Jurassic Dinosaurs of the Gobi

[Sinopaleus]

It's been almost four years since I last went out into the field to hunt for fossils. Been so busy these past few years but finally a one week window arrived this May, and I once again entered the ancient desert home of the dinosaurs. As advised by the admins, I now post this trip with humbleness and excitement after the VFOTM has ended (very nice Ptychodus tooth, btw!)  

 

As per previous posts and trips, I will have to leave out landscape photos and location details of the fossil sites, as these sites in China can unfortunately be prone to blackmarket fossil poaching and other negative operations/awareness. I have been joining paleontological expeditions with professional and national teams since 2012 to hunt for dinosaurs, but this time the location is relatively new, and many species have yet to be described (only one eusauropod mamenchisaur dinosaur is in the works of being published at the moment).

 

This new locality is dated to the Middle Jurassic period (Bajocian stage, 170 million years ago), and was mostly a delta-river system that fed into fast and deep rivers. Therapod fossils, Sauropod fossils (mainly) and Thyreophoran fossils are known to have been found since the area's initial prospect 4 years ago. 

 

Without further due, I will begin the report  (sit back, it might take a day or two to finish, getting late here now!)

[Tidgy's Dad]

Sounds unbelievably exciting! 

[Sinopaleus]

I start the expedition off with a sandstorm (throwback to my first day of hunting dinosaurs in my life back in 2012). Before my arrival, the prospecting crew had already entered the desert for a few days, but our excavation crew was digging up dinosaurs from another project at another Early Cretaceous site a day's drive away. 

 

After arriving near the base of the fossil range, we had lunch squatting near our car, which consisted of dry bread loaf, raw green onion and gritty sand from the sandstorm. It was alright, as I was more focused on the fossils that might be found later than the taste of my lunch. The prospecting team has already made some discoveries in the few days they've been in the range, so we departed for the sites after our lunch.

 

On our way up, we began to see signs of dinosaur bones. This was the first pile of in-situ dinosaur bone sections I found on this trip. Based on bone density, these pieces belonged to a sauropod dinosaur.

 

After that, we also found more signs of dinosaur bones, sticking into the sandstone. These bones were usually non-articulated, as they most likely were washed into the fast-flowing rivers from floods from the Jurassic.

 

We finally arrive at one of the sites after 45 minutes of hiking. This site proved to be quite fruitful, with what appeared to be a semi-articulate juvenile eusauropod mamenchisaur. In this picture, the crew brushes at the exposed phalanges of the individual.

[Sinopaleus]

On the second day, the sandstorm stopped, and we began to divide and conquer to prospect for new dinosaurs. 

 

Nothing but small bone fragments were found in the morning, but in the afternoon, we discovered a weathered site that yielded some pretty unique sections from sandstone.

 

This is a sandstone mold of the centrum from a caudal vertebra of a sauropod. The actual vertebra proved too weathered/weak to be extracted.

 

...but, there were some other interesting bones as well. Including a pretty big distal tibia (fragmented into three pieces, but in the bottom left of the picture) from the same sauropod individual. These bone sections are now back with my collection, all washed and pieced together.

 

[Sinopaleus]

Day 3 was definitely the day with the most finds. But I didn't know that back then  

 

Started prospecting early in the morning, but I couldn't find a single bone shard for the entire half day. Felt pretty down and felt like giving up, but a voice in the back of my mind kept saying "what if you find something just five meters ahead?" And so, I powered through. And luckily I did.

 

Found a small purple bone shard near a riverbed, and started to notice a fragment trail leading up the slope of the riverbed. I followed the trail up, heart beating like a drum, and boom. A giant bone still stuck in the sandstone layer, mostly undamaged. 

 

I followed the layer, and noticed a weathered bone that appeared to be a section of a rib. I was able to chip off the bones from the sandstone casts, and successfully pieced them together again back home.

 

Anyways, the team started to use some muscle power to remove the sandstone overburden, to reveal this incredible sacral vertebra from a large adult mamenchisaur. Could use this vertebra as a water bowl for a puppy!

 

We extracted this bone, and as there was no more bones inside the layer, I got to keep everything, including this gigantic vertebra  

 

 

[Sinopaleus]

We left back to our vehicles to eat a late lunch. As I made my way to join the others eating under the shade from a desert tree, I noticed a pretty nice bone fragment in my path. Half of me wanted to ignore it and go eat my lunch, but half of me said, "just take a few steps up to see if you find anything". And so I started up a slope once more.

 

Little did I know, this bone fragment, as I pictured it when I found it, would lead to my biggest and most incredible find in my entire history to date as a dinosaur hunter. 

 

...and with that cliffhanger, I leave you for the time being, as it is now very late where I am. 

 

To be continued, tomorrow.  

[Ludwigia]

 I figure I need to stock up on popcorn for the next little while...

[Heteromorph]

Incredible site! I need more butter...

[Pemphix]

 

[PaleoNoel]

Awesome so far, can't wait to see more! 

[Phevo]

What a cliffhanger 

[ynot]

Sounds like the trip of a lifetime!

Looking forward to the rest.

[Ramon]

 I am very intrigued!!

[Sinopaleus]

Thanks, everyone  

 

Well, carrying off where I left off yesterday, I traced up the fragment trail of the slope, finding some pretty nice pieces like this:

 

And to my absolute and utter surprise, I stare at an exposed bone origin of the fragments, still sticking deeper into the earth. Who knew what bone it was? I sure didn't back then, but I can tell you my heart fell out of my chest from beating so hard, haha! It was a big bone, and I could tell just from this exposed area!

