2022 trip to South Dakota to hunt the Hell Creek and Pierre shale.

[hadrosauridae]

A little slow in getting around to posting.  2 weeks ago my son and I got back from our yearly trip up north for fossil hunting.  Like most years, we haul the tenement on wheels with us to save the crazy costs of hotel stays.   We started out for the first 4 days in the Hell creek, digging with Walter Stein of PaleoAdventures.  The first day was a little slow with lots of small tumbled bone bits and spitter teeth.  Only bigger find was an unknown that I began to uncover, but didnt complete that day. 

 

 

The second day we changed where we were excavating and I found the first tooth of the trip.  I found a great pinecone, the second ever, and 13 years since our last.  A beautiful Nanotyrannus (our biggest ever by a hair).  It had some acid etching and gypsum fouling, but would prep out well. 

 

 

3rd day we went back to the first spot where I finished uncovered my unknown which turned into an unknown long bone next to a Thescelosaurus left ilium.  The ironstone rocks it was bound in were crazy so it took me all day to finish exposing the surface.   Day 4 was back at the ilium and clearing above it so I could pedestal and put on a plaster jacket.  In the process of clearing, I uncovered an croc lower left jaw with a single tooth still in place.  So then day 4 was spent finishing the ilium pedestal and pedestaling the jaw.  The ironstone made the work slow, but I did pop out a beautiful (and huge) mammal tooth in the process!  Walter said it may be the largest mammal tooth from the HC thats he's seen. 

 

 

 

We had originally planned to head over the fish quarries of Kemmerer WY, but we decided to stay and explore the Pierre shale and museums for a few days and then dig with Walter a couple more days.  We went to the Belle Fourche reservoir (actually the Carlisle shale, not the Pierre) to look for ammonites and shark teeth.  We did manage to find a few partials and one possibly complete ammonite, but we struck out in the search for teeth.   After that we started to do some map recon of govt lands in the Pierre formation and driving back roads to find an area we wanted to try.  I had little hope of being success in such a blind hunt, but we hit a motherload site I named "baculites heaven".  They were everywhere.  it was difficult not to walk on them in some spots.  We filled 2 cardboard boxes with what we could carry and left super happy!  Also found a set of deer antler sheds as a bonus.  Now, last year we hunted a site on the invitation of Neil Larson.  It a fairly well known site among many, and universities make trips to collect baculites there.  The spot we found was every bit as good as Neils site, except we couldnt drive directly to it, and it required a bit of steep terrain hiking.

 

 

 

The next 2 days were spent museum hopping. We visited the Mammoth dig site museum, the "world fossil find finder" museum (both in Hot Springs) and then the Black Hills Institute in Hill City. 

 

 

Day five in the Hell creek was back to the ilium and jaw.

We started the day by jacketing and flipping the fossils, which was still a task with all the ironstone, but we finally got them out.  Right after that, my son began excavating below where everyone else had worked.  Basically below where all previous diggers had been sitting.  Within minutes he popped out (literally it popped up!) was the best T.rex tooth (and only 3rd) we've ever recovered.  A gorgeous 1.5 inch pre-max.  Amazing that among all that ironstone, where people had been walking and sitting, and coming free with an ironstone rock removed, it was in perfect shape and not broken or even cracked.  Our last day was lots of BOBs, chunks of turtle shell and more spitter teeth. 

 

 

 

Although not our find, I had to share this wonderful, complete Trike rib recovered.  over the last couple years, more and more elements of a very large triceratops have been recovered, which is looking to be parts of a disarticulated animal.  I don't have pics, but it also seems as if a disarticulated T.rex is also present. about 8 years the first femur of a rex was found while exploring, and now in the same location, more rex elements have been becoming uncovered, the last being a second femur.

 

 

So, another trip is in our history book, with lots of great new fossils found.  As a side note, a few years ago my son found a mammal jaw which was later sent to the Burke museum for study.  This new mammal tooth uncovered is hopefully going to be part of the same collection, although Denver would probably like to have it too.  A Pachy skull hornlet my son found last year, has a new home in the Melbourne museum.  When I find out where any other element find a home, I'll update.

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by hadrosauridae

[RJB]

Great report and some cool pics.

 

RB

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for the great report and congrats on your new profile pic!

[fossilhunter21]

Awesome trip report! You guys found some cool stuff!

 

Thank you for sharing. 

 

-Micah

[Troodon]

Nice trip report, Awesome tooth congrats.   

[ThePhysicist]

Great finds! And that premax is superb 

[jpc]

Great trip and report.  You will be doing the prep on these, right?  Just as a heads up, the ilium will be incredibly thin throuhh most of its length.  Like 1 or 2 millimeters.  Very delicate.  Prep the first side then jacket it before attacking the bottom side.