Tracking Cretaceous Birds in South Korea: Goseong Public Library Talks

Hello, Dear Readers!

We've made it to September 16, 2017, when our Ichnology Heros are scheduled to give talks to the public at the Goseong Public Library! When we go to another country to do research, we always offer to give a local talk on the work we do in Canada, and how the local fossil record fits in with our work on a global scale.

Giving a talk in another country where the language is not your primary language is not that different (in my experience) than tailoring an academic talk to a public audience:

1. Keep the jargon to a minimum. There's always a way to explain even a highly technical test or feature using non-technical language.

2. You may understand your graphs, but remember: you've been staring at them for months or years. No blob of ambiguous data points on a graph with itty-bitty axes, no series of fifty graphs that only have really subtle differences. If you use graphs, make sure the meaning of the graph is crystal clear.

3. Pictures are worth a thousand words. If you can describe it, see if you can also show it. Outline hard to see details for your audience. If you're showing a picture of a single bone or a footprint, also show an image of the animal it came from (or the closest representative).

4. Remember - especially when your audience is in another country - that jokes/witticisms are often colloquial and have local or specialized meaning. it may fall flat. Also, "those jokes" (which are really just methods used to belittle groups who have less representation and/or power) about gender, race, jokes about sex, sexual innuendos, or sexual imagery, or jokes about political situations are in really poor taste, no matter your audience. They have no place in a talk communicating science to any audience. No one wants to see that nonsense.

5. If a translation is necessary, remember that this will (at least) double the time it takes to give your talk. Make sure you are not talking in huge paragraphs: your translator is going to have to remember what you've said and be forced to summarize your long rambling monologue to a more concise sentence or two.

We were told ahead of time that the audience would be a mix of children and adults, so I made sure to travel with my Bird Glamour makeup kit! I don't often have an opportunity to do a Bird Glamour for an extinct species of bird or avian theropod (although I did rock Anchiornis at the 2017 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting during the auction/social event!) I was excited to do an ichnology-themed Bird Glamour.

This ichnology Bird Glamour was inspired by Ignotornis gajinensis, the bird trackways that have spoonbill-like "swooshes" preserved. These "swooshes" are similar in shape to the bill marks made on sediment by present-day spoonbills stirring up the sediment to catch fish and invertebrates.

Spoonbill with its namesake spoon-shaped bill.

I decided to go with the Black-faced Spoonbill for this Bird Glamour. We arrived at the Goseong Public Library after a nice lunch with the Library's curator, public programming coordinator, and some of the Library staff.

The poster advertising our public talks at the Goseong Public Library!

While the rest of the Ichnology Team had coffee and snacks with the curator, I applied my Black-faced Spoonbill look.

These looks can take anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour to create. Once I was done, Sujin asked if I could do her eyes up as an owl. Sujin chose a Long-eared Owl, and I was kindly given the use of the curator's office to apply Sujin's Long-eared Owl look.

Me (left) with Black-faced Spoonbill eyes and Sujin (right) with Long-eared Owl eyes. 

This was the first time I had given a public talk while wearing Bird Glamour. I admit to being a trifle nervous about it: people sometimes have a very specific stereotype image in mind when they think "scientist," and that image does not typically involve makeup, let alone bird-inspired makeup. Nevertheless, I opened my talk by introducing Bird Glamour and used the link between the Black-faced Spoonbill and Korea's fossil bird tracks to talk about the bird tracks of western Canada.

Dr. Martin Lockley talking about his track work in South Korea.

Dr. Richard McCrea talking about dinosaur tracks from western Canada.

The talks were very well-received: there were a lot of interesting questions from both the kids and adults in attendance. We went out for our last dinner in South Korea: bulgogi! After dinner, we went to Dr. Kim's lab for one last push to get as many tracks documented in our time remaining. We were at the lab until at least 11:00 pm local time.

Our flight from the Incheon Airport wasn't until the early afternoon, but we were scheduled to take a bus from Jinju to Incheon. The bus was scheduled to leave Jinju around 5:45 am. We were up, packed, and waiting in the hotel parking garage for our ride to the bus station at 5:10 am.

Things got...interesting. We saw some of the Jinju night-life as young people started returning home from what I assume was a fun Saturday night. Then a young woman staggers down the road. She is still in a partying mood and is very eager to give us cigarettes. She tells us in her limited English that she is from Russia, and that she doesn't speak [insert derogatory term here]. To directly quote my field notes from that morning "Charming that one of the few English words she knows is a slur. :| " While this interaction was taking place, I was scanning down the road to make sure that she was not distracting us so that an unseen companion could rob us. Before long Sujin arrived with an additional cab to take us and our luggage to the bus station. Rich gave his gift of cigarettes to our cab driver.

We arrived with plenty of time to get our boarding passes for the bus. These buses are glorious: truly comfortable seats with nice headrests and copious leg room. We slept until our rest stop about halfway between Jinju and Incheon Airport. We breakfasted on roasted chestnuts purchased at the concession. If you've never had roasted chestnuts, they have a soft texture that is slightly sweet.

Since all of the buses look the same, we made sure to remember in which space our bus was parked. 

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. This was good because it gave us a chance to repack our bags to make sure we didn't have power sources, like a solar battery charger, in our carry-on luggage. We found this out when Martin (who was flying out of Incheon first) was pulled out of line during his bag scanning to repack his bags. Oops. You can travel a million times and still miss an item or two.

