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Showing results for tags 'south dakota'.
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Day 2 of our exploration trip, this time we were exploring a ranch in the Pierre shale. This was a massive ranch which Walter had done a small amount of exploration years ago. The 3 teams split up again, and my group went to the farthest north of the ranch to begin. This required miles of off-road driving. Its incredible how much area some of these ranches contain! Even though we spent about an hour searching, we didnt find any fossils, although my son and I found 2 arrowheads. I was happy with those, as they were the first ones I have ever found. We moved on to another area and spent a couple more hours searching. There was a lot more exposure at this site and we began to find some scattered broken concretions and bits of bivalves, ammonites and baculites but it wasnt anything great, so then we moved on to a 3rd site (which of course was on the path we already took in). Here we began finding a lot more. There were concretions of shell conglomerate spread around, and many partials of ammonites on the surface. We picked up a lot of concretions to prep at home, broke open a few in the field, and this is where we found our first ammonite. Its small, but its a first. We also managed to find a couple sections of what is likely Baculites Grandis My son seems to have a knack for finding pointy things, either teeth or points. He managed to find a 3rd arrowhead at this last site! Walter was really hoping that we would find a Mosasaur weathering out, but we didnt do too bad. I still have a bucket full of concretions to explore.
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Day 4 was a special treat! Neal Larson came to the field station to give a brief talk on Ammonites, Baculites, and the Pierre shale formation. Then we loaded up and went to hunt Neal's own site, and OMG what a site it is! The only description that came to mind was "an embarrassment of riches". From the instant we stepped out of our cars, we were walking on baculites! The ground was covered with them. It wasnt about being able to find, it was just a search for quality. Neal had a goal for this hunt, and that was to find a Baculites with the jaws still in the chamber. For all his hunting, he still did not have an example in his collection. Sure enough, the person who found the pachy dome the day before, found a bacy with jaws for Neal! Its not real clear in this pic, but this is Neal holding his new prize. I took pics of the baculites covering the ground, but it seems to have disappeared from my phone. I do have a pic of some as we were cleaning them last night. The 2 biggest are almost 2 foot long and had to be excavated. Even still in the matrix they are broken, so I will be doing some prep work on these. I also plan on polishing some of the small sections, and some only need some consolidate.
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For day 3, it was decided to go back to the Deers Ears butte. Everyone was sore and worn out from 2 days of hiking, so a chance to stay in a single spot and dig would be a chance to rest. My team went to the Tooth Draw quarry, the others went to other sites, including one new one. The day started pretty slow, but then mid afternoon my son uncovered a tooth (havent determined T.Rex or Nano). I was so proud of him, he did an expert job in recovery. The tip was broken insitu and could have been easily separated or lost, but he was slow, careful and judicious with the paleobond and got the tooth out whole. Now I need to find my photo scale to count serrations. This tooth has a lot of wear but there should be enough left to make a good count. Within half an hour, 2 more Rex teeth were uncovered by other diggers. Another storm was building and there was worry we would have to jump and run again, so those with finds were trying to get them out quickly. I began packing up my gear but the storm blew past us to the south, so we went back to digging. That was when my son found a Pachycephalosaur hornlet! It was kind of funny because at first it looked like just another BOB, but as my son scraped away some more matrix from it he said "Its got a weird wrinkled texture." When I looked at it close I yelled " I know what that is!!" For those unfamiliar, Pachy material is VERY limited, so this piece is going to be made available for research and study. As rare as this little find was, it would be dwarfed by a find from another group that day. Someone found a Pachy skull dome at one of the new sites! I was hoping Walter would be so excited that he would prep it out that night, but he had other things that needed attention, so we only got to see the dome. Any attached hornlets were still in the matrix block. Hoping that he posts some prepped pics soon! So 2 more good finds from my son, but I struck out this day.
