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Last weekend was one I'll never forget... I've barely processed it, but now that I can be more coherent, here is the story of the mosasaur we found --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On September 11 & 12, I researched and found new fossil hunting area (to me), that exposed the Eagle Ford formation. I decided to scout it, and that scouting trip ended up being wildly successful. On the first weekend of my scout, I walked away with several ptychodus teeth, a great squalicorax, and two small mosasaur teeth, all still in matrix. Many of the ptychodus teeth here represent a species that will be described next year by Shawn Hamm, and are similar to Ptychodus anonymous. (Below - one of the teeth from the scout - this tooth is one from the Ptychodus species that will be described next year) Fast forward a week. It's Friday, September 17. I returned to my new honey hole a second time, intent to explore a little more. The spot I was working on the week before produced more ptychodus, fish bones, and fish teeth. It was fantastic, and I decided to keep a keener eye out for a different spot to work on next (still in the same area). Walking back, I spotted a great exposure of dense shell hash, at the bottom of the creek. The barren, blueish layer of shale that usually covers this hash had lifted up in one big slab, probably with a flood, and revealed the nice patch I was looking at now. Feeling pretty lucky, I sat down and got to work. "This is the spot to spend the rest of my time here on", I decided. I got to work lifting slabs, expanding the exposed patch, and had some nice results. More Ptychodus teeth, and the odd Scapanorynchus tooth revealed themselves. One slab had a little ptychodus on it that I popped loose with my finger. Immediately below it sat another tooth, in the same orientation that it would be as part of a mouth plate. That was crazy! Perhaps I have a partial mouth plate on my hands (spoiler alert - I still need to prep it to find out) By now, it was late afternoon, and the day flew by. I suddenly had the realization that I was about to be late for work, and had to speed back. I made a mental note to come back to this excavation I had started the next day. Saturday, September 18 Recently I had gotten my older step brother interested in fossil hunting. Today marked the first day he was keen enough to go on his own, rather than with me....however, I should preface this by saying he was only alone because he wanted to hunt quite early, at 8 AM.....my gears were barely even turning yet, so I told him I'll meet up with him a little later. Over the phone, I told him where to go, what type of rock to investigate, and where the spot I was excavating was located. After finding the excavation I had started the day before, he sat down to continue my work until I got there. As he told it to me later, he picked around in the rubble I had left the day before, to see if I missed anything, and then got bored and decided to lift the next loose looking slab...and BAM, he was met with bones. Once I picked up the phone, I was off like a shot. Upon arrival, I immediately realized that we were out of our depth, as it seemed like the bone continued further on under the slabs. Before we even touched them, I hastily contacted @JohnJ, since I had no idea what to do next. He couldn't be there due to a commitment, but the advice he gave to us about continuing the excavation gave us enough confidence at least start. Throughout this dig, John was the crutch that made the whole endeavor manageable - without him we would've been completely lost. (Here's what we saw, before any excavation) One Walmart run later, and we got to work. The rock quality wasn't great, and crumbled easily. We worked carefully, but soon had to learn to deal with the fact that some bones would break in the condition they were in. Nothing glue couldn't fix later. (what we saw after the bones had a chance to dry a little, and after some excavation) At this point, we had found three associated mosasaur teeth. With the first tooth, I was hesitant to say it was associated, because there were tons of little teeth of all sorts around. A second, much smaller tooth made me reconsider. (Below, the third associated tooth) It's worth noting that we found quite a few Squalicorax teeth (maybe 7 or 8), and a few Scapanorynchus teeth as well - suggesting a scavenging event. What was really bizarre though was the sheer number of little Ptychodus teeth (probably around 6 or 7), many of which were the undescribed species I mentioned earlier. While likely a coincidence, I think it's still fun to imagine this Ptychodus crushing through bone as it scavenged a skeleton - a completely different look on what Ptychodus are supposed to do as shell crushers. (Some of the shark teeth revealed though the dig) (Smacking a hammer around doesn't always go as planned) At the end of day one, we had lifted one slab out. It was when we tried to reduce some excess rock at the side of said slab that we found the craziest part yet....a jaw piece! The shaky photos I took of this jaw in the field aren't a great angle, so here's that same jaw piece at home: Only a little bit of bone remained poking out of the bank after day 1. So, we thought day 2 would go by quickly... but once we started excavating those little pieces, more revealed itself.... This slab was particularly unstable, and after four hours of careful digging, we decided to rip the band aid off and try to pry it out.Fortunately, instead of coming apart in 20 pieces, it came apart in just 2 (below: One of the two slab pieces) We were done- 9 hours of excavation for what felt like (after the fact) a small amount of bone. However, since so much bone is still deep in the matrix, we're crossing our fingers that we have more than just isolated jaw elements and vertebrae. Since both of us are new to prep, we decided to leave this intimidating (to us) job to the talents of Kris - @Ptychodus04, who graciously made room for us among his existing prep work. I'm excited to see what his hand reveals, and I'm crossing my fingers that our find has some diagnostic elements. I'll likely continue to post updates on this thread as they come, but this is basically it! I'd like to write a little more, but unfortunately I have chemistry homework that simply cannot be neglected any longer... It's been understandably hard to think about those trivial things after a weekend like this

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum, and new to fossil hunting, and I was wondering about what the process of fossil hunting is supposed to look like. A couple days back, I went to fossil hunt at the Deep Springs Road side. There was a fossil that looked like club moss which went into the rock wall near the top of a ledge. Because I wanted the whole fossil intact, I attempted to excavate the fossil out of the wall by levering up the shale above the fossil using my rock hammer. I figured that this would be okay, but I was still left wondering whether excavation of fossils out from the rock wall was allowed or not. Is it frowned upon to excavate fossils from the rock formation? Should I only be splitting rocks that have already fallen from the wall, or is it fine to dig out of the formation? Here is a picture of the club moss looking fossil, if anyone more knowledgeable wants to identify it for me:

Hi! So, uhm... Tin foil? For the non British among you, you probably know it as aluminium foil. Anyways anyways, whatever it's called, whenever I see people excavate, or even transport, fossils, they wrap it in it. Can anyone explain this to me? Bit of a newbie sorry, I usually wrap it in kitchen roll, so it is safe... Cheers in advance!

