RMDRC paleo lab

Baryonyx in Colordo: 100th post

2012-01-30T15:56:00.000-08:00

It's been 1oo posts since I started this blog. Some people would have something special planned out for an occasion like this. Plan? Why start now?

Amazingly, the post I did about a year ago on our asembly of a cast Baryonyx skeleton is still the main traffic driver on this blog, after the updates of course. In order to celebrate, I'm putting up a few more pics of the cast for future google image surfers.

With a copy of the Maidstone slab in the background

Nice paws

This specimen is on display for a few more weeks in the RMDRC, before getting shipped off to its new home overseas.

34 feet (11m) long is big for almost any theropod

Daspletosaurus prep update: now with arms

2012-01-27T11:40:00.000-08:00

Hip block. Yowza.

I know I've spent a lot of my previous blog posts focusing on the Platecarpus skull we were getting ready to send off witht he travelling circus to Tucson. Well, they're out the door and I can swing my attention back to our Daspletosaurus "Pete III".

Need some claws

Preparation is about 98% finished, with a few straggler parts and the pelvis block to finish up. We've also begun the restoration of some of the bones, partly for increased stability and partly because they're much less ugly now. Mark Wildman posted on his blog recently a tidbit mentioning Daspletosaurus had the longest forelimbs of any tyrannosaurid. I'm not sure if that's correct, however comparing our measurements with others published for Tyrannosauurs rex, we're a bit longer overall, even though we estimate Pete III to be nearly 10 feet shorter in overall length than "Sue".

The beginning of restoration of the arms

One of the nice things about preparing and restoring these bones (finally) is that we can uncover some new information about Pete III. Based on the size of its femur, we can estimate it was around 20 years old when it died, which is pretty old for Daspletosaurus. I've starting to use "it" when referring to Pete III because one of the next mysteries I hope to solve is whether it was male or female. Stay tuned for updates!

Finished! Platecarpus skull pictures

2012-01-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

I dress well

Its pretty side

Its other pretty side

Not much of an update, but I need to close out this project I've been blogging about. The world's largest Platecarpus planifrons skull is done and in the crate, ready to ship to Tucson. Hopefully I will never see it again!

Shark bites on the face

Platecarpus skull:shark bites and the rest

2012-01-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

Things are finally moving out the door in preparation for the big Tucson gem and mineral show at the end of the month. I've been sidetracked for about a week on other projects (including getting a mosasur cast skeleton ready for shipment to Japan), but I've been able to throw a few hours here and there at the Platecarpus skull too.

Looking better but still not finished

As you know, it seems to be the largest specimen of Platecarpus planifrons ever recovered from Kansas, this coming from a student who has measured over 800 individuals. All parts are now assembled and there is just some restoration on teeth and the maxilla to complete before it gets paint on its restored parts.

It looks so happy!

An interesting thing about this specimen is that even though it was a pretty large critter (over 23 feet) it still ended up as a meal for a shark. The frontal, over the right eye, has the tips of 2 Cretoxyrhina teeth embedded in it, with gouges from several more. It also fits with scavenging behavior where shark bites on bones forward of the eye socket are rare, but pretty dang common towards the back of the skull, where all the meaty goodness of the jaw musculature is.

Ouuuuuch!

At least I hope that bite was after death. Otherwise it sure would hurt.

Last post before I'm out the door: World record Platecarpus

2011-12-20T15:44:00.000-08:00

Jaws and skull bits in field jacket

It's holiday time again, which also means it's the last big push to get stuff finished before the Tuscon gem and mineral show. One of my last minute projects is reconstructing the largest Platecarpus planifrons skull ever discovered from the Niobrara. This critter, from Gove Co., Kansas, measures in with a skull a whopping 65cm (26 inches) long! Usually Platecarpus of any flavor from the Niobrara is hard pressed to break 50cm (20 inches). Mike Triebold discovered this specimen in May of 2010, and it was about time to do something with it.

Some parts restored (partially)

This monster wasn't the top of the food chain though, the frontal has the tips of 2 shark teeth (most likely Cretoxyrhina) embedded in it, along with many scratches and gouges in the bone from scavenging.

Taking a ride on the Mosa-tissarie

Unfortunately, all that was recovered was the skull, though with lots of bone and not much meat, this is usually the most common parts of what remains of mosasaurs from the Niobrara. The bodies, especially the flippers and tail, tended to get chewed up first. The skull was partially eroded out and scattered, however there was more than enough present to make a good reconstruction of this animal. Hopefully sometime around the new year I'll be finished, and back on to preparing Thescelosaurus bits. Fingers crossed.

Show Thescelosaurus some love

2011-12-09T08:45:00.000-08:00

When is a dinosaur not a dinosaur? When it's fairly dull I guess. Just look at Thescelosaurus. Not brainy, not much in the way of fangs, claws, armor, clubs, or anything else sexy. It's also a fairly rare dinosaur, with just a handful of reasonably complete specimens. We at the RMDRC have been lucky, preparing the only complete skull so far (on "Bert"), as well as now preparing a pretty dang complete skeleton, "Jonathan".

Right leg from the former display

Jonathan was discovered in 2006 in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. It was nearly complete, minus the tip of the tail and the head/neck where it had eroded out into the gully. Lying belly-up, once show prepped, it nearly looked like it died just yesterday.

Main jacket

Look at that cute little first chevron

We have now started to prepare all of the bones free of the matrix. We will restore them, mold them, reconstruct the missing bits, and offer a cast of this big Thescelosaurus (13-14 feet or 4m long) for sale to institutions. The original will be mounted in 3d on a steel armature. That last bit is a LOT of work, but it's also pretty satisfying and a bit of fun too, especially if you enjoy doing metal work!

