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Hello! I am trying to clean this beautiful mosasaur pictured below, but I am really struggling with some old paleobond thats already been used on it. I have been somewhat successful with using a liberal amount of acetone on the bone, which I scrub in with a toothbrush. This has worked, but there are certain regions where the the glue was used on gypsum crystals and model clay, which has effectively cemented the bones of the lower jaw together. I've also been using a regular paleoarrow. My goal here is to get it as clean as possible, NOT to specifically separate the natural occlusion of the teeth. The plan is to display it at a museum (Also, any wild guesses as to the genus of this pretty lady? I was thinking latoplatecarpus)

About 3 weeks ago I wrapped up my half year of North TX adventures with one final Kamp Ranch hunt and a beautiful pliosaur tooth to boot. Since then I've made my move five hours south to San Antonio and have endured the first two weeks of dental school. It's been an adjustment, but so far things have gone smoothly I'm happy to say. Although I hadn't done any hunting in that time span, I've been putting in some time towards researching sites in this new section of the state. I guess the symptoms of fossil withdrawal were starting to hit hard yesterday, so I picked a few promising spots from my list and headed out to investigate. Some of the decoration in my new apartment There's a lot of formations I want to explore, but my highest priority was locating the Corsicana in order to find some invertebrate rarities like Codiopsis stephensoni or Dakoticancer australis. The bcfas reports made by @Uncle Siphuncle were a big inspiration and also really useful for figuring out what index fossils to look for. I was working with limited information, so the first spot I visited was chosen more or less because it had a promising look to it. I had already made the short-sighted mistake of sleeping in before the expedition, so the Texas sun was out on full blast with the temps exceeding 100F. At the first exposure, I was introduced to hundreds of Exogyra costata littering the ground which was a good sign. This is a species common in the Maastrichtian, but at the time I wasn't sure if it was necessarily indicative of the Corsicana Fm. Interspersed between these massive shells were much smaller bivalves such as the delicate Plicatula mullicaensis. A lot of the invertebrates I was finding were familiar species, but this new flavor of preservation made every discovery very exciting. Eventually, I stumbled upon a huge rudist! I had never found one so complete. Rudist After stowing that and various other bivalves away, I continued creeping along the exposure when I did a double take at a shiny piece of something. Prior to my move, I had come to terms that I may never find marine reptile material here in South TX, yet sitting right in front of me was the glint of enamel... and not just any enamel. As I knelt closer it became clearer and clearer that this was indeed reptilian! I was so happy but also confused as to how such a thing could be possible. I hadn't even snagged my first shark tooth yet and now this! The cutting edge of a mosasaur tooth Labial and mesial views Lingual and distal views Occlusal view As I fished it from the ground I was in awe by its morphology. The tooth has a strong labiolingual compression that had me thinking "dinosaur" for a split second. On the flattened distal carina are very subtle, but visible serrations. The enamel is extremely thin. On the labial side near to the mesial carina, there is a third well-defined carina that reaches a good ways up the tooth. The crown has a very slight labiolingual curvature reserved to the top of the tooth. Around the circumference are some "concave grooves" running longitudinally. I know mosasaurs were extremely diverse in the Maastrichtian, so there are a ton of possibilities. I did a little bit of searching and think it could maybe be Thalassotian atrox? Hopefully an expert or two can chime in here @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Praefectus @Jared C @PaleoPastels. (Also mosasaur peeps: keep scrolling down for more mosasaur stuff.) Feel free to tag anyone I missed. By now I had finished this outcrop and already downed 1 of my 2 water bottles. There was another larger exposure in the same site that I wanted to visit while my final bottle could last. As I made my way up, I found similar tumbled bivalves as before. Top L to R: Exogyra costata and Plicatula mullicaensis; Bot L to R: Gyrodes sp. and Trigonia castrovillensis? After some closer searching, I found little speckled pebbles that turned out to finally be some irregular echinoids. I guess the other outcrop didn't expose the layer they were coming from. These little guys were just about everywhere and in super good condition. I thought I had collected a ton of species, but looking at them after cleaning I think I only found the two most common. Still super neat to have Maastrichtian age urchins nonetheless. Top: Hemiaster bexari; Bot: Proraster dalli H. bexari with amazing detail Further up, I found the unmistakable texture of crustacean. It was undeniably Dakoticancer australis, but it had definitely seen better days. The elements split the carapace in half, so I tried my best to wrap it carefully. At some point I'll get to gluing it together and cleaning off the extra matrix. Dakoticancer australis carapace Throughout this entire second part of the hunt, I began to wonder more and more about that mosasaur tooth. Was it a fluke? Did some previous hunter drop a Moroccan specimen? I just had never heard of a mosasaur tooth reported from the Corsicana. As I jumped over a gully, a faint shimmer caught my eye and I began to feel deja vu. I squatted down and tried to rediscover whatever it was before I almost fell on my back. There it was, the biggest mosasaur crown I had ever found! HUGE Mosasaur washed out in the gully! Occlusal and basal views Labial and lingual views Distal view I didn't see any detectable serrations but they could be worn off. The cross-section to this robust tooth is circular with many concave grooves running longitudinally. There is a labiolingual curvature. The tip is missing, but I think it is from feeding damage. I would describe the enamel as moderate in thickness. I think it is "faceted", but I am having trouble telling facets and prism faces apart. Honestly, I don't even have a guess for this tooth . I'm not sure of what mosasaurs are even known to occur in the WIS during this time period. I was waiting for my alarm to wake me up at any second. TWO mosasaur teeth and I had yet to even find a shark tooth. Well, that streak came to an end soon after when I spotted a little Squalicorax lindstromi, Carcharias sp., and aff. Cretalamna sp. cusp in quick succession. Squalicorax lindstromi, Carcharias sp., and aff. Cretalamna sp. Finally, my bottle ran dry. I made a quick and early exit, saving the rest of the place for a future hunt. Hopefully the other formations go this smoothly! Thanks for reading

