Jump to content

Spring Dinosaur Dig in South Dakota


Troodon

Recommended Posts

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

JuvieJaw.thumb.jpg.c75ea389c3306f3090321b4d7a851619.jpg

 

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)

998843305_BabyJaw.thumb.jpg.4e2a3adc9e914ae353982e6ddb310861.jpg

 

A nice jugal  13 inches wide

Jugel.thumb.jpg.77bec778971b704f9f5fb1a6e9e061bd.jpg

 

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

P6100196.thumb.JPG.36aed98e216ff39042e9c05a889cce01.JPG

 

Baby Toads? were everywhere this year

P6050035.JPG.a6f87042b969dcb7847f55dc62d7cb0b.JPG

 

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.

 

P6040007.thumb.JPG.893630ac419f3ac6f2e461881dda6fe0.JPGP6080166.thumb.JPG.ed38ebdb32d9baba6dda4caf8d032d03.JPG

20210609_041546.thumb.jpg.1fcd4b42271b866546084c21922012a2.jpg

 

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.

 

P6050030.thumb.JPG.47a40f441b2d2d2c92a76078dec18230.JPGP6050031.thumb.JPG.c157a721b3e73f4af292a3ea2f74a9c5.JPGP6050032.thumb.JPG.1e13494f00e7c69fd9abe5f02d273ca9.JPG

 

20210605_171721.thumb.jpg.3844585d63b6b76d7057026c21aca3cd.jpg

 

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.

 

P6040001.thumb.JPG.7c01ce872b45e905360a56b662614cb4.JPG

 

P6040003.JPG.67147da3a52542af5c541ea8af506e4b.JPG

 

Undercutting bone, pedestal to be able to apply plaster cast

P6040012.JPG.8ef076ffb7e1e0876e504d6d6e7a8ab2.JPG

 

P6040013.JPG.69a0759c15831270e6fc5ba36ffb2247.JPG

 

Plaster jacket using burlap and wood stick

P6040014.JPG.6ece3228e2fca63ae95a51f9b08d9cb7.JPG

 

Flipped - all good ready to go home

P6040015.JPG.15cc7d00a90aa9add79a5d1f52fd8c71.JPG

 

 

 

  • I found this Informative 4
  • Enjoyed 13
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are some teeth I found during the trip

 

Tyrannosaurus rex 1 3/4"

Rex.thumb.jpg.383e88bd23e94f320b1fd5b17c4f5251.jpg

Tyrannosaurids indet 1"

 

Tyranno.thumb.jpg.bf6dac9b156ee291d69246feb274dea2.jpg

 

Nanotyrannus  +1"

Tyranno2a.thumb.jpg.ef93d4cf1a5bec893da73cb95b7237b4.jpg

 

Looks like a Nano poking out but plan to leave it as a mystery tooth

Tyranno3.thumb.jpg.575ec67d2474d4a280bb178da25b62d9.jpg

 

 

The larger teeth around 1" are tyrannosaurid, one is a premax the other small ones are indeterminate at the moment, one in the round jaw that you cannot see is a pectinodon

Teeth.thumb.jpg.777125990fb889207f2f05bbbee37523.jpg

 

Edmontosaurus teeth - largest 1 1/8"

Hadrotooth2.thumb.jpg.189aa493f2de8552afd08965e06d7015.jpg

 

Edmontosaurus teeth a couple of theropod teeth

Hadrotooth3.thumb.jpg.9ac08c5e3043ccd53c336a0c2a486941.jpg

Unusual maxillary tooth - very thin 

Hadrotooth.thumb.jpg.e0b8cb4c1fe103a7ca58ad27f0182230.jpg

 

A very large adult Digit III metatarsal -  17" long (43 cm)

 

P6120224.thumb.JPG.3a7310a187628a4687625e8f4e6ca3fe.JPG

 

P6120225.thumb.JPG.64fa157b20257c226dda1db1ac35ff17.JPG

 

P6120226.thumb.JPG.552d6f6bb0125c62cbb7e69402e7743b.JPG

 

Used plaster wraps on this one

P6120227.thumb.JPG.b66ca58c12a0dc14c2d159e79af6aa08.JPG

 

 Unusual find in the Lag layer - 1cm across  chevron? claw?