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What a trip my son and I had this year! We started out in the Hell Creek fm of South Dakota. This was a special trip through Paleo Adventures for his "veteran" guests who have already spent a few years with him and could operate without supervision. We started out hunting a new ranch. This property is virgin ground with LOTS of acreage that needed exploration. The group was split into 3 teams, each taking a different area. Our team was further split into pairs. So, it was my son and me, exploring for new outcrops. The sun was intense, the temperature hot, and hours of hiking and staring intently at the ground for float and possibly something sticking out of a wall. Eventually we worked our way down into a draw and found an ironstone layer. Closer inspection revealed a large amount of fossil material. There were bits of turtle shell, croc scutes and small bone bits all throughout. The only complete bone was this distal caudal vert my son found. The sight was thus named "Mitchells Micro Site". We bagged a selection for further study, marked the location and continued on. From the draw, we worked our way up to the main butte. Another pair was investigating the east side, so we began working the west side. Only a few minutes later I spotted a small sun faded bit of float. I began looking up the slope and saw another, and another. As I climbed the side it was obvious that I was on a hot trail, and then I found it, a bone sticking out of the wall, just below the surface. Sadly, the only thing left was about the last 8 inches of the bone (like Edmontosaur), and its full of root rot so the prep is going to be ugly. Just around the corner I followed more float down the slope and found an Ed vert centrum in the wash. The processes are gone, but surprisingly the broken edge seen in the pic, was laying on the surface up-slope, so its reattached and the prep has begun. Walter's team found a large surface exposure, about half a mile away and determined that my Ed finds, and another team's finds were all the same horizon of large multitaxic bone bed. My son ended up finding a nannotyranus tooth in the large exposure site, the only tooth found there that day. And then a call came across the radio "we've got 11 vertebrae in the wall and they just keep popping out". Of course, everyone went to check it out! It appears to be a juvenile Ed. with caudal verts exposed so far, but Walter is hopeful the most of it is still in the ground. Even though it was already late in the afternoon, I'm sure we would have stayed on the site much longer but a wicked looking storm was building fast and moving our way. So the race was on to recover what was exposed so far and get out while the getting was good. We barely got out too. As soon as we got to the pavement, I could see a lowering coming down from the storm, and it wasnt much longer someone said they could see it sucking dirt up. The last place I want to be during a tornado is in the middle of the prairie and stuck in bentonite. So that was the end of the first day. We headed back to town tired, sweaty, but ecstatic after an incredibly successful day.
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Just returned from collecting trip to my usual Edmontosaurus bonebed site in South Dakota. It was one of the worst weather trips over the years I've been collecting with daily AIR temps between 90 to 102 degrees F and winds typically in the 25 mph range and some days gusts hit 40mph. Temps on the bluff were much higher and the winds limited our use of tents so we were constantly blasted with sand and sun. The good news was no rain so despite the hardships one could collect. We targeted getting to the site by 6am and gave up around 2pm. I pass through Hill City, SD to get to our hotel in Belle Fouche so I stopped at my prep person to pick up some finished bones from previous trips. A juvenile (still big) jaw its about 22 inches long (55cm) Collected in 2019 , covid delayed preparation A rare baby jaw a bit smaller than the baby one I found in 2019. This one collected in Sept 2020. About 11.5 inches long (30 cm) A nice jugal 13 inches wide I've posted pictures of the site several times and can be seen on my other trip reports in September and June so I will pass on this report.. We constantly get visitors, lots of snakes in Sept but none this time of the year. This group of yearlings were very interested in what's was going on Baby Toads? were everywhere this year My best find of the trip and pretty cool is what I believe is a Troodontid metatarsal IV. I showed Walter Stein and he agreed and had two in his collection which were a match. It also compared well with the New Mexico's Troodontid Talos. It was not found in the Edmontosaurus bonebed deposit but a Lag deposit that sits on top of it. Very brittle bones and nothing is complete in this layer. Its around 6" long. My most unusual find of the trip is this bone. The wide end is 6" across. Our guess was that it's a pathologic toe bone. I shared the photos with Pete Larsen and he said "weird" but one of the possibilities is digit III phalanx 1 toe bone. Have to clean it up to see if it tells us any more. My largest find is this juvenile tibia, 34" long. I don't like big bones but it was ideal to collect and a keeper. I found it during my Sept 2020 trip and prepared the exposed end to handle the winter. Looked great so proceeded to extract it. Undercutting bone, pedestal to be able to apply plaster cast Plaster jacket using burlap and wood stick Flipped - all good ready to go home
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Need some help identifying a fossil. This was found in Pennington co. South Dakota near the Indian creek basin. It was found in an area with many titanotherium fossils. I believe it is embedded in bone as well. Not sure what other info would be helpful so please ask.
