still remain unearthed in the museum's surrounding badlands.

~Jack

Species account: Red Squirrel

2010-05-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

26 April 2010. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

1330. Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (Red Squirrel). Individual seen scampering on the ground in a small grove of conifers. Subsequently the animal climbed up to a tree branch and stayed there for the duration of the observation.

[Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, Red Squirrel, University of Alberta campus, 26 April 2010. Photo taken by J. Liu with a Nokia 7610s 3.2 megapixel cell phone camera]

Observer: Juan Liu (University of Alberta).

Red squirrels are smaller in size compared to the common fox (non-native) and gray squirrels of California (as small as half the size of the California ones). The summer pelage of Tamiasciurus hudsonicus has a clear black strip on the boundary between the brownish dorsal fur and white underfur.

They are the most common animals seen on the University of Alberta campus, along with the white-tailed jackrabbit Lepus townsendii and the black-billed magpie Pica hudsonia.

Natural history information taken from http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu

~Jack

How do you eat an ORLO?

2010-03-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

25 March 2010. Edmonton, AB.

While talking about hyenas over lunch with my wife, we came across a mutant OREO cookie in a 550 g box.

"What's this, OREO in french?" asked my wife.

I took a look at this particular cookie, and on one side it said "ORLO" as if it was meant to be.

[Figure 1. J032510T01, an autapomorphic cookie of the OREO clade, not related to oreodonts]

How much of our current knowledge of fossil organisms is based on "ORLOs"?

A comment made by Dr. Michael Caldwell during a seminar talk he gave yesterday on marine lizards came to mind: the Discovery Channel asked Dr. Caldwell whether any mosasaurs ate dinosaurs. Well, he made a very rough estimate of the number of individual mosasaurs that ever lived (on the scale of trillions...error bar unknown), and said that it was possible ONE of them ate a dinosaur at least once, but there are only about 6,000 mosasaur specimens (representing fewer than 6,000 individuals) known to science.

I dare to make a statement that as far as the field of paleontology goes, and is probably true for all other scientific endeavors as well, our available data are outnumbered by reality.

If true, there are almost insurmountable odds against paleontologists accurately reconstructing past realities.

What if, eons from now, extraterrestrial scientists uncover fossilized remains of objects and creatures from the "Anthropocene" (a name some geologists have proposed for the 'Age of Humans'), and among them are cookies of some sort. Almost 99% of them say "OREO", but a few scattered throughout the former world we call Earth clearly say "ORLO".

What would they make of it? A new species or even genus of cookie objects? (I am assuming no one uses Phylocode beyond the bounds of humanity, and Linnaeus is already immortalized)

Does the identity of individual cookies even matter? Would you eat an "ORLO" differently than an OREO? Of course, the extraterrestrial scientists would not know right away, if no humans are around to tell them so (even then, only a small [but probably over-fed] fraction of the world population eat oreo cookies in the first place).

Over-analyzing what little we know is a slippery slope...suddenly my oreo doesn't taste so sweet anymore...

~Jack

p.s. The figured specimen, J032510T01, has been destructively sampled by me.

Progress in the new mammal hall

2010-03-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

Week ending on 20 March 2010. Los Angeles.

This week the fossil mammal skeletons came back from their vacation in Canada; our own vertebrate paleontology staff worked with technicians from Research Casting International to install the mounts into our new Age of Mammals Hall.

In addition to the refurbished skeletons from our previous Cenozoic Hall, several exciting new exhibit skeletons are added to the cohort of terrestrial and marine mammals.

Here are some photos taken during the installation:

[the entrance to the Age of Mammals Hall from the rotunda in the museum's old wing "1913 Building"]

[a mount of the sabertooth Smilodon fatalis looking out onto Exposition Boulevard on the north side of the museum]

[the installation of marine mammals "in the air" as viewed from the mezzanine level of the hall]

[the skeleton of Paleoparadoxia still in wraps]

[Dr. Xiaoming Wang (right) and RCI staff examining the skeleton of the bone-cracking dog Epicyon before it is mounted onto the gallery stage]

[Epicyon in action pose, chasing after horses]

The new hall opens in July 2010!

~Jack

A trip to the dentist's lab

2010-03-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

3 March 2010. Edmonton, AB, Canada

Last Friday I had a pleasant trip to the dentist's office. It was pleasant only because I was not the one being examined!

With the helpful pointers of the graduate students at the University of Alberta Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology, I recruited the generous help of scientists at the University of Alberta Department of Dentistry with the CT-scanning of a few mammal skulls.

[it was crucial to place the specimen at just the right height to be scanned within the window of the sensor.]

To test-run the modeling protocol that I use here on the University of Alberta campus, I borrowed a few modern carnivore skulls from the University of Alberta Museum of Zoology to scan. One of the specimens was a genet skull from Africa, about the optimum size to be scanned with the medical dental scanner that we used.

[the medical CT scanner is normally used for orthodontic patients; specimens had to be propped to head level of a sitting human.]

The resolution was excellent for the type of research that I do; the skulls were scanned into image slices of 0.25 mm thickness. Test models are being constructed to analyze the biomechanics of mastication from the scan data.

[the data acquisition software was rather user-friendly and could be learned in less than 10 minutes.]

~Jack

Thanks are due to my wife Juan whose assistance made the scanning session go smoothly.

New bird sighting added to list

2010-02-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

9 February 2010. Edmonton, AB, Canada.

1115. This morning, as I walked out of Dr. Mark Wilson's systematics lecture towards the Biological Sciences Building on the University of Alberta campus, I heard an unmistakenable call coming on one of the tree branches high above me...

It was a warm and energetic song of the Eastern Phoebe, Sayornis phoebe, and not the dry cracking call of the black-billed magpie that one is accustomed to during the northern winter. Phoebes are tyrant flycatchers (Family Tyrannidae) that catching insects in mid-air with acrobatic maneuvers.

They are also the sure signs of spring in this part of North America; in central and northern Alberta and other regions of the northern plains, these insectivorous birds are summer visitors, leaving for warmer southern areas at the end of each fall. Their call this morning is a welcome one, as snow still covers the lawns on campus, but no longer is the wind chill bitter and sharp. Warmer weather is upon us, and longer days are leading us into the green season, a change not so distinct in California!

Hooray for spring!

~Jack

New study by LACM paleontologists

2010-02-02T08:19:00.001-08:00

29 January 2010. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

A study of new material of the nimravid ("false sabertooth") Barbourofelis whitfordi by LACM paleontologists has just been published in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

This paper describes an almost complete dentition of the most basal species of the last-remaining nimravids in North America. Barbourofelis first appeared in North America during the early Clarendonian North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA), and persisted until the Hemphillian NALMA. The approximate duration of the genus is 5 million years, between 12 and 7 million years ago.

The new fossils were discovered in the Dove Spring Formation, located in gorgeous Red Rock Canyon State Park in the Mojave Desert of southern California. The inspiration and awe that majestic California State Parks give to us rival their rich scientific resources! Paleontologists are still being humbled by what the ground hides beneath its surface, even after more than 100 years of geologic and paleontologic study in the area.

The discoverer of the new fossils is a long-time museum staff, associate, and supporter Mr. Kamaron Sardar, also a protector and server of our city.

New Yorker in Beijing: the home of Walter Granger (1872-1941)

2010-01-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

20 January 2010. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

While reading about the American paleontologist Walter Granger today, I made a small discovery that sent my nostalgia flying through the streets of Beijing where I roamed in 2009.

A publication by Vincent Morgan and Spencer Lucas in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletin in 2002 narrated the life of Walter Granger, the chief paleontologist of the Central Asiatic Expedition (see earlier entries such as this) of the American Museum of Natural History, whose expeditions in Inner and Outer Mongolia made some of the most spectacular fossil discoveries of the time (dinosaur eggs, Velociraptor, the giant Paraceratherium, etc.).

In that publication, Morgan and Lucas (2002) figured Granger's call card, which printed on one side:

"Mr. Walter Granger
Paleontologist, Third Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, U. S. A."

and on the other side, in Chinese:

"美国纽约亚美利坚天产博物院第三次派赴亚细亚洲调查古物格致家
谷蘭階
寓北京东城弓弦胡同"

The first line was Granger's title and association, and the second his name. The third line was the street where he was housed. It was this last line that gave a clue as to the present day location of this historical residence.

The narrow alleys of imperial Beijing were called "hutong", which are too narrow for modern automobiles but passable by horse-drawn carts and pedestrian traffic. Many hutongs had identical names, but on Granger's card it was indicated that this particular hutong, "Gongxian Hutong", was located on the East City district of Beijing, or Dongchengqu.

As of 2009, this hutong is still adjacent to the China Art Museum, a prime piece of property in modern Beijing that is adjacent to the northeast wall of Gugong, the Forbidden Palace.