Hi all, this is not actual news as it happened in 2002, but the footage of excavation process and participants' memories became available only recently. I hope it will be interesting for everybody who is into marine Mezozoic and field paleontology in general. The species: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luskhan Excavation video: Participants' memories: Set subtitles to automatic translation, its 70% correct:) There are some weirdo mistakes, but overall comprehensible Assembled skeleton on display: I described the location here:

Last year I discovered a baleen whale fossil along the cliffs of Calvert cliffs park. Tomorrow it will be getting excavated. However I broke my leg just before Christmas so I am looking to see if anyone can video the excavation for me as I cannot attend. I’m hoping to get a video and some good pictures I can share on here. Please feel free to message me as I’m anxious to see the excavation process. I just wish I had better luck so I could attend and assist in the excavation of what I found. Anyone willing to help is super appreciated !!! Thank you

Fossil Dinosaurs in Argentina: https://m.phys.org/news/2019-04-scientists-unearth-million-year-old-dinosaur-fossils.html

I am an architecture student from India and my research dissertation and thesis are based at the Raiyoli site in Gujarat, India, known for its vast nesting grounds and several sauropod egg specimens discovered through the early eighties. It was also here that the Rajasaurus narmedensis was first discovered. A part of my thesis aims to create a structure for the in-situ protection and display of fossils found at the site. I would like to know the different cases and factors which determine whether or not a fossil must be left in-situ or extracted and sent to a storage facility. I have conducted a couple of case studies including the Waco Mammoth National Monument which is a close example of what I aim to create using slightly more sensitive and lesser invasive technologies.

As suggested by some members of this forum some time ago... I have begun a small excavation project to rescue the mosasaur teeth trapped in a fabricated jaw bone and fossil which I purchased as a child. Ever since those days I have dreamed of going out into the Karoo and digging up remains of prehistoric animals, but sadly, I was not adept in the sciences and the arts took over my career choice. So, instead of getting a children's excavation kit, why not try and rescue real fossil teeth? So with a dental pick, brush and magnifying glass I have begun working into the fabricated layers. I started outside of the direct fossil radius, and have scraped away to reveal the root of the tooth first. My plan is to keep excavating downward so as to remove the tooth from the fabrication for finer work to reveal the tooth. Any tips on the excavating process? How can I distinguish the point between fabrication and fossil tooth at this early stage?

We got back out to the scapula jacket yesterday! The jacket we put on during a lull in the blizzard held exceptionally well. Fair weather for a change this time, the rancher had been joking about inviting us over whenever his land needed some rain (every time we've shown up before we've been rained our snowed out). We took our sweet time undercutting the jacket just to be on the safe side, then got it flipped and in the car in about an hour and a half of work.

Howdy all. My father was a wildlife photographer in Houston TX for many years. I recently came across a box of slides from March 1978, where he documented the excavation of a fossil giant ground sloth in the Houston area. I believe it was a discovery made from some kids, and their parents contacted someone to do the excavation. However, I can find nothing about the discovery or the dig online. Anyone have any info? Thanks, Mike

Hi Folks. I have found over a hundred of these in a relatively small area. Basically, in my yard and garden. I recently tilled a neighboring section up the ridge about 30' X 40' to look for more arrowheads and such. Found 2 arrowheads after the first rain, and maybe 20 of the fossils. There is only a few inches of top soil, then there is soft yellow shale several feet deep in places. I drilled some 40" deep holes for a pole building by the garden and it was all the soft shale. The artifacts are of course in the top soil but my plow cuts into the shale several inches and I think this is where it exposes the fossils. Couple questions: Are these fossils already in pieces, or am I breaking them up with the plowing and tilling ? Would I benefit from doing a "dig" of sorts in an effort to find more intact specimens ? Also, is there a likelihood that they are all near the surface, or are they probably at any / all depths ? Is so, how would I go about it with no machinery other than a small tractor with a plow ? I'm in eastern WV at about 900 ft elevation on a small spur ridge near the base of a 3000 ft mountain in the Appalachian chain. (if that helps) I'd really like to find more complete specimens, but am guessing they were all broken up long ago .... way before they got up here. Thanks for looking. Kind regards.

Last fall after working a museum, I returned to a ranch in the Pierre Shale south of Rapid City. One of the students I'd brought with me earlier in the spring of 2016 spotted a chunk of fossil that we originally identified as wood, before we realized that it was a large squid pen! So, right before our classes started we got back together and spent a few days camping on the ranch to excavate it to donate to the museum as well as some other fossil. All kinds of things got in the way, our car broke down, we were driven out of our tents by a thunderstorm, and if it weren't for GPS we would have lost the location of the pen. The site was on a steep, soft hill of shale on the edge of a ravine with a half dozen cattle skeletons from a blizzard back in the nineties. But we got the squid out of the hill and into the museum! Almost a meter long, seems to be the middle of the rachis with a few fragments of the vane