I recently saw a globular mosasaur tooth up for sale labelled as Globidens phosphaticus. I am conscious, however, that a number of teeth labelled as Globidens are in fact from Igdamanosaurus, Igdamanosaurus aegypticus in particular, so is this tooth actually a Globidens? Thanks in advance for any guidance Othniel

I have been debating a weighty decision to acquire this mosasaur skull, does this seem authentic to a more experienced eye?

Hello, everyone! Back in February I was hunting in the North Sulphur River, and I found a few fossils that I am curious about, as well as a broken artifact. If anyone could give me any insights on these pieces, I would be grateful! 1: Pictures 1-3 are of the artifact. 2: Pictures 4-6 are of a tooth. To me, it seems mor conical than a shark tooth, but it does have a flat part underneath. 3: Pictures 7-8 Unknown 4: Pictures 9-11 Unknown 5: Pictures 12-14 Unknown

I have often seen teeth for sale labelled as "Liodon anceps" and on occasion "Mosasaurus anceps". My understanding is that the genus is dubious, and I personally suspect most material labelled as Liodon is actually from a species of Prognathodon of some description, but I'm not sure the exact current state and would appreciate any guidance. Also, should this topic be in the wrong place, my apologies. Thanks in advance for any information Othniel

Hello @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon I will tag you here again because I have seen in other posts that you have some knowledge about this. In this big mosasaur jaw plate, as they normally do in Oued Zem, it's covered in white glue. I want to try to take out the white glue layer from the bones without touching the matrix. I have started doing it with a scalpel. But obviously is a lot of work, i have seen in another posts the recommendation of using acetone. If i use a cloth with acetone and just use brush the bones carefully will this work? Is there another way? And it's a good idea to remove the glue even if it's just from the bone? Should I try to apply another varnish like paraloid b-72? O I can leave the bone without anything?

I have this 3 mosasaur teeth form oued zem @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Praefectus. TOOTH 1: TOOTH 2: TOOTH 3: Just be general shape and size I guess all of them are thalassotitan, 1 being the most obvious one. But why 2 and 3 are more curved, it's because are probably from the back of the jaw? And why 3 doesn't have a mesial carina and the other two yes, also because of the position in the jaw? My general knowledge with thalassotitan is that as you go back in the jaw tooth appear to be more robust. But what about this other characteristics? Thanks!