Unknown.thumb.jpg.ed7c26a76e01e17a0771b26ee542fbf1.jpg

 

 

  • I found this Informative 1
  • Enjoyed 24
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice finds, thanks for the report.  Youre not helping my enthusiasm for my trip there in 2 weeks.

  • Thank You 1

"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Toe bone

P6040016.thumb.JPG.97446e636a4750d8a64ad712e9aae130.JPG

P6040017.JPG.d6b7a90ed59b603b16d646d72ee304bb.JPG

 

This is a skull element but have yet identified it.  Needs cleaning

P6040011.JPG.931baeb7511bc2b68684546c52bcb1ae.JPG

 

Cute Caudal Vertebra

 

P6060052.thumb.JPG.23d57496cd084afb53163f08e7cf99b5.JPG

 

P6060053.thumb.JPG.88103922751add029e54406168554ee6.JPGP6060054.thumb.JPG.c7b1a13e98d68af967729d263dd31eb2.JPG

 

A Centrum

 

P6060059.thumb.JPG.927a1c65d7cfb10846354cc7b3b20e2e.JPG

 

P6060060.thumb.JPG.0db36021a4b78f32303433b6aee85fa1.JPG

 

Although I don't have a out of the matrix photo....bad day to photograph its a complete beautiful cervical vertebra.  Very few have come out with all the processes intact.

Its at my prep person to deal with this one.

P6060062.thumb.JPG.06b6b2aa257a53dc156ffca7133e081f.JPGP6060068.thumb.JPG.1fd9f7e57c7e9dac33f21edcdfa66b0c.JPG

 

Toe bone

P6050040.thumb.JPG.0172d46b496c5c853f1c23908c49d2c4.JPG

 

Skull element

P6070075.thumb.JPG.19b56263bfae93df09d06d925d6299f8.JPG

 

Big toe bone

P6080150.thumb.JPG.e902b2297ddb7837130d5d14458488a6.JPGP6080151.thumb.JPG.05f6f23f3775ca4795a2906522b275bf.JPGP6080155.thumb.JPG.f1e7568146986fb9f1221ff91798295b.JPGP6080156.thumb.JPG.077bcb07bd47a3f1159ad82312f07649.JPG

 

 

  • Enjoyed 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice chevron

 

P6050023.JPG.43ff3af86fbad8e75ea405433db54e33.JPGP6050024.JPG.4d7874622d79cf132e19b7b07941d79d.JPG

 

Vertebra

P6090175.thumb.JPG.bc51c1bd7b1fb9c320196973a84bf6b1.JPG

 

Small Carpal - 1 1/4"

P6060055.thumb.JPG.9592a9bcbec15c1260c714126f0de203.JPGP6060056.thumb.JPG.a3274e4ec3dac0f11ae32bf09bd279de.JPG

 

Another vertebra

P6100199.thumb.JPG.ab3e2b27366f72419a157a3e0361e600.JPGP6100200.thumb.JPG.27d0e2dd702f7ddb15f9328055cc65de.JPG

 

 Distal Caudal Vertebra  1"

P6100202.thumb.JPG.89dfe8d430ba2fcb110b1204a704753f.JPG

Vert1a.thumb.jpg.374d2fe705b866db68ace1682a90fcb8.jpg

 

Vert1.thumb.jpg.c31364982c3263d0fd5a3220b7826fa8.jpg

 

Ugly centrum

P6090179.thumb.JPG.d22bec841f2a02a6dea710ebac8e04b2.JPGP6090180.thumb.JPG.bb406d78092f53685dde9554c6d66d02.JPGP6090181.thumb.JPG.47c8bd3bf107a8d442f55b36bb70dfa2.JPG

