The Last Three Days in Wyoming

[PaleoNoel]

I've spent the last three days in Wyoming hunting fossils with Paleoprospectors. Monday was spent on the Lance fm, Tuesday on the White River fm and Wednesday was back on the Lance.

The first half of Monday was spent prospecting for new sites along a wide open space. The best find happened early on when a younger guy found an Anzu claw, I was not so lucky for a while as I found only a few bone bits in a mostly scarce area. 

I continued walking along a ridge overlooking the open grassland until I noticed an outcropping of a light brown/orange colored rock. I decide to test my luck and hit it with my rock hammer and to my pleasure, there were abundant snail, bivalve and plant fossils inside this conglomerate. This little channel deposit raised my spirits, but I was still hungry for dinosaur and other vertebrate fossils.

My little hunting buddy, a horned lizard.

Some shots of the conglomerate containing the snails and other fossils:

 
My best find from this conglomerate channel deposit was this nice bivalve

 

Although I absolutely enjoy and appreciate finding invertebrate fossils, dinosaurs and other reptiles have my heart. The second half of Monday consisted of the group spending time hunting at a microsite. This spot was where I was most successful.

Top Left: Worn alligator tooth

Top Right: Paronychodon tooh (the first in my collection)

Bottom: A piece of crocodilian osteoderm

A section of Champsosaurus jaw

A nice coprolite, maybe fish or small reptile

A partial small theropod or bird toe bone 

A hadrosaur spit tooth

A croc tooth still lying in the sand

 

[PaleoNoel]

On Tuesday, the group traveled down towards Lusk to a ranch bearing White river formation fauna. The first half was once again spent prospecting for new areas, and once again I had very little success, only finding one section of Leptomeryx jaw in an absolutely enormous area. Others had more success but still not ideal. 

The second half of the day was spent on an area which was said to have been highly productive for the group who visited the week before, producing a number of tortoises and oreodont skulls. Although I didn't have the luck to find either of those White River classic fossils, I did end up with a number of exciting finds including a small section of dog jaw with a tooth remaining, a small partial egg and an entelodont tooth.

A section of rabbit jaw

A complete toe bone which I assume is tortoise as it was found among many pieces of shell

Here is my best find- an exploded entelodont (Archaeotherium) canine

Here's a photo of the fossil back at the motel. I've decided to keep it in its matrix unrestored to use as a display piece to demonstrate how many fossils go through natural processes of weathering, including cycles of freezing and thawing, which is what I believe this tooth went through.

[PaleoNoel]

Today was the least productive so far, and I ended with more bug bites than fossils. I would wager a 6:1 ratio wouldn't be unreasonable. Through our time prospecting I found a few pieces of turtle shell, triceratops frill bits and one large chunk of Tyrannosaurus bone.

Here's the above mentioned bone

[PaleoNoel]

Stay tuned for more fossil hunting action as there will be lots more to come!

[jpc]

Fun stuff.  I would love to see a closer up photo of the champsosaur jaw bit.  Also, just so you know, bones and teeth can be found in Lance Fm snailglomerates.  I think your White River toe bone is an oreodont, not a turtle.  If you get a chance next year, come to the Tate Museum in Casper and say hi. 

[PaleoNoel]

2 minutes ago, jpc said:

Fun stuff.  I would love to see a closer up photo of the champsosaur jaw bit.  Also, just so you know, bones and teeth can be found in Lance Fm snailglomerates.  I think your White River toes bone is an oreodont, not a turtle.  If you get a chcnae next year, come to the Tate Museum in Casper and say hi. 

Thanks, I'll do that. My goal for next year is to drive out to Wyoming on summer road trip so I could definitely fit in a visit to say hello.

 

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for the report. At least you made a few nice finds and got a good bit of exercise

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Nice report - Those look like nice places to collect!

Very neat stuff you collected, especially the Lance microsite bones and teeth!

[Troodon]

Thanks for posting...always nice to see what others find.  Its an opportunity few get to do and  it seems like you had lots of fun.

[Fossildude19]

Thanks for the report!

Great finds!

[Nimravis]

Great report and finds, it is always fun to play in the dirt.

[Pemphix]

[Gizmo]

Very nice, congrats! 

[ynot]

Ditto!