I found what I think are some mosasaur parts in Maryland. The site I was looking is an ~80 MYO marine site in the severn formation in Prince George's county just outside of DC. Here are a few pictures of the best pieces - a big tooth, nice neural spine, and a smaller vert. Am I correct thinking this is mosasaur? If so, potentially either a Prognathodon or a Hoffmanni? These are not in the best state of preservation, but typical for this location.

Hello everyone! I'm new here and just a paleontology fan. I love Mosasaurs and I always wanted part of a jaw. I recently saw a post on a website that I'd purchased items before, so it is trusted by me. I found this mosasaur jaw at a very reasonable price but I doubt if it is 100% original or a composite. Size of jaw is 24 x 7 x 2,5 cm. Could someone help me decide whether or not to buy this piece? Thanks in advance (attached all the available photos) MVI_8930.mp4

Hi guys, I recently trade for these, and I was wondering if it was possible to assign them to a species thanks 1. 2. 3. looks like a bit of fish rostrum? 4. best preserved one, the enamel has regular flat edges, like a polygon I guess 4. enchodus libycus? thanks

So, some of y'all know I am obsessed with finding a mosasaur tooth. I found a new spot in Travis County that yielded some nice Eagle Ford stuff (ptychodus, scapanorynchus and ptychotrygon). It's probably a fish tooth, but MAYBE it's a tiny mosasaur?? I have consulted an "expert" (hehehe) we all know and love @Jared C and says 65% mosasaur. What do y'all think?? It's 1/4 inch.

Hello, I will tag you directly @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Praefectus. From this jaw which measurement should one take to estimate the full size of the specimen being this a thalassotitan atrox? I know head to body ratio of thalassotitan ies 1:8 more or less, what I am not sure is here which would be the correct measurement for the head size. From point A to B measures 135cm. Would this be the right measurement? Then full size 135*8/100= 10,8m more or less?

Hello , Is this a Mosasaur sp. Humerus ? Locality : Oued Zem (Morocco) , Basin Abdou Ouled formation . Thank you in advance

Hello everyone! This is a partial mosasaur jaw with other associated bones i found in the Early-Mid Campanian Woodbury Formation of New Jersey over the summer. One of my best finds to date.

Hey all! It's good to be back and writing a trip report again - I've certainly been busy this summer. As some of you may recall, my step brother and I found a basal mosasaur in September of 2021. I haven't spoken much about it publicly, but rest assured it hasn't been forgotten! Research and preparation of the specimen is reaching a fever pitch this summer, both of which I'm happy to say I'm actively involved in. The reason for the silence has been to avoid leaking details that might scoop our paper. However... This year at A&M I'm participating in a grant for science communication, and because of this I have permission to show a little more about our animal now, since it's research is the subject of my internship with SMU right now. So! What's been happening with the mosasaur since the last trip report of it (below)? Here is the very abbreviated continuation... January 2022: On a whim, I decided to return to the site - just in case we missed anything. It felt almost foolish to hope for more, considering we already had a significant amount of skull material and a few verts. I came in with no expectations. I did not take long to see more of the animal. I started working several feet away from the pit we had dug, with the idea to work inwards, but instead almost immediately found the terminal vertebrae of the tail.... in near perfect articulation Below: Four vertebrae with haemal arches locked together (several are shrouded by a white layer of paraloid b-72) Realizing what I had, I strenuously chopped a trench out around the block with three chisels and a rock hammer, then somehow lifted the entire thing and walked back the distance to my car. Here it sat below: One year later, these terminal verts were prepped. I think they are spectacular. Let's zoom back to the moment though... I realized we now had both ends of the animal - the back of the skull from September, and the end of the tail from today. Where was the middle? I called Christian (my step brother) and let him know what I found, telling him that we had to attack the site together again to see what more there could be. The following weekend we did just that, expanding our pit until eventually were were met with this sight: This was huge, and we realized we had potential for the entire animal being buried here now. I called up the researchers at SMU i had just connected with, and was instructed to glue the block back into place until a more formal excavation could carry out. Months pass. Multiple attempts at resuming the excavation professionally are made, each falling flat due to unlucky weather or last minute personal commitments. This string of bad luck continued until one day in October... October 2022 Realizing we might not reach years end with an excavation, the folks at SMU suggested I borrow some power tools for the weekend and conduct one on our own. Christian unfortunately couldn't make it, since he had just moved to Washington. Despite his absence, I constructed the best team I could think of.. @JohnJ, @LSCHNELLE, and my dad. For an entire day we happily slaved. I took absolute loads of photos and videos, to avoid the same configuration confusions the SMU folks and I have encountered already. John's experience is the stuff of folk legends, and he has performed many excavations on his own finds before, while Lee practically has Eagle Ford shale running through his veins. Their presence proved to be invaluable and I will never be able to thank them enough. It was an epic hail-mary to undertake in a single day, but we finally extracted the bulk of the animal in several large blocks. I still can't share photos of diagnostic bones, but here are some images from the day below: From left: My dad, John, and I making a trench. Below: An unusual symphyseal ptychodus tooth found while trenching: As the day neared an end, our pace picked up - we were on a serious time crunch and had to make it out of the site soon. With 30 minutes to spare, we all together lifted one of the final slabs and were met with a sight that can hardly be described with words... Lying before us was a pair of dentaries, in amazing condition apart from where the slab split them. Fortunately, the damage is not irreversible - the part and counter-part fit back together absolutely perfectly. Part and counter-part, below: The site, after the end of a long day. Four exhausted, fulfilled men walked away from here. Fast forward to this spring, were I got accepted in a science communication grant program, allowing me to take the research of this mosasaur to new levels with my mentor at SMU. By the end of the summer, we strive to have an abstract for our paper. The work is building to a breakneck pace, but I love and it's what I hoped for... until next time!

