Rapid City Journal Mentions UMaine Researcher, Student at Wind Cave National Park Dig
University of Maine researcher Jacquelyn Gill and student Chason Frost were mentioned in a story about an excavation at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota in the Rapid City Journal. The story compared Frost to a Gold Rush-era prospector who “carefully bathed a pan full of rock and course (sic) sediment in a small pool of water to reveal the tiniest pieces of treasure” as he searched for remains of small animals that lived 11,000 years ago. The excavation project, according to the story, has revealed fossil remains of at least 22 different species recovered from a dug-out section of the cave 27 feet long and less than two feet high. “What’s really cool about the cave is that it includes these animals that are both extinct and animals that are survivors of the Ice Age,” said Jacquelyn Gill, assistant professor UMaine assistant professor of paleoecology and plant ecology, who was sifting through tiny fossilized teeth, vertebrae and rib bones. “When you can put all these different pieces of ecosystem together,” Gill was quoted as saying, “it basically gives you a sense of how an environment changes as the climate changes.”