Leaving the field is always bittersweet. After a week scrambling over rocks in search of fossils, a warm shower and cozy bed are the ultimate luxuries. But no matter what an expedition was like, I always feel like I’m leaving too soon. If I went prospecting and failed, I wonder what I would have found if I had spent one more day among the outcrops. If I found a new site or uncovered new bones in a quarry, I want to stay and dig in further. There’s always an excuse to spend more time in the past.

Paleontological diversions on the way home ease the pain. And as I was getting ready to leave a field camp in a remote stretch