I almost forgot to talk about Las Vegas...

How could I forget? I'm so timely. Please accept this bedazzled dinosaur and my apologies.

What can I say about the SVP meeting? Las Vegas is a strange place. The technical sessions were, as usual, full of interesting talks and posters, and it was great to talk to people that I don't see very often. Because most of the talks are yet unpublished, I won't recap them here. Instead, here's a small sampling of the silliness that goes on after the posters come down each day.

Palaeontologists bravely set forth on grand adventures in the Paris Las Vegas.

All the latest fashions can be found at the auction, like this fetching hat modeled by Sara!

And don't forget to snap up one-of-a-kind designer pieces like these hats knitted by my friend and former Currie Lab member, Robin!

Viva Rock Vegas, y'all.

And to round off the post, all of the colourful characters of Las Vegas as interpreted by SVP - Elvisaurus, Cheratopsian, Siegfried and Rawr, Kosmo Knievel, and our Viva Rock Vegas buddies.

See you next year in Raleigh!

Ambling Around Argentina.

Guess where I’ve been? The boots don't lie...

Just three days after the SVP meeting in Las Vegas, I flew to Argentina to see what the other side of the Andes looked like. I joined Dr. Rodolfo Coria’s team at a site in Neuquen province, about two hours away from Plaza Huincal.

The formation we were working in is relatively unexplored, so it will be exciting to see how the research develops over the next few years.

Most of my time was spent helping at a quarry that was worked earlier this year – my friend and former Currie Lab student Dr. Phil Bell posted about his experiences at this quarry over at the Philip J. Currie Museum’s Blogosaur. We had help lifting some of the large jackets out of the quarry, which made a big difference!

I also drank a lot of mate, a tea you drink through a straw out of a little gourd-cup that gets passed around to everybody. It is quite sociable.

And to celebrate at the end of the week, we had two cevitos! (They were delicious.)

I’ve been roaming around Argentina visiting museums for the last few days, and will post more photos upon my return to Edmonton. See you soon!