MEDORA (AP) - Good things come in small packages, but they can also be dug up, put into vials and brought to a lab.

Participants in a public fossil dig here have discovered smaller fossils are the norm.

The dig, which ends this week, is the combined effort of the North Dakota Geological Survey and the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation.

Fish vertebrae, shells, fossilized feces and fish and crocodile teeth are common fossils found at the Medora site, believed to date back some 60 million years.

"On a dinosaur dig, you could spend a week on just uncovering a leg bone, while here you get so many different fossils all over," said North Dakota Geological Survey paleontologist John Hoganson said. First-day participants were unlucky, however, with high temperatures. Hoganson believed the heat was a major reason only three people participated.

"We usually have 10 participants at the site a day, but the hot weather may have affected it," he said.

At the site, Hoganson had the help of Brent Woodward, a paleontology lab specialist, and Amber Voigt, a student assistant.

Voigt, a participant on the same dig last summer, has since decided to major in paleontology. She remained in contact with the North Dakota Geological Survey, which invited her to be an assistant this year.

Voigt is now studying paleontology at Valley City State University.

"I first thought about archaeology and history, which was something I was always interested," Voigt said. "After the dig last year, though, I got more interested in paleontology because it's hard to imagine that these things actually existed until you come out here, see and find them yourself."

It's like putting pieces together in a big jigsaw puzzle, she said.

As an assistant, Voigt takes notes about the dig and helps the participants. Her documentation and photos this summer are to be a presentation for a class in the fall.

"I've never been on outdoor digs until last summer and now," she said. "There's always something unique to find."

Lee Jacobson, of Bismarck, was on his first public fossil dig, on his birthday. Jacobson is a retired educator who enjoys science.

"I wanted to try my hand at this," Jacobson said. "I enjoy the outdoors and I'm interested in history so I thought, why not try my luck at a dig?"

Being at the dig brought Jacobson back to the time when he was a Boy Scout and camped along the Heart River close to Richardton.

"We had found numerous fossils, most being leaf ones," he said. "Since then, it has always sparked my interest."

Walter Johnson, of St. Paul, Minn., also was a first-time participant in the dig.

"A friend of ours went on the dig last year and let us know about it," he said.

"There are positive and negative things about being the first ones out there the first day," Hoganson said to the group before the digging started. "The negative part is you have to move through more rock, while the positive part is the ledge is still exposed and weathered enough so the surface is covered with fossils."

The site was discovered a few years ago by North Dakota Geological Oil Division petroleum engineer Darrell Nodland, who was checking the reclamation of an abandoned oil well site. He found the fossils and told Hoganson.

Another public fossil dig is planned at an ancient river channel site in Marmarth Aug. 5-12.