chele Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Blaine had surgery a couple of weeks ago. It was on a thursday. His boss gave him a couple of days off to rest from it. Friday morning he was bored and he asked me if I wanted to go for a little drive. We were about a mile and a half from the house and I said I wanted to look at a cliff. It is only about 50 feet from the road. I walked over to it and right away I spied a long brown line about 30 feet up. Blaine carved out some steps up to it and we started picking around. After about 20 minutes of digging a horn was visible!!! It is massive, about 3 feet long. We dug a little further and an eye socket was visible. It is about the size of a basketball!! We also uncovered a 23 inch vertabrae. We went home very excited. The next couple of days of digging revealed a lot more surprises. I uncovered a portion of the skull. It is the beak to the nasal horn and to the base of the eye sockets. It is massive!!!. I have a lot of photos but they are all 5 meg or bigger and I do not know how to make them smaller. As soon as I figure out how to make them smaller I will post some photos. The few that are small enough I will post. Chelebele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobWill Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Absolutely over the (tricera)top(s)!!! Very exciting. Are you digging soil or consolidated material to get it out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarheel59 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 I was waiting for you to post it here Chele hurry up and get pic into FOTM contest good till 4th of June for May month... CAnnot wait to see more of the crtttier, Did you and Blaine get the piece out that you jacketed??? Another Awsome fossil out of Hell Creek area... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raistlin Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 That is awesome. What a great find. Will you keep it or turn it in? Will you even have the option of keeping it? I cannot wait for more photos. RobertSoutheast, MO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolmt Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Cannot wait to see some more pictures.... now that is what I call a real fossil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Great Googly Moogly! You've just served a starving wretch a nine-course dinner (no Forum = ). Congratulations on your super-exciting discovery!!! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xonenine Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 congratulations chele, looking forward to seeing more "Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vordigern Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 INCREDIBLY green with envy congrats and I cannot wait to see some pics!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grampa dino Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Good on you and please more photo's when possible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chele Posted June 2, 2012 Author Share Posted June 2, 2012 (edited) Thanks everybody! Blaine and I just got back from the site. Luckily it is only a mile and a half from the house. We uncovered everything(had 3 days of rain) so we can jacket it on sunday. I will take some photos of everything before it gets plastered. It is almost overwhelming working on this site. Everytime I scoop some dirt away there is a bone. Chris from CK Preperations, and Clayton(the Dino Cowboy) had stopped in last week to look at the site. They were excited when they saw the horn and the vert. They have not seen the rest I have uncovered. They might show up on sunday to see them. They had brought some glue (starbond EM-02) and glued some chunks together. I was very impressed with it, It is very thin and saturated the bone very good. It also sets very quickly! It is pretty spendy though, 30 dollars for 16 ounces. I ordered 2 bottles and hopefully they will be here monday. I have a lot of polyvinyl acetate and acetone on hand(enough to make 5 gallons), plaster and burlap. So I am ready to get the bones jacketed. From the beginning the owners said I could keep all the stuff I wanted that was worth 3 or 4 thousand dollars. Once I found something worth more than that it would have to be put up for sale. They will take 30% and we keep the rest. I would love to keep this Triceratops but I do not have the money to pay the 30%. Sadly it will be up for sale. I was told by the Dino Cowbow that I could possibly find a T Rex tooth or two mixed in the the bones. He said every trike site he has excavated he has found them. So I will be able to keep that! I will keep every one p[osted on the progress of the dig. Edited June 3, 2012 by chele Chelebele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgrilusHunter Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 This is marvelous Chele! Congratulations and thanks for letting us see the images. I can't wait for the rest of the pics. "They ... savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things." -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmo Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Fantastic! Great Job! - G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 That is amazing, what a find it is! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike from North Queensland Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Nice find good to see members have been busy while the forum was down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raistlin Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 I am very sorry you cannot keep it, what a shame. I would be taking tons of photos of that beauty. At least though you have the knowledge and story of finding something so cool. I cannot wait to see more photos. RobertSoutheast, MO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkbyte Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Absolutely amazing. And Triceratops is my FAVORITE dinosaur. I am very happy for you. I hope somehow you find a way to keep it but if not then I hope it sells for an astronomical amount. Good luck either way. Take care and enjoy the discovery. Looking forward to more reports and pictures. Bobby "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Confucius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chele Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 We are going to jacket some of the bigger bones today! I hope all goes well. Blaine wants to remove them before they get damaged. There are so many bones that sometimes I just stop and and get a little overwhelmed. The digging is pretty easy. The first 4 feet of soil is a fine sandy mix and is very easy to remove. Then there is about 3 feet of clay. The clay is more compact but crumbles very easy. Most of the bones are found between the clay layer and a sand layer. There are some bones as deep as 12 inches into the sand. It too is easily removed. There is a layer of marine life about 12 inches above the layer with the Triceratops. That layer is about 12" to 20" deep. Once and a while I find some nice shells. It is kind of hard to get to the site because it is 30 feet up a cliff face, but on the other hand it is really nice because the dirt is thrown off it and out of our way. The photo below is before we stated digging. I circled the spot where the bones are. Chelebele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossiladdict Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Very cool. Whether you get to keep it or not, the excitement alone of finding it as well as the experience in digging it up is well worth it. Fossils are simply one of the coolest things on earth--discovering them is just marvelous! Makes you all giddy inside! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roz Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 What an exciting discovery! I love that you included the image of where it was found.. Congratulations, Chele! Welcome to the forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Excellent! I love all the horned dinos! I love the photos of the scenery too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Sweet discovery. Congratulations Chele. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundancer73 Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Just awesome! All your fossils are belong to us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Great find, congratulations !!! http://www.mbfossilcrabs.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullsnake Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 WOW!!! Congratulations!!! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemi-God Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 (insert long wistle sound here) Really nice find you have there. I think I might like to try my hand at the style of fossil hunting you do, as opposed to the river digging I do, once in a while. Some of the things you find are just outright awesome. .. *NOT an expert.I haven't a clue what I'm doing.But I'm loving every minute of it. .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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