Coda: Beijing

With our data collection and preliminary research papers completed, we set out for a final weekend excursion to Beijing.  In addition to sightseeing, our trip included a visit to the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), the national paleontology museum of China. 

Danny Barta unsuspectingly steps in front of a Monolophosaurus in front of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While there, we had the opportunity to view the exhibits on fossil eggs, in which we saw some of the first Spheroolithus clutches ever described, whose characteristics contribute to the definition of the oogenus and are important for comparison with the collection of Spheroolithus eggs we’ve examined for the past few weeks at the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History.  Other interesting egg exhibits included a rare pterosaur egg with a preserved embryo, and a variety of other eggs types such as Ovaloolithus and Dictyoolithus, known only from Asia.

We were all grateful for the opportunity to visit several important cultural sites within and around Beijing.  Taken individually or collectively, their scale is overwhelming.  Tiananmen Square’s vast expanse, the hushed silence and well-guarded peace of the Mao Zedong Mausoleum, the intricacies of Ming and Qing Dynasties’ imperial architecture at the Forbidden City, and finally, the dizzying heights of the Great Wall at Badaling swathed equally in smooth stone, gregarious tourists, and late afternoon mist.  On a culinary note, the delicious fried scorpions sold at the night market were not to be missed, either.

The entrance to the Forbidden City. (Photo by Christian Heck).

The Great Wall rises and fades into the fog-covered mountains. (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A full blog post could probably be written about each of these sites and more, but perhaps it is sufficient to reflect on the collective experience of the group’s visit to Beijing.  China’s capital is where history has a prominent place in the here and now, whether one tours a meticulously preserved symbol of imperial supremacy or simply walks back to the hotel along a hutong side street – neighborhoods that remained essentially unchanged as waves of social and political upheaval crashed around them.  Visiting Beijing is a singular look at a modern Chinese city at once coming to terms with its past and lifting itself toward a future of its own unique making. 

The hutong side streets buzzing with activity in the morning. (Photo by Christian Heck).

Persevering through a whirlwind pace and near 100-degree temperatures in Beijing, the group has arrived at the end of its Chinese journey.  However, our studies of dinosaur reproductive biology will continue at our home colleges and universities.  We leave excited about what the museum and field data gathered this trip might reveal.  As scientific collaboration between our countries grows, there has never been a more exciting time for students like us to travel to China. Though this is the last blog post, we continue to appreciate reader comments and questions, and will endeavor to respond quickly. We look forward to seeing friends and loved ones again soon!  Thank you again to the National Science Foundation, Drs. David Varricchio and Frankie Jackson, and the staff of the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History!

Zaijian for now,

Blog post by Danny Barta

 

Down the rabbit hole we go

The research team with students from Zhejiang University at the Geo-park. (Photo by Hannah Wilson).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction, methods, results, conclusions. These are the subjects that will form our paper. The introduction provides background information on the subject and introduces the reader to our study. The methods and results, well, that’s self-explanatory. That brings us to conclusions. Conclusions (or Discussion depending on which you prefer…and sometimes they are split into two sections!) are where we have to make sense of it all. This may seem like an easy task at first, because the results should show us all we need to know right? Nope. Let’s take Hannah’s and my project as an example. We start off with results on the compression of eggs. Easy enough. This is followed by possible explanations for the compaction the eggs seemed to suffer through. This is where one can get lost going deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. Sediment overlay, transport, micro-faults, etc., etc. could be explanations for the compaction. Then we have to figure out if there is a way to arrange the clutch back to its original orientation. But what if the eggs were laid in a hole? What if they were transported prior to compaction? What if they were hatched, and how does that affect amount of compaction? What if a disgruntled dinosaur merely stepped on all of them? We have to consider everything when reconstructing the taphonomic histories of these eggs.

Dr. David Varricchio (Photo by Christian Heck).

One of the most important areas of research is the use of field observations and their incorporation within the study. We were lucky enough to be presented with specimens collected with proper stratigraphic data and in-situ orientation (remember those things from a few posts ago?). Although it’s only two specimens, they are of immense importance in our study. They could essentially raise our results to another level or tear down the foundation of our study. For our project on orientation, the specimens arose to the occasion and supported our data. True results and conclusions will have to wait until data from other groups is collected. Anita Moore-Nall’s research on reduction spots can provide further support for our results and Ian Underwood’s work on eggshell thickness variation is useful as well. The Hatching Window team’s research on defining a window has implications for level of compaction. Ian’s eggshell thickness studies could explain locations of hatching windows. Anita’s research could provide an explanation for eggshell thinning. Danny’s cladistics studies places all of our work within a framework of phylogenetics. We came to China as a group, split into teams, researched, measured different aspects of eggs, and at the end, all of our team studies will come together to help the entire group. That is what collaboration is all about. 

