Greetings,
Today I joined the Nevada Friends of Paleontology (aka NFOP) on a trip to Fossil Ridge in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge.  The trip was lead by Dr. Steve Rowland and for once it didn't end in a death march.  Steve took us to a site covered by Ordovician Gastropods (snails), receptaculitids (nobody has a clue what they were - best guess is that they're some type of invertebrate animal that has no modern relatives) and a small number of cephalopods (orthocones - squid in a shell).  Because the site was controlled by the US Fish and Game Department we were not able to collect anything (it would have been hard to collect without explosives - almost all the fossils were in giant multi-ton slabs of rock).  Below are some photos of our trip to the site:

This first one is Steve showing us the fossils with me in the foreground.  It was taken by my friend Rhonda, a Geology student at UNLV.  Luckily she got my good side.


 

Here's a shot of some of the fossils.  In this shot you can see some of the snails.  The long somewhat pointed fossil below the quarter is probably an orthocone and there is one small example of the receptaculitids about three inches to the right of the quarter.



We also wondered around the Wildlife Refuge.  Except for some birds and two schnauzers the only wildlife we saw were these gigantic mutant tadpoles.  When these things are full grown the frogs they become are going to be huge.



It was a pretty short trip, but still informative and fun.  And it was the first warm day we've had here in Vegas for quite some time.

My next event will be at the Valley of Fire State Park on the 7th of March.  I'll be doing a new show called "Dinosaurs of the Valley of Fire."  It's a special show about the recent dinosaur finds in the park.  Should be fun.  Check the shedule page of www.capndavedinosaurs.com for more details.
Talk to you later.
 
Dave

Hi,

Last night I attended the Nevada Friends of Paleontology/Geological Society of Nevada 2nd Annual Joint Holiday Party.  I really enjoy being around folks who share my interest in paleontology.  Many of  the members are PhD Paleontologists and Grad Student Paleontologists.  So being a membe of NFOP enables me to hob knob with the folks who are doing the real research in my favorite subjects. 

The guest speaker was Frankie Jackson, PhD, Researcher at Montana State University-Bozeman.  She spoke about her studies on dinosaur eggs and dino babies.  It was a fascinating lecture.  In a nutshell theropods (meat-eating dinos) laid eggs like their modern relatives, birds (which many paleontologists feel are a type of theropod dinosaur themselves).  The big sauropods (long-necked plant eaters) laid their eggs like crocodiles and other reptiles.

If you've never been to a Paleontologist/Geologist party it's kind of like attending a Star Trek convention with some differences.  No phasers.  Lots of rocks.  No fat guy wearing his skin-tight Cmdr Riker costume.  Lots of t-shirts (I was the only one wearing a tie -it had a brachiosaurus on it).  No Klingon spoken.  A smattering of Latin and Greek is spoken.  Trekkies drink Tranya.  Paleontologists & Geologists drink LOTS of beer.

On another note:  I am probably going to set up a blog via my website in the next month or so.  Anybody can look at this MySpace blog, but only my MySpace friends can comment.  I'll let you know when that happens.

On yet another note:  I now have a facebook page.  Go to www.facebook.com, set up a page and search for Dave Eisenstein and/or Cap'n Dave. 

Keep looking at www.capndavedinosaurs.com for more info on what I'm doing next.

Hi,

I spent part of today at the Las Vegas Pet Expo.  I wasn't there as an exhibitor (but I may try my hand at it next year), but simply as an attendee.  I love animals and I'm always on the lookout for a new treat or toy for my furry pal, MacLeod.

I saw some interesting things today:

1.  Hooters had a booth.  They did a tie-in with a Spay & Nueter (Nooters) organization.  It was odd to see hot Hooters Girls wondering around, but it is Vegas and being a guy it definately didn't bother me.

2.  Tillman, the famous skateboarding bulldog was present.  Here's his photo if you've never seen him:

3.  There were some dancing Grannies in mini-skirts.  Shudder.

4.  Gregory Popovich, of the Popovich Comedy Pet Theater did a little show.  He's a Russian circus performer who moved to the USA (good choice, my grandparents were from Russia and they said it sucked) and now has a show here in Vegas.  The highpoint of his show is that he uses trained rescued dogs and cats to do tricks.  It's pretty impressive that he's able to get cats and dachshunds to anything on command.

5.  MacLeod almost got a new friend.  A group called Purrfect Friends (www.catadoptionslasvegas.com) had a bunch of very friendly rescued cats for adoption. 