Our flight back to Canada was uneventful, which is the best kind of flight! Usually, on a flight and while waiting in airports I type away on writing projects and papers. Sometimes I try to read if the jetlag isn't too powerful. I felt the jetlag start to hit me hard while we were waiting for our flight from Vancouver to Fort St. John. Jetlag gives me a very disconnected feeling: I feel as though I'm moving at a different tempo than that of the rest of the world. I also tend to feel as though all of my sensations have been muted.

Then, of course, there's the struggle to reclaim your original sleep schedule. This can take anywhere from a couple of days to over a week. My advice: don't try to do a hard reset on your sleep schedule. Day Three after we had arrived home, we forced ourselves into a "normal" day by doing a day trip into another community. We were out of the house at 9:00 am and in bed around 11:30 pm. The next thing we knew, we were waking up the next day at 3:45 pm. Just let the jet lag run its course.

That is the end of our tracking adventure in South Korea! Now we have several scientific papers to write on all of the data we collected! Hopefully, I'll be able to give you updates on those papers soon!

Tracking Cretaceous Birds in South Korea: Chinju Innovation City and Sangcheong-gun

Hello, Dear Readers!

When we last left our heroes, they were finishing up a long day (September 13) of laboratory and field work in Chinju (Jinju) University and Bito Island, respectively. September 14 would also prove to be an exciting field- and museum- day, full of bird tracks! Don't worry: I won't forget the non-avian dinosaur and pterosaur tracks!

Once again I'm forced to break our day into the field component and the museum component because there is just so much to talk about. This week's September 14 post will cover our field activities, and the next post will cover the spectacular Gajin Track Site.

We start off our day with a 7:30am wake-up and met Sujin for breakfast at a local Starbucks around 8:30am. After breakfast, we met Dr. Kim Kyung-soo at the hotel and drove to one of the in-progress construction sites of Jinju Innovation City. Remember in my last post, when I said that one of the similarities between studying tracks in British Columbia and South Korea is that many discoveries were (and continue to be) made as a result of industrial activity? Jinju Innovation City is a perfect example of industry significantly contributing to paleontology discoveries.

Excavations are uncovering track surface after track surface, and with a mandate to preserve national heritage, paleontologists in South Korea have to not only archive these large track-bearing blocks, but they also have to collect them! In the spirit of "necessity is the mother of invention," Dr. Kim designed a novel method for removing and transporting track blocks weighing several hundred kilograms...in one piece. Oh yes: and every picture in which you see a "KS" label on a track specimen? That specimen was collected and documented by Dr. Kim Kyung-soo.

People with visible faces: Drs. Kim Kyung-soo (left), Martin Lockley (center) and Richard McCrea (right) examining one of Dr. Kim's amazing track cradles for a large specimen ready to be removed to collections.

When we have the resources, we are going to bring Dr. Kim and his team over to visit track sites in British Columbia: I would love to see his track slab cradle technique in action!

Not all of the track-bearing surfaces are removed. One of the great approaches we witnessed in South Korea (take note, North America) is that people recognize - and act on - the value of preserving track localities as interpretive sites to educate the public. At this one construction site, two interpretive buildings are under construction for small interpretive centers.

I am just going to add an editorial note: this is the Republic of Korea. The country has a population of in a land area of 51,446,201 (with a density of 507 people per square kilometer) in a 100,210 square kilometers. Land, and space on which to develop, is valuable, and yet the Republic of Korea STILL finds ways to preserve and showcase their fossil heritage with respect. Now look to Canada. We have a population of 35,151,728 people spread over 9,984,670 square kilometers (population density of 3.92 people per square kilometer, albeit concentrated near the border with the United States.) So how come there is so much reticence towards protective buildings such as this one installed over important fossil sites? Take your time.

The track surface is covered to protect it during construction, so we pulled back the layers of tarps and thick felt-like cushioning to visit the surface.

Vertebrate ichnologists LOVE seeing surfaces like this...these are great surfaces for tracks!

We swept off portions of the track site to reveal some tracks with exquisite detail. The track type that has fascinated me (let's be honest: they all fascinate me) are trackways of pterosaurs. Yup: tracks of flying reptiles! When they weren't soaring through the air, pterosaurs walked on surfaces as quadrupeds, leaving wing finger impressions! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?

A pterosaur handprint! Guess what the loooong digit impression is from? (Psst: it's the wing digit!)

Editorial Note: You may want to Google pterosaurs. I don't blame you: they are fascinating archosaurs! However, you may encounter two websites in your search. One is called "ReptileEvolution.com" and the other is called "Pterosaur Heresies," both of which are run by the same person. Both of these sites are full of interesting artwork, but the information they provide on "radical" new ideas about pterosaurs is not supported by information from the fossils. Neither site should be a go-to site for accurate, data-supported information. Read the Tetrapod Zoology blog post on the issue.

One part of Dr. Richard McCrea's work is to refine photogrammetry techniques, particularly with small, low-relief tracks. This little pterosaur handprint is a perfect test subject!

Dr. Richard McCrea takes photogrammetry images for creating a 3D digital model of small tracks.

With a surface that preserved detail like pterosaur tracks, I was very hopeful for bird tracks. I was not disappointed! We didn't have a lot of time at the site, so this is the only definite track I could see, but where there's one, there's likely more!

This isn't the best picture (the room was under construction and unlit) but it is very birdie!

We drove to Sangcheong-gun (Sangcheong County) to check out a track site that was relatively close to the highway. It was a HOT day: the track surface was almost burning hot. It was a great contrast to the raindrop impressions we saw.

