Welcome to the Dallas Paleo Website

Dino Feathers

Our meeting, September 11th, at the Brookhaven College Geotechnology Institute (Building H) of Brookhaven College (3939 Valley View Lane, Farmers Branch) was our regular monthly meeting.  Hillary Cepress-McLean, Fossil Lab Manager of the Perot Museum, spoke on “Where are those feathers!?  A look at dinosaurs and how they are portrayed in popular culture and art”.  Every kid is familiar with how famous dinosaurs like T. rex and Triceratops are supposed to look like, but questioned how accurate are they really?  Hillary discussed the pop culture portrayals of dinosaurs and how this affects paleontology as a whole. 

Hillary earned her BS degree in Biology from Metropolitan State University in Denver, where she also volunteered for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  She performed field work in several dinosaur-bearing formations of the Rocky Mountains and prepared Late Cretaceous dinosaur and Cenozoic mammal fossils.  Hillary then went to Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, where she is working on her MS degree under Dr. Laura Wilson.

DPS meetings are free and open to the public. We hope you came this month!

The holotype of Microraptor gui, IVPP V 13352 under normal light, showing preserved feathers (white arrows) and the 'halo' around the specimen where feathers appear to be absent (black arrows). Scale bar is 5 cm.  From Hone, Tischlinger, Xu, and Zhang (2010) The Extent of the Preserved Feathers on the Four-Winged Dinosaur Microraptor gui under Ultraviolet Light. PLoS ONE 5(2): e9223. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009223

Recent DPS Field Trip and  Photos

OLIVER CREEK FT WRAPUP – by Roger Farish

Don’t know how many people showed up, but it had to be enough to fill the 52 cars that trekked out to the creek. When I showed up at ‘the horse’ there were 50+ people standing around and I said, “Are you folks crazy? Don’t you know it’s supposed to be over 100F today?” They all laughed and indicated they were ready to go.

The day started perfectly with the DPS Executive Committee being treated to a gourmet breakfast at the new home of Mercer and Donna Brugler just a mile or so east of Justin. A huge thanks to them for this gesture. The meeting place at the Justin Boot Outlet was under construction.  I did give my usual Oxytropidoceras repetitive chant and provided a handout and collecting buckets for everyone.

The gracious landowners had mowed our parking area and turned off their electric fences. Many thanks to their son, Jimmy Williams, in his ATV guiding us around the property. The DPS provided soft drinks, water and watermelon.

Families took us at out word of being family friendly and turned out in force with a number of kids tearing up and down the creek.  I was asked, “Will I really find an ammonite?” Virtually everyone who was at all diligent found at least one take-home Oxy, some a half dozen or more. Everyone found many examples of the echinoid, Epiaster whitei.

 Trisha Lana found not one but two ammonites very different from the plentiful Oxys. One appears to be an Engonoceras and the other is a thick ammonite with a series of nodes on the surface (see photo). One fellow found a nice Oxy in matrix with a complete keel preserved. The Texoma Rockhounds sent four collectors with Chris Hartityson (?) finding the regular echinoid shown below which could be a Phymosoid of some sort or Loriolia. Danny Roberts found a well-preserved fish in matrix. Sandy and Alex Schneider found two Oxys with just basic tools. We were glad to see at least half dozen Perot volunteers also seemed to get their money’s worth. The East Texas Gem and Mineral Club was also represented.

We had limited access to the west end of the creek and found more of the same, but the heat eventually drove us out.

Anyone needing a digital copy of the handout, please let me know – rffarish@verizon.net.