Globidens Mosasaur Donated In Texas

[believerjoe]

My son and I started fossil hunting about 13 months ago after a school trip. The realization of what we were finding had kind of put us in awe and I never knew what was even possible. Our trips are mostly done at the North Sulphur as it is a fairly easy for us to access short of a drive and dangerous flowing water. Trips for us find us searching through gravel bars, etc hoping that there are hidden treasures. When we started, anything fossil was on the menu and we quickly outgrew excitement over most items, but developed a passion of vertebrate material. And around here, the mosasaur reigns supreme, so a good vert made for a successful outing. We did sell some items when he needed a computer for school. Our collection shrunk to about 3 display pieces and a bucket of junk bone that can't be identified.

One trip after a good rain, we found three pieces of similar bone in a gravel bar. ANother couple of weeks and several trips later, we had found 10 or 11 pieces that all were similar. I came to the realization that we were seeing pieces from the same animal and made a couple of trips just to look for it which failed. On subsequent trips, we located even more and found a vert up stream about half a mile which was unexpected and meant that I had not gone up far enough in my search.

Not long ago we got another good rain and the river crested at 10 feet, so I was just waiting for a drop so I could get down there. Left at noon one day and searched for a few hours without much success and with daylight starting to fade, I stumbled across a vert, but something was different. It was firmly planted in the shale! Not gonna lie, I dug it out. I was admiring it and it didn't even sink in until I got enough of it clean to realize that it matched the bones I was collecting. I had found the resting place of my first mosasaur. Even better than that, I had a jaw fragment with a tooth in it which easily identified the specimen as Globidens.

Based on information from here, I reached out to Mike at SMU who a lot of the Texas folks on here know and it wasn't long before I was standing in his lab with the findings. We made a donation as apparently this was a rare find. We have since gone back a few times to secure the site as we can't engineer a good excavation due to rain. I had added another 10 or 12 pieces and started to compile a decent amount of the animal. Now it is not in the best of shape and the bones are scattered over an area meaning that one piece doesn't necessarily lead you to another. There are pics in another thread which I have had trouble pasting in here, but will add in later.

I hear that information has already been learned from the find with what we had recovered and am waiting to see what else might come of it. I am proud that my Son and I were able to come across something like this so early in the game. Now we are off to close this chapter and find that 50 foot Tylosaurus!

[TyrannosaurusRex]

Congrats on a great find!

[PaleoWilliam]

That sounds like a nice find. Good Job!

[xonenine]

congratulations!

[JohnJ]

Thanks for posting your story in this subforum. Hopefully your find will add significantly to what is known about an uncommon mosasaur.

[Foshunter]

Very nice find, hope the donation will lead to more information on this elusive Texas Mos.-----Tom

[jpc]

very exciting. Great tale.

[believerjoe]

Some pics.

[PaleoWilliam]

Beautiful finds! 😀

[jcbshark]

What a great find and story, congrats!

[Triceratops]

Great discoverys! I can't wait to see that 50 foot Tylosaur;-)

[RyanNREMTP]

Awesome.

[believerjoe]

Couple of pics.

[JohnJ]

Sweet.

[PFOOLEY]

Soon there will be a head! Nice work...be proud of your donation.

[Welsh Wizard]

A fantastic find and an excellent effort in recovering so much material. Topped with the hat trick of a donation

Nice one.

Nick

[MB]

Great !

[squali]

Great job of leading by example. Your son is lucky.

[Doctor Mud]

Great detective work to track down the in situ material.

Beautiful specimens and well done on the donation!

[njfossilhunter]

Thats a great find and donation. I love those teeth,,maybe someday I will get the chance to go back to texas to find one of these critters.

[believerjoe]

We continued the dig and after another two trips, we have collected another 10 or so verts and five or six skull pieces. Did get another tooth, but the majority of those still are hiding. I will say that the overall collection is growing and should be fairly impressive now. The vert count is nearing 50!

[Auspex]

When all the arrangements are finalized, and you are otherwise ready and amenable, this deserves recognition in the Partner's Gallery: LINK

[Plantguy]

Outstanding--thanks for the updates. Congrats! Regards, Chris

[believerjoe]

I will add something when I have more info. I am guessing after another round of recovery we will know a lot more. This may go on for a year or more. I can't wait to see what else is there. The work takes its toll on you.

[believerjoe]

I should pass this up, but I do enjoy a good conversation. I could go on and on but will ask a single, burning question.

How can you identify Globidens by the vertebrae?