Bonnerichthys dig: October 2011

2011-11-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

On our last field expedition to Logan County this fall, we intended to try and recover the remains of a large Clidastes specimen located by one of our ranchers. That critter turned out to be a bit of a bust, however about 18 inches below it, we noticed another chunk of bone sticking out of the outcrop. Tracing it in, we eventually figured out it was a pectoral fin of the giant filter-feeding fish Bonnerichthys gladius. These fish are pretty darn rare, and since myself and Mike Triebold were co-authors on the paper naming this fish, we were pretty happy to find it.

Jacob Jett's feet for scale. The orange paint marks where we cut the slab with a chain saw

Detail shot of the distinctive fin of this strange fish

The chalk was very hard, but we were lucky enough to have all of our fancy air tools along with us after helping Mike Everhart with his Protostega dig earlier that week. That made life so much easier on our crew.

Preparation begins, with my hand for scale

The dig lasted just a day, and unfortunately it was just pectoral fins (and a few radials) preserved, the most common bits of this critter found. The fins themselves were 3 feet long, indicating a fish in the 15-foot range. We brought the specimen back to the lab and prepared it in a few days. Now what do we do with it?

The most intact fin, after the cleaning is finished

Daspletosaurus prep update

2011-11-18T12:04:00.000-08:00

Jacob and I have been hammering away at the remaining small jackets of Pete III. By small I mean things less than the 4 ton main jacket monstrosity that we'll eventually have to confront. This week we've finished the left femur and ilium, along with a slew of gastral elements, vertebrae, and other bits and pieces.

Anterior dorsal of Pete III compared to Stan

The ilium has a strange mass of punky bone on the medial face of the pubic peduncle. We've seen a few instances of old age related pathology on this specimen, it wouldn't surprise me to find more.

Medial surface of left ilium, 42 inches long

Before long, we'll be started on the pathological tail section. Can't wait!

Caudal view of left femur.

Daspletosaurus prep restarts: this time with skull bones

2011-11-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

While I was away soaking up pathogens at SVP in Las Vegas last week, paleotech Jacob Jett has been busy preparing some of the jackets from the weathered edge of Pete III's excavation. The bone was in difficult shape to begin with (earning the nickname "The pixelated Tyrannosaur" at SVP) before seeing several hundred Montana freeze-thaw cycles, making this prep work one of our greatest challenges to date. However, results are here! Skull bones so far include both quadrates, a jugal, both quadratojugals, a spenial, pterygoid and possible surangular, with more to come. No toothy bits yet though.

The left quadrate. Actually recognizable!

Dorsal vertebra #1, giving you an idea of the sheer size of Pete III. Transverse process span is 15 inches (38cm)

Surprise! Manual phalanx!

We still have many jackets (including the majority of the big 4-ton monstrosity) to prepare, however we're confident that the majority of the skeleton and perhaps 20-30% of the skull is here. Check back for more updates!

Fall fieldwork!

2011-10-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

There's nothing quite like a nice October day in the Niobrara chalk. Lots of hiking, fresh air, and occasionally a few fossils.

Scrappy Cimolichthys verts in the outcrop

Though the puropse of this past 2 1/2 day trip was primarily for scouting, we did return with a few jackets of specimens, including a nice Ichthyodectes tail from the lower chalk and part of a giant Clidastes from the upper chalk. We'll be returning very soon to recover the rest of the Clidastes, as well as a new Nyctosaurus specimen I discovered on Friday (more on that later), and possibly the Pentanogmius I located, or one of the 3 xiphs I stumbled across. It's good to have so many choices.

Mike evaluating a Xiphactinus skull

Interesting thing about the Clidastes. The tail is chock-full of pathological vertebrae, from what looks to be an old infected bite wound. No clue yet as to whether the bite was from a shark or another mosasaur, however from all the intraspecific damage we see on other specimens, I wouldn't doubt it was the result of Clidastes-on-Clidastes violence.

Ouch! Most certainly a grumpy mosasaur

Light at the end of the Triceratops tunnel

2011-09-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

We're back from another great Denver Gem and Mineral show. I even got Bob Dietrich to sign my copy of "Boneheads" by Richard Polsky. Dr. Bakker had some good input about javelinas, and we got our Bacculites jaws back from being prepared by Neal Larson.

Captain Jacob on the SS Pointyface

We're now back in our final push to get this giant Triceratops skull built and out of our workspace. We figure less than 3 weeks to go. All assembly is finished, save for installing the missing maxillary teeth. Steel work is also done (I incinerated 3 t-shirts during that process), all that it really left is details details details. Also painting. Today I should hopefully be finished hollowing out the ironstone from the orbits in the last bit of preparation.

A month's worth of work. Also I made the table.

We've got a space picked out in the museum and will let all of our readers know when it goes on display, so you can come visit it in person. Sad thing is, I don't think this Triceratops has a name yet...

Triceratops project update # whatever

2011-09-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

8 feet long and 5 feet wide, about the same size as my bathroom

Ok the assembly process is almost done! We've assembled almost all of the frill, a process that took me a week and a half and 100 pounds of steel. I only severely burned myself 4 or 5 times, including a big melty blob that rolled down my shoulder and back. Ouch.

7 days of constant custom steel fabrication, and still not yet done.

Now it is time for the tedious texturing of the filler that went into areas where we were missing bone. We're leaving the busted part of the parietal off while we work around it. Also note in the photos the fancy stage that I built in an effort to save our backs while detailing. A bit of epoxy putty, some epoccipitals, and some paint will get us to the finish line, now hopefully around Halloween, if not sooner. It's painstaking work, send beer,

Poached Again, Dammit

2011-08-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Hey, I recognize that plastic!

