An Intern’s Reflections on Field Season 2022
by Daniel Dunfee, August 6 th , 2022
It seems like just yesterday that I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime when I stepped outside into the hot, dry Montana air for the first time. I came to the Elevation Science internship program with the goal of learning as much as I possibly could from the well-seasoned field crew here, but it has turned into so much more! I came with no background in vertebrate field work, but over the past seven weeks, I’ve learned how to prospect, map, expose, isolate, trench, and jacket newfound bones. I’ve really enjoyed learning how to manage an excavation project from start to finish, and getting hands-on experience has been amazing. These skills are essential for a paleontologist, and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn them from people who combined bring decades’ worth of experience in the field.
The field season has been incredibly productive, and really fun. Every week brings new people, and with them the chance to make new friends. I’ll never forget some of our participants, and I hope I’ll be able to see them again! They’ve made this field season much more meaningful, and every single one has added a new, unique element to the experience. Their passion, excitement, and humor are contagious, and fuels the staff throughout the entire season.
Of course, making new friends every week has also been bittersweet, because almost as soon as you start to get to know someone, it’s time for them to leave, and for new people to arrive. The short time that they’re with us forces us to make each and every moment count, and we do our very best to make sure that their week with us is as amazing as possible.
Jeb Bugos (Intern), Katie Hunt (Fossil Lab Manager), Skye Walker (Field Assistant), Daniel Dunfee (Intern)
PIcture by Daniel Dunfee at Yellowstone National Park
I was fortunate enough to get a visit from my fiancée and her family a few weeks ago, so I took the weekend off, and we all went to see Yellowstone National Park. That trip has been on my bucket list since I first heard of it, and even more so once I learned more about it in my undergraduate geology courses. Seeing my first bison is a moment I’ll never forget, and watching Old Faithful erupt on time was awe-inspiring. Perhaps my favorite part of that trip was the time we spent at Midway Geyser Basin, specifically at Grand Prismatic Spring. The deep blues and bright oranges are made even more brilliant by their contrast with the rock that surrounds the pools; bleak gray stone devoid of life, and not out of place if it were on the Moon. Sulfurous steam rises from the hot springs and almost totally obscures the water at times, and the effect is otherworldly in the afternoon light.
When I think back on the last seven weeks, I’m content with the knowledge that my presence here has helped other people come to know the world as it was 150 million years ago, and that I have contributed to the science that will expand and enrich that story in the years to come. As the field season comes to a close, a part of me can’t help but wish that it would never end. The thrill of discovering something that no other human being has ever seen before is beyond compare, but all things must eventually come to an end, no matter how much we may wish otherwise. As I look to the future, I have an assuredness, a confidence that has grown with every day that I have been a part of the Elevation Science field season, that I’m walking the right path in life, and that paleontology was the career meant for me. The friends I’ve made here I will see again one day, and I can only hope that we’ll share the same experience again, digging for dinosaurs in the high desert underneath the bright blue Montana sky.
Editor’s Note: We are so thankful to the David B. Jones Foundation for providing partial support for our Field Internship program. Please visit our Internships page to learn more about this program and to support our efforts to provide life-changing opportunities to future paleontologists!
