Dino Blog

Still trying to find something fun and extraordinary to do with your family this summer?  Take them on a road trip and journey to the geographic heart of our nation in South Dakota.  Join us for a day of dinosaur digging in Faith, see a rodeo in Belle Fourche and then head to Mount Rushmore for Fourth of July fireworks and festivities.  You’ll never tire of things to do in South Dakota so register today while there are still digging days left!

2010 Dig Days:

July 2 – SOLD OUT!

July 3 – 12 spots left

July 5 - 4 spots left

July 6 – 6 spots left

July 7 – 9 spots left

July 8 – 6 spots left

Click here for more information.

Click here to register.  Hope to see you soon!

Give your family the perfect holiday gift and register them for a Family Dinosaur Dig next summer!  Roll up your shirt sleeves and dig into the South Dakota Badlands while under the supervision of The Children’s Museum’s paleontologists and staff.  Register for one day or more than one!This is a fantastic way for families to spend quality time while digging for 65 million-year-old dinosaur fossils in Faith, SD.  These digging adventures may be enjoyed by children 8 and up, parents, and grandparents!

Dig Dates are July 2, 3, 5, 6 7, or 8, 2010
8 a.m.–4 p.m.
Fee: $125 per member, $155 per nonmember

Costs are per person per day and include lunch at the ranch and transportation to and from the hotel to the dig site. Recommended for families with children ages 8 and above.

Click here to register your family for our 2010 Dinosaur Dig!

For more information about our Family Day Digs visit our Dinosphere website or email us at dinodigs@childrensmuseum.org.

This just in…

2010 Dig Dates and Prices have arrived and open registration is just around the corner!

The Dates: July 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 & 8

The Prices: $125 per member; $155 per non-member

What it includes: Transportation from the hotel to the dig site and back, lunch at the ranch, an on-site EMT, a covered dig site, a maximum of 16 diggers at the site, 4-5 museum staff and paleontologists to guide you on your digging adventure, and memories to last a life time!

When/How to register: Open registration begins on Friday, November 27, 2009.  Visit the The Children’s Museum website or call 317.334.4000 to register your family for one or more digging days.  These digs make the perfect holiday gift!

Contact us at dinodigs@childrensmuseum.org with any questions.

Enjoy a behind the scenes look at our Paleo Prep Lab!

Calling all diggers!  We’re looking forward to hosting the 2009 Dig Reunion for families and teachers! so here’s the scoop…

When:

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Where:

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

Paleo Prep Lab and SicencePort

What:

Visit your Cretaceous Finds!

Bring in a disk of your digging photos that we can add to a shared photo file.

Tour the Paleo Lab and say ‘Hi’ to your favorite Paleo guys – Dallas and William.

Check out our new Dino Investigation in SciencePort.

Explore the museum from top to bottom.

RSVP to:  dinodigs@childrensmuseum.org

After the families and teachers have finished their digs, Dallas and William leave no exposed bone behind.  As a result, they usually have to stay for several days after everyone else has left, and continue to excavate all of the bones that were uncovered in the previous weeks’ digs.  This often leads to even more discoveries so on their last day of digging, Dallas and William uncovered 2 femora, 2 humeri, 1 scapula and 2 ribs!

When it was all said and done, the guys headed back to The Children’s Museum with 162 bones to be worked on and researched back in the lab.  Families and teachers may schedule an appointment and visit their discoveries any time throughout the year.  In fact, the guys can be seen working on their finds anytime the museum is open.  The fun and education don’t end with the digs.  Anyone is welcome to visit the lab and find out what’s going on.  Keep checking back here to read up on up-coming programs, dig reunions, and the latest news on the 2010 digs!

Feel free to leave comments and questions.  We’ll try to respond as promptly as possible.

As we arrived at the site on our final family digging day, we were greeted with an early morning fly-over by Day 5 diggers Paul and Alex.  They were kind enough to send us a photo of what they saw – we’ve been wondering how we looked from above!

Thanks for the photo Paul!

As the day progressed, we continued to uncover some exciting finds with the families.  Taylor and her mom found this, which according to William is: It’s part of the top of a vertebra.  The two flat parts are the prezygapophysis.  It’s where that part of the vertebra meets up with the one in front of it…with a bit of cartilage in between.  It’s above the round part of the bone, and below the spine that sticks up.

Pictured here is a vertebrae that Nicole found while surface collecting!  It’s not common to find these during surface collecting so when this happens the fossil is carefully mapped and wrapped and taken back to the museum for further study.

On this last day of digging we’d like to thank all of our extraordinary families for all their hard work and fun during the digs.  We’re already starting to plan for next year so keep checking back to this site to stay on top of all the latest information our 2010 digs plus special paleo-programming that we’ll have through out the year!

The up-side to the insane amount of rainfall: 70 and 80 degree days which equals perfect digging weather.  The blue skies and sun continued as we moved into Day 5 and the new recruits came ready to dig.