Oh yes, that's a bird track in the center of all of those rain drop casts.

This was a lovely track surface for fine details. The bird tracks were exquisite. The bird track in the center of the image above has slight digital pads and a lovely hint of a webbing impression!

You know you have a nice track surface when fine soft tissue details, like skin impressions and webbing impressions, are visible!

There's a lot we can tell about this trackmaker by looking at its footprint. One, this is a small bird (footprint length about 2.5 cm). Two, it doesn't have a well-impressed hallux (or reversed toe), so we know it didn't look or behave like a small crane or egret. Three, this bird only has a little bit of webbing between the middle and outer digit: this isn't a webbed bird like a duck. Four, this bird meandered, stopped, and started again, all over the track surface. This bird, if we were to take a time machine back to the Early Cretaceous, would have looked and behaved a lot like one of our present-day sandpipers. This was another track site exposed by industrial activity (construction of a highway), although our time machine shows us a peaceful scene of a very quiet, silty bank next to a small lake or slow-moving stream.

Also, we would have had to watch out for being stepped on by sauropods! Another thing we know from the tracks is that the sauropod came through first, and then the birds walked on the surface. We know this because the bird trackway actually walks around the sauropod track! How cool is that?

We then drove to a small cafe where we would eat what would be my favorite meal in Korea: naengmyeon, cold noodle soup! (Note: this is only one of many recipes I found online.) Most of the soups we tried in Korea had two versions, a regular version and a spicy version (I went spicy!) This is now a soup I make regularly for dinner, or at least the closest version I can make living in a remote area with limited shopping options.

Stay tuned for our visit to the Gajin-ri track!

Tracking Cretaceous Birds In South Korea, The Introduction

Hello Dear Readers!

It has been a while since I have dusted the cobwebs off of Ye Olde Blog! I will break my blog silence by starting a series of weekly posts on our recent tracking adventure to South Korea!

We were invited by our colleagues Dr. Kim, Kyung-soo and his research group, to visit various Early Cretaceous field sites in South Korea.

NOTE: Ever since this trip was planned, I heard no end of "jokes," half-jokes, and concern about being in a "potentially dangerous part of the world," given the political climate of 2017. While I understand that those who were truly concerned meant well, I was not concerned for two reasons. One, our hosts were not concerned. If anyone was going to know the up-to-date status of the situation, it was going to be our hosts. I trusted their read of the situation. Two, field work is an inherently risky venture. No matter where you conduct field work in the world, there are going to be area-specific risks. The risks we typically face in northern western Canada are helicopter crashes, wild animal attacks, irate and/or intoxicated people, physical injury, and exposure. Some risks you can mitigate. Others you cannot. I'm not naive, but I'm also not going to fret myself to a point where I'm too scared to take a risk. I'm too old for that ****. Your Mileage May Vary.

These track sites preserve an amazingly diverse ichnofauna (ichnofauna = the critters present based on what you can tell from tracks alone) of non-avian and avian dinosaurs...aka BIRDS. And what birds! There are Early Cretaceous bird track types that are found in Korea and no where else (to date.) Since my work largely deals with Early Cretaceous bird tracks, this was an opportunity to see examples of these track types first hand. So far, I have been limited to working with data, images, and the occasional replica of Cretaceous bird tracks from Korea. There is nothing like seeing the original specimen to see first-hand the intricate details.

Not only would we see these great bird track types in person, we would also be able to collect images to create 3D digital models using the technique called photogrammetry, pioneered in vertebrate paleontology by Neffra Matthews and Tom Noble. Being able to "bring" 3D replicas of track specimens back to our lab means that we can spend much more time examining the specimens in detail. Having on-site 3D models also means that we can compare the bird tracks of Korea side-by-side with the Early Cretaceous bird tracks we find in western Canada.

This visit to Korea will allow us to address some important questions we have of birds and their tracks of the Early Cretaceous:

- What bird track types are unique to western Canada and Korea, respectively? What bird track types are shared? This will give us updated information on where different groups of birds were in the Early Cretaceous world.

- How many different ways can one bird track type appear in the fossil record? A large sample size of bird tracks - showing different types of preservation - are needed to make sure that the differences we see among bird tracks are due to actual shape differences in the bird foot. The same bird foot can walk on mucky mud and firm sand and leave two tracks that look different. The sample size of the Korea bird tracks is an ichnologist's dream come true.

- Do bird track types change over time? In both western Canada and Korea we have rock layers that preserve several stages of the Early Cretaceous. Specifically, we're looking at Aptian (113-125 million years ago) and Albian (100.5 - 113 million years ago) age track-bearing layers of the Early Cretaceous. Western Canada also has track-bearing layers that are 145 - 125 million years old. This means we can see what birds were doing in the world (using their tracks) up to the Aptian, and then compare in detail the changes that happen with bird tracks in the Aptian and the Albian stages in both western Canada and Korea.

Our flight out of Fort St. John on September 9 was at 5:45am (meaning a 4:30am check-in) so, in true remote-living style, we drove two hours the night before and got a room. We groggily boarded, and thankfully didn't have to sky-check the camera equipment.

TRAVEL NOTE: When planning an international field expedition that involves air travel, keep in mind the small service or connecting flights. They have much smaller carry-on capacity than the longer/larger flights. You may not want to release your camera gear to the tender (?) mercies of checked luggage.

