New Port Richey Native Hunts for Dinosaurs in New Mexico

The following is a press release from Mesalands Community College.

Joe Bariso, 19, from New Port Richey, FL, recently participated in a week-long Paleontology Field Discovery class at Mesalands Community College. This class provided experience of excavating fossils and processing them at the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum. 

Bariso searched and learned how to excavate dinosaur-age vertebrates in the Quay County area. Basic laboratory methods were studied in the natural science laboratory located at the Dinosaur Museum. Students learned about the local rocks and age determination, and studied the major groups of fossil vertebrates in the area, including dinosaurs and dinosaur tracks.

“It was cool, fun, and awesome!” said Bariso. “I recovered a few teeth and  a few vertebrae. This was a great class. I found out about it on the internet looking for digs.”

This year the field class took place in the Redonda Formation of Late Triassic age (200 million years old) in the vicinity of Tucumcari. This site has proven to be very successful for finding dinosaur bones. Three years ago students and Museum staff found a 200 million year old hip bone from a dinosaur similar to the Coelophysis (New Mexico’s state fossil, and the best known early dinosaur).