Things are moving along well in the lab this winter, and one of our long term projects that we hope to tackle soon is the removal of the huge field jacket of RMDRC 07-022 "Joyce", a medium-sized crested duckbill from the Judith River Formation of central Montana. Joyce was discovered by rancher Larry Tuss on private land leased by TPI for fossil collecting, and is named after his lovely wife.
The dig was hot, and we were visited by film crews from Australian Broadcasting and NBC. The animal is moderately complete and partially articulated, however the tail was lost due to cretaceous erosion. Nothing like being 70 million years late to the party.
Currently the main jacket is being re-hydrated so that the matrix can be safely removed and the bones extracted from the middle of the prep lab. Photo above is the right lower jaw and part of the upper jaw. Any duckbill guys know if it's distinctive to genus level?
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