We flew from Fort St. John to Vancouver, and after a short layover, boarded and settled in for a 10 hr flight across the Pacific Ocean. The flight was good: I even got a bit of writing done. The only questionable moment was self-induced: we watched "Alien: Covenant." Don't get me started on the epic disappointment that are the new Alien movies.

Yeah, Ripley: I know. I know.

We landed at the Incheon International Airport around 1:30pm local time, collected our luggage, and met our host at one of the coffee shops. We then waited for Martin's (Dr. Martin Lockley) to arrive around 4pm. Once we were all herded together, we started the three hour drive to the first destination of our adventure in Korea: the Natural Heritage Center collections facility in Daejeon!

Stay tuned for the next part of the Adventure!

What to Wear, What to Wear? A Woman in Science Packs a Field Work - Conference Bag.

An interesting article popped up in my Twitter feed a few days ago, rather whimsically titled "Why Women Have So Many Clothes." The image in the article is no where approaching whimsical: it shows a woman's leg, and drawn on said leg are the labels given to various hemlines (current style and perception dependent.) That in of itself is worth a post or two, but the first thing that popped into my mind was "Oh, don't get me started on packing for both a conference AND field work!"

Whether I like it or not, people (the public, colleagues, potential collaborators or consultees, conference coordinators, committees, students, prospective employers, etc.) are going to judge me to some extent on my appearance, and specifically on my manner of dress and personal presentation. Everyone has their own interpretation of professional style: it's normal at a paleontology conference to see someone in a suit and tie having a conversation with someone in khaki shorts and a T-shirt. From wool pants to sandals with socks, it's a matter of personal taste and comfort. Through many trials and countless errors, I've finally found what (I think) works for me in terms of conference-wear. Of course, just because I'm comfortable with it does not mean my style is immune to criticism: by dressing my body type and wearing skirts, am I trying to "use" my femininity? I like a nice pump: am I trying to get attention? There's a trace of make-up: just who am I trying to impress? Well, me, to be perfectly honest.

My personal philosophy on professional wear (conference, meetings, etc.) is that people are only going to respect me as seriously as I respect myself. I make sure I'm clean. I make sure my clothes are clean. I run a brush through my hair and over my teeth (not the same brush). For me, there are situations that are not appropriate for clothing that is stained, doesn't fit properly, or shows off Krakatoa.

Yes, Krakatoa is a euphemism. Image source.

I don't shy away from what are considered feminine styles, and I don't view looking feminine as a weakness: how others may view it depends on their own biases. I feel that I don't need to neuter myself to be a scientist, and I respect my colleagues and supervisors enough to know that they would never stoop so low as to give me an opportunity because they think I look "hot", or some other such drivel. That concept is (or should be) offensive to everyone. (Note: I'm not saying that situation doesn't happen in a professional setting. It does. If we've learned anything from the #ripplesofdoubt hashtag started by Karen James, we have learned that science and science communication is not immune from this kind of misogyny and the damage it causes. I'm only saying that, to the best of my knowledge, it has not happened to me.)

I dress at conferences to best represent my institution and my profession: in short, to best represent Strange Woman the Professional. None of these considerations come into play with my field clothing. Stains, mismatched colors, baggy, torn...anything goes. I wear what it takes to get the job done, and get the job done safely. That is how I dress the Strange Woman of the Field.

I love attending conferences for which there is a field work component. The insights that exploring a new area can add to your observations of your home localities just cannot be beat. However, it does make packing (for me) a bit of a pain in the ass. Strange Woman of the Field and Strange Woman the Professional have two completely different clothing needs.

My first experience with packing for an international combined field trip and conference was Turkmenistan. Both Rich and I admittedly over packed because we had no idea exactly what type of field work would be expected of us. Turns out it was hiking to see sites and no rigorous field documentation, so we didn't need half of the equipment we brought. We have since learned how to better streamline our suitcases, but Rich admits that he is glad he is not a woman when he sees the "extras" that I feel I have to bring.

I realize that all this could be avoided by just saying  "I don't give a Flying Spaghetti Monster what people think of my clothes" and just wear my stained field shirts, latex and silicone coated pants, and dusty old hiking boots for every occasion. I'm a field person, after all! Strange Woman of the Field and Strange Woman the Professional are both part of what I do as a scientist. Both do what they do best when they feel (and that's the key word - feel) appropriately attired. Would I show up to a job interview in a sweat-stained tank top and my clunky logging boots? No more than I would hang off of ropes on a vertical tracksite wearing my Fluevogs and a pencil skirt.

The perfect footwear for scaling a 50 degree slope 60m off of the ground, right? Nope. Conference shoes are not field work shoes.

Both Strange Woman of the Field and Strange Woman the Professional have to make separate packing lists. Unfortunately they also have to share a suitcase, but they both use the same plane ticket, so there is an upside.

Strange Woman the Professional/Shaman of the Field, the Carry-On Bag:
My carry-on bag contains all of those items that would physically stop (or at least delay) my being able to hit the ground running with field research or conference activities. This is where the two Strange Women share the packing duties. The carry-on bag doubles as my day pack for the field.