 

 Metacarpal Digit II

discovery

P6110212.JPG.7bd980c949c34cac8a8ba1601e853933.JPG

 

P6110213.JPG.99ace8c1096513633e8b2ac5c0ea9e24.JPGP6110217.thumb.JPG.a3bf6630a9364da8c81398594d984405.JPG

 

Plaster wrap

P6110218.thumb.JPG.1c9e52a66b03468275cb9fc03ca178df.JPG

a

 pair of Edmonto teeth 

P6120219.thumb.JPG.81bbc936c97683e1ae2c99f3432d9f06.JPG

P6090173.thumb.JPG.b30415833c7e867f0e2baffad5eea67d.JPG

 

Collected in pieces this long tendon - a puzzle in the making

P6090187.thumb.JPG.1e14f71c48f8bdc327c86d789e7d1d0c.JPG

 

 

Verts.thumb.jpg.e65cc61898cfd2977d0559194bde1315.jpgPhalanx.thumb.jpg.dba539b9665855967550a91c2947fa39.jpg

 

 

  • Enjoyed 18
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thought this might be interesting

I keep forgetting to take a photo of a vertical bone out of the bonebed deposit but here is an example of one. Its a very beat-up femur +30 inches...

 

The bonebed is below the blue line and was deposited in one event.   The Lag deposit is below the red line and then you have a sand deposit above the red line.   There are several theories on how the bones get into this position.  We always thought it was due to a turbulent water action but a sedimentologist from a prominent museum studied the site and suggested it could be a results of dinosaurs walking through the channel and just pushing the bones up.   Most bones typically lay horizontal.

 

 

P6100206a.thumb.jpg.8d9084ea7805121da7fba62433b2e110.jpg

  • I found this Informative 5
  • Enjoyed 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, absolutely fabulous site with killer fossils!  I'm super jealous, both of the finds in your site as well as the fact your bone bed isnt packed with ironstone too.

 

PS, I would gladly bake in the sun and be sandblasted by the wind to work in a site this nice. 

Edited by hadrosauridae
  • I Agree 1

"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, hadrosauridae said:

PS, I would gladly bake in the sun and be sandblasted by the wind to work in a site this nice.

Agree most would.  Trust me, have our share of Concretions and Ironstone.  Have lost many bones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your trips never fail to astound. I especially enjoy the process photos and the teeth. 

  • Thank You 1

"Argumentation cannot suffice for the discovery of new work, since the subtlety of Nature is greater many times than the subtlety of argument." - Carl Sagan

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." - Richard Feynman

 

Collections: Hell Creek Microsite | Hell Creek/Lance | Dinosaurs | Sharks | SquamatesPost Oak Creek | North Sulphur RiverLee Creek | Aguja | Permian | Devonian | Triassic | Harding Sandstone

Instagram: @thephysicist_tff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

fun. That mystery little bone from your lag deposit... could it be a crocodile cervical rib?  That is the feel I get from it.  But still, not quite.  Depends on how it looks post-prep.  

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great report and finds. The weather sound really terrible and very hard work. Very interesting Info about the vertical bone placement . You can see that happening. Your prep guy does a fantastic job they look great. 
 

final I am with Ralph the metatarsal is lovely. Are you getting that prepped too?

 

take care Bobby 

  • Thank You 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your Hell Creek field trips are sumptuous and are always a treat to go through :D

Brilliant job, once again!

  • Thank You 1

Opalised fossils are the best: a wonderful mix between paleontology and mineralogy!

 

Q. Where do dinosaurs study?

A. At Khaan Academy!...

 

My ResearchGate profile

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Great report and finds. The weather sound really terrible and very hard work. Very interesting Info about the vertical bone placement . You can see that happening. Your prep guy does a fantastic job they look great. 
 

final I am with Ralph the metatarsal is lovely. Are you getting that prepped too?