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Edmontosaurus Astragalus from Hell Creek, South Dakota
TeethCollector posted a topic in Member Collections
I want to share a nice Astragalus of an Edmontosaurus, from Tooth Draw Quarry, Hell Creek Formation, South Dakota. According to the shape of the fossil, I guess this is from left leg of the Edmontosaurus.
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Recently found this on a buddy’s ranch in South Dakota. Approx 1 3/4” long. Any ideas??
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Ammonite sites in Montana, Wyoming, North & South Dakota!
PrehistoricWonders posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Hey everyone! I know it’s a long shot, but I’m currently in Montana and will be for abt 1 1/2 more days, and was wondering if anyone had any ammonite sites in Montana, South and North Dakota, or Wyoming, I’d be willing to trade a spot, or take whomever it was out to Ernst quarries, or trade fossils for the site, if anyone’s interested in that, please let me know. -
I will warn you all now that this is a photo heavy post, especially for The Mammoth Site. I wanted anyone to see everything that I was able to since they might not get there on their own. I'll start with The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota. It's still an active paleontological site that was first discovered in 1974 while building for a housing development. The story of how the site came to be can be found on mammothsite.org. Please forgive my succinct description, my family has been driving around for several days and we're tired. I'm happy to try to answer any questions though! More photos to come.
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I have here three verts from the Hell Creek of Harding County, South Dakota. They were sold as dinosaur. I'm wondering if it's possible to narrow it down further than that. This one is 2.13" long and 1.89" wide
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The virus put a damper on my Spring dinosaur collecting trip but I was able to get a partial one in for the Fall. I was able to spend several days at my usual Edmontosaurs bonebed but unfortunately only one day at a channel deposit in Montana where theropod/mammal material can be found. Hopefully next year will be more normal, Hopefully. Quite a few new members since my last trip so I will get into more specifics to get them a view of how I collect this material. First let me share with you a view of the collecting area and the LOCAL wildlife that we deal with on a daily basis. The area in Montana is very remote no phone or internet The badlands where we collect in South Dakota The most beautiful critter that we see everywhere on these sites and all over the west is the Pronghorn. At this time of the year we typically see a small herd with a bull and his harem. For those of you not familiar with a Pronghorn its the fastest animal in the western hemisphere able to achieve speeds in excess of 50 mph (80 km/h) Mule deer are ever present and very dangerous if you are driving when dark The site is located on edge of cliff and over the years lots of holes and cavities have been created by erosion creating a wonderful winter den area for the local snakes. So during our fall trip its not uncommon to have visitors slither by us and of course wishing us good luck by waving their tongue Here are some we have seen this season: The only dangerous one is the Prairie Rattler but they typically are not interested in bothering us. You just have to watch where you are walking. Being from Arizona its normal... The Western Ribbon Snake The Yellow belly Racer The Prairie Bullsnake We do have more cuties' Tiger Salamander after a rainfall On to collecting Other than a pick and shovel these are the tools I use 90% of the time to collect I use two glues, Paleobond field prep and stabilizer. The latter on teeth and when I need a very strong deep bond. Harder to prep with PB002 so its only used when needed. For wrapping the bones Heavy duty aluminum foil does the trick where minimal support is needed . Where additional support is needed on large bones we use burlap and plaster. However plaster cloth like the one in the photo works most of the time and is a heck easier to use than burlap
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Hi everyone! I have a large claw from the Hell Creek Formation of Harding County, South Dakota that I was hoping to have help identifying. It is large enough that I initially believed it stood a chance at being tyrannosaurid, but it seems a bit more compressed than tyrannosaur claws I’ve worked with in the past - particularly on the lower ridge. The ventral surface of the claw is also distinctly flat rather than rounded, which seems unusual. Could this be a Dakotaraptor claw or is that just wishful thinking? Large Anzu perhaps? It is right around 1.75 inches across the length of the claw (sorry, no metrics on this ruler). I have referred to the incredible guide posted by Troodon, and have some experience with various claws, but I still can’t quite come to a conclusion on this one. What are your thoughts? Thanks in advance!