[aerial satellite imagery of the northeast corner of Beijing city center. CAM, China Art Museum; GXHT, Gongxian Hutong, ex-residence of Walter Granger; GG, Gugong or Forbidden Palace]

On more than a few occasions, we (my fiancée and I) passed the China Art Museum and the adjacent hutong on our way to the shopping street of Wangfujing, a tourist trap, unknowingly glancing at the treed alleys from cable bus line 111 at what was the residence of Granger; a paleontologist who made history with the discovery of Chinese fossils to the north, where our IVPP paleontologists work today.

The passage of time washes away the minute and the routine, but leaves echoes in its wake.

~Jack

Reference:

Morgan, V.L and S.G. Lucas. 2002. Walter Granger, 1872-1941, Paleontologist. New Mexico Museum of Natural history and Science Bulletin 19: 1-58.

Science Commentary: unidirection flow in alligator lungs

2010-01-15T08:12:00.001-08:00

15 January 2010.

Science Magazine Volume 327, No. 5963, pp. 338-340
DOI: 10.1126/science.1180219

Unidirectional Airflow in the Lungs of Alligators
C. G. Farmer and Kent Sanders
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/327/5963/338

A new report published by two University of Utah biologists in Science Magazine provides experimental evidence for unidirection flow of inhaled and exhaled air in the lungs of alligators.

The researchers showed that even though living alligators (no scientific name provided, but abstract indicates American alligators Alligator mississippiensis were studied) lack the air sacs and pneumatic bones that allow living birds to efficiently take in oxygen, the soft-tissue arrangement nevertheless allows for a more circular breathing pattern than in other living air-breathing vertebrates (e.g. mammals have more of a 'tidal' breathing mechanism whereby incoming and outgoing air are mixed between the nose and the lungs).

While the new study provides fascinating possibilities for inferences to be made regarding the evolution of aerobic and metabolic efficiency of extinct archosaurs such as non-avian dinosaurs, the authors took it a little too far with their concluding "story" about how all archosaurs (including all dinosaurs) may have had this type of efficiency.

Given the evidence for unidirection air flow in lungs of alligators and birds, the concept of a phylogenetic bracket, or the use of extant organisms to infer morphology/behavior/physiology of intermediate extinct relatives, points to a possibility of non-avian dinosaurs sharing these features. However, it was done without undeniably strong evidence in this study; four individuals from a single alligator species (and please, even Wikipedia provides a scientific name for the American alligator in a non-scientific description!) were used in this study, to infer a common feature among animals spanning hundreds of millions of years (back to the Triassic).

Quite a stretch even to a non-science type, I would say.

I believe the main issue does not necessarily lie with the authors themselves. One should not expect the field of science to take giant leaps in every research paper; but nowadays researchers are often "forced" to make outlandish conclusions just to get into a more popular journal. More "Science" and less "Magazine", please?

~Jack

Olympic torch passes through U of A

2010-01-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

13 January 2010. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

1800. Although not exactly research or expeditions, this event is nevertheless of world relevance.

Approximately one hour ago, the torch of the 2010 Winter Olympics passed through the University of Alberta. The torch-bearers were flanked by enthusiastic students and families who cheered the flame on.

The temperature was a balmy 17.6 degrees Fahrenheit (-6 degrees Celsius). Partly cloudy skies. The caravan used a complete fleet of hybrid vehicles plus, of course, human power.

[torch-bearer and his guards jog eastward on 87 Ave]

~Jack

Vancouver Aquarium

2010-01-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

22 December 2009. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Today we visited the Vancouver Aquarium in green Stanley Park, west of downtown Vancouver. Under a foggy sky reminiscent of Seattle (which is quite close to Vancouver, less than 200 miles to the south), the Amazon rain forest exhibit inside the aquarium was a welcome change in climate.

[looking west towards the mouth of Burrard Inlet between downtown Vancouver and North Vancouver]

With a shark tank smaller than the aquaria in San Francisco and Monterey, California, the main draw of the aquarium for me was the Beluga whale tank. Beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) are entirely white in color, and inhabits the arctic and sub-arctic waters of the north. They are smaller than I had expected, but nonetheless it was very thrilling to see a few in person.

[statue of a stylized whale in front of the aquarium entrance]

Another impressive critter is the arapaima (Arapaima gigas), which is a large freshwater fish that inhabits murky waters of the Amazon Basin. The fish is a true air-breathing one, swimming slowly up to the surface to take a gulp of air every 1 0 minutes or so.

A nice tank showing four-eyes fishes (Anableps anableps) allowed visitors to view the animals from "within" the tank and up-close to examine the subdivided eyes that allow the fish to see both above and below water at the same time (via different shaped lenses).

[tank of four eyes (Anableps anableps) containing a two-eyes (Homo sapiens)]

[translucent sea jellies in the Vancouver Aquarium]

Although small and a bit crowded by California aquaria standards, the Vancouver Aquarium is a great place for both kids and adults to get their fill of fish and mammals from around the world. Thumbs up!

[tank containing endangered Banggai cardinal fish (Pterapogon kauderni) native to Indonesia]

~Jack

Museum of Anthropology, UBC

2010-01-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

23 December 2009. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

"I come to give you something, and the gift
Is my own beaten self; no feast for the eyes;
Yet in me is a more lasting grace than beauty"

~Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

Arriving in Vancouver on the 21st of December, my fiancee and I dropped by the Museum of Anthropology after hearing complements about its architecture. Unfortunately, it was a monday and the museum was closed for maintenance.

[front entrance of the UBC Museum of Anthropology, tucked quietly into a seaward corner of the beautiful campus]

We returned on Wednesday to browse the relatively small exhibit of Native American objects inside a cavernous modern structure, its concrete and glass components giving a serene but cold vibe amidst the foggy shores of the peninsula.

[one of the totem poles outside the museum building]

Most of the large objects displayed in the museum are totems and ceremonial utensils and containers; the textual descriptions about them are somewhat vague, leaving one to guess about the exact origin and purpose of each object if the entire essay that accompanies each object is not read in whole.

[a modern rendition of a traditional Native craft]

Adjacent to the main exhibit hall is a exhibit akin to the "Visible Vault" idea that our own LACM anthropology displays are organized by: a large number of specimens are displayed in cases and drawers as if one was examining a collection area behind the scenes. Unfortunately, the UBC exhibit was either still under construction (parts of the area was indeed closed), or the research specimens were displayed simply without adequate description. It was nice for visitors to walk through and be impressed with the sheer number of objects, but difficult to learn anything from the exhibit unless one was accompanied by a specialist/docent of that particular topic.

[an object clearly linking human beings with the rest of nature; its exact meaning is unknown to the visitor]

The remaining exhibit area displayed pre-18th century dinnerware from Europe; while serving as an excellent example of historical culture, many of the objects would not be considered spectacular by the common eye. Maybe beauty IS in the eye of the beholder.

[a collection of European household dinnerware and furniture...]

In all, the highlight of the Museum of Anthropology was its very modern architecture. The outdoor area also seemed to have some sort of reconstructed Native buildings and ceremonial grounds in progress; perhaps a second visit is warranted?

[the exterior of the UBC Museum of Anthropology; the entire institution felt more like an art museum]

By the way, I got the quotation at the beginning of this entry from a free book on "classical Greece and the origins of social theory" the UBC Sociology department was giving away... maybe I learned something after all!

~Jack

AMNH, Day 5 (final day)

2009-12-31T16:56:00.000-08:00

18 December 2009. New York, NY

The day began rather cold, around -12 C. I got to the museum by 0840, to look over the remaining exhibits that I have not visited. I began working promptly at 0930, unpeeling the borophagine molds I made the day before.

[exhibits: a west coast Native American boat stretching the length of the south entrance foyer]

[Friday morning cleaning of the elephants by exhibits staff, quite a sight to see the immense size of these mammals with a human scale]

After the borophagine molds are all done, I picked another batch of teeth to clean. I turned my attention to hyaenids, which will take longer to clean for the thick glue present on most specimens.

[a cast of the holotype of "Peking Man" Homo erectus, part of the batch of specimens lost in World War II during the evacuation of important scientific specimens from Beijing to the U.S.]

[the only reconstruction of the "Peking Man" locality of Zhoukoudian I have seen with a model and painting of the giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris stalking the hominine Homo erectus]

By 1300 (more than three hours later), I finally finished cleaning the hyaenid teeth. While waiting for the second-round molds to set, I went upstairs to pack my tools into a box to mail back to LACM, so that on the way back I can carry everything else directly onboard, without worrying about losing my baggage (again).

1530. I am done with everything I set out to accomplish in New York on this trip. I cleaned up my work area, and went downstairs to see the three special exhibits (frogs, extreme mammals, and the Silk road). I bought a Dunkleosteus toy for my fiancee, and a wooden carved camel for myself.

[exhibits: a skull of the giant archaic mesonychid Andrewsarchus mongoliensis on display in the extreme mammals special exhibit; it's the length of my leg!]

