2007 Appalachian Geology Triassic Trip, New Mexico      The Mission:  to find fossil remains of a Triassic dinosaur, Coelophysis, and two other fossil reptiles, phytosaurs and aetosaurs.  The Location:  the Snyder quarry near Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.  Fossil-bearing unit is the Painted Desert Member of the Petrified Forest Formation of the Chinle Group. The Crew: Dr. Andrew Heckert and assistant, Crystal Wilson.  Students include Aaron Abernethy, Ryan Farmer, Chesney Gilleland, Mauri Giustini, Aaron Pruitt, and Ashley Watts.  We worked with staff and volunteers of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS).
Angular unconformity at US84 mile marker 216 on the way to Ghost Ranch.  The contact marks an erosional gap in the geologic record between the Jurassic Morrison formation and the Eocene El Rito formation.	Phytosaur skull from the NMMNHS collections.  You can tell this is a male because of the prominent hump in the nostral crest.
		Another phytosaur skull in NMMNHS prep lab.
Nearly complete, articulated Coelophysis in jacket at the NMMNHS.	Alex Downs shows off the head of a new Triassic reptile from the Whitaker quarry at Ghost Ranch, NM.	We arrive at Snyder quarry late & start digging to reach the layer of interest...
...and we are still digging come daybreak	...pause for some tape for those sore hands
		...and back to digging!
	NMMNHS preparator, Larry Rinehart, and Crystal Wilson gladly pause from working their trench.
And we are in the hole!  The trick is a clean hole...a clean hole is a happy hole.		The Major using intricate tools and decades (maybe Eras) of experience to excavate bone.
Of course there is a dog on site.  This is Major & Karen's dog, Callie.  She is asleep, not dead.	She may be dead?	Geology students happy to find a phytosaur snout.
	Crystal runs up to the disconformity between the Triassic Painted Desert Member and Quaternary Chama River colluvium.	Bone is black, as is carbonized wood charred by Triassic forest fire.
Soft sediment deformation in varigated mudstone of Painted Desert Member.
A metacarpal.	Preparing to make a plaster jacket.	Ready to move the estimated 1,000 lb. jacket.
Um, Heckert???	Back to the NMMNHS to prep bone.	Dr. Heckert ponders a clastic dike in the Permian Abo Formation on the road to the Jemez Caldera.
Dewatering flame structure in the Permian Abo Formation.
Radial columnar jointing at Battleship Rock en route to the Jemez caldera.	Who said dinosaur remains couldn't be found in volcanic rock?	Welded tuff from a Jemez eruption.  Note the flattened lapilli.
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