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New Fossil Horse Specimen From Green River Formation Discovered


sseth

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I have had to sit on this for a while but can now let the cat out of the bag. One of the coolest things I have ever had the opportunity to work on. It was such an honor to work on this little guy.

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Protorohippus venticolum (Alternative combinations: Eohippus venticolus, Hyracotherium venticolum, Protorohippus venticolus)

Early Eocene

Fossil Lake, Kemmerer, Wyoming

This is one of the world’s most rare and complete fossil skeleton of one of the world’s oldest horses. This is an amazingly complete skeleton with the only restoration being to the pelvis and upper femur bones. The skull is 100% natural and in extremely beautiful condition.

This amazing fossil named “Olive” after the Oliver Brothers Mark and Mike who discovered it,is an extremely rare example of a Protorohippus venticolum fossil, dating back 52 million years from the Eocene period in Wyoming, and is one of only two complete examples of this fossil ever discovered. It is approximately two feet long and 12 inches tall at the shoulder; with an overall size of the fossil plate at about 30” x 28” x 4” thick and includes a single fossilized fish that is intricately contacting the skeleton. . It was excavated from a fossil Lake quarry by Seth Sorensen of Fossil Shack, Brock Sisson of Fossilogic and one of our affiliates, Jason Cooper, earlier this year.

In early Spring of 2015, The Oliver Brothers and their family were digging in a fossil fish quarry near Kemmerer Wyoming when they came across a fossil that looked very unusual. They called over their quarry neighbors, Seth, Brock, and Jason from the Fossil Shack Quarry. They looked at the fossil and immediately knew it was something special. The bones that had been exposed had an astragalus (talus) bone, which during the Eocene was only present on a few limited species such as horses and camels.

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After discussion with the Oliver brothers, it was decided that Seth, Brock, and Jason should professionally remove the fossil. Over the next several hours, the three painstakingly excavated the horse, finding small pieces, no more than a few millimeters across, which had already fallen down the hill. Upon initial inspection, it was believed that the stones containing the bones held only a partial skeleton. It was assumed that there was no skull and that the total of bones equaled only about 1/3 of a complete animal.

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I am the one in the Green/gray shirt. Yes, that is my chisel with the hello kitty handle. Lol

Once the stone was removed from the hillside, it was taken back and X-Rayed. At this time it was discovered that the animal was amazingly complete, including the skull and all four feet. It was only missing a small section of the pelvis. This ended up being one of the most incredible discoveries to ever come out of the Green River formation.

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The first name given to this species was Hyracotherium in 1841, given to a fragmented specimen discovery by Richard Owen. Owen lacked many important parts of the skeleton with his find, and based mainly on the fossil teeth alone, named the animal Hyracotherium, which means “hyrax-like beast”. In 1876 Othniel Marsh found a much more complete specimen which he named Eohippus meaning “dawn horse”. The two fossils were not connected for many years. When they were, and following standard scientific naming conventions, the earliest name became the accepted scientific name. Recently, many paleontologists have concluded that the genus Hyracotherium needed to be parsed into separate genera…separating animals that preceded jungle ungulates like the rhinoceros, from those that were part of the horse evolutionary chain. This fantastic Horse is part of the latter group, and as a result, future scientific work on this animal will be classified against the name Protorohippus venticolum.

Hope you all enjoy.

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_____________________________________
Seth

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Just amazing, thanks for sharing----Tom

Grow Old Kicking And Screaming !!
"Don't Tread On Me"

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Incredible fossil! I hope it finds a home where many people are able to enjoy it.

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Wow, Seth!! That prep and resto is breathtaking! I actually heard about this discovery "through the grapevine". It's an amazing specimen.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
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Wow, Seth!! That prep and resto is breathtaking! I actually heard about this discovery "through the grapevine". It's an amazing specimen.

It has slowly made its way around the fossil community. There has been a bit of controversy between a couple of great friends of mine over the fossil. I wont elaborate on that, but I have been trying to make peace between them and see if I could get them to come together but so far I have not had much success. Two great people and a big gap in what they believe happened, and should happen. Enough said about that.

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Seth

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www.fossilshack.com

www.americanfossil.com

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Absolutely stunning.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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I'm just looking...and have no words.I think the talent is assigned by the Gods.

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

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Absolutely incredible fossil and fantastic prep job. Hopefully that thing ultimately makes it to a museum somewhere... that would make an absolutely killer exhibit.

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Absolutely incredible fossil and fantastic prep job. Hopefully that thing ultimately makes it to a museum somewhere... that would make an absolutely killer exhibit.

Um, yeah.. I'll just throw this out (as laughable, I'm sure) but if you want to doante it to the Tate Museum right here in the great square state of Wyoming, I know just the guy to talk to. Or more reasonably, loan it for the Tate Conference next June.....

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Quite an amazing specimen! You are a real pro with the prep work...congrats on your drool bucket. :)

Is the fish an addition to the piece?

"I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"  ~Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) 

 

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Pretty extraordinary specimen. I hope it goes to a museum so that the public can appreciate it. I hope the Oliver Brothers are a bit more flexible with a museum interest than private one.

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Quite an amazing specimen! You are a real pro with the prep work...congrats on your drool bucket. :)

Is the fish an addition to the piece?

The fish was actually found in that position. It is wrapped perfectly around the bones so it appears the horse landed on it as it settled to the bottom of the lake.