 

I dropped everything; my bag, geohammer and my lunch, and looked to the left.

 

More.

 

...and to the right.

 

More.

 

A stretch of 15 meters and three exposed sources. Could this dinosaur be semi-articulated, or just coincidence??

 

I left my bag and geohammer there, and grabbed my lunch. It was time to tell the rest of the prospecting team to get the heavy tools ready after lunch  

[Sinopaleus]

For the rest of the day, we dug into the earth to expose what we can. It was a great site, and everyone was quite excited, not only because it was quite easy to access once the bones are ready for extraction, but also because these bones were preserved in siltstone, and not in sandstone. This meant that the dinosaur remains were buried in shallow, slow-moving water, and the chances that the individual was articulated was significantly greater.

 

Now, remember this from before? Here's the before pic:

 

...and here's the after pic:

 

By this time, our expedition paleontologist has already been notified of the find, and was coming over the next day from the other project a day's drive away. 

One of the prospecting veterans sighed and lit a cigarette, before looking at me and nodding.

"This is a big fella."

 

By the end of the day, we also partially uncovered the bone below, later to be identified as a right pubis, still sticking deeper in. More bone sources were found along the layer, expanding the exposed bone sources to a range of 20 meters. 

[Sinopaleus]

Day 4 was relatively boring. A desert storm came along early in the morning, with level 10 winds, making fossil hunting and excavating impossible. So what did we do? Sleep, and eat.  The expedition paleontologist was going to come the day after next, due to the storm as well.

[Sinopaleus]

Day 5, we first went to check on my site to see how the bones were holding up from the storm yesterday. After knowing they were all ok, we went off to go hunt another area close by for new sites. Who knew, maybe new fossils became exposed from yesterday's storm!

 

Take a peek here at this rib, still in mudstone! 

 

After extraction, the rib sections were wrapped and packaged to be prepped.

 

Besides the rib, we also found 5 vertebrae that had weathered out. Here's one of the better looking ones:

 

After digging into the layer, nothing else came out. Hence, I was able to keep these finds for myself.  

 

Based on initial glance, this individual was likely either a juvenile eusauropod or a Thyreophoran (stegosaur). Whichever, the concavity of the vertebrae told us that this dinosaur was muscular and big (in the sense of flesh volume). 

[Sinopaleus]

Day 6, our expedition paleontologist arrived along with another one of his colleagues, both of whom I know quite well. Upon immediate glance, he identified the bones uncovered so far to be pelvic bones from a mamenchisaurid, and said there was a high possibility a curved chain of giant vertebrae was hiding deeper within the layer. 

 

I was sitting next to this bone for a while before I noticed it, while the rest of the team was trying to remove the incredibly hard and thick sandstone layer that was directly above the siltstone layer of our bones. After gently removing some of the loose dirt, a flat, broad bone appeared.

 

After an hour or two, this appeared: the biggest dinosaur bone(s) I've discovered yet, to date.

 

What you are looking at was identified to be a pair of ischium (left and right), in natural position. The two bones were only one of three bones in the pelvic triangle (ilium, ischium and pubis), yet they already measure over 1 meter in length.

 

The expedition paleontologist told me that the individual I have found is most likely semi-articulate, and if not more. And not only that, but it looks similar to the mamenchisaur they are currently working on describing. If they are from the same species, this individual would have been quite a bit bigger than the holotype individual (which is already an adult), estimated to be 25 meters long and making it the largest individual dinosaur discovered yet from this area and time period. 

 

Well, that made me smile.  

 

Though, it would take at least one year to excavate all the bones from the layer. So unfortunately for both you and me, we will need to wait some time before all the bones are dug out and prepared. But I will try to update this thread with more pictures as more of the dinosaur is uncovered over the next year. 

 

The expedition paleontologist called the excavation crew to wrap up their site from the Early Cretaceous, and congregate collectively here to begin excavation immediately. Time to bring in the jackhammers and cranes!

 

Anyways, here's a pretty dandy ninja shrunken I pieced together  It's a chevron facet head. 

 

In honor of its large size, I gave this mamenchisaur the nickname Drogon. Game of Thrones enthusiasts will know why I named this dinosaur after that dragon  

[Sinopaleus]

Also, here is one of Drogon's caudal vertebrae in situ, measuring around 25 cm in length. See if you can spot it  

 

And here's a clam endocast, because why not?

[Sinopaleus]

Towards the afternoon, some of the prospecting team noticed in the channel across from our site, was more dinosaur bones. Though, this dinosaur wasn't Drogon, as it came from the sandstone layer that was above Drogon's siltstone layer. Noticing some bones inside a loose sandstone boulder that was about to fall from the layer, we pried the boulder off and watched it tumble and roll down to the dried riverbed, where part of the boulder cracked. Didn't take too long for us to expose a partial scapula and almost complete humerus of a juvenile mamenchisaur. 

 

 

We also noticed a therapod tooth cross section in the block. Either an allosauroid, or a megalosaur. Until we find bones of these guys, then we will know for sure who was preying on these mamenchisaurs  

 

[Sinopaleus]

This sums up my report for my most recent hunt into the Gobi. This trip will definitely be on my mind for a while, after all the finds from only 6 days out in the field! 

 

Stay tuned, for more updates on Drogon  

[Tidgy's Dad]

Well, I was right. 

It was very exciting indeed.

Excellent trip report and congratulations on the finds of a lifetime. 

[Heteromorph]

Fantastic finds! Sounds like an extraordinary site. Keep us updated on its excavation. 

[belemniten]

Wow  absolutely awesome finds! Congrats 

[ynot]

Amazing!- words fail Me.