Petrified Forest National Park paleontologist Bill Parker has been finding fossil bones every time he goes into the park for the last 15 years. He identifies them, makes a judgment as to their importance to science, and, with seasonal employees or paleontology interns, digs out the most important ones to preserve them. Left in the field, exposure to the elements will make these fossils crumble and be lost forever. Starting next month, Dr. Parker will be leading digs that give the rest of us an opportunity to see what it’s like to be a paleontologist for a day. The Petrified Forest Field Institute will kick off its inaugural season of classes with two paleontology digs on Saturdays, Aug. 1 and 8. Parker has scouted for sites that will yield important fossil bones from the late Triassic era, some 218 million years ago. The digs will help the park preserve these fossils for future scientific study. For more information, contact Sarah Herve by email at sarah_herve@nps.gov or by phone at (928) 524-6228, ext. 264, or go online to http://www.petrifiedforestfieldinstitute.org/.