 

take care Bobby 

 

Thanks, btw my prep person is a gal.. 

It was challenging but being able to pull out material made it easy to come back every day.

The photos don't do the metatarsal justice its huge and requires two hands to carry it.  It's impressive and tells you why it was the largest dinosaur in the Hell Creek.  I will do the initial prep on it then let her finish it.  I'm terrible with crack fill and cannot paint anyway this bone deserves professional help.

 

Every day but one was hot, hot but one morning temps were in the 40's F which was great but with sustained winds of 30mph and gusts to 45 made collecting almost impossible with the amount of sand peppering my eyes, it was not pleasant.  A selfie to cope that morning.

20210611_062603.thumb.jpg.5e31acdf687ee16a2f3c72634191cafc.jpg

 

 

 

10 hours ago, jpc said:

fun. That mystery little bone from your lag deposit... could it be a crocodile cervical rib?  That is the feel I get from it.  But still, not quite.  Depends on how it looks post-prep.  

 

That's a good thought.  Still trying to decide if I should take it out of matrix or just expose it a bit more.

  • Enjoyed 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh wow! Just the amount and quality of material you found in just a single collection trip! Sure, I'll gladly believe the conditions were horrid. But I'm usually stoked if I find even a single marine vertebrate/reptile fossil in a well of hunting, even if it's just a single tiny rolled half-vert...! I can't even begin to imagine the wealth of this site!

  • Enjoyed 1

'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

Oh wow! Just the amount and quality of material you found in just a single collection trip! Sure, I'll gladly believe the conditions were horrid. But I'm usually stoked if I find even a single marine vertebrate/reptile fossil in a well of hunting, even if it's just a single tiny rolled half-vert...! I can't even begin to imagine the wealth of this site!

I have worked a fair bit in both the Lance and Hell Creek, and yes, this is a good site.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you like big bones this is a 48" (122 cm) femur that is being worked on by one of the other guys.  The fourth trochanter (middle of the shaft) is very extremely large and not typical.   The blue tint is because we are under a tent and there was no flash.   The bone on the lower left side is a humerus and there is a maxilla lower right under the dust pan.  So extracting bones can be complicated, time consuming when you are in a pocket of other bones.   He did not have the time to get it out on this trip but did get the maxilla.  Will have to wait till the September trip.

P6120221.thumb.JPG.5a8ea4c7248e748299d8ef32277a686c.JPG

 

 

 

34 minutes ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

Oh wow! Just the amount and quality of material you found in just a single collection trip! Sure, I'll gladly believe the conditions were horrid. But I'm usually stoked if I find even a single marine vertebrate/reptile fossil in a well of hunting, even if it's just a single tiny rolled half-vert...! I can't even begin to imagine the wealth of this site!

Its special and very fortunate to have assess to it the last 24 years

  • Enjoyed 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Its special and very fortunate to have assessmay be the one to it the last 24 years

 

That makes it even more amazing, as that's almost the duration of my entire collection-"career" (and then there was the time I switched to archaeology for a couple of years, which should be subtracted still). No wonder you've got such an amazing collection - not to mention depth and breadth of knowledge! Working with such material must be such a privilege :o

'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Great finds Frank, this is my favorite.

 

5053675F-370A-450A-90F0-E91BED607C8E.thumb.jpeg.8f533f32a025b1939cb3fd44faf8ab45.jpeg

 

Thanks, The Troodontid metatarsal is my pick just because of it being super rare but not far behind is this metatarsal.  Its awesome in person.   Will post photos when its all completely prepped.

  • Enjoyed 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Always a joy to read your reports Troodon & see all of the mouth watering finds you make. Hoping I find some similar stuff when I visit Montana's Hell Creek in late July.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, PaleoNoel said:

Always a joy to read your reports Troodon & see all of the mouth watering finds you make. Hoping I find some similar stuff when I visit Montana's Hell Creek in late July.

Thanks and good luck on your July trip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...