'Bone-A-Fide’ hobbyist moves to Gulf Breeze

From Splash.com (Florida) 'Bone-A-Fide’ hobbyist moves to Gulf Breeze
or Cameron O’Connor, a successful road trip is one where none of his bones break; and by “bones” he means his collection of 250 dinosaur bones from his 18 years of paleontological digs.

The 61-year-old said he made one of those successful trips when he moved from New York to join his wife, Stephanie, in Gulf Breeze last year with zero breaks in his bone collection.

“I’ve been interested in dinosaurs and paleontology since I was a kid,” O’Connor said of his hobby. “I think all kids are, most just grow out of it. I didn’t.” Collections are realizations of people’s passions, he said. “This is mine.”

Since 1993, O’Connor has funded his own paleontological digs with a team of six other friends on privately owned land in Harding County, South Dakota and has also had three digs in Montana.

“A lot of people believe paleontology is this great romantic endeavor,” he said. “But, it’s backbreaking work. We’re all digging by hand. There are no machines helping, and in South Dakota the weather can be unbelievably hot and change in what seems like an instant.”

During one trip to South Dakota, he said it was 103 degrees the first day his team went to dig, but by the tenth day it had plummeted to 11 degrees.

The bones from all of O’Connor’s digs are on display in a freshly built shed, which his wife had someone build for him in their backyard. Featured highlights include Edmontosaurus bones, Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth, a Triceratops skull and horn, fossilized footprints and even dinosaur dung. He laughed and said that not all of his digging partners are as lucky when it comes to showcasing their finds.

“How and where and what gets displayed from our digs depends entirely on the wife,” he joked. “But, my wife is very supportive of me. She’s even the one who said, ‘If you like dinosaurs so much, why don’t you go learn how to dig for them?’”

O’Connor said he hasn’t found anything quite as satisfying as being out on a dig, and that it’s the stories behind the bones he uncovers that he finds the most intriguing.

“Without the science or story behind it, it’s just a bone,” he mused. “Everyone wants to find a T-Rex. Everyone wants to find a Raptor. But, for me, if I can have a successful dig and find bones with a story to tell, I’m happy.”

“These are the kinds of finds I love,” O’Connor said as he picked up an Edmontosaurus tail vertebrae that had broken and healed before becoming fossilized and compared it to one that was normal. “Dinosaurs had tumors and injuries just like everything else and you can see it right here. That’s cool.”

After working 32 years with the New York State Department of Health where he helped assess health effects from waste sites and plan the proper cleanup methods, O’Connor said he wants to enjoy his retirement and focus on his hobby.

“I’m 61 years old and it’s not going to get any easier,” he said. “But as long as I can dig, I’ll do it.”

Currently, O’Connor’s dinosaur bones aren’t open to the public but he plans to complete some new displays and update his presentation materials so he can start offering educational presentations for schools and groups in the community.

“What good are they if I keep them all to myself and just stare at them?” he laughed. “It’s much better if I can use them to get a laugh or teach someone something new that they’ll want to remember.”