Shengxiao Gu (Photo by Hannah Wilson).

The excel sheets have been saved, citations have been found, calipers put away, specimens returned to collections, samples taken, goodbyes have been said, and bags packed. We’ve spent three weeks in Hangzhou calling the museum our home (and the hotel our second home). A week of rain, bugs, and fieldwork out in Tiantai and Dongyang gave everyone a glimpse of fieldwork. We’ve traveled through larger-than-life cities such as Shanghai (and soon Beijing) to small agriculture towns for fieldwork. Culture shock came and went, and we’re all better for our experiences here. We cannot even begin to express the appropriate amount of thanks to the entire museum staff and everyone who helped us here, but we’ll try. Thank you to Wenjie Zheng, Xiuti Li, and Shengxiao Gu for all of the help they provided us at the museum, dinners, and out in the field. We never would have survived without their patience and kindness. Thank you to Dr. Jin for allowing us to come to the museum to handle and study these amazing specimens. Thank you to all of the museum staff here for their help in every aspect of our work. A special thank you goes Li Ping Wong for being our amazing driver. As a group we would also like to thank Dr. David Varricchio for constantly pushing us in the right direction, for editing our papers, and for showing us around China among many other things. Thank you to past research groups for leaving us with data, descriptions, and a solid base of work with which to build upon. Thank you to Dr. Frankie Jackson and, again, Dr. Varricchio for selecting us for this research opportunity. Thank you to Evelyn and Bora for their great work on the blog posts! Most importantly, we would like to thank the National Science Foundation for giving us this amazing chance at hands-on research and cultural experience. Lastly, I would like to thank all of the group members for being extremely nice, outgoing, and workaholics. None of us would have gotten anywhere without each other’s positive re-enforcement, critiques, and scientific discussions.

Wenjie Zheng (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All that’s left now is a three-day stint in Beijing before heading back to Montana to continue our research and re-acclimate to life in the western world.

Christian Heck, Xiuti Li and Hannah Wilson, from left. (Photo by Danny Barta).

 

Our amazing driver, Wong. (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

 

Blog Post by Christian Heck

           

 

Halfway

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Ni Hao! We just hit the halfway mark of our time in China! The past few days have been spent in the Tiantai Basin, about two hours away from our “home base” of Hangzhou, where the Zhejiang Museum is located. Today was our fifth day of fieldwork, and the third site visited looking for dinosaur eggs, bones, trace fossils, and measuring sections of strata.

Anital Moore-Nall and Ian Underwood. (Photo by Christian Heck.)

Eggs found on previous trips were photographed and documented, and some fragments were collected for later analysis. Lots of GPS location numbers were recorded so future teams could return to the good spots we have found so far.

Our days have been beginning at around 7:30 a.m. (which is 5:30 p.m. the previous day Montana time), giving us enough time to Skype friends and family, eat breakfast, and board the van that transports us to our field sites. We spend the morning starting strata section measurements and prospecting until lunch around 11:30 a.m.

Taking strata section measurements and prospecting. (Photo by Christian Heck.)

We’ve been eating at “fast food” places where we’re given metal trays and get to pick out from a street vendor different dishes of potatoes, vegetables, rice, and tofu to eat in a tiny hole-in-the-wall dining area. Around 12:30 p.m.  or so we head back to the field, refill our water bottles at the van, and spend the rest of the day tromping through crazy bushes looking for bones and eggshell.

Looking for bones and eggshell. (Photo by Christian Heck.)

By the end of the day we’re very hungry and sweaty, and usually don’t have much time to change before our 6 p.m. dinner, which we devour before passing out in our rock-hard beds.

Almost everyone has found something so far during our time in the field. Danny found isolated fragments the first day in “Graveyard Hills,”

Taking a close look in the “Graveyard Hills.” (Photo by Christian Heck.)

the first site we visited in the Tiantai Basin, and on the second day both he and Heather each found two more eggs! Anita was the first person to find bone on our trip, so that was exciting for everyone. Paul and Michael have found lots of trace fossils, like pupa cases, worm burrows, or root systems, which provide us with valuable information about the paleo-environment. I (Hannah) found some more bone fragments yesterday along with Wenjie, one of our Chinese colleagues from the museum, and today Christian found a big chunk of eggshell on the roadcut we were working on “behind the beer factory,” just a few minutes down the road from our hotel. The others have made huge contributions by putting those finds in context with their strata section measurements.

We found a big chunk of eggshell on the roadcut we were working on “behind the beer factory,” just a few minutes down the road from our hotel. (Photo by Christian Heck.)

