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There I was pulling up to this building Tuesday morning, about to have a meeting with the State Geologist Ronald Zurawski. Traveling there, all I used to go off of was the address, so you can imagine my surprise when I find out I'm parking in Beside the Tennessee Supreme Court, and this huge building is the place that I have a meeting in...then I find out it's on the 12 floor or course. There I am pulling up with a wooden crate full of material, and 2 extra large specimens. I know I had 100 pd. Anyway... After two breaks, I made it through the front door where the security guard helped me place it on the desk. There I meet Ron for the first time, what a outstanding person. I was impressed with his charisma. A wheelchair being there, it was used for a makeshift transport to the top. Ended up using a dolly to bring the material back down and to the car. There on the 12 th floor in the only empty office I saw, I began submitting a large part of my collection for viewing. The meeting began with Ron and Vince Antonacci, the Geologist for West Tennessee, by about the 3rd bone to come out of the box, they were already leaving the room and calling others to come view this material. Many were available, some weren't. Rounding it up, I spent the next 6 hours there. Talking, answering questions, and asking questions of my own. I stood the entire time. I met more Geologists than I've ever seen under one roof that day. At the end of the day when the material had been viewed very closely, I still had at least 3 specimens that defy identification. No one has ever saw anything like them before and they have certainly become very problematic to me. At some point, one of them returned with 2 publications in hand. One was a classic publication by Ernest Russell that I tried to buy on the spot, I was later given a free copy autographed by the State Geologist. The other was an actual 1926 edition of Bruce Wade's report on the Coon Creek....I could hardly believe my eyes! Met a lot of wonderful people, and was even taken to the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation's office for an introduction,but he wasn't in.( He answers to the Governor.) I did however meet the Deputy Commissioner. (!) I'm even now preparing to write some things with Vince, the Geologist in charge of West Tennessee, which is a truly wonderful opportunity, I feel so blessed. HalleluYAH. I presented bones, teeth, a few minerals, Large Amber specimens, Amber with inclusions, other paleobotanical, and unidentified material. The topics were varied and fascinating, but what really won the day in the Division of Geology was the Cretaceous bone material. Thinking back on it now, I'm not sure the meeting could have actually went any better! Feeling blessed.

Here is a very large tooth i found about 2-3 weeks back. It was found in this state of decay, and even though it looks bad, i'm actually impressed that i was able to save and preserve as much of this specimen as i did. The tooth was practically falling to pieces when found, just geting it back to the lab was almost impossible, then trying to extract it from the ferrocrete matrix was right at hopeless!....i layered it with hardner as i cleaned some matrix away...slowly, alittle at a time...still, some was lost and this was simply the best that could be done to save what bit of the tooth i could. With that being said, i wouldn't be a bit suprised if it is in such a state that it can't now be identified! I'm hoping though that someone can give an i.d. This tooth may be ugly, but what i had to go through to get it, i'm very proud of it. i can only guess at how much was already missing by the time i found it....it seems to have been about a 1/2 inch in diameter (or a hair more) in cross section at the base originally. This tooth does compare favorably w/ another Mosasaur tooth i have, but i'd like the opinions of anyone else i could get please, cause i'm not certain what mouth it came out of. I will also attach an "in situ" of the tooth to show what a job i was in for. Thanks for anything you all may be able to tell me about it. It's Late Cretaceous, Campanian.