Hey all! It's good to be back and writing a trip report again - I've certainly been busy this summer. As some of you may recall, my step brother and I found a basal mosasaur in September of 2021. I haven't spoken much about it publicly, but rest assured it hasn't been forgotten! Research and preparation of the specimen is reaching a fever pitch this summer, both of which I'm happy to say I'm actively involved in. The reason for the silence has been to avoid leaking details that might scoop our paper. However... This year at A&M I'm participating in a grant for science communication, and because of this I have permission to show a little more about our animal now, since it's research is the subject of my internship with SMU right now. So! What's been happening with the mosasaur since the last trip report of it (below)? Here is the very abbreviated continuation... January 2022: On a whim, I decided to return to the site - just in case we missed anything. It felt almost foolish to hope for more, considering we already had a significant amount of skull material and a few verts. I came in with no expectations. I did not take long to see more of the animal. I started working several feet away from the pit we had dug, with the idea to work inwards, but instead almost immediately found the terminal vertebrae of the tail.... in near perfect articulation Below: Four vertebrae with haemal arches locked together (several are shrouded by a white layer of paraloid b-72) Realizing what I had, I strenuously chopped a trench out around the block with three chisels and a rock hammer, then somehow lifted the entire thing and walked back the distance to my car. Here it sat below: One year later, these terminal verts were prepped. I think they are spectacular. Let's zoom back to the moment though... I realized we now had both ends of the animal - the back of the skull from September, and the end of the tail from today. Where was the middle? I called Christian (my step brother) and let him know what I found, telling him that we had to attack the site together again to see what more there could be. The following weekend we did just that, expanding our pit until eventually were were met with this sight: This was huge, and we realized we had potential for the entire animal being buried here now. I called up the researchers at SMU i had just connected with, and was instructed to glue the block back into place until a more formal excavation could carry out. Months pass. Multiple attempts at resuming the excavation professionally are made, each falling flat due to unlucky weather or last minute personal commitments. This string of bad luck continued until one day in October... October 2022 Realizing we might not reach years end with an excavation, the folks at SMU suggested I borrow some power tools for the weekend and conduct one on our own. Christian unfortunately couldn't make it, since he had just moved to Washington. Despite his absence, I constructed the best team I could think of.. @JohnJ, @LSCHNELLE, and my dad. For an entire day we happily slaved. I took absolute loads of photos and videos, to avoid the same configuration confusions the SMU folks and I have encountered already. John's experience is the stuff of folk legends, and he has performed many excavations on his own finds before, while Lee practically has Eagle Ford shale running through his veins. Their presence proved to be invaluable and I will never be able to thank them enough. It was an epic hail-mary to undertake in a single day, but we finally extracted the bulk of the animal in several large blocks. I still can't share photos of diagnostic bones, but here are some images from the day below: From left: My dad, John, and I making a trench. Below: An unusual symphyseal ptychodus tooth found while trenching: As the day neared an end, our pace picked up - we were on a serious time crunch and had to make it out of the site soon. With 30 minutes to spare, we all together lifted one of the final slabs and were met with a sight that can hardly be described with words... Lying before us was a pair of dentaries, in amazing condition apart from where the slab split them. Fortunately, the damage is not irreversible - the part and counter-part fit back together absolutely perfectly. Part and counter-part, below: The site, after the end of a long day. Four exhausted, fulfilled men walked away from here. Fast forward to this spring, were I got accepted in a science communication grant program, allowing me to take the research of this mosasaur to new levels with my mentor at SMU. By the end of the summer, we strive to have an abstract for our paper. The work is building to a breakneck pace, but I love and it's what I hoped for... until next time!

