My Large Find on the NSR

[believerjoe]

3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Congratulations!! It sure would be nice if you could tell us the rest of the story, since I have a bunch of questions, but that's maybe asking a bit too much. Did you extract it alone or did you have help? Why didn't you try to jacket it? How did you mark the position of the various pieces? etc. etc.

 

 

You can ask what you want.  I will give a brief edition.  I went hunting and it was later in the day than usual.  I walked a ways and was having terrible luck finding anything, so I just kept on walking.  I finally found a mosasaur vert and so I was happy and decided to turn around and head out, but it was getting late and I was supposed to buy food on my way home and cook for the night.  Somewhere on my walk out, out of the corner of my eye, I glance across and see a jaw section with a couple of tooth sockets sitting in a spot with a few rocks.  Now jaw sections in the NSR are not technically rare, but don’t expect to find them all the time, so it is no shock to see one.  I said to myself that I am going to grab that bonus piece, and then make faster tracks out.  It was starting to get close to dark and there was rain in the forecast.   When I reached down to pick it up, I realized that one of those rocks was actually another jaw section.  I was now reall happy because I stood there figured that I had six inches of mosasaur jaw with no teeth.  I thought it had just broken.  When I went to collect the second piece, I focused and realized there was a tooth halfway in the ground and that it wasn’t part of either of the other pieces and there was the top of a vertebra showing!  My brain finally woke up and I realized this was more than a loose find, and to top it off there were teeth involved!  I instantly fell ill with excitement.  Just got plain sick and could not stop my heart from racing, and was worried I was going to black out in the 30 degree temps. 

 

So here we are.  30 minutes from dark, I am staring at the ground where teeth are present, debating what to do.  I am sick and then it starts to rain!  Now this is a river environment of high erosion, so leaving this there could result in it being gone the next morning depending on the total rainfall.  I was not prepared for this, meaning I had nothing on me.  I carry a stick and a knife, and luckily a backpack I had just gotten over the holidays.  What would you do?  Lol. All aI can remember is texting my wife, saying I found a mosasaur, be a little late....  So I used my knife to work away a little shale and it did not take much to realize that an entire jaw was there with a bunch of broken teeth, but in place.  I even stopped and thought, I wish I could get this in a more proper way, but had to reason that it might not be there.  And nobody knows where I was and I could not even call a crew for help.  Cell service for me stinks out there.  I was then determined to grab that jaw and the pieces exposed in the process.  I pick up the first section with shale attached and realize that I have nowhere to put it!  I can’t put it in the pack and break it all up, so I realized that the pack has a hard plastic back plate in it.  I was going to use the pack as a table and set the pieces on top.  A new problem came up when just barely uncovering the jaw, more teeth started showing and more verts, etc.  Just a pile of bone.  When it was over and losing light, I had a jaw and a fourth of another , and a pile of verts.  I was done collecting the washed out pieces at this point, and needed to get out of there.  Another new problem is having 60 pounds of bone and I can’t put the pack on my back.  I put the verts inside because hey, they are just  verts!  I had the jaws laid on top with shale.  I was going to have to carry this with both arms out cradling the pack so the piece would remain stable.  It was a long dark trek out and I will just say that my back took a week to recover from the trip out.  I was sick, excited, and yet watching shale crumble and possibly bone as I attempted to save this stuff.  I made it to my truck and had to sit against the tire in the rain and recover for a bit.  I was looking at a pile of rubble now where there was once a jaw! Did I do the right thing, wrong thing?  I wasn’t sure.  I spent the next few days cleaning, gluing and such.  For the record, I don’t think I caused any extra damage.  All breaks were there in the ground and all the teeth were broken off where it was laying anyway.  Turned out that I had it all and had not lost anything.  I was able to put back together as you have seen it.  Be fun to know what everyone would do in that situation, but all I can say is that I was not leaving it there to come up missing........

[JohnJ]

Glad you made it out ok, Joe.  I've been in several similar situations and dealt with each a bit differently.  You definitely have to calm yourself every time to help think of the best options.

 

[believerjoe]

29 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

Glad you made it out ok, Joe.  I've been in several similar situations and dealt with each a bit differently.  You definitely have to calm yourself every time to help think of the best options.

 

 

I am not ashamed to admit the excitement. Lol. I think any vertebrate Fossil hunter hopes to come across such.  I was very much under duress, but in a good way.   Now carry some emergency supplies with me if I run into something else.  I do hope to one day do this again where I can get a proper shot at a plaster jacket, but the situation did not lend itself.  The NSR is very unforgiving, but I will take what she gives.

[garyc]

I probably would've done the exact same thing. I would have of course made sure I had an exit strategy in case a wall of water started coming down the NSR toward me

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Considering the volatile conditions and jeopardy of the specimen in the face of a potential flash flood, I would have totally done the same thing.  Find of a lifetime.  Well done.

