Professor Clark's Office
Like most professor's offices everywhere, this one looks like a hurricane hit it. There are books stacked on top of books, piled from the floor to about three feet high in two of the three corners. A large wooden desk is covered with various hoary old tomes, some with binding cracking, some brand new. A glut of old textbooks, research volumes, and old specimens adorn the shelves that line almost every wall. On the back of the door is a poster of Indiana Jones, with Professor Clark's face pasted over Harrison Ford's. Its signed by several students and dated '1987.'

On the verge of pacing, Gillian Schroeder stands there in the office of Professor Clark, eyes wandering about the small, stuffy room that she's currently stuck in. Impatient, she says, "Can we go?" Shifting her weight from foot to foot, examining the books and various things and utterly refusing to seat herself in the chairs before the desk, she begins tapping her left foot in a rhythmic pattern.

Ling hurries over, looking a little frazzled as she'd forgotten an appointment made with the professor to accompany him and Gillian to the labs. Her hand almost yanks open the door as she blinks a couple of times. Reshouldering her shoulder bag, she swallows and dips her head. "Sorry I'm late."

Professor Clark nods to Gillian, as patient as a mountain. "When Ling gets..ah, here she is." He flips open his notebook, and takes out a manilla folder. "Alright, let's get a little status report on where everyone's at before we go charging headlong after history, shall we?" He offers Gillian an indulgent smile.

[looking at Professor Clark]
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An older man, about fiftyish, with brown hair graying at the temples. He wears faded put pressed blue jeans, a white Oxford shirt, and a tweed blazer. On his feet are Birkenstocks (since its winter, with socks). He's got wire-framed glasses and a wry expression, and often seems preoccupied.
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Gillian lifts her head to the door. "Hey," she says softly to Ling, and then glances to the professor. "Status report? Like, what we think this thing is? It's obviously a skeleton of carnivorous origin, but I'll...nevermind."

Stepping in, Ling takes another few moments to breathe, and then gives her own report. "Well, there's been some very interesting finds about the specimen's DNA." She glances to Gillian, then back to the professor. "I emailed you about that, how it had 61 chromosomes. It might've been a fluke, but the second test came out the same."

Professor Clark clucks his tongue, nodding. "Some kind of aberration then. Interesting,that. Do we have an age for the specimen yet?"

Gillian is quiet, listening to Ling curiously.

Ling shakes her head, giving another exhalation to slow her beating heart. "The samples were sent to the University of Washington for carbon dating, but those results haven't come back yet." She glances to Gillian. "How goes the casts making?"

Gillian blinks. "Well, we're going to start on that soon. That's what we were going to head off to do, actually," she admits, lifting her mouth in a small smile.

Professor Clark turns his gaze to Gillian now. "Have you learned any more about the short-faced bear?"

Ling nods with a confident smile in her fellow grad student. "Again, I'm sorry for being late. It's quite a drive and walk into campus." She rubs her neck and fluffs some cooling air into her trenchcoat before glancing at the professor and Gillian.

She inclines her head in a nod, offering the professor a pile of papers. "Yeah," Gillian says, clicking her tongue.

Professor Clark nods, taking them and looking them over. "I think we may well have a new sub-species on our hands, ladies. So far things are looking promising. Not that you need to say anything to the press. I've had enough prank calls about Bigfoot to last me the rest of my life." He chuckles.

"Actually, the DNA testing... has proven that it's more related to wolves than bears." The foreign grad student blinks a few times, opening up her satchel to dig around and find some notes she made. Drawing out the notebook, she opens it up to the appropriate page and hands it over. "The sequences I tested, came out 47 percent matching with timber wolves."

Professor Clark blinks. "Timber wolves?" He takes the paper, looking it over, frowning. "Well, that just doesn't...I mean, the pelvis... and the skull is much too... wolves, eh?" You can just see the gears turning in his head. "And how much for bears?"

"Timber wolves?" Gillian echoes, tilting her head curiously to Ling.

"Well, the wolf DNA was more easily procurable from resources around the area, so I did that first. The bears, came up around 23 percent matching." Ling shrugs at Gillian. "It's strange, I know. Maybe it's an ancestor of both?"

[And Gillian had to go, so, assume bones inspection, and bone casts to be made]

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