Hello, I am trying to ID the parts of this mosasaur jaw. As it has the exploded look, in the posterior part of the jaw I have different hypothesis that I wanted to share with you. So this is the jaw: It comes from Oued Zem and it measures 135cm across and with the morphology of the teeth it's a thalassotitan atrox. I will be comparing this with the figure of the Thalassotitan atrox paper from Longrich et al. This is the figure of the lower jaws: So, this is the IDs that I am pretty sure about: Now let's focus on the posterior part: Here I have various Hypothesis. Hypothesis 1: Ok, from what I can see, the break line between the surangular part and the articular/angular part, I think it's natural and not exploded, so this is why I think that the surangular might end there. The part where I am not sure, is the articular if it ends before what I have marked here (you will see this in other hypothesis). Because the last part of the bone has this hole that I can't be sure what is it. Hypothesis 2: The angular and articular are completely lost and everything is surangular. I am not convinced about his because As I said before, the separation between the potential angular/articular and surangular is natural. Hypothesis 3: Same as the first one but the last chunk is a different bone. I am debating between the first and the third. Here you have some closeups about this weird bone with a hole. Thanks for your time!

Found these at Greens Mill Run last week, first ever ecphoras! The whale cervical vert. is ~ six inches from left to right, it's fairly beat up. The mosasaur tooth is pretty worn too, but the articulated scallop was nice.

Found on an island in the Canadian Arctic. I think it's a Mosasaur tooth, but I'm really a newbie at this. The whole piece is about 3 inches in length. Thanks for any help!

Hey everyone, I've been looking at this Mosasaur for sale online and it looks alright. the skull is a bit flattened and the detailing is not great however it also has a very good price. Does this look genuine to you all? The seller claims its 100% complete with 70% the same skeleton and the rest from various other finds all from Morocco. Thank you for all your input! photos here:

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! I wanted to ask you IDs for these two teeth I have in my collection. These two fossils are from Oulad Abdoun Basin in Morocco. Thank you!

Tooth found yesterday (16 June 2023) at Big Brook Preserve, NJ. I am pretty sure it is a Mosasaur tooth.