[Ludwigia]

@believerjoe Thanks very much for rounding up the story! Quite an adventure. I agree completely with your action. I would probably have done exactly the same thing myself under those circumstances. You certainly also did a great job putting the puzzle back together.

[believerjoe]

1 hour ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

Considering the volatile conditions and jeopardy of the specimen in the face of a potential flash flood, I would have totally done the same thing.  Find of a lifetime.  Well done.

 

The only ironic part is that it did not end up flooding and so it could have been left alone, but I did not know that.  Nothing went wrong really, so it has worked out.  I am getting practice with the restoration and learning my bones better.  

[sharko69]

Unbelievable find! I am happy for you. Keep the pictures coming. Following.

[believerjoe]

I have intentions on showing some things that you do not see every day, or at least most of us.  Here is a tylosaur surangular.  One of my favorite bones and the largest bone on the critter if you do not count the dentary.  It was only broken in half and was an easy fix.  This is the first complete one I have held.  Found part of one on the older Globidens find and wished there was more.  It is a beautiful bone all by itself.  Most might not know but there is a lot of very thin bone on a lot of the skull bones causing them to break and not giving their full size.

[believerjoe]

This is half of an articular.  It was a wash out item so the other half is either destroyed or just yet to be found.  It could have had some crushing.  This is a nice thick bone and for some reason, the only one I have found.  There should be more of these as sturdy as they seem to be (at least this half).  The other side is so similar I did not waste a picture.  The surangular actually fits very nicely within this piece as some of the bones that did not bend under pressure.

[Delfi]

Oh my! What a discovery! It’s giving me butterflies! Congrats!!   I’m just dying to get back out there! 

[believerjoe]

I was out today to sift for broken off teeth and that was wishful thinking.  Did not work.  Then poked around the site to find a rib bone hiding there.  Went to take it out and bumped some other bone in the process.  Turned out to be the parietal bone, and I managed to put most of it back together.  Darned bone gets thin in so many places on these things......   Took forever to get it out and left with a piece of rib still showing.  I am hoping that it leads to more and maybe the other 3/4’s of the verts.  Lol

 

Here is an in process shot of me cleaning and putting it back together.  I will have another pic tomorrow as I ran out of glue.

[Bone guy]

Wowzers! This is awesome. And if I was you in this situation I would have stuffed my shirt with as many bones as I could carry, although that may not be the best idea.......

[believerjoe]

Posting this as I do not see many of these that are not just pieces.  All images are the parietal bone that was newly discovered.  I have put back most bone that was broken, but some fine details turned to literal dust in the field and even at home.   You will have to forgive the rookie Fossil restorer, but I wanted to get my feet wet.  

[believerjoe]

The current state.  Just wet from some cleaning and not dry.

[TNCollector]

I have been in similar situations before. There are times when it was more important to recover the specimen before nature did, even when you have to be a little rough with them. .

 

Your preps looks pretty good. This mosasaur will look super once it is wire-framed and all that. I assume you plan to do that? I would highly recommend bringing some aluminum foil and paper towels with you on your collecting trips so that you can jacket these more fragile bones before removing them. I like to wet the paper towels, then ring them out so that they are damp, and lay them on top of the fossil. After you do that, take some aluminum foil and wrap it over the paper towels and pull the entire bone out with the mud/shale included. This would save you a ton of time putting those bones back together and would ensure that you get all of the pieces.

 

That string of vertebrae is just amazing. Do you have most of the skull? Any noticeable orbitals?

[Ash]

Those look fragile

nice work! Congrats on the find!

[believerjoe]

1 hour ago, TNCollector said:

I have been in similar situations before. There are times when it was more important to recover the specimen before nature did, even when you have to be a little rough with them. .

 

Your preps looks pretty good. This mosasaur will look super once it is wire-framed and all that. I assume you plan to do that? I would highly recommend bringing some aluminum foil and paper towels with you on your collecting trips so that you can jacket these more fragile bones before removing them. I like to wet the paper towels, then ring them out so that they are damp, and lay them on top of the fossil. After you do that, take some aluminum foil and wrap it over the paper towels and pull the entire bone out with the mud/shale included. This would save you a ton of time putting those bones back together and would ensure that you get all of the pieces.

 

That string of vertebrae is just amazing. Do you have most of the skull? Any noticeable orbitals?

 It is fine to bad mouth my prep cause this is the first real attempt at such.  I can take it.  Lol. I carried tinfoil and toilet paper for a year after doing this before and then stopped to save space.  These things seem to hit at the worst time, but no worries.  I am back carrying it now almost regardless, or at least have in my truck.  Even when doing that we still lose a little of the fragile bone without more proper effort.  I feel fairly confident that we have successfully collected things to the best of our ability and within reason.  It is not the premiere specimen, but worthy of saving anyway.  I have spent enough time in this river to know that things disappear quickly.  

