The Perot alamosaur was discovered on a field trip led by Dr. Montgomery. My Age of Dinosaurs class was in the field working at another site we discovered that contained three juvenile alamosaurs.
Quicktime video of the airlift from the UTD dig site in Big Bend National Park to an awaiting truck a few miles away. No wheeled vehicles were permitted in the desert.
The crew was sworn to secrecy about our mission. We were not to mention anything about the airlift. Even many BBNP staff did not know what was about to happen. There were worries by the Park Service that lots of gawkers and even press helicopters might cause problems. Secrecy was not easy given our peculiar activities like hiking off into the desert each day with freighter packs loaded with large water jugs, bags of plaster, rolls of burlap, heavy rope, 2x4s, and, the oddest of all, huge bundles of toilet paper from a discount warehouse. The crew never quite figured out how to “explain” those to tourists. (TP was dampened and applied to each bone before the burlap in plaster jacket was pasted on.)
Bell Helicopter's own “special” Huey lifted one cervical vertebra on each trip to a waiting flatbed truck. The heaviest weighed approximately 500 kg. It seemed like every park ranger in two states was in attendance.
Thanks to:
- UTD student Dana Biasatti for the discovery. She is now a research scientist.
- Big Bend National Park and the Department of the Interior for approval for this project
- Bell Helicopter for fantastic flying. They also flew the airlift free of charge.
- UTD students who worked tirelessly during trips over a period of two years
- Perot Museum staff for assistance during the final week