This past week Mike and Jacob returned to Kansas to do some field work, and were reminded by the heat and lack of breeze exactly why we don't usually go back till fall. They scouted some outcrops near where we discovered the poached Protosphyraena fin earlier this year. About 1/4 mile south of that site, Jacob spotted a sliver of blue plastic coming out of the outcrop... again.

View from the site

It was haphazardly covered with about 1 foot of loose chalk and had appeared to have been excavated about 2 years ago judging from the size of the plants growing in the talus. As with the last poaching attempt, the site was nearly completely excavated down to the bone layer before it was abandoned/re-covered. I have the distinct feeling these poachers may be headhunters.

Critter just prior to jacketing

After exposing it,the site turned out to be a sorta jumbled Xiphactinus coming out tail first. There may or may not be skull bits present. Our crew made short work of the specimen and took it out in 3 jackets. After that, the thermometer hit 109 degrees before lunch and it was time to get the proverbial hell out of Dodge. I think hunting out there will be better in about a month. Especially with someone out there finding and pre-excavating specimens for us.

The Coelacanths of Kansas

2011-08-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Most everyone is aware of the story of the "living fossil" fish, the coelacanth. One was caught off the coast of Africa in the 1930s, surprising everyone since they were thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period along with the dinosaurs. Today there is but one genus left, Latimeria. They are strange animals, even for people experienced in working with fish.

Cast of the extant coelacanth Latimeria in the RMDRC

We recovered and prepared 2 specimens of the giant coelacanth Megalocoelacanthus from western Kansas in the past decade. As far as I know they are the only two examples of this big coelacanth ever recovered from the Niobrara chalk. The first specimen was excavated from the lower chalk around MU5 (Coniacian age) is fairly complete, and will be our basis for a 3d reconstruction of the skull and body. The second specimen was a fragmented left lower jaw found in the upper chalk, under MU20, putting it early Campanian in age. We used the coronoid from this specimen in our reconstruction to replace the missing one from the first.

About 20% of the skull material found with our first Megalocoelacanthus

Someone once said "go big or go home". We're taking that to heart as our first reconstruction will consist of a 3d skull on a panel-mounted restoration of the body. We're basing the postcranial skeleton heavily on Latimeria, since we only have a few parts of the pectoral and dorsal fins. Coelacanths don't have ossified vertebrae (or ribs for that matter) meaning skulls and fins are about all you are ever going to find.

RMDRC sculptor Mary working on our prototype

Our specimen is truly going to be a giant, coming in at about 9 feet 4 inches (3m) in length. As far as I can tell this will also be the very first restoration attempt of Megalocoelacanthus. Of course we'll be molding the thing, so hopefully it can be placed in museums worldwide. Ours isn't the largest specimen ever found, but it sure seems it is by far the most complete.

Nyctosaurus restoration finished!

2011-07-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Beautifully detailed specimen

We've added another flying critter to our family of casts. This time it's a restoration of a female Nyctosaurus gracilis. This is the smaller of the two flying reptiles found in the Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas, and by far the most rare. Contact me if you're interested in a copy. We're offering a substantial discount off of our introductory price through the end of August.

Top-ish view showing lack of wing claws

Look out for that Pteranodon!

Our restoration ended up with a wingspan of 7 feet. We'll be debuting the crested male specimen in a few weeks, so keep tuned for updates. Also come to the museum to see this specimen now proudly on display in out exhibit hall.

Just a Pretty Picture

2011-07-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe not so pretty because I've volunteered myself to be the RMDRC spokesmodel. Just consider yourself lucky I didn't accessorize with a bikini.

Building a Xiphactinus: ground to mount

2011-07-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

Initial excavation of RMDRC 10-025 in Lane Co., Kansas

During the 2010 field season, we managed to find and collect part or most of 9 Xiphactinus audax specimens. But what do you do with all of those mainly incomplete fish? In the case with RMDRC 10-025, we decided to prepare and restore the skeleton in a panel mount display. Two factors helped us decide on working with this specimen: It was relatively complete except for the skull, which had weathered out in the float, and it looked to be a pretty small sized fish, possibly only 10 feet long. After all, it was excavated in a fishpile only 7 feet square.

Nice compact pile of fishbone

Since most of the skull was in golf ball sized fragments with eroded edges, we decided to source an already prepared Xiphactinus skull of the same size that was collected on the same ranch a few years prior. Preparation went slowly because of extensive root invasion, resulting in some of the most maddeningly soft fish bone we've ever had the joy of preparing.

Marking paint to denote the cutlines of the 2 jackets

Laying out the critter we found that we grossly underestimated the final size of our animal. From tail tip to procumbent fang it comes in at a whopping 13 feet 4 inches, with the beautiful tail fin 3 1/2 feet tall. Interestingly, there was bits of a Gillicus skull, pectoral fins and vertebral column mixed in with the Xiphactinus, more than likely the remains of its last meal. We included the Gillicus in the mount, because, why not?

Fishie is bigger than curator

No matter, we can make these panel mounts as large as we need. Our last mount was made of steel, plywood and solid Hydrocal, resulting in a 1600 pound monstrosity. This slightly smaller mount is using new techniques, with a finished target weight of below 400 pounds. Fingers crossed, chiropractor on call.

Status as of a few minutes ago. More detailing is needed before paintwork commences

We aim on finishing towards the end of this week. Hopefully. It's amazing how much lab space this thing takes up!