[exhibits: a model of the giant perissodactyl Indricotherium stands in front of the entrance to the extreme mammals special exhibit. The animal stood around 18 feet at the shoulder]

I went up to Dr. Ni's office before the museum closed, and sat down to do some last-minute microscope photographs of enamel microstructure on his fancy microscope system. I photographed a few teeth of Osbornodon renjiei (a hesperocyonine dog named by now LACM curator Dr. Xiaoming Wang), and called it done.

Dr. Ni rode the subway with me until I had to get off at 103rd Street. We bid farewell, and promised our next meeting in Beijing (he is returning to Beijing in February for several months to do research, and will probably overlap with our 2010 field season in China).

[the subway station gateway to the American Museum of Natural History at 81st Street]

Verbatim from my field notes on the last night in New York:
"This trip has been very productive overall, but my stay in the hostel was a lot less than pleasant; the data collected should allow a preliminary conclusion to be made from my dissertation research, while pointing to areas that will require additional data collection to improve."

My flight for Edmonton is (so far) on time for departure, connecting in Toronto mid-day tomorrow. A snowstorm is headed for New York from the south, and I cross my fingers hoping to escape another round of chaos!

[waiting to leave NYC at New York JFK International Airport]

Live from New York City, it's Jack with another research trip!

AMNH, Day 4

2009-12-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

17 December 2009. New York, NY

I spent the day working on both enamel microstructure and molding specimens for microwear.

[exhibits: the spacious east entrance to the museum]

Last night I called Delta Airline, the delivery company, and spoke with the hostel staff where I was staying about my baggage again (it has become a routine since the beginning of this trip). Someone at the hostel was actually responsible enough to check their storeroom. And behold! They had my lost baggage there all along, and no one had bothered to check on it even after I inquired about it more than 10 times over the course of 4 days! Ok, calm thoughts, happy thoughts, channel the fury into research energy...

After my routine exhibit hopping in the early morning, I picked out the specimens suitable for molding, and tried to get in touch with Ms. Jeanne Kelly, the chief preparator in the Division of Paleontology. I needed to work with her to pick the best chemical to clean the surface of the teeth with to achieve 1) the cleanest tooth surface possible and 2) the safest technique by not damaging any specimens.

[exhibits: the reptiles hall with a very large snake skeleton]

[exhibits: a mount of the largest living lizard, the komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis]

I did not find her until after lunch, so I spent the morning hours examining microstructure of hesperocyonine dogs (I did not plan on doing it, but hey I have the time, so why not?). I had lunch at the "Shake Shack" just southwest of the museum's south entrance with Dr. Ni. At noon the temperature was chilly and a few degrees below zero (Celsius).

[the chilly south entrance of the American Museum of Natural History on a December noon]

In the afternoon I met with Jeanne and she set me up with my own supply of cotton swabs, gauss, acetone, and ethyl alcohol for cleaning teeth. Since some of the specimens in the Frick Collection were collected over 100 years ago, Jeanne said, there is no detailed record on what glue the previous preparators used on all specimens. Thus it took some experimentation and tenacity to get the surface clean.

I spent about two hours scrubbing teeth. Once the 20 specimens I chose were clean, I examined their microstructure before molding with a small applicator gun for two rounds. The first round cleaned off any remaining particles on the surface, and the second round molds are carried back home for casting.

[the chosen specimens being cleaned before the teeth are molded with a high resolution dental impression kit]

I returned to my hostel room with slightly swollen fingers from scrubbing teeth all afternoon, but slept without a worry as my research plan seem right on track now with the commencement of the tooth-molding.

One more day of full-on research and it's back home for Christmas; TGIF!

~Jack

AMNH, Day 3

2009-12-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

16 December 2009. New York, NY

I spent essentially the entire day working on enamel microstructure. After a quick breakfast, I went to the museum and spent another hour (0840~0940) going through the exhibits. Then I went upstairs to examine borophagine enamel, which from Archaeocyon to Borophagus was all done by lunchtime.

[exhibits: the wall of biodiversity, where representatives from all major groups of animals and plants are placed side-to-side for an impressive display of life as we know it; it's displays like this that highlight what a museum can do to inspire wonder!]

[exhibits: the horse evolution section of the fossil mammal hall; the extinct three-toed horse Hipparion raises high above its relatives. I was surprised not to see a skeleton of Hipparion on display; they are relatively common and AMNH sure has the resources to obtain one!]

As far as I could tell, the sky was actually clear this morning. However with wind chill the temperature was still only a few degrees above zero (Celsius). I continued working on microstructure after lunch and finished Epicyon and the rest of Borophagus before moving on to the hyaenids.

[oh I was just studying hyenas when the cabinet next door revealed the holotype of Barbourofelis morrisi; we (LACM) found the first upper teeth of the smaller B. whitfordi in the Dove Spring Formation of southern California...the study is being published in the next issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology]

Unfortunately much of the Shanxi hyaenid collection was covered in thick layers of shellac or glyptol (or whatever consolidant they were using in 1920's China!). As a result there was a lot of glare on the tooth surface which meant I could not see the microstructure on many of the specimens.

[examination of enamel microstructure involves shining bright light on fossil teeth to illuminate the internal structure; it takes a lot of tweaking to get the lighting right, and for sure gives you nausea at the end of the day]

By 1600 I was essentially done with microstructure analysis; I had planned to spend the next two days molding specimens for microwear analysis, but that hinges on whether my bag arrives or not!

[a table full of loan tags shows the number of specimens examined each day; a good chunk of the research time involved writing up withdrawal tags so temporarily removed specimens don't get lost. It is a time-consuming but crucial step in good house-keeping and curation]

1720. I wrapped up work a little early today and went downstairs to the Hall of Sea Life with Dr. Ni Xijun to attend the annual holiday party of the AMNH. I was lucky enough to catch it on my trip. In addition to the free food, I got the chance to greet Mark Norell and John Flynn, two of the paleontologists on staff at the museum. Apparently I also shook hands with the AMNH director, but I did not know her by name or by face.

[the Hall of Sea Life the morning before the annual AMNH holiday party]

All in all a good day of work, food, and schmoozing.

Please, I need my bag by tomorrow!

~Jack

AMNH, Day 2

2009-12-28T14:57:00.000-08:00

15 December 2009. New York, NY.

0900. I hopped on the "C" Train going south-bound on Central Park West and got to the museum before my start time of 0930. With some time to kill, I headed straight for the mammal exhibits. I figured by visiting a few exhibits every morning before work I could get everything in without losing valuable research time.

[exhibit: a diorama of African hunting dogs Lycaon pictus looking into the distance for prey]

[exhibit: an impressive display of a growth series of the dinosaur Protoceratops discovered in Mongolia by the Central Asiatic Expeditions in the 1920s]

0930-1240. I continued to photograph the specimens of borophagine dogs, and after that was done I proceeded to the cabinets (4 of them) holding hesperocyonine dogs. Hesperocyoninae is a sub-family of dogs that was ancestral to borophagines and the modern canines we know as dogs, wolves, foxes, jackals, and their relatives. Most of the hesperocyonines I photographed are Oligocene in age, with a few ranging into the early Miocene.

A peek outside during lunchtime revealed overcast skies with temperature around 3-5 degrees C (37-40 F). I am not to sad to be indoors...just saving outdoor playing time for when I am in California!

[exhibit: a mounted skeleton of the little known marine mammal Palaeoparadoxia; our very own 2010 mammal hall in the LACM will feature a comparably complete skeleton of this genus from our own California coast!]

The afternoon began with an overview of the Chinese hyenas in the American Museum collection; several species of the Hyaenidae were jackal-like, wolf-like, and mongoose-like in their appearance, as discovered by previous researchers. For this reason, hyaenids are interesting parallels to study if one were to understand the ecological evolution of true dogs.

[a cart full of hyena heads for photographing...many of them from China, and some from Greece]

I photographed 28 specimens in the afternoon, mostly hyaenids from the famous Baode locality in Shanxi Province, China. After all the photographing is done, it was 1700 and I still had some time to kill before I have to leave the museum. So, I went up to the 10th floor of the Frick Building (the building with all the mammal fossils) and chatted it up with Dr. Ni Xijun, having some great green tea in the process.

[exhibit: the AMNH's diorama on the living spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta is larger than ours in the LACM; however, both are equally unflattering by showing the hyena as a scavenger. Spotted hyenas are specialized hunters that are smart enough to scavenge (they are not obligate scavengers like the vultures)]

Writing up the day's work in my fieldbook (yes I treat museum visits much like fieldwork; it's the best way to get a lot done in a limited amount of time), I realized that my luggage still has not arrived. Since I am done with photographing, I would begin the next phase in my data collection - examining teeth under the microscope for microstructure differences. This next task will take me at least a whole day, so hopefully the rest of my equipment will arrive by beginning of Day 4 in order for me to stay on track to clean and mold a sample of teeth to make casts for examination of surface scratches as an indication of the fossil dogs' and hyenas' diet.

