Prospecting the San Juan Basin

[PFOOLEY]

 

Figure 6 from: Shimada (2012), Dentition of Late Cretaceous Shark, Ptychodus mortoni (Elasmobranchii, Ptychodontidae)

[PFOOLEY]

With the days getting shorter by the minute, @Opuntia and I decided to make the haul up to the Kirtland/Fruitland for a prospecting trip.

 

Our destination...The Farmington Member of the Kirtland...

 

 

...which is not a flashy, photogenic badlands. By midday, we had seen a lot of chunkosaurs and turtle bits but nothing exciting enough to get my camera out. As we cruised along, I spotted this nifty petrified log...

 

 

 

...pretty cool.

 

 I left Chris to his meandering some hills and bolted across some washes to some low lying mounds. From a short distance away, I saw a pinkish colored hump sticking out of the gray silt. My first thought was turtle, but upon closer inspection...

 

 

...holy snarge, a femur! It has been a while since I found a specimen of this caliber and I was delighted to say the least.

 

 

I've already spoken with Spencer Lucas and will make a plan to collect it for the museum collections. Chicken wants to help so that should be an excellent adventure...I will post it here when it goes down.

 

Whooped, we made a short stop on the way home to see an old friend...

 

 

...man I love these days in the desert.

 

I hope you all have satisfying excursions...as always,

 

happy hunting.

 

-P.

[JohnJ]

Mike!  

 

Tentative ID?

[PFOOLEY]

17 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

Mike!  

 

Tentative ID?

 

...my first thought was hadrosaur but I have not done much comparison to confirm. 

 

[Ludwigia]

50 minutes ago, PFOOLEY said:

...holy snarge, a femur!

 

Holy moly! Congrats on that!

[Jeffrey P]

Magnificent scenery and pictures. And that femur- FOTM!!!!! Congrats.

[FossilDAWG]

Holy moly, that would have been some drumstick!  

Don

[Wrangellian]

Wow! Nice that such things can still be found.

[PFOOLEY]

17 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

 

Holy moly! Congrats on that!

 

Thank you!...I can't wait to get back up there with some plaster and burlap.

 

15 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

Magnificent scenery and pictures. And that femur- FOTM!!!!! Congrats.

 

Thank you, Jeffrey. We'll have to visit this area next time you're around. FOTM for sure...been a good month for me.

 

14 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

Holy moly, that would have been some drumstick!  

Don

 

I agree!  We were talking about just how big these animals were...and I think this was a smaller one!

 

7 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Wow! Nice that such things can still be found.

 

Agreed...just have to scour the outcrops with patience...which is many times very hard to do.

 

[Fossildude19]

Great report and Finds, Mike. 

Congratulations, bud.

 

 

[Jared C]

holy smokes!!! 

[Troodon]

Very cool femur, congrats and keep us posted on its status.  Could be ceratopsian.

[PFOOLEY]

2 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Great report and Finds, Mike. 

Congratulations, bud.

 

 

 

Thank you, dude...now to plan for getting it to the museum before winter rolls in. 

 

46 minutes ago, Jared C said:

holy smokes!!! 

 

 

32 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Very cool femur, congrats and keep us posted on its status...

 

Will do.

 

33 minutes ago, Troodon said:

...Could be ceratopsian.

 

Thsnk you for your input...I wondered about that last night. I'm going to try and get to the museum this week to look at some material to compare...I will try and take pictures of those femurs as well.

[Troodon]

4 hours ago, PFOOLEY said:

 

Thank you, dude...now to plan for getting it to the museum before winter rolls in. 

 

 

 

 

Will do.

 

 

Thsnk you for your input...I wondered about that last night. I'm going to try and get to the museum this week to look at some material to compare...I will try and take pictures of those femurs as well.

This is one from a Triceratops you can try to compare against.  The 4th trochanter sits about in the middle of the shaft and unfortunately its in the bottom side of your specimen.  So be careful extracting it.

[PFOOLEY]

2 hours ago, Troodon said:

This is one from a Triceratops you can try to compare against...

 

Thank you, Frank.

[PFOOLEY]

The last few Sundays have been a badlands blitz for @Opuntia, Red, Quita and I...searching for interesting Upper Cretaceous sites.

 

The first trip was to the Menefee...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...where we discovered many stunning landscapes, yet almost no fossils. 

 

Late in the day, we decided to head for home...with a Puerco pitstop.

 

 

 

[PFOOLEY]

Our second trip was to the Kirtland/Fruitland Formation. Once again, spectacular landscape...but this area had plenty of fossils to look at...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[PFOOLEY]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[PFOOLEY]

...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....oh, what a day! We had just enough energy to stop and look at a Paleocene outcrop of Nacimiento Formation...

 

 

...for about ten minutes.

 

Whooped and delighted, we headed home.

 

I hope you all have adventures that leave you feeling the same.

 

As always...

 

 

...happy hunting!

 

-P.

 

 

[JohnJ]

 

Freeze/expand/thaw/sunbake really takes its toll.  

 

But, at least you get to see the remnants in a gorgeous setting.  

[AK hiker]

I thoroughly enjoy reading your trip reports and think it is cool you take your dogs on the excursions. 

[Wrangellian]

Canyons, arroyos, mesas and buttes.... and hoodoos! ...make it all worthwhile I think, fossils or no.

You sure get a lot of pics up.... Takes me forever to prepare and post a series of them. 

[automech]

I've enjoyed all 4 pages of your post. Dought I'll ever make it there. I have close friends in Utah. So, that might have to do next time.

May I ask, what is the soil composition made of? Is it difficult to extract specimens?

[Jeffrey P]

Awesome landscapes Mike. Love the rock formations and petrified wood. I sure do miss it. Thanks for sharing these. 

[PFOOLEY]

On 4/4/2023 at 5:40 PM, JohnJ said:

...at least you get to see the remnants in a gorgeous setting.  

 

This is very true!