Well, I was told to find a Pteranodon

2011-06-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

So I did. Jacob and I were scouting a few weeks back in some nasty hard more vertical than not yellow chalk between Marker Units 5 and 7. We were finding a whole lot of nothing except for blown out Cimolichthys bodies and some random Xiphactinus/Ichthyodectes parts. Not even a shark tooth to be seen. We were getting frustrated and I was busy entertaining myself picking up Martinichthys coprolites.

We had shifted into "Don't look where you don't want to collect" mode in the really steep stuff to avoid having to excavate 7-12 feet of chalk overburden like when I found the Platecarpus "Cap'n Chuck". Walking up a narrow gully it expanded and flattened out a bit, and I mustered the gumption to check out the outcrops closely. Nothing... Nothing... Martinichthys poop... weathered Cretoxyrhina tooth... Oooh Pterosaur wingtip!

Mmmm bones

I checked out the face of the outcrop and saw bones poking out on a single horizon for 4 1/2 feet. It was definitely a dig. Unfortunately it was a dig in the hard vertical yellow chalk, with 6 feet of overburden, located about 200 feet away from the nearest place we could pack in heavy tools and equipment.

Looks crunchy, but the bone is in beautiful condition

Jacob and I decided if we wanted to get this out of the ground sometime this year, we'd have to get the handy-dandy electric jackhammer down to the site. We set the generator up near the truck and daisy chained every single extension cord we could find together. Stretching them all out, we made it to the dig site, with only about 6 feet to spare.

A whole lot of topography

We used the power equipment to dig down to within 2 inches of the bone horizon. There was no splitting layer at the fossil so we had to carefully explore the perimeter of the excavation with chipper hammers and xacto knives. We found fingers and toes, legs and wings, and even some hints of super delicate skull material. We jacketed the slab and spent the better part of an hour climbing and hauling the 200 pound jacket out of the badlands.

Slabbed!

After prep. Lower jaw running l to r under humerus. Lower unprepared area is full of metatarsals/toes

Back at the lab I began preparing the critter.Everything came out well, and it turns out we have about 50% of the skeleton, including a mostly complete lower jaw. The humerus measures 19cm, putting the total wingspan at 4.56m, or 15 feet. This size puts it in the range of a medium sized male of Pteranodon sternbergi. No giant, but still an exciting fossil

Quickie bone map of what is present

I decided to give it the nickname "Val" after my wife, since she pretty much made it clear I had to. A pretty hellish dig and packout, but the specimen is well worth it.

Catching a poacher (sorta). Kansas trip #3

2011-06-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

Back again after another week of baking my brains out in the chalk in search of long dead marine critters. We were focusing on a strip of outcrops that exposed MU 4 to MU 6 in the lower Niobrara chalk. Found some good stuff too, a nice Pteranodon sternbergi (which will be the focus of another post once prep starts), a partial Xiphactinus audax skull, a small Pachyrhizodus caninus tail, some Martinichthys rostra, and a whole bag of Martinichthys poop! If anyone has any research interest in this poop, let me know, I'd be happy to provide samples.

Pteranodon site

The Pteranodon took up most of our time on till Wednesday, but late that afternoon, Jacob and I finished up and moved on to some outcrops that our crews hadn't explored for a few years. Erosion in the chalk is surprisingly quick, so searching the same spots every 2-4 years is extremely productive. We drove the truck over next to an outcrop and decided to take a quick snack break. While chewing on a small bunch of Red Vines, I look over and notice something blue on the face of the outcrop. "what the hell is that?" I ask Jacob, thinking it is probably just a piece of garbage from the oil rigs in the field.

We go over and investigate, since we had to scout the outcrop anyway. Upon inspection we discover this:

Peek A Boo

A pachychormid fin eroding out with a layer of blue plastic over it. The chalk above the layer was obviously disturbed, and there were small plants growing out of it. Someone tried to poach this fossil!

It's like christmas

We reopened the hole and followed the fossil in. The blue plastic extended quite a ways in. To the end of the fin in fact! Someone excavated the entire thing, then left it! Amazing. We pulled back the plastic and to my surprise it revealed the longest Protosphyraena perniciosa pectoral fin I'd ever seen, 2'8" (82cm) from tip to erosional edge. There were a few fragments in the float and a piece of a radial, but I'm fairly confident we recovered pretty much all of the specimen. Good thing too, we finished up just as another severe thunderstorm was bearing down on us. Also: DON'T STEAL FOSSILS!

Jacketed!

The monster storm a few hours later

Back in the lab our summer intern, Lisa, had the job of preparing the specimen . She did a beautiful job! Now to find an interesting way to display the specimen in the museum.

Big fishie

With nasty pointy fins

Collecting a Xiphactinus: Kansas trip 2

2011-06-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

Last week we went on a short trip to our Niobrara sites to collect a large specimen of Xiphactinus that was located by a 4H club member. Unfortunately the member had her boundaries confused, and found it on private property that she did not have permission to scout or collect on. Luckily though, we did. We still decided to nickname this fish "Lois" after the lady that discovered it.

Mike and Jacob in the hole, early in the morning

There was a lot of overburden to remove (volume-wise) because though the specimen wasn't deeply buried, it was spread 3 feet deep into the outcrop, along an exposure 9 feet long. A stirred up 15-17 foot fish is going to require a big hole, there's just no two ways about it. Hand tool digging was difficult, and we quickly escalated the equipment, first to an electric jackhammer (BTW I firmly believe everyone needs one of these things, they're awesome) and later to a bobcat excavator to knock down the bulk if the overburden.

The hole from another angle. Notice back-saving jackhammer!

We did this while it was still cool. Keep in mind this was one of the hottest days of the year. We awoke at 4:30 to get an early start. Funny thing: it doesn't get light this time of year in Gove County till 6:00 or so. Oops. No worries, we were pretty sure we could still get it out in one long day of work.