[my hands are shaking with excitement...it is the holotype specimen of Tunggurictis spocki, an early hyena found in the Tunggur Formation of central Inner Mongolia discovered by the Central Asiatic Expedition]

Tired, hopeful, but a tiny bit frustrated at Delta Airline for my delayed bag,

~Jack

AMNH, Day 1

2009-12-20T16:06:00.000-08:00

14 December 2009. New York City, USA

After flying out of Edmonton on the coldest December 13 on record (-46.1 C or -51 F), I spent the day on two flights with a less-than-pleasant 2-minute connection window in Minneapolis. I arrived in New York JFK International Airport at 2230.

I am to spend the week studying fossil dogs and hyenas in the famed Frick Collection of the American Museum of Natural History.

[east entrance of the American Museum of Natural History, with three of their current special exhibits advertised on banners]

On my first day I spent about one hour waiting for security to process my ID badge, and did not get around to studying the fossil specimens until 1100. I met the very nice Ms. Judy Galkin, who is in charge of the plethora of visitors requesting to see the fossil mammal and fish collection of the museum every year. I also greeted Drs. Jin Meng and Xijun Ni, both of whom I have met before in Beijing, China.

[Theodore Roosevelt Park, adjacent to the AMNH]

There are more than 50 cabinets of fossil dogs and 10 cabinets of fossil hyenas in the Frick Collection; each cabinet holding seven to ten trays of specimens. I though only briefly about the daunting task before me, and immediately began working. My goal is to photograph all undeformed skulls, examine under the microscope all lightly-colored teeth which show enamel microstructure, and mold five specimens of each major genus for microwear analysis of the lower teeth.

[the holotype specimen of Borophagus parvus, too crushed for geometric morphometrics analysis, but nonetheless very impressive to see on my first morning there]

Winter is pretty unremarkable around Central Park and the Museum; without the cover of snow (at least not at this time last week) to brighten the stern buildings, Central Park West at 79th was like an old man without cheery spirit. Spring brings much more energy to the neighborhood, the museum staffs say. Now be the season to work indoors perhaps?

[looking west into Central Park from the front steps of the AMNH east entrance]

~Jack

Any town with a museum could be a town to call home

2009-12-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

2 December 2009. Edmonton, AB, Canada.

I spent a good part of the day photographing mammal skulls in the University of Alberta Museum of Zoology ("UAMZ").

[this is not a skull, but a pangolin Manis fetus specimen preserved in a jar; note the body armor already developing on the fetus]

I was there to collect data on modern carnivores of the North American ecological communities, from the smallest living carnivore least weasel Mustela nivalis to one of the largest bears, Ursus arctos. The data from these modern carnivores serve as a basis for understanding the cranial shape of fossil canids that dominated the landscape millions of years ago (particularly during the Miocene).

[busily working in the mammal range]

Besides the excellent large mammal collection, I was comforted to see the bird and fish collections as well...the museum houses a locally sampled vertebrate collection, tucked into a corner of the 10th to 12th floors of the Biological Sciences building on campus. It was such a quiet place to work (after acclimating yourself to the hum of the cold room) that one could almost forget the ongoing construction of the new biology wing and the bitter cold outside.

[a very large grizzly Ursus arctos skull being photographed for morphometric analysis]

A museum is a museum...I returned home with a camera's worth of photos for analysis, and a renewed sense of appreciation for halls of bones and pickled lizards throughout the world. Museums are invaluable time capsules of biological and cultural change on this planet we call home.

[part of the wet fish collection at UAMZ]

[the small pelt room that smelled of my LACM home]

A heart-felt salute to the museums of the world!

~Jack

A day at the provincial museum

2009-11-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

22 November 2009. Edmonton, AB, Canada.

We finally made it to the Royal Alberta Museum across the river from the University of Alberta on Sunday, four months after settling down in this northern town.

I was quite pleased with the natural history exhibits at the museum; albeit a small museum by metropolitan standards, the RAM had the essential outreach and interactive programs that could educate visitors about the local wildlife history. In a oiltown such as this one, a nature program like this is more than one could ask for.

[the front entrance emblem of the Royal Alberta Museum, standing along the road on a chilly November morning.]

[the outreach classroom "Field Station" where presentations on local wildlife by outreach instructors are held.]

[a well-made (and gory) exhibit station on the process of decomposition and cycling of nutrients in nature.]

[one of the several panels showing the local freshwater fishes of the North Saskatchewan River; clockwise from top right: northern pike Esox lucius, burbot Lota lota, Iowa darter Etheostoma exile, spoonhead sculpin Cottus ricei, walleye Stizostedion vitreum, sauger Stizostedion canadense, trout-perch Percopsis omiscomaycus, and brook stickback Culaea inconstans.]

[a diorama of a family of coyotes Canis latrans living in the sand dunes of the Alberta plains.]

[a diorama of the pronghorn, Antilocapra americana, grazing on the prairies.]

I must also say that the taxidermy was beautifully done, and just as pretty as our own mounts in the North American Mammal Halls.

[a giant extinct beaver, Castoroides ohioensis of the Plio-Pleistocene Epochs. The skeleton is about the size of a large dog.]

Our day concluded with a Charles Darwin skit put on by their very own museum staff; the scene was set in 1859 with the publication of the Origin of Species and Darwin's apprehension regarding feedback of his work from the scientific and religious communities.

Just like Vitamin-D, a healthy dose of natural history learning from time to time is good for everyone.

~Jack

New article on jaw mechanics published

2009-11-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

6 November 2009. Edmonton, AB, Canada.

A new study on the mandibular biomechanics of the extinct hyena-like Dinocrocuta gigantea has been published online (advance of print) in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. The authors are Zhijie Jack Tseng from the University of Southern California and Dr. Wendy Binder from Loyola Marymount University; both are associates of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

This new paper is complementary to an earlier one on the cranium of Dinocrocuta published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Main findings combining data from both studies suggest that the cranium of Dinocrocuta matches that of modern spotted hyena Crocuta in its performance even at a sub-adult stage. However, the same is not true for the jaws; the sub-adult Dinocrocuta dentary is structurally weaker compared to a sub-adult Crocuta, and may present evidence of differential ontogenetic trajectories in the two carnivorans.

Enjoy!

~Jack

Red Rock Canyon Family Trip

2009-11-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

29 October to 1 November, 2009. Red Rock Canyon State Park, Mojave Desert, CA

It's that time of the year again.

Enthusiastic kids and adults joined a 14-member museum staff for a beautiful weekend in Red Rock Canyon State Park for fossil prospecting.

This year was more productive than our last trip, in part thanks to winter rainfall in the park during the past season. We found remains ranging from mole to beardogs, from pronghorns to camels.

We will post specimens from this past trip as they are prepped and curated in the LACM Vertebrate Paleontology Collection!

~Jack

New study in progress: a history of exploration

2009-10-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

23 October 2009. Edmonton, AB, Canada.

A new study on the history of early exploration in the Quanshuiliang area (our most recent site) is in preparation. The study, led by Dr. Xiaoming Wang, re-examines the fossil localities and their geology in the context of a more modern framework.

The earliest explorations in the Quanshuiliang area was conducted by Swedish geologist Birger Bohlin; he was known as an all-around field scientist, often recording geography, geology, and paleontology of the areas he visit in greater detail than was customary for his time. Dr. Xiaoming Wang visited several archives in Sweden that hold Bohlin's original field notes, and reconstructed what Bohlin though he knew (and what we actually know today) about the locality area we call Quanshuiliang (and what Bohlin called the "General Strips").

[a 3D topological view of the Quansuiliang field area in the foreground, with the Olongbuluk mountains in the background; the new transect measured by our geologists in September 2009 is marked in red. Photo view is looking west]

Then, with the input of the Qaidam Basin expedition team members, we incorporated the geological and paleontological data gained from fieldwork in the region during the past decade to get a more current summary of our understanding of the area. One conclusion is that this is a very important area to explore a possible First Appearance Datum (FAD) of the three-toed horse Hipparion in east Asia (these horses immigrated to the Old World somewhere around 11.1 million years ago; we have some specimens right here in southern California that are very closely related to those first immigrants).

Please look forward to the findings in a future issue of the IVPP journal Vertebrate PalAsiatica!

~Jack

A new discovery from Tibet

2009-10-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

6 October 2009. Edmonton, AB Canada

The 2009 expedition led by Dr. Qiang Li of the IVPP to the Zhada Basin in western Tibet yielded a new discovery very dear to my heart...

On the third day after the small team of seven arrived in the basin, they were prospecting along the badlands of the Zhada wash when team member Dr. Min Zhao came to a pile of scattered bones and teeth.

[part of the face of a hitherto unknown carnivoran on the Tibetan Plateau]

They were fragments of a fossil hyena. Unfortunately, only bits of the cranium were preserved; and although the dentary bones are more complete, the teeth are very busted.

[right dentary]

This exciting discovery awaits my next visit to Beijing. From the loss of p1, relatively slender premolars, very reduced P4 protocone and m1 metacone, and a three-cusped m1 talonid, I am guessing this beast belongs somewhere in the lineage of the hyena Chasmaporthetes.