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_____________________________________
Seth

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www.fishdig.com

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The fish was actually found in that position. It is wrapped perfectly around the bones so it appears the horse landed on it as it settled to the bottom of the lake.

Even more amazing! :) Thanks for the close up. (Didn't see the fish in the x- Ray image...my reason for asking.)

"I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"  ~Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) 

 

New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletins    

 

point.thumb.jpg.e8c20b9cd1882c9813380ade830e1f32.jpg research.jpg.932a4c776c9696d3cf6133084c2d9a84.jpg  RPV.jpg.d17a6f3deca931bfdce34e2a5f29511d.jpg  SJB.jpg.f032e0b315b0e335acf103408a762803.jpg  butterfly.jpg.71c7cc456dfbbae76f15995f00b221ff.jpg  Htoad.jpg.3d40423ae4f226cfcc7e0aba3b331565.jpg  library.jpg.56c23fbd183a19af79384c4b8c431757.jpg  OIP.jpg.163d5efffd320f70f956e9a53f9cd7db.jpg

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Very cool close-up. :)

Mike, I suspect the 'missing fish' has to do with the settings of the x-ray. Notice that the lower mandible barely shows on the x-ray, but is clearly there in the final preparation.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Very cool close-up. :)

Mike, I suspect the 'missing fish' has to do with the settings of the x-ray. Notice that the lower mandible barely shows on the x-ray, but is clearly there in the final preparation.

Good eye...depth in rock is different than my ankle.

"I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"  ~Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) 

 

New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletins    

 

point.thumb.jpg.e8c20b9cd1882c9813380ade830e1f32.jpg research.jpg.932a4c776c9696d3cf6133084c2d9a84.jpg  RPV.jpg.d17a6f3deca931bfdce34e2a5f29511d.jpg  SJB.jpg.f032e0b315b0e335acf103408a762803.jpg  butterfly.jpg.71c7cc456dfbbae76f15995f00b221ff.jpg  Htoad.jpg.3d40423ae4f226cfcc7e0aba3b331565.jpg  library.jpg.56c23fbd183a19af79384c4b8c431757.jpg  OIP.jpg.163d5efffd320f70f956e9a53f9cd7db.jpg

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To make sure proper credit is being attributed, the fantastic preparation work on that specimen was done by Ben Cooper. He spent 8 weeks working full-time on that specimen. To put that amount of time in perspective the horse itself is 22 inches long.

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Hi all. Sorry for my absence. I have been away for two days, and but boy did this train leave the tracks. I find that funny because typically my posts are not all that worthy of much attention.

Let me see if I can answer a few of the questions that were asked and make sure this train is headed back down the right track. Being unable to post for a couple of days, it looks like my lack of response was interpreted by some as agreeing with their assumptions rather than just not being available. If ever I have a part in something so impressive again (LOL, Yea Right) I will only post it when I will be around full time to monitor the thread.

As I had indicated earlier, the Oliver Brothers did find the fossil; Mark was the one swinging the hammer. These are some of the greatest guys I have had an opportunity to know. Super people and I have enjoyed visiting with them nearly every weekend since the discovery. They do not still own the fossil. It was sold in the quarry and that is where the whole backstory of contention and turmoil around it got started (That is not my story to tell). The Olivers are not involved in ruckus; it is two other friends (mostly one to be more accurate as some of you may have heard).

I also agree with a lot of the posts that I too hope this fossil ends up in a world-class museum for my own selfish reasons. It is the most amazing fossil I have ever worked on and probably ever will work on and deserves to be enjoyed by everyone if that ends up being possible. Imagine how incredible it would it be to walk into a museum and see people admiring one of the worlds most impressive fossils and being able to say to yourself, “I excavated that.” --- Only time will tell where its new home will be. (Just a side note, the current owners feel that way too.)

The current owners are great guys and even forum members but I am not sure how much to post about that in the news section because this post was meant to only be about an incredible fossil being discovered and me being able to finally post some images and the story of the discovery. It was also about the honor I feel in being able to play a part in it. I don’t believe that the forum is the place to discuss details of sales and promote its sale. That said, if I am wrong, or if you would like, let me know and I am happy to share and put you in contact with the awesome folks that are selling it. They are truly great guys and I think those who know them would agree.

As far as prep, we give the props and honors to Jason Cooper’s brother Ben. Amazing work with the removal of matrix and detail preservation. The props for restoration and finishing it up go to Brock Sisson and his team. He did a tremendous job with the final touches on the piece. I just want to make sure that is clear. To say it one more time, I excavated the fossil for the Olivers and have only been involved on the sidelines since that point. I hope that helps clarify that issue.

I have also been asked numerous times through pm and email about the controversy surrounding the horse, ownership and its sale. This is not mine to explain. I am friends with both parties and I have my own feelings about who is right and who is wrong and for me the best thing would be for everyone to come together and put the past behind them. These folks may choose to weigh in here but I hope they do not choose to use this forum as a place to do it.

I think that may answer all of the questions and will clear up things as they stand.

_____________________________________
Seth

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www.americanfossil.com

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Seth, thanks for showing us this significant specimen and for the background info. As you mentioned, The Forum is not the venue to work out any disagreement; but let all involved know that we appreciate getting to see such a wonderful find. :)

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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