The weather has been great – it rained for most of the first day in the field (Saturday), and a bit more today, but other than that we all have the sunburns to prove the weather’s been very nice. We leave Tiantai Basin tomorrow to explore another rich site of eggs – Dongyong Basin, which is a two-hour drive away. We’re very excited about visiting these two locations on our trip because most of the eggs we’ve been ogling in the basement of the Zhejiang Museum the past few weeks have come from Tiantai and Dongyang, and it is very neat to view them in their original field context rather than in plastic tubs in the dark collections room of the museum.

Blog post by Hannah Wilson. 

Tiantai and fieldwork in the rain

We left for Tiantai Basin yesterday from Hangzhou. It was difficult to leave for fieldwork as we had just got into a rhythm working at the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, but a pleasant reprieve from the labors of working within doors none-the-less. Before we arrived at the hotel, we stopped and had lunch with our colleagues as well as the director of the museum in Tiantai. As is customary in Chinese culture, we were treated as honored guest, and enjoyed a delicious meal merry with conversation and smiles despite whatever language barriers had separated us. We took the liberty of visiting the Tiantai museum after our lunch and found ourselves in a wonderful museum full of paintings and dinosaurs.

Danny Barta admires the dinosaurs showcased in the Tiantai Museum. (Photo by Christian Heck)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hotel and the city of Tiantai as a whole are a stark difference between what we had grown accustomed to by visiting Shanghai and then Hangzhou. Tiantai has a more rural feel to it and although bustling and full of people, lacks the industrial and “big city” feel that we had seen in our visits thus far through China.

Tiantiai from our viewpoint at lunch. (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I were to choose only one word to describe the setting as I sit and write this blog, peaceful would sum everything up and then more. Surrounded by lush greenery, with forested tropical hills rising around the outskirts, Tiantai truly sits within a basin and is a mish mash of industrial growth and a city still trying to catch up to modern times. New construction is rampant throughout the city, but single lane cobble roads with merchants packed on either side are to be found in the city’s heart. The mall we had visited was fashioned in the same way, with vendor after vendor peddling shoes and clothes in stalls stacked one after the other separated by a pathway that two could barely walk abreast. Our hotel sits a short walk from the bustling downtown area and yet seems separated by miles. A small creek flows below the backside of our window and along the other bank small garden plots are tended in sequencing order where the steep hill has been flattened into steps along the bank. 

Our view of Tiantai from our field site. (Photo by Christian Heck).

We visited our first site in the field today, driving along dirt roads that were barely wide enough for the vehicle which we took. The site was named “The Graveyard Site” as it was located within hills that were dotted sporadically with shrines and graves. It had rained the previous evening (and probably earlier that morning) and the ground was muddy as well as the hillside, making our work somewhat difficult. And it was not the last rain we were to encounter, all throughout the day showers would follow us, starting with a soft mist and slowly turning more steadily into a rain.

Despite the rain’s best efforts, the research team refuses to quit. (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

We spent the day working within groups with different objectives. Two worked on measuring stratigraphic sections, while a third mapped and described the egg clutches that had been discovered on previous treks. Measuring stratigraphic sections is mapping the position and angles of sedimentary beds as well as correlating them to the topography of the surrounding area.

Anita Moore-Nall, left, and Ian Underwood take a seat to interpret the geologic settings around them. (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were lucky enough to find a few new egg specimens as well as enjoy the day working outside despite however wet and muddy we all got scrambling along the hillsides. 

Blog post by Ian Underwood

Lessons from these eggs may help us understand other fossils

I am pursuing a small project examining the relationship of deformation in reduction spots and deformation present in clutches of eggs to gain some insight to the taphonomic history of the samples. Many of the eggs exhibit “compression” ridges, which I am referring to as a feature that is preserved generally along the prolate or the long axis of the eggs. Reduction spots are spherical areas exhibiting a different, usually lighter color in a rock that have the same physical properties as the host, and thus measure the bulk strain of the rock. They are common within continental red beds in the geological record and have been used as strain indicators by structural geologists. Most dinosaur eggs are preserved in this type of deposit so this type of study may be helpful in other fossil studies. If the compression ridges line up or correspond with the changes in the shapes of the reduction spots then some overall interpretation as to the direction and percent of stress applied to both the egg and the spots might be inferred.  The analysis may give some indication of a change in shape related to the percent strain associated with the rocks as interpreted by the amount of strain indicated by deformed reduction spots. The overall direction of maximum/minimum stress may help support the up and down determination of the egg or show the direction of a stress event which has influenced the shape of the preserved egg.   The overall shape of a fossilized egg is a result of the taphonomic history of the egg.