• Computer and computer cord, with power cord in an easy to access section of the bag (for airport security)
• Travel external hard drive
• Wireless mouse
• Digital camera
• Hand held GPS
• Digital calipers or measuring tape (Side note: when flying through the US, I was pulled aside at security because of the digital calipers and was asked if they were a dangerous weapon. I responded with "Only if I can measure something to death." Not smart. Don't sass airport security. My only excuse was that I was tired after a long flight and my mental filters were not working as they should.)
• Rite-in-the-Rain field book with writing instrument (I doubt that I will ever give up hand-written notes)
• Plumber's soapstone pen and soapstone sticks
• Brunton compass
• Photo scales
• Angle-o-meter (my name for the device that takes any angle data on tracks)
• Mini flashlight (once the paper on this site is out, I have a lovely story on how, for the lack of one flashlight, I did an unplanned overnight in the field in November)
• Cell phone
• Travel medicines, travel documents, toothbrush, one change of base layers, sunglasses, headphones, neck pillow

You can imagine that airport security just loves it when I join the queue, but I'll be damned if my research electronics and tools leave my side during travel. That bag becomes my mobile office.

The checked luggage is where the different research needs become the most obvious.

Strange Woman of the Field, the Suitcase:
This half of the suitcase is reserved for all the field gear that I would need for a week to a month or more of continuous field work. Most of this clothing also doubles as tourism clothing (except for my pants - I'm hard on pants).

• Two pairs of synthetic fabric pants (wear one, wash one)
• If it's the right season, two sets of thermal undies (one washed, one being worn)
• One pair of non-field pants/capris
• Two to three light, long-sleeved button shirts
• Four sets of synthetic base layers, including socks (one washed, one drying, one being worn, and a spare - the spare is very important)
• Two wide-strapped tank tops (for under the long sleeved shirts)
• One wide-brimmed hat
• Two bandanas
• Small binoculars
• Toilet paper (I learned this one the hard way)
• Rain gear
• Field knife
• Hand lens
• First aid kit
• Gloves
• Personal grooming items
• Sunscreen

It seems pretty light up until now, doesn't it? Shove the clothing items into a compression sack and there is still loads of room in the suitcase! Then I come to this item:

• One pair of steel-toed, Kevlar woven logging boots, or for non rugged terrain, non-TSA friendly hiking boots.

Damn boots. Field boots are a very personal item. They can also be an expensive item (for a student), if you want to make sure they will 1) fit (my sister-in-law jokes that my shoes should come with a full compliment of life rafts), 2)  protect my arch and ankle, and 3) not fall apart after the first day. I am as hard on boots as I am on pants. Perhaps one day I'll just throw caution to the wind and risk buying boots at my destination and leave them there after the trip.

Strange Woman the Professional, the Suitcase
Conference and business meeting clothing. Mix and match is the key for me, and nothing that would have caused my Granny and Aunt Molly comment "Hello, Sailor!" This is for a four-day conference, plus any unexpected side meetings. For only one or two professional meetings, one outfit plus an extra shirt would suffice.

• One pair nice shoes (either the shoes pictured above or the ones I show in this post)
• One knee-length skirt and/or one pair of dress pants
• Two to three lace shells that can go under dress shirts
• Two dress shirts
• One suit jacket
• A couple of finishing pieces (a bold pendant, a silk scarf, etc.)
• Make-up
• Hair clips

Most of these are soft, squishy items that can also be packed into a compression sack. I manage to cram all of this into something smaller than a steamer trunk. This is assuming there is no camping involved with the field work: that would require bringing a sleeping bag, an sleeping pad, and a possibly a tent and an actual expedition-size field backpack (which then becomes my suitcase). Also, this packing list only concerns personal field and conference gear and does not include any specialized research equipment. Before leaving for the airport I have to find out the logistics of obtaining these items at my destination (or the logistics for shipping these items if needed):

• Heavy tracing plastic and permanent markers
• Duct tape
• Archive-grade, low ammonia latex, or, platinum-cure silicone
• Fiberglass and resins (or plaster) for mould support jackets
• Chalk (for outlining footprints)
• Brushes, for cleaning a track surface and for making moulds
• Hammers, chisels, and other digging tools
• Climbing gear and rope
• Bulk food and water for the crew

Every year I try to remove one or two extra items from my personal packing list, or to replace two or three items with one multipurpose item. I'll be interested to compare my 2013 packing list with the one I make a few years from now.

If you have any clever travel hacks to share (or horror stories), I'd love to hear them!

Back to being desk-bound: paper reviews, proofs, and revisions all decided to appear in my inbox this week.

SW

Strange Woman Abroad: Chongqing Ichnology Conference - The Lotus Tracksite

Well, Dear Readers, it's time to resume the saga of our 2012 Chongqing Ichnology Conference and related field trips. We visited the Yangqing National Geopark Tracksite (we made a return trip in September 2013, but that is a story for another time), and the Shandong area tracksites within the quarries. Now we were whisked away from the cool dry climate of north-central China to the southern coastal region of Chongqing. This would be the last field work we did before the conference on November 29.

In northeastern BC I've had the privilege of working on some spectacular paleontology sites with glamorous scenery that inspires one to run through alpine meadows singing. The Lotus Tracksite is one of those sites. Situated outside of the city of Chongqing, it gives off a sense of idyllic rural peacefulness.

"The hills are alive with the sound of footprints! Lalalalaaaahaaaa!" (This is why I am a scientist and not a singer.) Mountain scenery of the Lotus Stockade Tracksite.

For the next four days, the bus would drive us to the rural center, and then we would walk along a path that went over brook and field.

We followed the path to the farmhouse in the upper right corner of the photo.

Laura Pinuela and Martin Lockley.

Lovely terraced farms.

Babbling brook with sediment from a recent rain.