After bobcat work, expanding the hole to find the perimeter of the specimen

The fish itself was stirred up pretty severely, with the caudal fin exploded, spines everywhere, and the skull and pectoral girdle spread across the length of the excavation. On the bright side, this pile of bones will be a great basis for the restoration of the entire skeleton in a nice panel mount.

Dirty chainsaw work, with Jacob for scale

The stable pieces were removed and 2 jackets were carved out of the chalk with a chainsaw. 8:00 pm and we had it done. Only hit 95 degrees too. Much better than the 108 for a high the next day. I'm still exhausted from the experience.

Cleaning the undercuts in preparation for jacketing

Niobrara Trip #1 complete

2011-05-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since the last blog post. Strange combination of field work and Chrome barfing the interface with Blogger on my end. Got it fixed now though. Hopefully.

Dumpy doesn't know if the sign is for the road or her

We went out last week on our first collection trip in the Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas last week, and had some great success. We went out with a class from the University of Tennessee Martin, and the students were a great help in covering outcrops that we hadn't looked at for a few years. The first recoverable item was found before the students had even arrived: a partial large Saurodon leanus skull, RMDRC 11-020. It was collected on a small knob really close to the surface with a plant on top. Roots did a number on it, but it is restorable as a plaque mount.

How many people does it take to jacket a mosasaur?

The second day of scouting with the whole compliment of people resulted in one of the students discovering a mosasaur skull, neck and partial torso coming out snout first of an outcrop low in the chalk (around MU 5), RMDRC 11-001. It looks to be a specimen of Platecarpus planifrons, with what appeared in the field as possible intraspecific bite marks across the snout. Ouch.

Standard TPI field pose

The next day we shifted over a section to the east and hit some outcrops that I had never scouted. The student that found the mosasaur managed to find a decent nearly complete Cimolichthys nepaholica, RMDRC 11-004, and not 30 yards away, an extremely large (9 foot long) Ichthyodectes ctenodon, RMDRC 11-018. Both animals were recovered. The Cimolichthys will be used in our 3D restoration project (which is ongoing) and the Ichthyodectes will be used to enhance our current 3D cast.

Perimitering the Cimolichthys before jacketing

The best part about it was that I was able to collect a few specimens for my pet research projects, including some Spinaptychus jaws, RMDRC 11-005-007 and a partial Martinichthys brevis skull, RMDRC 11-003. These rare little fish only appear to occur between MU 4 and MU 6 in the chalk, and material is pretty scarce, including skulls. Hooray for more data points!

Martinichthys snout!

Surprise jacket contents

2011-05-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a bit of exploratory prep shows everything in the jacket. Sometimes there is more fun stuff buried deeper. We came across UTC's syncervical the other day. Sorta smooshed but still more or less recognizable. Hooray!

About halfway there

2011-04-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Jeez, UTC is very challenging prep. Slowly working through the very fragmented nature of the bone, but luckily the matrix is also fairly soft. We are, however, using a lot of consolidants to keep everything together. It's really interesting to see how things are taking shape now that we have prepared pieces that are starting to fit together, such as the right front arm. Below is a pic of the coracoid, humerus, ulna, meetacarpal and phalanx that we have finished.

Right arm taking shape, scapula still being prepared

After taking measurements and scaling them to the AMNH's Centrosaurus skeleton, it appears that our critter will be a hair over 6m long (19.5 feet) if it were complete.

Mid caudal... big, but no transverse processes

We're always working on a bunch of different things at the same time, so just for Saurian, we'd like to announce we've started baby steps towards working on our Daspletosaurus Pete III again. Jacob is working on a block that had a fibula, distal tarsal, and 5 articulated mid-caudal vertebrae in it. Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow everything will be finished, and that's one more big jacket off of the shelf!

Pretty fibula!

Centrosaur prep binge

2011-04-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

We begin week #2 of our prep efforts with renewed energy! The more we work on it, the more neat stuff we find. Case in point the jacket labelled "?tibia" turns out to be a complete right humerus, with a total length of 70cm. An ulna and fibula have also turned up, and field sketches seem to show a femur. This appears to be a fairly large centrosaur, approaching the size of our Triceratops prorsus skeleton "Gundy". If any of you researchers have good PDF references on centrosaurs, please contact me, I don't have library access so modern papers are relatively difficult to come by.

Right humerus

Ulna!

Other jackets are showing they have much more in them than what was recorded in the field notes. The jacket below looks to contain a predentary, several ribs, and a least one strange unknown (as of yet) element. We should know soon though!

All kinds of stuff in there.

Horn-faces and prep

2011-04-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

We restarted work today on a dinosaur project that I'm actually pretty excited about. With the new discoveries from Utah, it looks more and more like the ceratopsian dinos of the Campanian are very specific to geographical area, in addition to stratigraphic level. For us working in the Judith River that means that you can maybe find Avaceratops and Monoclonius, according to the now seemingly dated conventional wisdom. Except that a new specimen of Ceratops montanus was recently discovered near our dig areas. And we've found things that look a heck of a lot like Anchiceratops. And Styracosaurus. And bits of a big honkin thing that looks a bit like the newly described Kosmoceratops. Oops. What a mess.

Dig site at the end of excavatoion

Typical jacket showing typical not falling down hill bone

The critter we're working on now is a centrosaurine nicknamed "UTC". It was discovered in 2004, and has sat on our shelves for much of the in-between time. It's time to knock out the prep. Unfortunately the specimen was discovered coming out skull first, with those parts slumping slowly downhill. It's going to be an interesting challenge getting it back together.

oooh epoccipitals!

