Thursday, May 29, 2008

Missing You

Last summer, I did some surveying with a woman named Steph. Besides finding fossils, Steph was focused on getting as much area done as possible. She surveyed very, very fast, so that I was sure that she couldn't possibly have been getting everything. I brought this to the attention of our supervisor and was told that she didn't think that Steph was going too fast. Having been either chewed out or brushed off when ever I brought it up, I just dropped the subject. As a consiquence though, in an area that we nick-named Valley of the Birds, we apparently missed what is possibly the most significant bonebed ever found in this particular formation. The way that it was found was that last week my supervisor and the lead paleontologist for the company were out mapping the geology of the area on their own time and litterally stumbled upon it. It's bee described to me as so obvious and extensive that there is no way that we could have missed it if we had actually looked at those rocks. As a result, I feel bad for having let myself be pressured into going faster than I thouht was adequate for the survey and my supervisor feels bad for having not taken my complaints seriously. We're now planning on going back and resurveying areas that were previously done by only Steph and I so that we can correct for her influence over the results.