With my limited time in North Texas before my move south, I decided to revisit my favorite sites as opposed to scouting new ones. The NSR is a classic locality, but I had never actually gotten to check out the famed red zone for myself. Yesterday, I made the drive to the fossil park. I was supposed to hunt with a couple others, but it unexpectedly turned into a solo hunt. I won't complain though. The vast river emanates a magical aura that is uniquely felt when you're exploring on your own. The primary goal of the day was to snag a decent specimen of the red zone ammonite, Trachyscaphites spiniger! In an attempt to beat out the stiff hunting competition and high afternoon temps, I arrived to the site in the early hours around seven. Unsurprisingly, I was far from being the first car in the lot. As luck would have it though, none of the people there before me had their sights set on the distant red zone exposures. It's a long and taxing trip that only so many people (the crazy ones) are willing to undertake. After crossing under the 2990 bridge, I took in the view and tried to visualize where the destination might be. It was quite daunting, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Red Zone Road It was gonna take a lot of walking to reach the mouths of the red zone creeks, so I tried to keep the gravel hunting minimal along the way. Nevertheless, my eyes were still scanning the ground around me and the vigilance steadily began to pay off. After a few Enchodus fangs and a Carcharias holmdelensis tooth, I came across the first prize of the day. Cemented together in red zone matrix was a mass of turtle shell that I had never before seen a similar specimen of. It has some good weight to it and cool three dimensional character. I don't know enough to identify it to a genus assuming that's even possible. I believe Archelon and Ctenochelys are known from the NSR as well as other genera I'm sure. Articulated turtle shell fragments in red zone matrix Some time later, I came across an interesting bone fragment that I don't have much of a clue about. The texture seems like fish. It has pronounced ridges running longitudinally and a U-shaped spongy cross section. I held onto it in case it might be something cool. Mystery bone Here and there I came across various red zone ammonite chunks to whet my appetite. None of them were keepers in part because I had high hopes for what lay ahead. Maintaining my steady pace brought me to the mouth of the first creek I had circled. Yesterday's 25 foot rise was still draining and the sound of rushing water filled the air with occasional thuds from falling shales. In the high cliffs I could see a distinct red band of matrix slicing through the grey shales. Tracing it with my eyes, I followed the line upstream until it was within reach. It was absolutely filled with phosphate chunks and nacre-covered Baculites. After a short time, I locked onto a Trachyschaphites that was just poking out. Excitedly, I threw out my tools and began excavating. My enthusiasm was quickly washed away as I realized the chunk sticking out was just a chunk. This sequence of events repeated itself along the entirety of the creek and before I knew it, I was exiting with a bag of assorted Trachyscaphites pieces. The only interesting things to show were a beat up red zone mosasaur vert and some snails. Red zone mosasaur vert Gastropods from the red zone Now the temps had crossed into the 90s and beads of sweat were covering my face. Wanting to take a break from the red zone, I began a thorough search through the massive gravel bar outside the creek. It took awhile to warm up my hunting goggles, but eventually I spotted the first keeper of the bar: A big ole worn mosasaur tooth. Sadly, it was sliced in half and had chunks busted out of it. Not too long after, though, I got it a smaller, much more complete friend. Likely Tylosaurus proriger After these mosasaur teeth, I scored what I like to call a "pseudo-mosasaur" or its other name, Pachyrhizodus. It was pretty easy to spot the difference since a little bit of bone was attached beneath the crown. Still a cool little fish tooth. Pachyrhizodus I'm not very good at spotting artifacts despite having spent many hours in the creeks of Austin. Now and again though, I manage to blindly stumble my way into a killer point or two. Wedged into the sand beneath the receding waters, was the unmistakable base of a Gary. Haven't found one of these before, so I was pretty happy to add this NSR classic to my collection. Gary in situ Gary point The last and most interesting find of the bar was a huge chunk of Xiphactinus jaw! It seems to match up exactly with the very distal end of the lower jaw. Within two matrix-filled tooth sockets are a couple of emerging teeth. Distal end of a Xiphactinus lower jaw with a couple of teeth. Finally, it was time to set my sights on the creek across the river. To my knowledge it doesn't have a name as it is quite small. The disappointment of my previous red zone expedition set my hopes low. Although the tree cover was nice, with it came swarms of mosquitos and some sort of biting fly. I spent most of my walk through it flailing my arms trying not to become a walking buffet. The red zone was much better exposed and I quickly spotted a couple of Squalicorax that sadly weren't keepers. There were many Trachyscaphites fragments to waste my time, but at long last I ran into exactly what I was looking for! With careful swings, I worked the heteromorph out of the shale and quickly stored it safely in its own private Ziploc bag. With the primary objective met, it was time to quickly evacuate the mosquito hellhole and return to the safety of the sweltering sun. Trachyscaphites spiniger heteromorph (my favorite ammonite). There is a significant crack that hasn't completely split. Hopefully the b72 will hold. It was about 4 pm and I was close to my limit. There was another spot further ahead known for arrowheads that I wanted to see, but I was saving that for the people I was intending to meet (no cell service so I didn't know plans had changed). It became apparent no one was coming, so I gathered my bucket and pack for the long trek home. The adrenaline of fossil hunting had definitely carried me through the day. The river now seemed endless and every step of foot sucking mud taxed me more and more. After retracing my route at home, it seems I river walked at least 5 miles! As I crawled into my blistering hot car, I told myself one red zone hunt was enough for the rest of my life. But after a good night's rest and cataloguing my finds, I'm ready to go again . I guess we'll see how I feel next summer. Thanks for reading!