Even though we still don't have a very good idea what the exact vertical distribution of mammal fossils is in the basin (or how much time the entire sequence encompasses), we are somewhere in the Plio-Pleistocene as the small mammals (mostly pikas) show.

[left dentary]

Interestingly, Chasmaporthetes is the only hyena to have made it to North America, the rest of the family confined to the Old World from Africa to East Asia. Chasmaporthetes and their relatives (Hyaenictis and Lycyaena) are found in East Asia in eastern China and the Siwaliks of India, but they have never been found on the Tibetan Plateau.

[pile o' hyena teeth; can't wait to put them back together]

Was the Tibetan Plateau such a barrier that large mammals that were widespread throughout the late Cenozoic of Eurasia were not present on that raised land in the middle of Asia? Some endemic bovids (see previous post) seem to support this point, but others like this new hyena challenge the idea of an isolated plateau fauna (or rather, refine the timing and extent of various isolation events). The story is probably complicated as current fossils show, and will take much additional work by future expeditions to tease out.

For now, I am content with a new hyena occurrence that we can point to and say: see, it was supposed to be there, we just didn't look hard enough...

~Jack

Meet the family

2009-09-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

25 September 2009. Edmonton, AB, Canada,

The field activities of the IVPP-LACM party have officially come to a conclusion in 2009; even though individuals of our team may take trips throughout the world (Dr. Li Qiang is going to visit Russia next month), large-scale expedition will not resume until 2010.

That means all of us are now back in the office and/or laboratory, and thus begins our "other" life as indoor paleontologists. This is the time to reflect and research.

I have an ongoing project examining the skull biomechanics of extinct canids, the group so dear to Dr. Xiaoming Wang's heart (after all, he wrote a whole book about it). After scanning specimens from various museums over the past several years, a decent skull lineup of canid representatives is now ready to be analyzed.

[from left: Hesperocyon gregarius, Mesocyon coryphaeus, Borophagus secundus, Epicyon haydeni, and Canis lupus]

Five skulls of basal (Hesperocyon) to very derived (Borophagus) to modern (Canis) dogs are being analyzed digitally to reveal how their skulls are (or aren't) adapted to bone-cracking. The results will be useful in comparisons with the hyaenids which have extraordinary adaptations for consuming bone.

~Jack

News from the field through the grapevine

2009-09-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

19 September 2009. Edmonton, AB Canada

About half-way through the week I received news that our lonely Tibetan Plateau field crew has returned to Beijing.

Because of extraordinary circumstances all coming together this year, the Natural History Museum did not participate in the fieldwork in Zhada Basin, western Tibet. However, the small crew of six discovered a hyaenid palate with lower jaws on the second day after their arrival in Zhada!

After a brief two-week stay in the basin, the crew drove back to Qinghai Province where they did some geologic work on the section we call Quanshuiliang, where all the fossil bovids have been discovered. We hope to be able to put our fossil discoveries into a vertical (stratigraphic) context, so that we may better understand how the animals were evolving locally.

No brand new photos to show from the field because I was not there ;(

~Jack

Thinking about goats

2009-09-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

18 September 2009. Edmonton, AB Canada,

Today I finally got my shipment of books from Beijing, after sending them off to sea there in July. The books came about one month later than my shoes and clothes...I wonder if they were "checked" before passing customs. Oh well, at least now I can read articles in paper form and not just on the computer screen.

Doing research in what is now my official "study" in the heart of Edmonton, south of the North Saskatchewan River, I am discovering some fascinating possibilities about the Tibetan Plateau goats Qurliqnoria cheni which I have been examining since my days in Beijing.

[a partial skull of Qurliqnoria cheni from the Qaidam Basin on the Tibetan Plateau, Dr. Xiaoming Wang and Guangpu Xie discovered this specimen last year on our trip.]

Where on Earth did these goats come from? After comparing them to fossil bovids (family of cows, goats, sheep, etc.) from Europe and Africa via published findings, I am taking a guess that these are related to more basal goat-like bovids from the eastern Europe / Middle-Eastern region in the genus Tethytragus.

How nice to have goats and other prey to think about on my breaks from building computer models of vicious dogs and hyenas?

~Jack

Scouting trip: Day 3

2009-08-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

16 May 2009. Abaga Qi adjacent, Inner Mongolia

1000. After breakfast with people from the cultural station, we headed out to the eastern outskirts of Abaga. Before we left town we stored our jackhammer and generator at the cultural station. We decided not to screenwash on this trip because of the strong winds and low temperatures (overcast, 20-30 mph sustained winds, daytime high temperature around 10 degrees Celsius).

1202. N44º01' E115º03' elevation 1157 m.

[An example of the contact relationship between the top basalt and the underlying mudstone]

We surveyed the 10-m thick layer of sediment below a capping basalt layer. Large bone fragments (vertebra, rib, etc.) were found in the gray and yellowish laters, but there was otherwise nothing significant.

[A partial leg of a small bovid, probably a goat or sheep, buried in silty sandstone. The specimen does not appear fossilized, and may have been buried under transported sediment after a storm. Hongjiang (from the cultural station) also found a skull cap from a human burial site that might have been displaced by the elements]

1600. Brick factory south of Abaga Qi: we discovered Hipparion and rhino cheek teeth in the red clay, which is overlaid by a dark metamorphic pebble layer (rounded and polished). The local workers had already seen skulls of rhinos, and they have sold large bones to local collectors. The preservation of the fossils is very good in situ, but the excavators have smashed most of the visible fossils.

[The red clay of the brick factory southwest of Abaga Qi; workers there claimed that many large fossils were found in the beginning of factory operations, but the larger specimens have been destroyed]

-There seems to be a yellow mudstone later above the red clay; in certain visible contacts the dark metamorphic rock is not between those sedimentary layers, indicating the possibility of an overland flow route?

~Jack

Scouting trip: Day 2

2009-08-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

15 May 2009. Xilinhot to Abaga Qi, Inner Mongolia

0730. We left "Jinbihuihuang" hotel, had a quick breakfast (I must remember not to eat the cold preserved vegetables). We got ~10 L of #97 gasoline for the generator, and drove on west towards Abaga Qi (~90 km). We stopped at a brick factory on the way, where we found a few bone fragments (Hongjiang said rhino teeth were found here years ago).

After our arrival in Abaga, we saw that the Abaga Hotel is under renovation. We were led to a smaller motel by Hongjiang's colleage Wu Baoliang (director of the local cultural survey). We then headed to the general store (on the same street as the old Abaga Hotel) to buy shovel handles, pick-ax, nylon bags for matrix, water jugs, face masks, and asked around for plaster (we won't buy any burlap and plaster until the excavation in June).

1430. We drove to IM0704 to check out the current state of the exposures, and there are three or four possibilities for the full scale excavation. We visited IM0703 shortly after. Now I have a better idea about what to accomplish in June.

[The site of an ancient stone-covered grave which was probably sacked during the past decade by a one of the many groups of grave-robbers]

-IM0703 is very restricted in area, and the sediment is soft. Unless there is nothing further at IM0704, we should not spend too much time (if any) there.

[Field vehicles driving towards the Baogeda Ula tableland]

-the north side of IM0704 is clear (not covered by large basalt chunks) but steep; the fossilifoerous layer is thin, and a lot of grey overburden is present. The southeast side where I dug into two femoral heads is geologically complex, with potential sliding of edge sediment downward. The fossils there are large in size but appear scattered on the suface. The other possibilities are near where the Hipparion was extracted in 2007; the degree of fossil concentration there is satisfactory. I would like to concentrate on that part for the excavation. The surface overburden is soft, but the layers immediately above the fossiliferous stratum are hard, and will probably require the jackhammer which needs to be carried up the wash (it's too difficult from the top because the basalt chunks are very slippery).

[Crew digging a test hole in the southeast slope of IM0703]

~Jack

Scouting trip prior to the 2009 excavation: Day 1

2009-08-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

14 May 2009. Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia

0730. We took the whole day on the 13th driving from Beijing (left at 0700 and arrived at 1620). We had lunch in Taipusi Qi, as in 2007. We had dinner at Yinghe duck restaurant with Hongjiang and his colleagues from the cultural station.

After discussion with Li Qiang, we concluded that we will first visit a new locality south (~56 km) of Xilinhot, where Teilhard de Chardin may have visited in the 1920's.

1010. N 43º35' E 116º37' elevation 1197 m. "Gunaimiao". This was our first stop; we found fossil fragments weathered on the surface of red clay (alternating with layer of grey clay).

[The site of the Gunai Temple, at the center of the photo to the right of the farm houses; the Xilin River snakes through the valley where the French priest and geologist Teilhard de Chardin once visited]

1133. After driving further west, we came to a large exposure. We decided to spend some time prospecting here. The beds are alternating red and white, each being several meters in thickness. I did not find any fossils; the sediment is fine and silty.