A completely different style of growing crops than I was used to seeing growing up in southern British Columbia farm country.

I was not brave enough to try one of the fresh spicy peppers seen on this pepper plant. I hang my head in shame. (No one else tried one either, so I am in good company!)

Our party reached the farmhouse, but that was not the end of the trek. Oh no: we had to transport ourselves (and our field gear) from the base of the cliff to a natural fissure using a cement stairway.

Daniel Marty and the resident farm ducks. These ducks spent a great deal of time free-ranging in the fields. They are also a possible modern analog for a webbed bird footprint from the Cretaceous, named Uhangrichnus.

Our brief reprieve at the farmhouse. Lida Xing (left), Martin Lockley (right).

Can you see the tracksite from here? If I were going to hide from raiders, this would be the place.

Martin actually counted the steps: there are approximately 900 steps in the staircase. This is where I experienced a slight ping of culture shock, because around noon and in the afternoons we would see elderly people slowly walking up and down the entire stairway. They were doing this for exercise. Coming from a culture where everything is in walking distance yet people drive less than a kilometer to get a bag of potato chips, this impressed me.

So many steps...

The Lotus Tracksite from the stairs. Almost there!

If it wasn't for the staircase, I could not see any easy egress or regress to the Stockade. It was a perfect defensive post against raiders.

As the Lotus Stockade is now a heritage tourism destination (thanks to the work of Lida Xing), there were visitor friendly additions to the actual site (including the stairs). Wooden boardwalks are installed so that people can view the tracks without stepping on them. As the derelicts that ichnologists are, the first thing we did was physically explore the track surface.

Approaching the tracksite.

Wooden barricades keep distracted paleontologists corralled.

The Lotus Stockade has a fascinating history. The people who took shelter there 700 years ago noticed the large ornithopod tracks and the large-scale dessication features. They arrived a very astute explanation for the presence of these odd shapes: the ornithopod tracks were described as preserved impressions of lotus blossoms. One of the fascinating parts of ichnology is discovering all of the cultural explanations for footprints, and this is one of my favorites. Lida did a wonderful artistic interpretation of the story, and it became one of the logos for the Ichnology Conference.

The interpretation of ornithopod tracks as preserved lotus impressions does not require a large leap in imagination. Check out the original image here.

Now it was time to get to work. As these tracks are currently the subject of in-progress and in-press papers, I won't show too many of the details that are going to occur in said papers. However, there are two surfaces that we had to document in three days: the upper ornithopod track layer, and the lower bird layer.

The upper ornithopod surface, viewable through a plexiglass floor. Us delinquent ichnologists had special permission to crawl all over the surface.

We split into two teams. Rich, Martin, Laura, and I took the lead on the bird layer, while Daniel, Matteo, Hendrik, and Julien worked on the ornithopod layer. The two teams had slightly different procedures, but both ended with two large plastic tracings that matched up between the layers beautifully. Lida bounced between Team Ornithopod and Team Bird (my affectionate names for the groups - we were all one happy ichnology team) making sure that we had everything we needed for a three-day session of mass data collection. He also made sure we were fed: a constant supply of snacks were made available.

Here's how Team Bird tackled a several square meter surface that contains over 200 footprints (218 according to my field notes.) First, we found a very distinct footprint with a clear digit III preserved. The end of digit III was the anchor point for the next step. Second, we established a 1 meter by 1 meter grid system along the surface. We established the grid using fairly old-school techniques: a compass, a meter stick, and chalk.

Next, we physically gridded the entire track-bearing surface. We went through a great deal of chalk! We saved our welder's soapstone pens for the next step of physically outlining each and every footprint we could see on the surface. Establishing the physical grid took about half a day (we checked, double-checked, and triple-checked for repeatability) while the outlining of the prints took about another half of a day. It is a long process, but it makes the data collection all the more simple.

Next, we labeled each footprint according to the grid square in which it occurred (e.g. track B10-1, A2-7, etc.) Each print was photographed from multiple angles for future digitizing work, as well as each individual grid square. After the tracks were labeled and individually photographed, physical measurements were collected (I rarely collect data from photographs if I have the original specimens at hand.)

Rich McCrea (foreground) of Team Bird photographing gridded squares while Martin Lockley paints latex on a specimen for replication. Team Ornithopod is in the background.

Team Ornithopod tracing the upper surface.

We were all quite amazed when we found out that we didn't have to hike all the way back down to farmhouse for lunch. A hot lunch was brought up to us! Salted pork, cabbage and hot peppers, rice, and stewed pumpkin! You can see from the photos that we are all in our cold weather gear, and a hot lunch was most welcome.

A hot lunch at the Lotus Tracksite.

Team Bird spent the bulk of their time physically measuring prints and taking photos. It wasn't until November 28 that we joined the tracing party.

The final step: tracing the surface onto plastic sheets. Not only did we trace on the prints on the plastic map, but we traced on the corners of the grid squares for reference.

Other researchers and conference attendees arrived during our three day session at the Lotus Track, which allowed for more eyes on the surface.

Team Bird was finished the documentation of the lower surface late in the afternoon of the 28th. It's an odd feeling to be finished documenting a surface. I always feel as though I should be doing something else, but we had done everything we could do in the time frame available. We were done. Team Ornithopod continued into the evening, but they too were finished on the 28th. Now all we had to do was to put our finishing touches on our presentations and switch to conference mode! The conference was fascinating, and I am pleased to say that my presentation on the multivariate analysis of Mesozoic bird footprints was very well received.