Every dig day begins with surface collecting in order to get one’s eyes trained before digging.  You never know what you’re going to find even when others have looked in that place before you.  We usually find things like chunks of bone and rib, tendons, and Edmontosaurus teeth which families can keep.  Occasionally, we discover some things outside of the norm which are exciting to the staff because they tell us even more about the site.

For example, today 8-year old Tory discovered a raptor claw within the first 5 minutes of scanning the surface!  This was an impressive find because not only are those rare, but the one that she found had been bleached by the sun and thus more difficult to spot.  Not even our Paleo guys had seen it!  Because of its rarity, Tory did not take it home with her, but her name was put on its case as the one who discovered it.  It will be yet another clue as the guys continue their research.

8 hours of digging can sometimes be a lot for some of our some of our younger diggers.   Today we had a couple of young diggers that needed a change of pace so Michele and Nicole quickly reached into their bag of tricks and pulled out a fun game of Necks n’ Tails (think Shoots n’ Ladders the Cretaceous version).  We also had a visit from a little friend who decided to stow away in one of our supply bins!  Don’t worry moms and dads, this little guy was unarmed and happy to be returned to his beloved clover fields soon after discovery.   There’s always plenty to do at the dig site to keep us entertained. 

The end of the day always comes too soon for us all.  With so many fossils yet to be discovered, it is often difficult for families to tear themselves away from the site.  However, the fossils will always be there when they come back next year!

HOORAY!!!  This morning brought sunny blue skies and a whole new dig site.  Huge props to Dallas, William and Steve for spending more than 10 hours the day before, pulling up stakes and relocating our digging grid to drier ground.  The families were excited (and relieved) as we drove out to Ruth Mason Quarry to begin our day.  Site C looked fantastic and ready for digging.  Within the first hour, a complete toe bone of an Edmontosaurus was exposed, mapped and extracted from the new site.  This was the largest toe bone yet to be found at the quarry!

Families continued to make interesting finds throughout the day.  Eliot celebrated his eighth birthday at the dig site and even managed to uncover a rib bone.  Even though he doesn’t get to take his fossil home, the bone will return to the lab for cleaning and prepping and will forever have his name on it as the one who discovered it – What a great gift! 

Lunch at the ranch was excellent.  Burgers and hot dogs from the grill and lots of side salads and desserts to choose from.  As you can see, the popsicles  on this summer day were a hit with the kids!

The afternoon flew by quickly as we continued to uncover more bones.  No families left without having uncovered something and by the end of the day, they were already making plans to return next year!

Thanks again to all the families for the extraordinary day -

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!

As you know, for the first time in five years we had to cancel the dig on Friday.  Due to 5 inches of rain in one night after 8 years of drought, our precious fields that we call digging home became flooded with mud, silt, and several feet of water in some places.  Our site that we used for only one day became a mud pit of quick-sand like silt that made it impossible to dig, let alone get to.  When Dallas and William were finally able to make it out to the site on Sunday, this is what they found…

Thus, the decision was made to move the site to a new location in order to ensure digging for the remainder of the week.  Unfortunately, this meant canceling the dig for Monday as well.  The families were amazing and understanding and took the news well.  It helped that most of them were planning on sticking around for Tuesday’s dig and they were happy to join us on a trip down to Hill City for the Black Hills Geological Research Institute where they were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour with Neal Larson and then on to Mount Rushmore.

We returned to Faith with the good  news that new site was ‘all set’ so we’re excited to see what tomorrow brings.  The weatherman promises clear skies and low 80’s for the rest of the week – Let’s hope he’s right!

Sadly, Day 2 started with rainy skies and flooded fields.  Those 2 forces of nature kept us from making it to the site  BUT, all was not lost.  Spirits rallied quickly when William and Dallas facilitated a casting and molding activity of T.rex teeth while Nicole, Michele & Steve executed plan B.

Introducing Plan B: A trip to Rapid City for lunch at The Fire House then down to Hill City for the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research.  The Children’s Museum has had a long-standing relationship with The Black Hills Institute for a number of years and they were happy to have us.  Families enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at the prep lab where they were working on Lane, the newest Triceratops find.  This was a special discovery because Lane is a well-preserved Triceratops with amazing skin impressions!  We were also able to check out an articulated Edmontosaurus cast so families could see where their previous day’s finds came from.

After the institute, we toured through Custer Park and then down to Hot Springs.   The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota is the world’s largest mammoth research facility where you can tour an active paleontological dig site and view Ice Age fossils exhibited as they are found.

All in all it was a fun-filled day.  The families were extraordinary and were still able make exciting new discoveries at the Black Hills Institute and The Mammoth Site.  The weather promises to be warm and sunny this week and we’re looking forward to our first ever Dino Dig wedding on Sunday so stay tuned…