A group of Nease High School students had the chance of a lifetime this summer as they made a trip out to the Badlands of Montana to dig for dinosaur bones.
The trip was made possible through the Nease paleo club and Paleo School, which is a national program and an extension of Adventure 360, designed to present high school students with unique opportunities.
The students spent a week in Montana and not just searched for fossils, but were involved in the entire process, including locating, digging them up and dressing them so that they could be preserved for transport.
“This group is going to now have those lifelong memories and connections that were created on the trip for the rest of their life,” teacher Kevi Lay said.
There are a lot of clubs and organizations, but to be able to provide them with field level experience is something Lay, who oversees the club, acknowledges as the most important aspect.
“Just the networking and the opportunities it gives the students is great,” Lay said. “As a teacher you have these grand ideas, but then when a group of students just go out and surpass your expectations and your vision is awesome.”
Students were credited with any fossils they found during the trip, including given the chance to name their fossil for documentation purposes, which allowed them to really be creative and put their unique stamp on it.
One of the memorable finds was a portion of a Triceratops jawbone that still had the teeth in it.
“Lara (Sgouridis) and I found it on the first day and we named him ‘Tony F. Gunk,’” junior Iva Koytchev chuckled.
The fact that such a rare find came on the first day was a huge deal within the group and really got the week off on the right foot, according to Lay.
“It is truly a legacy, when you can find a fossil that no human eyes have ever seen until now,” Lay said. “It is quite special and a real beautiful thing.”
Each day presented its own challenge, as not only did they have to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes and quicksand, but they also battled scorching conditions and the summer heat.
“Every day I was just so ready to get back to the hotel and get cleaned up, but now looking back, I really wish I had cherished the last couple hours a little more,” Koytchev said.
According to junior Lara Sgouridis, the landscape of the Badlands was amazing to see and one of the things she’ll remember from the trip, as well as their jawbone find.
“I had only ever been on the East Coast, so seeing landscape like that was something entirely new for me,” Sgouridis said. “It was just so different.”
When searching in the desert for fossils, things tend to look the same, but there were several signs they learned to look for to indicate a fossil, one of the more interesting techniques is to lick it to decide whether it is a fossil or a rock, according to sophomore Charlotte Breton.
“If it sticks to your tongue, it’s a fossil,” junior Rylee Compton said.
Some in the group had been with the Nease paleo club throughout the year, while others joined late and in some cases the trip was the first time they were meeting or getting to know the others in the club.
However, by the end of the week the bonds they had grown spending a week together searching for dinosaur fossils in the desert were very evident.
It was the third time Kendra Lay had gone on the trip, and this time was just as unique and memorable as the last two summers.
“There’s always something new and amazing to find out there,” Kendra Lay said. “Part of the trip is the people who are there with you and a part of the town that you’re staying in. I hadn’t met some of these girls until the airport, but we all just clicked from day one.”