 

I think I have enough to warrant an actual skull mount , but not the entire skull.  However, I cannot say that there is not more hiding.  All I know is that I want it t be seen and not sit locked away.  Universities and museums have no need for more Tylosaurus Proriger specimens, so I think it will be safe to use as a moving display of some kind.  I would have to learn to build that myself also as everything is too expensive.  I guess time will tell...  I need to feel confident that there is not more before anything happens.

[believerjoe]

This was taken before I found the parietal.  We are having a rain event and tomorrow I plan to check for previous wash items.  Never know what I might find.  The rest could be around.  It wasn’t laying on the ground perfectly, so parts can be anywhere.  I am confident there is more.    I have only recovered 18 verts and that strikes me as odd, but the rest could have been eaten or something.  Either way I achieved a goal and that was to find a jaw bone with teeth.  I would have been happy with that and nothing else, but now it seems that I must collect every scrap  and do what I can with it.  Nothing in the pic for scale, but the skull is over 3 feet.

[ynot]

This turned out to be quite a wonderful find!

Congratulations!!

[believerjoe]

Just another pic for followers.  Quadrate.  Well, maybe 95% of one.  A couple of features are missing, but most was there.  A story behind this piece is that we had dug around a bit and collected what we saw.  When I got home and had cleaned up everything, I only had half a quadrate with a very clear break.  I knew that we had somehow managed to lose the other half.  I went back to go through the rubble of shale.  I found a few pieces and brought them home.  When I cleaned one up, sure enough I had found the other half and it still joined up rather nicely.  Until then, I had only seen partials.  

[DutchDinoDude]

Amazing find! It looks like almost all the important skull elements are preserved. I hope you wil find more post cranial bones soon. 

Greetings Lars

[KimTexan]

This is so very cool!! Wow! 

I’m a pretty new hunter of the NSR as of last October. I hunt a lot of other places too, but rarely do I go some place more than once or twice. But the NSR is different. It is huge. It is pretty diverse in certain areas. I keep going back there. The funds hold so much potential. I only wish that I lived closer. I’d be out there regularly.

I saw your post about the parietal bone on FB DPS, but if you posted the whole enchilada that you posted here on the DOS group I missed that sad to say.

It is definitely remote and you often have to hike a ways in to find stuff. I make a habit of carry tools with me, because I had too many instances of kicking myself for not having tools on me and not being able to collect something cool.

I know what you’re talking about with the mud. I was there in late January and found myself walking very carefully along a muddy narrow edge of the river trying to avoid slipping into deep mud. I had to claw a few times at the bank to keep from going in. Another time in December I had a similar experience only it was trying to avoid slipping into the ice covered water. That time I did slip into the water, but managed to stop before all of me went in. It was in the 20s that day. Luckily I have not had your experience, but I was fearful of it. I’ve sunk in almost to my knees out there and that was enough to make me fearful of worse.

Awesom find. Congratulations!

[believerjoe]

1 hour ago, KimTexan said:

This is so very cool!! Wow! 

I’m a pretty new hunter of the NSR as of last October. I hunt a lot of other places too, but rarely do I go some place more than once or twice. But the NSR is different. It is huge. It is pretty diverse in certain areas. I keep going back there. The funds hold so much potential. I only wish that I lived closer. I’d be out there regularly.

I saw your post about the parietal bone on FB DPS, but if you posted the whole enchilada that you posted here on the DOS group I missed that sad to say.

It is definitely remote and you often have to hike a ways in to find stuff. I make a habit of carry tools with me, because I had too many instances of kicking myself for not having tools on me and not being able to collect something cool.

I know what you’re talking about with the mud. I was there in late January and found myself walking very carefully along a muddy narrow edge of the river trying to avoid slipping into deep mud. I had to claw a few times at the bank to keep from going in. Another time in December I had a similar experience only it was trying to avoid slipping into the ice covered water. That time I did slip into the water, but managed to stop before all of me went in. It was in the 20s that day. Luckily I have not had your experience, but I was fearful of it. I’ve sunk in almost to my knees out there and that was enough to make me fearful of worse.

Awesom find. Congratulations!

It was on the DPS page first.  It has been fun and there is still a chance to add more.  I have spent enough time in the river to know how to work it, but never assume that I am going to run into such.  Just rare.  I am thankful that I live within an hour and can make a go at it often.  

[Bone guy]

When you find all the bones you can find you should make a custom display. That would be absolutely awesome, especially because you have the pride of digging it up yourself!