Hello, Dear Readers! Here is another post going into the highlights of one of our more recent papers dealing with dinosaur ichnology: the study of foot injuries in the fossil record! Have you ever stubbed your toe? Pulled a muscle in your leg? Walked anywhere with a rock in your shoe? It doesn’t take major discomfort to figure out that foot and leg injuries can result in you walking “funny.” Perhaps you had to hop…

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This is a repost from my old blog site from April 2016 when, I swear to the Great Grey Owl, a marketing company tried to recruit me for what is a plot from a Simpson’s episode…except they were dead serious. *** April Fools’ Day is tomorrow, and I am waiting with mild trepidation over what faux science gags I am going to see on the Internet. What I was not prepared for was to have…

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(Repost from my old blog site) Over the holidays (December 2017) I was at home, minding my own business – drinking tea, working on retooling the last publishable chapter from my dissertation, watching bad paranormal TV, and acting as a heated mattress for the kitty – when there was a knock on my front door. Lo and behold, it was a door-to-door religious solicitor! Nowadays they are fairly high-tech: rather than try to hand me…

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*indicates products that I have not used, but would be interested to test based on experience and product information. There are two times that I have camped outdoors overnight without a tent. One time was an unscheduled adventure involving a misplaced flashlight, a beaver dam, and dinosaur footprint site in near-freezing temperatures (it was October) with no camping gear AT ALL except for a silicone guide tarp. The other time was a planned overnight in…

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*All gear marked with an asterisk is gear with which I have no experience. I base my review on what I know from using similar gear. You can’t think “camping” without thinking about tents. It’s like thinking about peanut butter without the chocolate, or gin without the tonic. Some things just go together. When you’re carrying EVERYTHING on your back, you need to maximize your stuff and minimize the weight in your backpack. It’s less…

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If you weren’t exposed to, or didn’t have the opportunity to experience – outdoor activities, it can be a steep learning journey to find out what works and what doesn’t. I didn’t grow up in an outdoor-gear family. We spent A LOT of time outside, but that was because I grew up in a rural area. We didn’t go on camping trips or epic hikes that required specialized gear. When I started doing palaeontology work…

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Hydration is important: I don’t think we’re going to have anyone arguing* against staying hydrated. *Yes, those people do exist. No, I’m not linking to any of them. Stay hydrated, people! You really want to drink water before you feel so parched that you just can’t take another step. Preventing dehydration is key. Just like accessing your Quick Grab Gear you want your water in easy reach. I will tell you about my progression through…

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I have 20 years of field work experience under my figurative belt. I know what I like, and I like functional outdoor gear! I’m a bit of a gear collector in that aspect: I try new things as my poor palaeontology (and now self-funded science communicator through Bird Glamour) budget allows. On Field Gal Gear you’ll see my trials and triumphs in trying out the camping and hiking gear I used for field work. Of…

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Stay Tuned! There will be posts about the field gear that I have used in my +20 years of doing remote paleontology field work!

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