We wrapped up our work around 1700, and headed for Dalai Nor. We paid 40 RMB each to get into the reserve. After a few photos by the lake, we went back to Xilinhot. On the way we had to stop in the village of Bayanxihe to get our Jitian SUV fixed. The coolant had drained out from a crack in one of the tubings.

[Li Qiang strolls down an abandoned deck on the northern shores of Dalai Nor, another site described by Teilhard de Chardin during his travels in Inner Mongolia]

~Jack

LACM not in 2009 Tibet expedition

2009-08-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

10 August 2009. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada:

After a long hiatus, I can finally access the blog site again and post updates!

Blogspot has been unavailable within China for the past three months, thus we have not been able to post field updates from our Inner Mongolia excavation project (which was a big success!).

We have been on hold since July to learn the outcome of our permit application to conduct an expedition in the Zhada Basin (western Tibet) with the IVPP. My application was just denied, thus there will be no LACM participants this year on the expedition (Gary and Xiaoming are busily working on the new exhibits).

I will try to post the backlog of field notes and photos from our recent Inner Mongolia project to give you a sense of the day-to-day excitement we experienced while opening up a hole in the ground full of fossils!

Writing from the University of Alberta,

Jack

Blog temporarily down

2009-05-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

We are currently experiencing network difficulties and will resume blogging once the problem is fixed.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Trip to Inner Mongolia

2009-05-12T01:46:00.000-07:00

12 May 2009. IVPP, Beijing

A small crew of five people will leave tomorrow for Inner Mongolia. We will visit a few of the small mammal localities near the towns of Xilinhot and Sunite Zuoqi, and explore a few new sites along the way.

One of the goals of this trip is also to test out our new jackhammer at our excavation site in Baogeda Ula. We will also visit the adjacent towns to secure supplies of burlap and plaster powder which we will need to jacket large chunks of fossil-embedded rocks during our June excavation.

[Map showing the major towns (large circles) and fossil locality areas (small circles) in central Inner Mongolia, north of Beijing. Tunggur is the classic middle Miocene locality discovered by the Central Asiatic Expeditions; Dahongshan is a small mammal-rich locality with good early Miocene representation; Baogeda Ula is the late Miocene locality with new bone beds to be excavated next month.]

Stay tuned for news from our first field trip of the 2009 season!

~Jack and Li Qiang

What is this? II

2009-04-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

29 April 2009. IVPP, Beijing

I have moved on from bovids (antelopes, gazelles, goats, etc.) to a new group of mammals to study from the Tsaidam Basin. What might this be a photo of?

Hint: this is probably late Miocene in geologic age (see timescale on the right column of this page).

~Jack

New equipment added to 2009 expedition

2009-04-10T01:25:00.000-07:00

9 April 2009. IVPP, Beijing

What could be more fun than going shopping in the tool store?

A few of our 2009 Inner Mongolia team members drove to the outskirt of Beijing yesterday to look at generators and jackhammers. We wanted to buy some power tools to help us open up the quarries IM0703 and IM0704.

We ended up buying a 16.5 kg jackhammer along with a 2000-watt generator. This also means we will be able to power electric stoves, water pumps, and other luxuries we did not have before.

Yay for technology!

~Jack

Additional photographs from the 2008 Expedition

2009-04-10T01:06:00.001-07:00

9 April 2009. IVPP, Beijing.

I got some time to photograph a few more large mammal specimens from our 2008 collection. Here they are:

[Anthracothere lower molar fragment (lateral and occlusal views))]

[Skull cap of the bovid Olonbulukia (lateral and dorsal views)]

[Skull fragment of the bovid Tossunoria (lateral and dorsal views)]

[Skull fragment of the bovid ?Qurliknoria (dorsal, lateral, and ventral views)]

[Composite second finger of a chalicothere]

~Jack

Field date set for Inner Mongolia

2009-03-19T00:06:00.000-07:00

19 March 2009. IVPP, Beijing.

After several months of sluggish updates of this blog on my part, there is some exciting news: we have set our field date for the 2009 Expedition to Inner Mongolia.

This year's team will include geologists, geochemists, and paleontologists from the United States, China, and Japan. Many of us will be in Beijing on 8 June 2009 to attend a Neogene mammalian biostratigraphy meeting hosted by the IVPP and organized by Dr. Xiaoming Wang of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. After the three-day conference there will be a short field trip to Gansu Province to look at some of the exceptional fossils found in the Hezheng area (see previous entry on this).

Our expedition will begin immediately after these events, and on 16 June 2009 we will launch a caravan of at least four field vehicles and head for central Inner Mongolia. We are going to re-visit fossil localities spanning the Miocene. One of the goals of this 3-week-long expedition will be to excavate two localities in the late Miocene Baogeda Ula strata. I am in the process of finding a good portable jackhammer with which to open up a quarry for easier access to the buried fossils.

Stay tuned...

Jack

A brief excursion to Hong Kong and Macao

2009-03-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

10 March 2009. Beijing

I spent much of last week in Hong Kong and Macao reporting and discussing research results from my China stay thus far.

Among the places we visited on our trip were the University of Macao library and the Museo de Macao. On the front wall of the library lobby was a framed excerpt of "Liyundatongpian", an ancient Chinese teaching about the ways of good behavior and rulership of the country.

The Museo de Macao contained artifacts and exhibits on the history of Macao as the commercial interface between China and the western world.

The museum is built on top of a beautiful fortress. We were able to walk in the garden during breaks in the rain.

More on this later.

Jack

First snow of 2009 in the city

2009-02-16T15:24:00.000-08:00

17 February 2009. IVPP, Beijing.

A week after the conclusion of the Spring festival and only a few weeks into the year of the ox, Beijing city received a light coat of snow early this morning.

[A frosty dinosaur statue in front of the IVPP.]

[The front walkway to the Paleozoology Museum, with footsteps of morning strollers on the snow.]

[The parking lot on the east side of IVPP, with the student dormitory in the center; my room is the first window on the top floor just above the glass building.]

Research continues as I deal with pending manuscripts and new studies on hyena skulls.

Jack

What is this?

2009-01-03T18:31:00.000-08:00

4 January 2009. IVPP, Beijing, China.

As I continue to work on fossils of the Tibetan Plateau, specimens collected from previous field seasons are slowly coming out of the basement storage into the bright lights of the research lab.

I was impressed by the intricate patterns shown on this specimen:

I have intentionally left out the scale bar; would you care to guess what this might be a photo of?

Jack

Study on a giant percrocutid published

2008-12-21T16:26:00.000-08:00

22 December 2008, IVPP, Beijing

To wrap up an eventful year and to begin 2009, my study has been conveniently published online this month, and will be in paper form in January 2009:

Tseng ZJ. 2009. Cranial function in a late Miocene Dinocrocuta gigantea (Mammalia: Carnivora) revealed by comparative finite element analysis. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 96:51-67.

If you are *still* interested after reading the abstract, please let me know and I will send you a copy of the study!

Jack

Finally, a look at horns

2008-12-17T15:55:00.001-08:00

18 December 2008. IVPP, Beijing

After wrapping up some loose ends from early 2008 projects, I took some time and finished cleaning all of our fossil finds from the Tibetan Plateau this year.

Now it is time for me to begin identifying and describing all the horned ungulates.

We collected numerous horncores this past season, most of them incomplete. However, the wealth of specimens makes up for their fragmentary nature.

[A relatively complete horncore of Olongbulukia tsaidamensis, the Olongbuluk beast of the Tsaidam Basin]

Equally exciting is a partial mandible of a large mammal that we could not identify in the field; after discussing with my host advisor, we now believe this specimen might belong to an anthracothere. Anthracotheres are a family of early artiodactyls, and people have suggested they provide the link between hippos and more modern terrestrial hoofed mammals. It would indeed be a very important find if we could confirm its identity; late Miocene anthracotheres have not been found on the Tibetan Plateau, or anywhere else in China.

In other news, we are blessed by the visit of my fellow graduate student from the University of Southern California and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Jingmai O'Connor is spending a month in the IVPP studying Mesozoic birds of China. We shared an office in Los Angeles, and now we share an office in the IVPP for the next month.

[Jingmai working next to mammal fossils from the Tibetan Plateau]

Jack

Dragged deeper into winter...

2008-12-07T18:58:00.000-08:00

8 December 2008. IVPP, Beijing, China

After a weekend of intense fever, I arrived at my desk this morning feeling a bit wobbly and dehydrated.

Who knew it would be so cold?

[looking southeast from the IVPP, into the rising sun at 0715]

The sky is cloudier today than it has been in the past few days. Perhaps we will get some snow soon. Maybe snow will make it better; at least then I will admit I am not in Los Angeles anymore.

I got some thermals because the infinite layers of T-shirts don't keep me warm anymore.

Jack

That is so 2007

2008-12-01T18:39:00.000-08:00

2 December 2008. IVPP, Beijing.

Taking a break from writing a paper, I took some unsorted fossils collected from last year and cleaned them. What I did not realize was that while some of these were recovered from the great flood of Hezheng in 2007, others were from the Inner Mongolia locality Baogeda Ula.