Blog post by Anita Moore-Nall

Building on a solid base of data regarding eggshell thickness

Ian Underwood takes a hand lens to a spheroolithid eggshell. (Photo by Christian Heck).

The 2010 and 2011 research teams have both built a solid base of data for eggshell thickness throughout the egg. Our project aim is to build a framework for analyzing this data and organizing it in a way to compare various regions of the egg. Our first step is to organize the actual data left from past research teams and become familiar with how and where the measurements were made. Upon organizing the data, we will construct a method for dividing the egg into sectors in order to compare the eggshell thickness of these sectors. There are various difficulties to this project, mostly from interpreting past research. The other obstacle comes from the sectors of the egg. We obviously can’t draw on the egg, so we are attempting to use a computer program to apply a grid to a photo of the egg. Using the grid/photo and past data we can assess how eggshell thickness changes. Of course, we are basing our radial sectors around the compression ridge (when present) so our data could be misinterpreted. We are currently working on a solution to this obstacle, and a way to correlate measurements across the specimens that aren’t crushed.

Blog post by Team Strider: Ian Underwood and Paul Germano 

Ian Underwood and Paul Germano work like a well-oiled machine, taking measurements and documentation. (Photo by Christian Heck).

Using taphonomy to further understand clutch arrangement

Hannah Wilson carts off one of the many boxes of eggs that were examined. (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we get started we’re going to explain to you some basic terms pertinent to our research project:

Taphonomy: Essentially, the processes that affect an organism, eggshell, etc before fossilization. A popular way of phrasing it is the processes that act from “death to discovery.”

Clutch: A grouping of eggs that typically represent a batch from the same individual (barring any nest parasitism, communal nests, etc).

Matrix: The sediment that surrounds the specimen.

Compression ridge: A ridge that generally defines the plane at which compression took place.

A spheroolithid egg shows a clear compression ridge. (Photo by Christian Heck).

So now that we powered through that short lesson, you will hopefully better comprehend our research.

A majority of the dinosaur eggs that are found in the collections of the Zhejiang Natural History Museum exhibit a similar pattern of crushing. This crushing pattern isn’t just found in clutches but also in individual eggs. The project we’ve been working on focuses on this crushing in hopes of understanding when it occurred, as well as the effects it had on clutch arrangement in a nest of dinosaur eggs.

As the research groups of past years have explained, the way specimens are obtained in China is very different than in the States. In the U.S., we generally have huge swaths of land that are dry and clear of vegetation (think badlands), whereas here in the Zhejiang Province the ground is either covered in vegetation, farmlands, or buildings. The farmlands provide little patches of ground to prospect, but farmers generally find these first. The museum then obtains fossils from farmers, construction sites, individuals without any reference to where the fossil was found. The fossil itself is important, but just as important is the locational data from where it was recovered. Without stratigraphic data to accompany it the fossil doesn’t provide much as far as research goes.

Because farmers who find the dinosaur eggs are compensated for their finds, the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History in Hangzhou has a massive collection of fossilized eggs, and many lack that necessary stratigraphic data. In our project, we are asking whether or not there is a way to theoretically connect these eggs to one another. Now, this isn’t to say that we can definitively say that all of these eggs were once in the same plane as one another. It’s more of a way of projecting that perhaps the same type of event acted upon these eggs. So we will be going through egg clutches first, measuring the angle at which the crushing plane occurs in relationship to an arbitrary horizontal (since we are comparing the angles of each egg in a clutch, the horizontal can be arbitrary as long as it is consistently used for every egg in a clutch). We are also utilizing some geologic methods to measure the angle, or dip, and the strike of the plane of compression. Using these measurements, we hope to be able to analyze the eggs in each clutch in relation to one another.

Christian Heck measures the dip of the crushing plane.

Our second pathway to our goal of understanding the effects of taphonomic crushing is mostly through individual eggs. The collections room has hundreds of individual eggs, some with that same ol’ crushing plane. So we are setting off to determine if the similar crushing force occurs across these compressed eggs by taking a ratio of the crushed side height to the non-crushed height. That means lots of measurements on lots of eggs.

There are many challenges to this project outside of keeping our sanity as we measure eggs for eight straight hours a day. Many of the individual eggs are fragmented to the point where we can’t use them or matrix covers too much of the egg, and Christian can get grouchy if he doesn’t have snacks and the perfect background music. Despite these issues, we are confident that we can obtain some great data from these methods and look forward to sharing them with you.

Hannah Wilson analyzes the data gathered from a clutch of eggs. (Photo by Christian Heck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog post by Christian Heck and Hannah Wilson

Hannah Wilson and Christian Heck (Photo by Anita Moore-Nall).