The parts that we have are pretty interesting though, and as prep continues we may be able to get a good idea of what critter we have. Heck, based on the explosion of ceratiopsian discoveries in the past few years (and how most researchers avoid the Judith River Formation like the plague), there's even the possibility that this animal is a new species. We'll keep you updated on the progress as more bones get prepared.

Jonesing for mosasaurs

2011-03-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

It's starting to feel a lot like springtime, which for us usually means trips to western Kansas to our Niobrara chalk localities. We haven't made it out yet (still waiting on that first downpour to wash the winter fluff off of the rocks... it may be a while with this drought) so instead I'll write a bit about a mosasaur that is near and dear to me.

Starting the hole

RMDRC 06-009 "Cap'n Chuck" was the first mosasaur I ever found. It's a specimen of Platecarpus "ictericus" (sorry Takuya, haven't made the species switch yet) from the upper chalk of Logan County, about 83 million years old. I spotted a single dorsal vertebra sticking out of a vertical gully wall, about 12 feet above the gully bottom. Don't ask what I was doing looking up there. My boss, Mike, loaded Jacob and I into the bucket of the bobcat and lifted us up to see if there was anything else there besides the single vertebra. Yep! we discovered the back of the skull, but since it was late October and in the low 50s (with drizzle coming in and lots of wind) we decided to secure the site till the next spring.

Jack-hammerin

In April of 2007 we returned, with a fancy new mini jackhammer that Mike had bought over the winter. Holy moly that thing saved us a lot of time.

We made this big of a hole in 3 days

Do you see the skull?

It turns out field mapping in the chalk is kind of a tough thing to do. The chalk gets all over everything and generally makes life miserable. It's best to save it for the lab. The skeleton was preserved very well, missing the end of the tail. Quick measurements of elements give us a total length of about 23 feet, which is pretty dang big for a Platecarpus.

Main jacket flipped and prepared. Things are much easier to see.

Once show-prepped in the lab it was decided that Cap'n Chuck was complete enough to restore in 3d (most exploded skulls are good candidates, there's less crushing distortion). That meant pulling every individual bone out of the jacket and cleaning it completely. This enabled us to get a good look at some rare parts like the interclavicle and ear cartilages. Hopefully we'll be able to start restoration sooner or later!

Laid back

Small projects

2011-03-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Yep we all have them. In addition to the decades of prep backlog of big, complete and interesting specimens there is always that nagging pile of individual bones and small specimens that gets collected then sits as priority number 12 on the shelf. Sometimes it's a good organizational effort (and therapy) to get these things knocked off the to-do list. Plus it frees up a bit of space for the next season's collecting efforts (which should begin any week now, hopefully.

You ever get the feeling you're being watched?

This past summer during beer week in Montana I found a small shard of tyrannosaur tooth sticking out of a lag deposit. I suggested to one of our guests, Terri, that she could spend some time excavating it. Turns out she discovered that the tooth was still connected to a chunk of jaw. Unfortunately digging it out was a bit of a chore since the sandstone got really hard really quickly. It did clean up nicely though, and will be going on display sometime today.

Tyrannosaur maxilla and tooth

Some progress is being made on Pete III, our challenging Daspletosaurus torosus, also from Montana. This huge 70 pound monstrosity of a jacket contained just one spindly rib. That and lots of sandstone. Whatever, it's off the shelf now and nearly in the clean room.

There's the rib!

We're not all about preparing partial dinosaur bones though. This Pteranodon sternbergi metacarpal was pulled from the lower chalk in western Kansas a few years back. Should have been prepared years ago.

Isolated bones are so pretty

More Lambeosaur Fun

2011-03-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

This week we've had a chance to begin work on the skull material recovered from RMRDRC 07-020 "Joyce", from the upper Judith River Formation of Fergus County, Montana. The material is typical for the Judith river... SOFT. We've begun utilizing the technique that I wrote about for the first FPCS at Petrified Forest National Park, in stabilizing he matrix and bone with low-strength adhesive (PB 4417) before air abrading the material. The results are great! I'd like to share a few pics of the first jacket we have prepared, and if anyone wants to take a well educated stab at the identity of the lambeosaurine, have at it!

Present is the right dentary in lingual view, as well as a quadrate and partial quadratojugal. 31 rows of teeth are present in this dental battery.

Freaking huge lambeosaurs of the Judith River Formation

2011-02-28T15:16:00.000-08:00

It's always an exciting time when we come to the end of a project. Mostly because it's one of those rare times where we're finished with something. This week we're finishing the right leg from an exceptionally big lambeosaur (crested duckbill dinosaur) that was discovered this past summer in the Judith River Formation by Dr. Kraig Derstler. We were very excited at the time about the find since big articulated dinosaur legs usually lead to big articulated more complete dinosaurs. Usually.

Digging revealed that it was highly likely that the entire skeleton was present at one time in the late Cretaceous, however everything but this right leg (animal was probably laying on its right side) was eroded away during the Campanian. Oh well, it stings a little less when you know you're 78 million years too late.

We had help from some great ranchers and their newfangled power ATV things getting the specimen out of the bottom of the uncharacteristically wet gully. Without them, the leg would still probably be there riding out the winter. Above are ranchers Matt Wickens and Kerry Simac, with "field chef" Peter checking his gear. Below Jacob is pointing to the specimen, while rancher and dino finder extrordanaire Larry Tuss rests. I'm just sorta holding up the "outfit" as they call vehicles in Montana.

A few months later this is the result. A reasonably complete prepared leg. Missing the fibula, astragulus and calcaneum due to erosion, and the ungual on digit IV. The monster is 11 feet long (3.36 meters). Biiiig.