[a rhino wrist bone and a antelope horncore from the late Miocene Shengou locality. These specimens were buried in mud in the Hezheng collection and subsequently recovered along with fish fossils]

These are glimpses of what we hope to find during our 2009 Inner Mongolia excavation project; hopefully everything we collect will be more complete and more diverse.

Other than the occasional interruption by graduate students asking me to help translate their Chinese abstracts, research is going well. However, there are simply too many fossils in this building. There is always something I have not seen before, and is worth a look when I walk by someone's office.

This American Life in Beijing

2008-11-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

I think there was an official moment over the weekend when I finally realized what I represent.

The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology has recruited a handful of post-doctoral researchers from outside China in the past two years. The result is the residency of two French post-docs, a Japanese, a Canadian, and a British researcher.

For some reason the Americans (I am referring to U.S. researchers) come and go, and never stay long. At most the IVPP would have all of its former students and research associates who have left China for positions in the U.S. come for meetings and presentations.

So I have somehow become "the American" among the graduate students.

I am sure everything I do adds to their image of an American life: I wake up to jog around Beijing at 6 am; I wear flip-flops in winter; I drink fat-free milk in the morning; I just bought a guitar and I jam in my room.

I know English.

I have been working with half a dozen or so graduate students on translating their abstracts and helping with research methodology more commonly used in the U.S. You can even say that this is my "Fulbright moment", my role as a representative of an American student in a Chinese institution has become very clear.

I think that means I need to get to work! It dawned on me that this is a daunting job.

Jack

A short conference on the future of Chinese vertebrate paleontology

2008-11-17T23:50:00.001-08:00

18 November 2008. IVPP, Beijing.

Today I participated in a day-long conference highlighting some of the major research projects from a large collaboration between paleontologists at the IVPP and biologists from other Chinese institutions.

A series of presentations highlighted current research in the original of jaw fishes, the Tree of Life project attempt to resolve the evolutionary history of mammals, the fieldwork on the Tibetan Plateau and our understanding of environmental changes during the past 10 million years, the genetic bases for new functions and physical features, and the evolution of digits in dinosaurs.

My impression after the presentations was that the attempt to bring together developmental / molecular biology with paleontology / anatomy is great, but they are two extremes on the spectrum of time and physical scale. What is still lacking is, simply enough, good old ecology and natural history. How do animals do what they do, when do they do it, and where?

Just as many traditional paleontologists focus on skeletal morphology and attempt to extrapolate ecology and behavior, molecular biologists use genetic, cellular, and physiological mechanisms within an organism to expand on how external features and behavior are modified. Both sides could benefit from a more thorough understanding of the living organisms in their ecological context, not only as skeletons or as aqueous forms in a test tube.

The dialogue between the two disciplines is promising, and there is much more to do to bring back what scientists have been doing for centuries: understanding nature from a holistic view point. Charles Darwin was an integrative biologist; he used available evidence, regardless of superficial designation (geology, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.), to test his ideas about the origin of species.

Back to more pressing matter: I am finishing up a major research proposal to ask for money to study European museum collections. The field work and expedition season is coming to an end rapidly, as the weather is getting too cold to wear shorts (who could imagine that?).

The time has come to settle in and do some research; the photos taken will no longer be majestic mountains, but only majestic mountains of papers to read and fossils to study.

Jack

Holy smokes! What a day

2008-11-13T04:34:00.000-08:00

13 November 2008. Lanjiashan, Hezheng, Gansu Province (China)

What a dramatic day; I live for days like this.

We started the day in the valley of Lanjiashan, where a thick (several hundred meters) progression of the late Miocene Liushu Formation is exposed. We were looking at the boundary between the middle Miocene and the late Miocene.

It started out smoothly, until we came to a gulch that separated a clear set of middle Miocene deposits of sandstone conglomerate and marlite on the north side, and a late Miocene-looking set of brownish red mudstone interspersed by carbonate concretion-rich silty mudstone. We did not see any faults, thus we hypothesized that a large slump obscured the true connection between the sides of the gulch.

From the middle of the valley, our leading geologist called my host advisor Dr. Qiu Zhanxiang in Beijing for consultation; "we are unsure of the true contact between the middle and late Miocene, what is the best way to proceed?". The answer we got was: "Look for index fossil species that are unique to each of the geologic ages".

Sounds easy enough, you think. Isn't that what paleontologists do anyway? Well, it's one thing to look for fossils in the well exposed rock strata on the Tibetan Plateau, where deserts and tundra dominate. However, we were in a lush valley of grasses, crop fields, and vertical cliffs. These factors make fossil prospecting impractical and dangerous.

Danger?! You might get the impression that we are daredevils for doing what we do. But today I was a conservative adventurer. The grasses are slick from the frost, and the drifting snowflakes obscure my view of the steep slope down below me. I had better take it easy so I can make it back to Beijing to continue working on my dissertation.

We spent two hours prospecting in that gulch which separated the different lithologies. Nothing major turned up except for a few small bone fragments.

After a quick lunch of cold "pancakes" and canned fish, we went down a different gulch to examine a greenish layer of laminated sandstone and marlite. Before long, our crew leader Hou Sukuan found complete elements of small vertebrates embedded within the layer.

We gathered at the same stratum, and started hacking away at exposed chunks of rock. Before we could react, we were finding small fossil bones left and right. This was indeed a fossiliferous stratum, and it is the first time in the history of the study of this basin that a group of paleontologists had discovered a micromammal site and collected from it. Most of the fossils known from this region (including all the spectacular hyena skeletons) were taken from local farmers without exact locality and geologic information. We have discovered the first confident data point in the geologic progression of the Linxia Basin.

Four hours later, we came up with a handful of small vertebrate fossils. Shi Qinqin, a Chinese graduate student of my host advisor, had found almost all of the teeth we recovered today. Among them are a few partial mandibles of tiny mammals. School children became curious and watch us from afar as they got out of school and walked through the valley to get home.

After dinner in town, I quickly photographed the best finds from today, and emailed the photos to my good friend and small mammal specialist, Dr. Li Qiang, at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. He could not wait, and called me (my cell phone service is charging the roaming rate right now) on my cell phone. Of the three main critters with known teeth, one belongs to an ancient lineage of Prosiphneus, a relatively low-crowned rodent known from th middle Miocene. The other two belonged to a small shrew and a large squirrel, respectively.

[Prospihneus-like rodent, surface view above, and side view below; scale bar lines are millimeters]

I will hand-carry the specimens back to Beijing tomorrow on my 19.5 hour train ride. This should stir up some excitement among the small mammal paleontologists in the Institute; we had little idea how the small mammal community of the Linxia Basin compared with other faunas around northern China and the plateau. The paleoenvironmental implications are extremely important because the large mammal species are preserved as spectacular fossils: what environmental conditions provided for this perservation, and what could potentially be the reasons for their extinction?

[A small shrew jaw embedded in the marlite]

[a squirrel tooth seen through a 10x hand lens in the field at the moment of discovery]

I prepare for bed, with endless possibilities to think about, and with an awe for the fascinating phenomena nature provides for the enjoyment and inspiration of naturalists.

I am very much humbled by nature (again).

Jack

(un)Happy feet!

2008-11-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

12 November 2008. Hezheng, Gansu Province (China)

Today I am staying indoors, away from the rain. I am working on descriptions of the fossil carnivore skeletons for the public outreach program at the Hezheng Museum. Raising awareness about the natural resources in the region and promoting scientific understanding in general are two goals of the new exhibits to be installed early next year here.

A small dilemma was amplified in this cold weather: I brought two pairs of socks, one to wear until filthy, then washed; in the mean while, I would wear the spare pair until the other pair dried. It's been five days and the washed socks are still as wet as the day I washed them.

I am not one to whine constantly about the cleanliness of my attire (actually, you do not want to hear how long I have been wearing my clothes), but the lovely swampy and grassy hillsides of Hezheng made for spectacular falls down muddy slopes. Our fieldwork here is bringing back memories of my field biology days as an undergraduate.

We spent a whole day yesterday in the hills southwest of Hezheng, near Linxia Basin's edge. There we could see the basement granite in the river valley, and trace the progression of Cenozoic deposits from the early Oligocene up to the Pliocene up the mountain. boundaries between the geologic formations have been defined on layers of coarse conglomerates, which are very difficult to correlate from ridge to ridge when the vegetation obscures much of the underlying geologic features.

Our trek took us over foggy peaks, where shepherds roam and livestock dot the slopes. Every half hour we would come across a small earthen hut, which is used for shelter by the shepherds when weather turns unexpectedly. Lucky for us, there was no snow that day.

We ended the day in a small village a few mountains over from where we started. The late afternoon had already brought the chilling fog, prompting the locals to light their stoves for warmth.

