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<h4> Medora Dig, June 2021</h4>
<p class="main2">Getting out to Medora in June was exciting. The 5-minute sprint in the Minneapolis airport from my arrival gate to the departure gate to catch my connecting flight was unexpected. The 2-hour drive from Bismarck straight out West on I-94, however, was nice. I had a chance to see the landscape with the country-western station playing.</p>
<img src="images/MedoraDig_IMG_3364.jpg" width="960" height="720" border="0" alt="Westbound on I-94"><br>
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<p class="main2">Just before I got to the town of Medora, I stopped at Painted Canyon, in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Quiet and blue sky.</p>
<img src="images/MedoraDig_IIMG_3376.jpg" width="960" height="720" border="0" alt="Painted Canyon"><br>
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<p class="main2">The dig site is an open area that's been cleared down to the fossil layer, so volunteers can dig with picks and trowels.</p>
<img src="images/MedoraDig_IMG3388.png" width="960" height="540" border="0" alt="Medora dig site"><br>
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<p class="main2">I learned that the fossils at Medora are from the <a href="Paleocene.html" target="_blank">Paleocene Epoch</a>, about 60 million years old. This is <I>after</I> the dinosaurs died out at the end of the Cretaceous period. So the fossils tend to be smaller - no Tyrannosaur bones, etc.</p>
<p class="main2">But you do find some cool stuff! Here's a tooth, and a gastralium bone, possibly from a <a href="champosaur.html" target="_blank">champosaur</a>.</p>
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<TD ><img src="images/MedoraDig_IMG3418.png" width="480" height="640" border="0" alt="Paleocene tooth">
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<TD ><img src="images/MedoraDig_IMG3421.png" width="480" height="640" border="0" alt="stomach bone">
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<p class="main2">The person digging next to me found a <a href="humerus.html" target="_blank">humerus</a> (upper arm bone) from a champosaur.</p>
<img src="images/MedoraDig_3426.png" width="960" height="542" border="0" alt="Humerus"><br>
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<p class="main2">I had a great time, and am tremendously impressed with the hard work, dedication, and sense of humor of the staff from the Museum!</p>
<img src="images/MedoraDig_3440.png" width="960" height="758" border="0" alt="Dig staff Medora"><br>
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<p class="main2">And by the way, if you are in Medora, you MUST go to the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame.</p>
<img src="images/CowboyHOF-960.jpg" width="960" height="720" border="0" alt="Cowboy Hall of Fame"><br>
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