The traced plastic maps, all bundled up and ready to head to the lab for interpretation.

My patience was well rewarded! I had finally seen and documented bird footprints! Not only that, but I had seen bird footprints in an area steeped with history. My co-authors and I are working on getting the paper that analyzes these prints ready for submission. Stay tuned!

That's it for now!

SW out.

Strange Woman Abroad: Chongqing Ichnology Conference, Linshu Tracks, Shandong Province.

Hello, Dear Readers! It's about time that I resume my tale of my first paleontological trip to China for the Chongqing Ichnology Conference. We've been extremely busy since our helicopter trip into northern BC: we've been prospecting exposures of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rock in creek beds, and we've also been preoccupied with the recent helicopter lift of our hadrosaur skeleton (a complete success.) We have a bit of down time before our return trip to China (which is good, as I seem to have caught the flu that is making its rounds around town), so now I can turn my attentions to sorting photos.

We are now at the morning of November 21st. The original plan was for us to visit the part of the Great Wall that was in driving distance to Beijing, but it snowed the night before so the roads were not considered passable. Instead, we went to the airport early. Almost eight hours early. The drive to the airport was very interesting. Actually, driving in China interesting, period. People on motorbikes dance in between vehicles going highway speeds with intricate choreography. I admit I was convinced our 15-passenger van was going to run over a biker on more than one occasion due to the traffic density and speed.

I thought these tiny bikes would not possibly stand a chance in the heavy traffic. Turns out I was wrong!

We made it to the airport without incident. What were we going to do for almost eight hours? We had nothing to worry about: Lida booked for us a private room in one of the airport restaurants where we could relax in absolute comfort. What was our version of relaxing? Each and every one of us (me, Rich, Martin, Hendrik, Julien, Daniel, and Lida) were either writing papers, working on paper reviews, or putting the finishing touches on our presentations for the conference. One catch for renting the room was that a certain amount had to be spent on food and drink. That was no problem for us: science is hungry and thirsty work, and we were there for two meals. We were also there for several playings of the looped background music: some techno club cacophony with the repetitive lyrics of "Are you ready to make some noise? Make some noise? Make some noise?"



Forgive me, Dear Readers, but there was no way I was going to put any effort into finding either the original or the longer playing version. Suffice to say I will NEVER get those lyrics out of my head. This is what I get for not having my audiobooks handy. We arrived in Linshu the evening of September 21, and were shuttled to our hotel.

We spent two days at the Linshu tracksites. Early Cretaceous in age, they boast an ichnofauna attributed to sauropods, ankylosaurs, stegosaurs, and small, medium, and large theropods. Our first stop was in a stone quarry on the outskirts of the populated areas. Once again we were greeted by our old friend the vertical track surface.

Tectonic action pushes once horizontal track surfaces vertical, and folded and faulted sediment layers are a common occurrence with vertical track surfaces.

At over six meters in height, we needed a way to get close enough to the surface to take photos, outline tracks, and do acetate tracings.

Free-climbing a vertical track face is not an option is one wants to collect useful data. Martin Lockley (left) was doing his best impression of a mountain goat to check out a contact between two rock layers when he and I were logging the stratigraphic section for the site.

Ichno-Geek Note: A stratigraphic section is the layers of rock that are deposited one on top of the other. These sections are diagrammed to show which rock layers came first, the grain size of the rock (fine or coarse), if there are any sediment deposition structures such as ripples or scour surfaces, and what the rocks contain (burrows, tracks, bones, wood, leaves, invertebrates, etc.) You cannot develop an accurate picture of the paleoenvironment in which these track-making animals lived without knowing under what conditions the track-bearing layers were deposited.

Once again we had access to ladders, but for documenting the large track surface featured above, we had something a bit more high-tech: we had a picker truck!

Martin Lockley and Rich McCrea taking 3D photogrammetry shots of one of the track surfaces.

While Daniel Marty and Hendrik Klein, did the primary documentation on the track face, and after Martin and I did the stratigraphic section, Rich and I decided to check out the rest of the bedding surfaces for additional tracks. I may have mentioned this before, but one of the great parts of vertical track faces is that multiple bedding surfaces can be exposed. It is not uncommon for one track surface to slough off only to reveal a completely new track surface underneath. I was still on the hunt for small tracks: invertebrates, birds, small reptiles, etc., and although I saw many finely rippled surfaces, rain drop casts, and many paired U-shaped burrows, bird tracks continued to evade me.

Likely Arenicolites, one of the U-shaped burrows that is commonly part of the Skolithos ichnofacies.

Small rain drop casts on a fine-grained silty sandstone surface.

We were not completely skunked in our search for the small dinosaur ichnofauna: Rich came across one manus-pes set of a small quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaur. We exposed the rest of the surface in hopes of revealing a trackway, but only the one manus-pes set was preserved in any convincing detail.

The manus (top) and the pes (bottom) of a small quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaur. Sometimes we can't get more specific than that without a trackway showing multiple prints. Single tracks also don't tell you if you are dealing with a small adult track maker or a juvenile of an already known track maker.

Meanwhile, work was continuing on tracing the multiple trackways of a large quadrupedal track maker (the paper was submitted in May 2013 - stay tuned!)

Acetate tracings in progress, with Hendrik Klein.

Martin Lockley had also been checking out additional bedding surfaces for tracks, and made a fantastic find: didactyl (two-toed) theropod tracks!

