Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.
They don hearty clothing -- jeans, T-shirts and warm sweaters -- and with new pick axes, brushes and a bit of hope, the fossil hunters trudge off into the desert to unearth the past.
Six times a year UNLV geology professor Jerome McCartney takes a handful of students into the desert to conduct a course offered through the university's Continuing Education program. He teaches them about the land, the past and the ancient life-forms that wandered the shallow ocean that once was Southern Nevada.
As a young boy, McCartney had an interest in geology and archaeology. Since 1973 he has studied the buried, fossilized bones of long-gone animals.
"You have to understand what rocks you are looking at -- were they an ancient seabed, for instance -- to know what (fossils) you may or may not find," he said.
These days McCartney trudges through desert brush to map the mountains and valleys of Southern Nevada for the U.S. Geological Survey. He takes
special care to understand the bones and markings left by ancient dinosaurs and aquatic animals in the limestone, shale and dolomite minerals of the desert floor.
On a recent afternoon McCartney instructed six students through a five-hour tour of Frenchman Mountain to hunt for fossils.
What the amateur fossil hunters hoped to dig up on the trip were imprints in rock of trilobites, small aquatic creatures that were ancestors of the horseshoe crab. At the time -- during the Cambrian period 500 million years ago -- they were the dominate life force on earth.
The bulk of fossils his students will find are from the era, when there was an explosion of organisms.
At the time Southern Nevada was covered by a warm, shallow sea -- perfect conditions for small aquatic creatures to thrive.
"You can go right on top of Mount Charleston and find seashells, brachiopods (a type of fossilized shell) actually," McCartney said. "It's interesting to be able to hold something in your hand that could be 200 million years old."
It also represents, physically, the long time span that exists for the Earth, he said.
Dinosaurs, for instance, roamed the earth for 160 million years, about 150 million years ago. That is one-tenth of the amount of time that the Earth has existed -- four billion years. Humans have wandered the Earth for four million years, a paltry sum compared to the age of the fossils that lie beneath our feet, McCartney said.
There are no true dinosaurs buried in the Las Vegas Valley, McCartney said, because at the time the mammoth mammals roamed the Earth, the valley was a long stretch of sand dunes with no food, water or shelter.
For seven years McCartney has instructed beginner fossil hunters, individuals who have never been exposed to paleontology or even museums. He said he still gets excited when a new hunter finds his or her first fossil.
"Some people actually had to sit down on the ground, hold the fossil in their hand and try to catch their breath, they were so overwhelmed," he said.
He simulates a true archeological dig using technical equipment from the U.S. Geological Survey, and also to show respect for the past
"To understand how to look for fossils, you have to geology, what rocks are out here in the desert and their characteristics," McCartney said.
A blanket of aqua green shale -- a thin, chipped layer of rock -- shows the amateur fossil hunter that aquatic fossils could be found in the 10,000-year-old sediment.
An apron of the soft-green splintered rock covers a low-lying hill near the base of Frenchman's Mountain.
This is where the fossil hunters put their picks to work.
Retirees John and Julie Mantyck joined the class for fun -- and a little fresh air. They were one of the first fossil hunters that day to locate mud trails of worm-like creatures from the Cambrian period.
"I didn't expect to find something so soon," Julie Mantyck said as she displayed her find to the group. "It really is something, isn't it?"
"If you learn something good, great," John Mantyck said, waving his pick. "If you forget it, then no harm done."
Ron Erskine brought his 11-year-old son, Cole, to the dig to learn about the desert and have a little fun.
Erskine, who has lived in Las Vegas for 25 years, said, "I didn't know there were any (fossils) in the valley to be found. I think it's worthwhile for my son to be exposed to this at a young age."
Father and son are adventurous and have also explored a pig farm in North Las Vegas as well as Red Rock and Lake Mead, so that Cole can get a glimpse of the interesting, and educational, sites in his hometown.
"The pig farm was cool, but I'm hoping (to dig up) fossils today," Cole Erskin said. He wanted "something to take home."
Pat Nietrzeba is a nurse at UMC has taken some geology classes, but wanted to know more about what had once been.
"I just love rocks," she said as she bent to overturn stones that sparkled with flecks of dolomite. "I want to know what I'm looking at."
Also on the trip was retiree Walter Hemelstrand, who moved to Las Vegas a year ago. He said the desert looks bland from the car window, but figured there was more to know about the dusty brown, deep red and light green hues of the landscape.
"Nevada is interesting," Hemelstrand said. "When you travel it all looks the same, but there's more to it."
Lots more, McCartney said.
"It humbles you, actually, because we are talking about huge chunks of time that most humans have a difficult time comprehending." he said. "We think since the birth of Christ, for example, is a long period of time, and for humans certainly that is a long period of time, but it's barely a blink of the eye (for the Earth)."
There were only a small percentage of fossils that died a natural death without being disturbed by natural predators, weather or other eroding elements, he explained, They are perfectly sealed in sediment for future generations to discover.
"The problem is that these fossils have been picked out of the valley, unfortunately, by scavengers, amateurs, so a lot of the areas are sealed off by the government for protection," he said.
The construction boom has also jeopardized the preservation of fossils in Nevada.
"They go in so fast and churn up the land and put up houses," McCartney said. "Who knows what is paved over, ruined, beneath the city."
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