BHI Oviraptorid Discovery

[Troodon]

The Black Hills Institute exciting new Oviraptorid discovery this year in the Hell Creek Formation is far far from completion but Pete Larsen has been keeping everyone appraised of its status.  Its still mostly in matrix and the arduous task of preparation as just begun.  A new species or a new Anzu wyliei skeleton, it looks different. 

 

Not as sexy as Tuffs Love T rex skull but scientifically import.   Here is a good look at what it takes to extract one of thess raptors.

 

The site a Hell Creek lake deposit 

 

 

Airbraide-airpen outside, slowly making progress to keep the dust down

 

 

Screening clay filled "mud" collected at the Oviraptorid site and soaked in water for a week. Hoping for bone fragments.

 

 

The mud is then scooped into a screen

 

 

Sprayed with water to reduce the clay and mud

 

 

Slowly the clay breaks down and washes away

 

 

This is all that's left of 5 gallons of surface scrapings. Hopefully when finished screening the 20 gallons of mud,  some bone will be found

 

 

Cleaned up the tibia-fibula-astragalus-calcanium block with 5 gastralia

 

 

Working on the Oviraptorid pelvic and neck block. Nice preservation, but some of the matrix is siderite concretion. Airscribe work.

 

 

Hard tedious work to extract each piece.  Lots of skull elements 

 

 

I've circled the lower jaw among skull elements

 

 

[Troodon]

 

The left ilium (top) and both right and left pubes

 

 

Both ischia are tucked under the posterior ventral end of the left ilium

 

 

This appears to be the sacrum

 

 

Proximal scapula in the upper left, coracoid lower left. Cervical verts and cervical ribs also showing

 

 

Lots more cervical verts

 

 

The left tibia, astragalus, and calcanium

 

 

the left fibula and more bones

 

 

An ulna lies under the tibia

 

 

The right ilium is peaking out of the matrix, to the rear of the left ilium. Notice the pes phalange near the top of the photo

 

 

 

It will be nice to see this beautiful raptor finished and described.  

[Ptychodus04]

Wow! Very cool, thanks for sharing this. This specimen shows the dirty reality of paleontology rather than the Jurassic Park version. An ugly cuss of jumbled up associated bones rather than a pristine articulated skeleton.

 

 

[Troodon]

2 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Wow! Very cool, thanks for sharing this. This specimen shows the dirty reality of paleontology rather than the Jurassic Park version. An ugly cuss of jumbled up associated bones rather than a pristine articulated skeleton.

 

 

Yep this your typical find and work necessary to enable to describe it or to make it "museum ready".  Few people recognize the effort it takes to mount one of these dinosaurs.

[RJB]

Neat thread.  thanks for posting troodon.

 

RB

[Ludwigia]

Every time I see such reports, my respect for the real excavators and preparators increases with leaps and bounds.

[Miocene_Mason]

That’s a beast of a job, I wish you luck! 

[Jurassicbro238]

It's been a while so do you know how far the specimen has come since then? 

[Troodon]

26 minutes ago, Jurassicbro238 said:

It's been a while so do you know how far the specimen has come since then? 

Nope no update