Martin Lockley (on ladder) and Hendrik Klein measuring pace and stride of the didactyl tracks. Martin uncovered most of this surface after seeing the first track (next to Hendrik's hand). This is part of the paper that was submitted in May 2013, so I won't go into too many details here. I'll post a link to the paper once it is available online. Stay tuned!

We also found out there was a documentary being filmed about the discovery and research of the tracksites in the Linshu area. We were all interviewed, and asked to compare the tracks at this site to other track sites we had individually worked on around the world. These tracks are comparable in age to the Earliest Cretaceous track sites in western Canada, but they have a slightly different ichnofauna...at least it appears as such at this point in our research. This is one of the issues we are working on solving, thanks to recent (as in just this month!) discoveries of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous tracks in the Peace Region.

Rich McCrea being interviewed for the documentary, comparing the Linshu tracks to the Earliest Cretaceous tracks from south east British Columbia.

As an aside, I think I was asked one question that the other members of the field team were not. Once the scientific questions were done, the interviewer asked "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" I said that a personal question was fine. I had a feeling the question was related to my gender: at this point in the expedition I was the only woman on the field team. The interviewer asked "How will having a family impact your career as a scientist and field paleontologist?"

Good question.

Technically still of child-bearing age, I had given a lot of thought to this particular question. There is no doubt that having a child would drastically change the level of field work that I currently enjoy. I would be a fool to believe otherwise. That being said, I know of a few mothers who began bringing their offspring to field sites as soon as the babies could support their own heads, so it is not impossible to balance both a field career and raising a child. It also helps to have a husband who is a working team member.

It is a good thing that I had actually given the topic some thought, otherwise I might have gasped and gaped with all the grace of a beached fish. The best answer I could give was this: if we do decide to have kids, Rich and I will work as a team to make sure that both careers continue successfully, and that our kid would grow up thinking that going into the field looking for dinosaurs with Mom and Dad would be a normal part of the summer. The documentary people seemed both pleased and interested by this answer.

The acetate tracing was completed, and with help of the picker truck removed without incident.

Daniel Marty and Hendrik Klein take charge of their masterpiece.

We had a lot of interest from locals. We could not tempt these kids to come out of hiding.

Three children watching those strange paleontologists, with the didactyl track face in the background.

We were introduced to the man, a local farmer whose name I was not told, who first noticed the tracks on the exposed rock in the area.

Ray You (foreground) capturing a picture of Lida Xing (red coat) and the local farmer (right) who discovered the tracks in the area.

It is not just the quarry that has track surfaces: several outcrops in the surrounding farmlands were rich with dinosaur prints!

Meter stick for scale. Do you see the footprints?

That was a full Day One in the Linshu region.

Day Two began with a visit to a different quarry. We first investigated a natural mold trackway of a small tetradactyl (four-digit) track maker.

Rich McCrea off to scout out potential track-bearing surfaces.

The small, tetradactyl trackway. There was some discussion as to whether shallow manual impressions were preserved. Small ankylosaur? Small stegosaur? The work is in progress!

I took a stroll around this slab to the back surface to see if there were any natural casts (infills) preserved from a lower track surface. I was not disappointed!

Just above my field book is a tridactyl pes print. The rest of the tracks are obscured by overlying sediment layers.

The same natural cast track surface, cleaned up and tracks traced. It is very likely these tracks were made by a medium-sized ornithopod.

Once some of the surrounding sediment was cleared away, the prints became more visible. I noticed that our group seemed smaller. Where did they go? They (Daniel Marty, Rich McCrea, Martin Lockley, Lida Xing) were checking out yet another track-bearing surface that preserved a trackway of a sauropod.

The lighting was not ideal for these shallow tracks, but Daniel Marty (black shirt) and Rich McCrea (grey shirt) lean over to get a closer look.

From bottom left to top right: Daniel Marty, Rich McCrea, Martin Lockley, Lida Xing.

In terms of field safety (besides the scrambling around vertical surfaces like so many mountain goats), we had to watch out for were wasps. The cold weather had slowed them down, but they were still technically active and were huddled together in small cracks and crevices on the track surfaces.

This wasp was not above stinging ichnologists who disturbed her sunning activities.

Before we left this tracksite to check out other exposures, I attempted an artsy photograph of the site...

...to be photo-bombed by Daniel Marty. I love working with people who have a sense of humor! If you are not enjoying yourself while you work, what it the point?

Try as I might, I was still not successful in finding any small vertebrate traces at these sites. My zeal to locate Early Cretaceous bird tracks did not go unnoticed, and the rest of the field team did their best to solve the nonbirdieness of the area.

Lida "finds" some webbed bird tracks for me to photograph.

On our way back to the city we stopped by the village to check out their open air market.

Ray You (right) chats with a vendor.

When our guides and local representatives saw that we were interested in local crafts, they took us to the Linyi Kingwillow Arts and Crafts outlet in Linyi City. If only I had luggage space: I do love wicker and willow furniture.

Kingwillow Crafts Center.

Baskets, chairs, tables, dressers...if it could be woven, it was here!

Including this large wicker bull! From left to right: City official, Julien Divey, Martin Lockley, Rich McCrea, Lisa Buckley, Hendrik Klein, Daniel Marty, and the owner of the Kingwillow company.

The next day was a travel day: on November 24 we traveled from Linyi City to Chongqing City, for three days at a unique tracksite.

Stay tuned for more ichnology fun!

S.W.