Getting Closer!

Micro fossil setup

Tooth in the center

Today was a fantastic day as far as paleontology goes! First, in the morning, I was introduced to one of the tasks I'll be doing throughout my time here: picking micro fossils! The process is simple enough in principal; I have a bag of sediment and a microscope, and one petri dish's worth at a time I look through the grains and pick out any of the fossil material. But wait, 99% of the time I won't be finding entire bones or teeth, I'll just be finding fragments. And since these are fossils, their color is remarkably similar to many of the rock grains also present in the mix. It felt a bit like I was starting phytolith identification all over from square one. But it turned out that there are a couple of key features to keep an eye out for that help you separate the fossils from the rocks. Mostly, it's about the texture and the way the surface reflects light. If the pieces are large enough, then shape is also an obvious indicator. Within a few hours I felt confident that I wouldn't be leaving anything behind, but it's still going to be a while before I have any clue what animals are represented by the pieces I'm pulling out.

Things got even better in the afternoon when the interns finally got our work badges that we'll be using to enter the canal area. It took a while walking around between departments with Liliana (she works in our building and handles the logistics of our work, from what I've gathered), but in the end we were photographed and IDs were handed out. Sadly, it will still be another few days before we get started on field work because Aaron is having extra issues with his badge. Apparently someone in STRI ended his fellowship status prematurely, so he has to go through a whole other set of steps to fix that before he'll be given access. We've made some tentative plans, though, for going to non-canal sites on Thursday and Friday, so regardless of what happens we'll be able to work.

Gratuitous monkey photo