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Digging For Dinosaurs In The Hell Creek Formation


PetrolPete

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Hey everyone,

I've been meaning to post this since last August when I actually went on the trip, but I haven't had much of a chance until now. Anyways,

last year I went on a dino dig in the Hell Creek formation in Glendive on the Baisch Ranch (http://dailydinosaurdigs.com/). My guide was Marge, the owner, and it ended up being a pretty great day.

To start off with, the scenery was pretty great.

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Almost as soon as I got out of my truck, I found bone

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We even found a large chunk of carnivore bone, which is big enough that it could be T-Rex

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She even showed me an Edmontasaurus torso embedded in a concretion in a ravine that, unfortunately, has been rotting away since it would require a helicopter to retrieve and no museum wanted to :

you can see the sternum

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and the ribs:

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some fish verts, mostly gar

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Fish scales, again most likely gar

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I was told this was part of a triceratops tooth, but I'm not sure

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Fossilized pinecone

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Turtle shell

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I was told triceratops tendon

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Some small bones

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I'm not sure, could be nothing

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Maybe a seed, I was told they had been found at the site

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Lots of agatized wood

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a gator tooth and scute?

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Some plant impressions

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Volcanic ash with plant impressions

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Turtle rib

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lots of bits of chunk-a-saur

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Possibly part of a foot?

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At the end of the day, she ended up giving me a couple extras since the hunt wasn't as productive as it normally was (due to heavy rains that summer)

a small bone

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Some more fish material, I think she said they were gill covers

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A tooth without enamel, she told me the species, but I can't find it anywhere

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A large vert covered in a concretionary material. She asked me to ask all of you guys if you had any idea on ways to prep that stuff off the bone

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another tooth

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a partial jaw bone

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and a shattered vert that I've been trying to rebuild

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What a great trip and report on it. THX for the photos, and the additions to your collection. :popcorn::goodjob:

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Hey Pete... Nice finds. That is a soft shelled turtle rib end in post number 3. The sternum is a sacrum.

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hey Pete. You could probably clean off that matrix with an airscribe along with an air abrasive machine with the right media. Good luck

RB

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I forgot to mention a couple other interesting things, one, before we went out in the morning we got to look at Marge's Museum, where we were able to see all the things to look for that she had collected over the year, and two, you actually get to choose what you want to hunt. If you mention what kind of things you want to look for, like plant material, dinosaur material, micro material, they will take you to different places to try and find what you are primarily looking for, and after hearing about some of the things that can be found in Hell Creek micro matrix, I am definitely planning on bringing back a bucket full of the stuff next time I go out there.

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