But the Super Duper Highlight of the day was meeting one of my MySpace friends Las Vegas Magician, Animal Trainer, Entertainer and Reptile Rescuer Maria Gara, aka The SnakeBabe.  Besides her sexy magic and animal shows Maria also helps run, with her magician husband Steve, Reptile Rescue (www.reptilerescue.com).  They take care of unwanted creepy-crawlies, reptiles and other exotic animals and give them a good home.  The couple also do educational presentations at schools, museums, special events and birthday parties (I don't consider them competition.  My reptiles are all dead.  Their's are all alive, so there's a difference in what we do.  Also Maria is A LOT better looking than I am.).

Here's a shot of Maria and her husband:

And here's a rare hatless photo of me with Maria's 80-pound albine python (not a bad photo of me if I do say so myself):

Maria & Steve do a lot of good work out there taking care of animals that most folks wouldn't and I hope I get to see more of them in the future.

Keep checking www.capndavedinosaurs.com for more info.

Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Dave

Hi,

First of all I'd like to congratulate Barack Obama for his historic win.  He shows the greatness of the incredible country that a man of his background could become the president of the United States.  Nowhere else in the world could this happen.  He ran one of the best campaigns I have ever seen.  He's inspired millions.  As most of you know I am pretty conservative politically (I voted for McCain) and I don't agree with President-Elect Obama on many issues, but as of the 20th of January, 2009 he's my president and I hope he's successful and wish him well.

As a conservative usually when some group wants to preserve some area from development I give a shudder.  Many of these groups are simply NIMBYs or worse.  But there's a push afoot here in Vegas that I'm behind 100%.  A group called Protectors of Tule Springs ( www.tulespringslv.com) is working with the United States Air Force to keep a large tract of land north of Las Vegas free from development.  POTS wants to keep the land open to preserve over 9000 Ice-age fossils that have been found in the area and eventually set up a Paleontological museum and research station in the park.  The USAF wants the land to be undeveloped to ensure a safe route to the gigantic Nellis Bomb range.  The Air Force doesn't want to endanger residents by overflying their homes with fighter planes carrying live bombs.

Here in the Vegas Valley we have almost infinite open land for development.  If we close off the Tule Springs area there will be no adverse effect to our population growth or economy.  If you live in the Las Vegas area and love national security and paleontology (hey, that's me!) then put your support behind POTS.  Here's an article from the Las Vegas Review Journal on POTS and their work:  http://www.lvrj.com/news/34511264.html.

Keep checking my website, www.capndavedinosaurs.com to see where I'll be next.  Don't have any lectures scheduled in the near future, but it looks like I'll be going to St. George, UT again very soon.

Dave

When will I ever learn?  Today I joined the Nevada Friends of Paleontology on a search for Miocene (about 15,000,000 years old) mammal and bird tracks.  The trip was hosted by Dr. Steve Rowland of UNLV.  Steve is known for his death marches and thinking that 2 1/2 miles is really 1/2 mile.

The notice from NFOP said this about the travel conditions:

"We'll be driving on unpaved roads within the national recreation area. High-clearance vehicles are recommended, but these roads are normally in pretty good shape."

What that really means in NFOPese is that you'll need a HUM-VEE and a CH-47 heavy lift helicopter to get to the track sites.  I was driving one of the "High-clearance" vehicles, my 2007 Nissan Frontier, aka the Cap'n Dave Mobile.  Much of the first "road" we took was deep sand and VERY large rocks.  I got stuck twice (sorry, I didn't take any photos.  I was too busy digging out my truck).  Good thing somebody brought a tow rope.  Another truck also got stuck and that same truck later lost traction a bumped a large rock.  I would like to thank the fine engineers at Nissan for building me such a great truck.  It wasn't designed for off-roading, but it came through without a problem.  I don't think I'd be saying that if I drove a Ford.

Once we arrived at the first site Steve showed us some camel tracks.  They were pretty cool.  The Miocene camels were about the same size as the critters we have today.  We also discovered something really neat.  At some earlier date before the camels walked through the mud some birds had be walking there.  Here's a photo (the bird tracks are above the camel tracks - see if you can spot them - think of it as "Where's Waldo?"):

And please, no juvenile jokes about camel toes.  There are children watching.

We then did some more driving (and more towing of the Two-wheel drive vehicles) and stopped to look at some bird tracks.  Here they are (look, one of the birds dropped a penny):

Our troup then headed to some sites where we hoped to find canid (doggie), feline (kitty) and large avian (big birdie) tracks, but it had been years since Steve had been there and we couldn't find them so we called it a day.

Now to make matters worse I was slightly hung-over.  I had attended a really good Halloween party the night prior.  I went as a Hawaiian beach bum - I already had the shirt.  At the party I drank too much.  I flirted with the ladies.  I put out a fire.  All in all a successful party.

And even with the travel problems the paleontology was pretty good too.

Keep checking www.capndavedinosaurs.com for more info.

Dave