On an unrelated note, I took a photo of a pair of carnivores that died together; the large hindlimbs are those of a fossil wolverine, Plesiogulo brachygnathus, whereas the little carcass on its left thigh probably belongs to that of a fossil skunk. The preparators almost got rid of the crushed skunk before realizing it was not fossil junk!

Jack

Geologists keep me honest

2008-11-09T04:37:00.000-08:00

9 November 2008. Hezheng, Gansu Province, China

This post is for Karin.

Why do I keep talking about fossils and not so much about the geology? Because I am a biologist!

I do have a real excuse; the lithology and stratigraphy of the rich fossil deposits described in my previous post have not been worked out; I overlap with a team of students who are measuring sections in the immediate area exactly for this reason: to clarify the depositional environment and the geology of Hezheng County.

From what we know, we could at least say that all of the fossils come from yellowish to reddish mudstone, sometimes a sparse conglomeratic mudstone. The preservation differs from locality to locality; most of the deposits show signs of transport and sorting by skeletal element size. However, the deposit I visited in Hualin looked like some kind of mass death event, where many complete skeletons of animals were preserved in a catastrophic burial event.

Today was Sunday, so the museum collection was closed; after examining fossils for a whole day on Saturday, I again tagged along with the students to a geologic section adjacent to the very fossiliferous site previously discussed. No major localities are known from this valley which we measured, but it does provide some clue as to the general geology during the late Miocene of this area.

Walking up-section in the late Miocene Liushu Formation, I counted at least 30 layers of light tan mudstone rich in calcareous nodules. These layers are interspersed by deep red mudstone, representing some kind of cyclic deposition. Interestingly, as we went upsection I observed a layer of greenish mudstone overlaying the red mudstone at strange angles of contact. I hypothesized the presence of a Quaternary channel deposit in the Tertiary strata.

The student team will continue to survey the surrounding valleys, but I must continue with my museum work tomorrow; there are a couple more fossil hyena skeletons I need to measure.

[two amazing hyena skeletons in the collection of the Hezheng Museum]

From a frigid museum dormitory,

Jack

Konzentrat-Lagerstätte!

2008-11-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

7 November 2008. Hezheng, Gansu Province

Hezheng County is located in southwestern Gansu Province, very near the Linxia Aotonomous Region for Muslims. As such, the town center in Hezheng has roughly an equal number of Muslims and ethnic Han Chinese.

The town center has two major street end into each other at a right angle; however, most of the county is inhabited by villagers in the surrounding valleys.

We woke up today to a brisk morning, around 3 or 4 degrees Celsius with lots of frost around. It has not snowed for two days, so today we will get to see some geologic exposures without snow in the way.

Although my main goal in Hezheng is to examine new fossil specimens in the local museum, I just could not refuse a chance to see the actual fossil localities. However, these are not typical fossil localities from our work elsewhere. These fossils are dug up by farmer in dangerous makeshift tunnels.

Fortunately, the local government got word of a very rich fossil deposit in the Hualin valley, and designated a new geological park in the area. With a currently estimated area of 120 meters by 80 meters, this is one of the largest bonebeds in the entire Hezheng County.

The bonebed itself is only about 1 meter or so in thickness (see the tannish mudstone containing white bones to the right of the photo above). However, the fossil material (at least what has been exposed) is so complete and concentrated, that it is worth the title of a "Konzentrat-Lagerstätte", or the german term for a highly concentrated fossil deposit of outstanding (dare I say spectacular) preservation.

[an exposed vertebral column of a large mammal]

[two rhino skulls are exposed at the bottom of the photo, with a mandible to the right of Hou Sukuan, who is standing near the top of the photo]

We walked around the protected area for twenty minutes, and as I pondered the enormous amount of complete and rich fossils that beneath my feet, I came across a football-sized block. It turned out to be a hyena skull, a late Miocene bone-cracking Adcrocuta.

Needless to say, I was very impressed (dare I say blown away).

The eventual research on this rich bonebed will reveal much about the paleoenvironment of the time in the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau; the complete hyena skeletons will reveal more about their paleoecology than ever before.

Here I sit on my bed in the museum dormitory, looking out to the hillside, and my mind is full of the possibilities, the potential, and the paleontological revolution that are forthcoming in the continued research of the Hezheng fossils.

I am very, very impressed (again).

Jack

Leaving on a heated train

2008-11-04T23:24:00.000-08:00

5 November 2008. Beijing, to Lanzhou, Gansu Province

1525. After a week's restful research in the Institute, I am on the road again.

I am catching a train in an hour or so, heading towards the northwestern province of Gansu. Gansu is at the base of the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

After the 19.5 hour train ride, I will arrive in the city of Lanzhou, where I will find a researcher in the Gansu Provincial Museum, who will then accompany me to the fossil-rich area southwest of the city.

The town I am heading to is Hezheng, a small place with a Muslim majority. The daytime high temperature there is supposed to be somewhere around the 40's degree Fahrenheit. I packed the same clothes I used on the Kunlun Mountain Pass, because snow has already arrived at the base of the plateau.

I will spend a little over a week there examining newly discovered fossil hyena skeletons, and accompanying two graduate students to a few geologic outcrops where they are currently working.

I packed my laptop and cross my fingers with the hope that the Hezheng museum will have a functioning internet connection. They already told me they do, but it's rural China and a flash flood could wash the DSL modem away any second.

Westward!

Jack

P.S. I will be thinking about our new president and the future of the world on the train.

Red Rock Canyon

2008-10-28T16:28:00.001-07:00

24-26 October 2008. Red Rock Canyon State Park, Mojave Desert, California

We had a great weekend of warm weather and productive prospecting. The notorious wind of Red Rock Canyon was in total absence this past weekend. This made the work of a fossil prospecting crew of 70+ people easier.

[Fall 2008 Staff. Back row (from left): Collin, Jason, Christy, Mike, Robin, Xiaoming, Vanessa. Front row: Matt, Gary, Jack, Dave, Kamaron]

Among the most interesting finds (to me) were a fossil kangaroo rat jaw and a new microfossil locality. Mike Williams (Department of Vertebrate Paleontology) found the very complete lower jaw of Cupidinimus (probably C. tertius) and Dr. Dave Whistler (Curator Emeritus) found a new microsite from where we collected a test sample for screening.

[Dr. Dave collecting matrix from a new microfossil locality]

Of course, Marlene Heyning did not disappoint us. After finding many fossils (including the carnassial of the felid carnivoran Pseudaelurus) in 2004, she made her mark again on Sunday with an antelope foot bone which she carried back to camp by herself.

[Jack, Marlene, Kam, Gary, and Matt smiling for the camera at the conclusion of the weekend trip. No, that's not my pink bandana; I was just borrowing it because I did not bring my hat.]

With bags full of another weekend of memories, I flew back to Beijing on Monday. My long stay in China has begun.

Jack

Right back where we started from

2008-10-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

19 October 2008. Los Angeles, California.

At the conclusion of the 68th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Cleveland, Ohio, the paleontologists of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology are on their way back home to California and Beijing, respectively.

The meeting was composed of four full days of presentations, from the early marine vertebrates to the more recent large Pleistocene mammals. One of the foci of this year's meeting was climate change, including a symposium on biotic changes during the past several million years of Earth's history, and a special forum on the scientific community and the public understanding of global warming.

On another note, we welcomed the new president of the society at the banquet this past Saturday night: Dr. Blaire Van Valkenburgh of the University of California, Los Angeles, a carnivore specialist, is our new fearless leader.

We are now back in Los Angeles, and with a few days to spare, we are preparing our annual field trip to examine the rocks of the late Miocene Dove Spring Formation in Red Rock Canyon State Park, in the western Mojave Desert. Our leading paleontologists are: Drs. David Whistler and Xiaoming Wang, and Mr. Gary Takeuchi.

We hope to see you there!

Jack

Beijing - Los Angeles - Cleveland

2008-10-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

13 October 2008. Beijing, China

The annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is just around the corner. This year the conference is being held in Cleveland, Ohio.

I spent the weekend before the conference hiking and dining with friends from the IVPP and the Fulbright Program.

I have been defeated by the Calorie-packed Chinese food in the past two months; even with daily jogs I have not been able to keep my weight down...what's tasty in Cleveland?

Jack

Tuosu lakers

2008-10-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

As I unwrap our new specimens collected this field season and clean them for storage, some fascinating patterns began to emerge:

[washed fossils being dried]

It turns out that we collected specimens representing all three of Birger Bohlin's horned artiodactyls described from the Tuosu Lake area. Two of the species were named after the twin lakes Tuosu and Keluke, and the third after the Olongbuluk Mountain.

[The Tuosu Lake beast, Tosunnoria]

The black and white photo in each set was taken from Bohlin's (1937) original description of these critters.

[The Kelike Lake beast, Qurliqnoria]

[The Olongbuluk Mountain beast, Olongbulukia]

Approximately 33% of the specimens have been unwrapped and boxed; this work will continue to reveal the true extent of our discoveries this year.