So much help needed for our last site…
Our last site is the closest from San Antonio: located in Startzville, it is also the one that suffered the most as it has been used as a parking lot for years. It is also the one that is the most endangered, as the land owners plan to built a proper parking lot on it. This is one of the motivations of our project: creating a digital version of each tracksite visited so it can be seen and enjoyed by future generations. Not only does the site suffered from the erosive action of tires that smoothed the morphology of the tracks, but it has also been covered by gravels, mud, grass, and glass debris. Finally, some people tried to make a plaster mold of some the of the best tracks, which are now totally destroyed because it is almost impossible to remove plaster without ruining the track. It was time for us to arrive!
Our assessment of the track some weeks ago permitted us to meet one of the officers of the VFW Post 8800 that owns the track site, he advocated for the track site to be preserved for another two years before it will be turned into a parking log. Moreover, we realized there was a lot of cleanup to do and were desperate for volunteers… There is no better volunteers that geology majors who have not been able to get in the field for several months! We were fortunate to have a crew of 12 undergraduate and graduate students to help us!
We also made a mold of the best tracks still preserved and students were involved in every step of the process, to gain a better understanding of a classic, fundamental field method in paleontology.
We cannot thank enough the crew of amazing students who shared their time with us to clean the track. From left to right, front row: Samantha, Jaydne, Natalie, Angie, Ashley, Alex (aka Dr. Godet aka me); back row: Justin, Sebastian, Gavin, Ross, Thomas (aka Dr. Adams), Richard, Thomas and Dianna.