First time hunting on my own

[hadrosauridae]

I just wanted to share my joy at my first successful hunt!  Now I have been picking up and excavating fossils my whole life but its always been quarried stone searching or someone elses established site.  For those remember one of my earlier threads, this year I set out to find MY OWN SITE!  Oklahoma (especially northwest/central OK) is not known well for fossils.  But I set out and began researching and reading and mapping, then I began driving mile after mile of back-roads searching the outcrops and road cuts.

 

2 months ago I found a site that looked promising, but weather kept me away.  A few days ago I went and spoke with the land owner who gave me the green light.  Walking, searching, kneeling, scraping, brushing, sunburn (on an abnormally hot day!) without finding anything.  Finally, I flipped a large slab and a spot immediately grabbed my attention!  It wasnt really a change in color, it was the change in texture that caught my eye. Now this was a small fossil in a BIG slab.  Its more than 2ft x 2ft and has to weigh close to 75 lbs.  I didnt have a 2-wheel dolly with me and I wasnt about to break the slab, so I had to carry that thing back down the bluff and to my truck.  But I'm glad I did!

 

 

My first thought was that it was a bit of turtle plastron, but after clearing a little bit of matrix I wasnt sure any more.  A paleontologist friend told me he thought it was a skull section!  Only in my wildest dreams did I imagine finding vertebrate material on my first hunt!  I have emailed the local college paleo dept and I'm waiting to hear back on their opinion. 

 

 

Beyond the skull piece, there is another long, thin fossil with the same color and texture as the skull piece but I'm not sure what it is.  Its extremely fragile so I've stopped working on it and began working my way through the rest of the matrix to search for more vert material.  While prepping today I came across a new first (and big thanks to @Troodon for the ID ).  It a 4mm tooth from a fresh/brackish water shark called othacanthus.  

 

 

 

The biggest problem is with the rock itself.  Its some kind of mudstone/conglomerate/limestone/caliche hybrid and the layer is only a few inches thick.  I went back yesterday to search for more and didnt find anything visible on the rock surfaces.  Unfortunately there is obviously going to be a lot of fossils that cant be seen in the field.  So my only option may be to just dig out one slab at a time and work through it for fossils.  I have a test chunk in a container with vinegar to see if this is going to be an acceptable way to speed thing up.  I feel pretty sure the skull piece is silicified, but its another thing to check. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I'm very glad that your dedication paid off.

Congratulations. 

[Fossildude19]

Congratulations on the successful first hunt.   

 

[Troodon]

Nice work and definitely a skull element. 

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Congrats. It's sooooo satisfying when the research and the footwork pay off, ain't it?

[hadrosauridae]

17 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

I'm very glad that your dedication paid off.

Congratulations. 

 

17 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Congratulations on the successful first hunt.   

 

 

8 hours ago, Troodon said:

Nice work and definitely a skull element. 

 

 

21 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Congrats. It's sooooo satisfying when the research and the footwork pay off, ain't it?

Thank you all, and yes.  I never imagined I would have a personal fossil quarry.  To think I was looking for a layer with bugs and leaves.  I still want to find that layer too.

[Monica]

WOW!  Congrats on a very successful first solo hunt!  Good luck on the prepping of your wonderful find! 

[Ludwigia]

Congrats! Now the bug has really bitten you, eh?

[FossilNerd]

Congratulations! It’s extra rewarding when your own research and hard work pays off on a hunting site. Good job! 

[Ash]

Congrats! May I suggest informing Sam Noble Museum if this is an unknown site?

[Uncle Siphuncle]

That's a killer story that resonates with me, as it illustrates, once again, that "To the motivated go the spoils."  I've been doing exactly what you did for 17 or 18 years, and now my personal log has 948 sites, mostly self found.  I have made some good sites known to science, and shown a great many more to trusted buddies, but often it is best to keep the information  on a short leash, shielded from public view until you have adequately compensated yourself with a fair and equitable "finder's fee". 

 

But most importantly, please realize that the landowner granted permission to you on an individual basis, and may not be as excited about groups of any size coming in with you.  I have had decent success by tacitly ascertaining the landowner's tolerance to the intrusion, then operating below that threshold so as not to make him/her regret the magnanimous permission granted. 

 

This is simply my own perspective, which you are free to consider or disregard at your discretion, as you worked hard to gain inroads, and are now a steward of the site and to some degree, its future.

[hadrosauridae]

I'd like to give an update on this piece.  I believe I have a positive ID for the skull frag.  It looks to be the tetrapod Trimerorhachis.  This makes sense as it apparently the most common of the Oklahoma Wellington fm.  Think of trimerorhachis as a 3 foot long salamander.  My fossil orientation is likely the interior, so the normal texturing isnt visible.  I think I have a match to the skull image and it seem a perfect match along suture lines.  There is a tiny frag of of bone visible, even in the original pics, that matches exactly where the front of the orbit should be, but with the orientation and rock shape, I think its just going to be a tiny sliver remnant, with no other attachment.   In my matrix clearing so far, I also found what looks like a large fish scale (about the size of a thumbnail), and these things were apparently covered in multiple layer of them so I might have one of those also.  Still have a LOT of this rock to work on so I'm hoping there is more of the left side and maybe rear of the skull buried.

Thanks to Danny Barta of OKState paleo lab for the help in this.

[hadrosauridae]

11 hours ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

That's a killer story that resonates with me, as it illustrates, once again, that "To the motivated go the spoils."  I've been doing exactly what you did for 17 or 18 years, and now my personal log has 948 sites, mostly self found.  I have made some good sites known to science, and shown a great many more to trusted buddies, but often it is best to keep the information  on a short leash, shielded from public view until you have adequately compensated yourself with a fair and equitable "finder's fee". 

 

But most importantly, please realize that the landowner granted permission to you on an individual basis, and may not be as excited about groups of any size coming in with you.  I have had decent success by tacitly ascertaining the landowner's tolerance to the intrusion, then operating below that threshold so as not to make him/her regret the magnanimous permission granted. 

 

This is simply my own perspective, which you are free to consider or disregard at your discretion, as you worked hard to gain inroads, and are now a steward of the site and to some degree, its future.

Disregard? Not a chance I would ignore such sage advice!  On my second trip, the owners also offered me access to the outcrop next to the pond beside their house. My search of the land status also shows that they own the entire square mile and there is another well defined outcrop on the opposite end.  SO, despite how tough the matrix is to work, I think I have a LOT of potential here.

[jpc]

Very exciting!  I htink your ID is pretty spot on.  Good work.