Termonaris: Now with skull... sorta

2011-02-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

Assembly of the body of the first cast is done! Just detailing and the skull to go. Today we decided to see what it looks like with the skull on the body. Let's just say we were a bit surprised with the size of the animal that resulted. Here April and Todd do the honors!

Terminonaris is coming together!

2011-02-17T07:21:00.000-08:00

A quick update from the last post. Progress on the Terminonaris is being made on the two prototype articulated mounts. All molding except the skull is finished and all parts are poured. The first mount even has an arm! That should get people excites, since we all know people love pointy bits. Just legs, coracoids and a skull to go. Please excuse the clutter in the shop!

Terminonaris restoration project

2011-02-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

For the past month or so we've been working hard on restoring a specimen of the extinct crocodilian Terminonaris, in collaboration with the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) in Regina. We were supplied molds of the original slightly crushed specimen, which provide the basis for our restoration. It's been a long but fun process. As of today, restoration and molding of all postcranial elements have been completed. Casts are nearly finished being poured and trimmed... now for the good part - a sneak peek.

We've moved on to the exciting assembly portion of the project. Cast #1 is intended for a travelling exhibit and is being built to the exact specifications provided by the RSM. The animal is pretty dang big, at over 18 feet long. As you can see, the dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebrae are finished, the ribs and pelvis are hung and the chevrons are being attached. Nearly 100 individual elements so far! I'll be updating our progress as the projects progress. Stay tuned.

Viral Post: "What Should Everyone Know about Paleontology"

2011-02-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

Dr. Thomas Holtz, who visited our lab last year, recently shared his insights in a response to a question posted on the Dinosaur Mailing List. I muddle through their archives online a bit, and there are sometimes some good posts, but this one seems to have taken on a life of its own, being featured on SV-POW, Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, and Superoceras so far. I think it warrants more exposure, so I'll chip in my contribution on teh RMDRC Paleo Lab blog. Hopefully the formatting didn't get too messed up. Also, be sure to check out the linked blogs mentioned in the post.

“What Should Everyone Know About Paleontology?”

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.

The title question was recently asked by Roberto Takata on the Dinosaur Mailing List (http://dml.cmnh.org/2011Feb/msg00020.html).

I think that is a good question. What really are the most important elements of paleontology that the general public should understand? I took a shot at coming up with a list of key concepts (http://dml.cmnh.org/2011Feb/msg00027.html andhttp://dml.cmnh.org/2011Feb/msg00029.html), based on experiences with teaching paleontology and historical geology and with less-formally structured outreach to the public. I have offered this list (cross posted at the Superoceras andArchosaur Musings blogs) as a way for it to reach a wider audience. That this is Darwin Week makes it even more appropriate, as we should use this occasion to encourage a better understanding of the changes of Earth and Life through Time for the public at large.

Much as I might like to think otherwise, the specific details of the hindlimb function of Tyrannosaurus rex or the pneumatic features of brachiosaurid vertebrae really are not the most important elements of the field. Understanding and appreciating the nitty gritty details of the phylogeny and anatomy of any particular branch of the Tree of Life are not really necessary for everyone to know, any more than we would regard detailed knowledge of bacterial biochemistry or the partitioning of minerals in a magma chamber to be significant general knowledge. (Indeed, these latter two items are actually far more critical for human society than any specific aspect of paleontology, and so from a certain point of view really more important for people to know than the History of Life.)

That said, all human societies and many individuals have wondered about where we have come from and how the world came to be the way it is. This is, in my opinion, the greatest contribution of paleontology: it gives us the Story of Earth and Life, and especially our own story.

I have divided this list into two sections. The first is a list of general topics of paleontology, touching on the main elements of geology that someone would need to know for fossils to make any sense. The second is the more specific list of key points in the history of life.

(NOTE: as the idea of this list is that it should be aimed at the general public, I have tried to avoid technical terminology where possible.)

General

That rocks are produced by various factors (erosion -> sedimentation; metamorphism; volcanic activity; etc.)
That rocks did not form at a single moment in time, but instead have been and continue to be generated throughout the history of the planet.
That fossils are remains of organisms or traces of their behavior recorded in those rocks.
That rocks (and the organisms that made the fossils) can be thousands, millions, or even billions of years old.
That the species discovered as fossils, and the communities of organisms at each place and time, are different from the same in the modern world and from each other.
That despite these differences that there is continuity between life in the past and life in the present: this continuity is a record of the evolution of life.
That we can use fossils, in conjunction with anatomical, molecular, and developmental data of living forms, to reconstruct the evolutionary pattern of life through time.
That fossils are incomplete remains of once-living things, and that in order to reconstruct how the organisms that produced them actually lived, we can:
- Document their anatomy (both gross external and with the use of CT scanning internal), and compare them to the anatomy of living creatures in order to estimate their function;
- Examine their chemical composition, which can reveal aspects of their biochemistry;
- Examine their microstructure to estimate patterns of growth;
- Model their biomechanical functions using computers and other engineering techniques;
- Investigate their footprints, burrows, and other traces to reveal the motion and other actions of the species while they were alive;
- And collect information of the various species that lived together in order to reconstruct past communities.
However, with all that, fossils are necessarily incomplete, and there will always be information about past life which we might very much want to know, but which has been forever lost. Accepting this is very important when working with paleontology.
That environments of the past were different from the present.
That there have been episodes of time when major fractions of the living world were extinguished in a very short period of time: such data could not be known without the fossil record.
That entire branches of the tree of life have perished (sometimes in these mass extinction events, sometimes more gradually).
That certain modes of life (reef formers, fast-swimming marine predators, large-bodied terrestrial browsers, etc.) have been occupied by very different groups of organisms at different periods of Earth History.
That every living species, and every living individual, has a common ancestor with all other species and individuals at some point in the History of Life.

