An appetite for archaeology

As the gears of the fall semester crank up, many of us fondly look back on this past summer with memories of lazy days spent at the beach. Others, however, were more productive with their summers, availing themselves of opportunities they will surely never forget.

Juniors Francesca Pignataro and Jacques Colon were two such students invited to work on a National Science Foundation funded paleontology field research project at the San Juan basin in New Mexico, long known as a dinosaur fossil site.

"I cannot even begin to write about what I have gained intellectually from this work," Pignataro wrote in an e-mail. "I learned a ton about identification of fossils and basic field geology." Anne Weil, primary investigator on the San Juan basin project and research associate for the School of Medicine, lured Pignataro and Colon to the De-na-zin desert wilderness area in the northwest corner of New Mexico for a month to excavate fossils from the late Cretaceous and early Paleocene age with the promise of free food, tents and a $1,200 stipend.

"Going to New Mexico this summer offered me the opportunity to immerse myself in the field more completely and to better understand what is involved in my job," said Colon, who jumped at the prospect of learning more about paleontology. "In addition to mammal fossils, we found stuff like ancient turtle shells from before dinosaurs were extinct, a ceratopsian frill and even T-rex teeth."

The San Juan fieldwork these Duke students have been doing will not only further their academic interests but also help resolve the long-asked question: What really happened when the dinosaurs went extinct? In a collaboration with Tom Williamson, geologist and research curator of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Weil and her undergraduate research assistants investigated the nature of the late Cretaceous mass extinction event, particularly the mammals from the period when the dinosaurs died.

"I think mammals are really important and could tell a lot about what was going on when the dinosaurs died because they were the ones that survived," Weil said.

Interestingly, the mammals fossilized with the dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous period in the North American Western Interior seem not to be related to the mammals which survived the mass extinction, Williamson said.

"Finding these fossil vertebrates is really significant because there are very few places where you can find fossils from the late Cretaceous period in southern North America," Williamson said. "So what we're trying to do is look at an area that's different and see if we have a different assortage of animals."

Since the undertaking of the project in 2000, a plethora of previously unidentified mammals have been discovered and catalogued, which lends credence to Weil's hypothesis that the fauna in the south was different than the fauna in the north. Weil suspects that nobody has thought to look for mammal fossils in New Mexico because the fieldwork is mentally and physically exhausting.

"It's difficult," said Weil, referring to the challenging desert terrain, affectionately called 'the badlands.' "You have to be in shape; you have to stand the heat--you can't be one of those paunchy old guys."

Williamson said he loves his job because he gets to do the three things he loves the most--hiking, camping and looking for new fossils.

"How many people do you know who get paid to go collect dinosaur fossils?"