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Found near Lake Vermillion, SD. It's a very nice impression. Would just like help with an ID please and thank you.
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The skull of any dinosaur is composed of many different elements. When I go collecting in an Edmontosaurus bonebed one never finds a skull but the elements that make up one up. Like to use this topic to share the complexity and variety of some of the elements I have collected. I do not have many but will post the ones I have and will continue to add as I prep or find them. Of course if anyone sees any discrepancies please feel to comment and like to thank Olof (LordTrilobite) in the ID of some. Skull still in a jacket not from my usual bonebed but one can see it all together. One day I'll get it mounted. To aid in identification of where SOME these elements are located have this illustration that comes from Marsh's 1893 This is a Saurolophus skull but elements are the same QJ: Quadrotojugal PMX: Premaxilla L: Lacrimal SA: Surangular SQ: Squamosal PO: Postorbital EO: Exoccipital Dentary (Less Teeth ) The Maxilla Surangular Squamosal Quadrotojugal Exoccipital Quadrate \ Splenial
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My wife and I went on a 7500+ mile ramble to break out of our COVID doldrums. Due to the virus we had to change up many of our original plans... which conversely added a number of additional fossil hunting locals as they allowed us to mostly avoid our fellow humans and maintain social distancing by many many miles. As part of our trip preparations my wife sewed us a number of masks, including a whole series of fossil hunting masks for me. Originally we were supposed to stay in Chicago, but we elected to avoid staying in the city, so we only got to do a drive by We started the trip with a bonus dig, meeting up with fellow forum member @minnbuckeye for a guided Ordovician hunt in Fennimore, Wisconsin (THANKS MIKE!) Unfortunately I neglected to take pics of the site so I will only be able to share a farm pic we passed on the way. Mike was a gracious host who kicked off the visit with a gift of several fossil samples from his home turf As with all of the fossils from this trip, all finds are as they arrived back home, no prep. Some of our finds from Fennimore:
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Good morning folks. I have a fossil Stylemys nebrascensis(?) turtle from the White River Badlands of South Dakota. I noticed what "appears" to be bite marks on both the top and bottom of the shell after I removed a layer of matrix. I carefully washed it with a medium bristle, plastic brush and Dawn Dishwashing liquid. What are your thoughts on the "marks"?
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I was very happy to see that recent publication that finally described the youngest known alvarezsurid Trierarchuncus prairiensis from the Hell Creek Formation. Material is rare but is most commonly overlooked and described as Croc or unknown theropod so knowing what to look for helps. I'm constantly on the lookout for this material and have been for years and have been fortunate to either find it or be able to acquire it over time. I used publications of other Alvarezsauridae like the Asian Mononykus and Canadian Albertonykus to help in the identification of my specimens. The paper is pay-walled but I included it for reference purposes. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195667120302469?via%3Dihub Extremely rare associated material found in SD
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Does anyone else see tooth here? Kind of going back-and-forth between tooth and bone on this one.Found in South central South Dakota. @Harry Pristis
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Shell preservation complete with mouth aperture.
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Hi all! Found this outside of Scenic, South Dakota, USA near Badlands National Park (near a stream bed). I picked it up assuming it was petrified wood, but on closer inspection it looks like it may be something else. The stippled, cell-like pattern of the cross-section reminds me a little of coral. Thanks for your ideas!
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Hey all! Found this mystery object outside of Scenic, South Dakota, USA, near Badlands National Park. The texture and shape made me suspicious of bone, but it could also just be an oddly shaped rock. Haven't done enough fossil hunting in the area to feel confident either way. Thanks for any insights!
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Yes, that title is correct I finally got my video finished and uploaded from last year's trip to South Dakota. This is a trip my son and I started making back in 2009 when he was 8 years old. Its always a fun time, with road trips and tourist trap stops, camping, exploring on top of the fossil hunt. The trip was awesome with us digging at a new quarry wall, lots of great fossils, but my gopro overheated a couple times and ate some of my footage. So I ended up putting this video edit on hold while I tried to decide what direction to take, and then I started prepping, and then I wanted to wait until I had the biggest pieces finished out to show.
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