Beijing - Los Angeles - Cleveland

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

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.

A weekday hike in western Beijing

28 September 2008. Fenghuangling, Beijing

On the first day of a week-long Chinese national holiday, ten professors and students took a morning hike to the top of Fenghuangling (Phoenix Mountain 凤凰岭).


The Mesozoic granite rises among the lush cypress to form a steep and majestic wall cradling Beijing from the west.


After the holidays, weekly hikes in the mountains of Beijing will resume well into the winter months.


Beijing has been particularly smoggy over the past few days, making morning jogs more difficult than usual. A hint of Los Angeles is in the air today as the city operates in a dusty veil with increasingly heavy traffic.