Specific

Honestly, despite the fact the specific issues about specific parts of the Tree of Life are the ones that paleontologists, the news media, the average citizen, etc., are more concerned with, they really are much less significant for the general public to know than the points above. Sadly, documentary companies and the like keep on forgetting that, and keep on forgetting that a lot of the public does not know the above points.

Really, in the big picture, the distinction between dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crurotarsans are trivialities compared to a basic understanding that the fossil record is our document of Life’s history and Earth’s changes.

Summarizing the key points of the history of life over nearly 4 billion years of evolutionary history is a big task. After all, there is a tendency to focus on the spectacular and sensationalized rather than the ordinary and humdrum. As Stephen Jay Gould and others often remarked, from a purely objective external standpoint we have always lived in the Age of Bacteria, and the changing panoply of animals and plants during the last half-billion years have only been superficial changes.

But the question wasn’t “what should a dispassionate outsider regard as the modal aspect of the History of Life?”; it was “What should everyone know about paleontology?” Since we are terrestrial mammals of the latest Cenozoic, we have a natural interest in events on the land and during the most recent parts of Earth History. That is a fair bias: it does focus on who WE are and where WE come from.

That said, here is a list of key concepts in the history of life. Other researchers might pick other moments, and not include some that I have here. Still, I believe most such lists would have many of the same key points within them.

Life first developed in the seas, and for nearly all of its history was confined there.
For most of Life’s history, organisms were single-celled only. (And today, most of the diversity remains single-celled).
The evolution of photosynthesis was a critical event in the history of Earth and Life; living things were able to affect the planet and its chemistry on a global scale.
Multicellular life evolved independently several times.
Early animals were all marine forms.
The major groups of animals diverged from each other before they had the ability to make complex hard parts.
About 540 million years ago, the ability to make hard parts became possible across a wide swath of the animal tree of life, and a much better fossil record happened.
Plants colonized land in a series of stages and adaptations. This transformed the surface of the land, and allowed for animals of various groups to follow afterwards.
For the first 100 million years or so of skeletonized animals, our own group (the vertebrates) were relatively rare and primarily suspension feeders. The evolution of jaws allowed our group to greatly diversify, and from that point onward vertebrates of some form or other have remained apex predators in most marine environments.
Complex forests of plants (mostly related to small swampland plants of today’s world) covered wide regions of the lowlands of the Carboniferous.
Burial of this vegetation before it could decay led to the formation of much of the coal that powered the Industrial Revolution and continues to power the modern world.
While most of the coal swamp plants required a moist ground surface on which to propagate, one branch evolved a method of reproduction using a seed. This adaptation allowed them to colonize the interiors, and seed plants have long since become the dominant form of land plant.
In the coal swamps, one group of arthropods (the insects) evolved the ability to fly. From this point onward insects were to be among the most common and diverse land animals.
Early terrestrial vertebrates were often competent at moving around on land as adults, but typically had to go back to the water in order to reproduce. In the coal swamps one branch of these animals evolved a specialized egg that allowed them to reproduce on land, and thus avoid this “tadpole” stage.
These new terrestrial vertebrates—the amniotes—diversified into many forms. Some included the ancestors of modern mammals; others the ancestors of today’s reptiles (including birds).
A tremendous extinction event, the largest in the age of animals, devastated the world about 252 million years ago. Caused by the effects and side-effects of tremendous volcanoes, it radically altered the composition of both marine and terrestrial communities.
In the time after this Permo-Triassic extinction, reptiles (and especially a branch that includes the ancestors of crocodilians and dinosaurs) diversified and became ecologically dominant in most medium- to large-sized niches.
During the Triassic many of the distinctive lineages of the modern terrestrial world (including turtles, mammals, crocodile-like forms, lizard-like forms, etc.) appeared. Other groups that would be very important in the Mesozoic but would later disappear (such as pterosaurs and (in the seas) ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs) evolved at this time.
Dinosaurs were initially a minor component of these Triassic communities. Only the tall, long-necked sauropodomorphs were ecologically diverse during this time among the various dinosaur branches. However, a mass extinction event at the end of the Triassic (essentially the Permo-Triassic extinction in miniature) allowed for the dinosaurs to diversify as their competitors had vanished.
During the Jurassic, dinosaurs diversified. Some grew to tremendous size; some evolved spectacular armor; some become the largest carnivorous land animals the world had seen by this point. Among smaller carnivorous dinosaurs, an insulating covering of feathers had evolved to cover the body (possibly from a more ancient form shared by all dinosaurs). Among the feathered dinosaurs were the ancestors of the birds.
Other terrestrial groups such as pterosaurs, crocodile-ancestors, mammals, and insects continued to diversify into new habits.
During the Jurassic and (especially) the Cretaceous, a major transformation of marine life occurred. Green-algae phytoplankton were displaced by red-algae phytoplankton (which continue to dominate modern marine ecosystems). A wide variety of new predators—advanced sharks and rays, teleost fish, predatory snails, crustaceans with powerful claws, specialized echinoids, etc.—appeared, and the sessile surface-dwelling suspension feeders that dominated the shallow marine communities since the Ordovician became far rarer. Instead, more mobile, swimming, or burrowing forms became more common.
During the Cretaceous one group of land-plants evolved flowers and fruit and thus tied their reproduction very closely with animals. Although not immediately ecologically dominant, this type of plants would eventually come to be the major land plant group.
The impact of a giant asteroid—coupled with other major on-going environmental changes—brought an end to the Mesozoic. Most large-bodied groups on land and sea, and many smaller bodied forms, disappeared. The only surviving dinosaurs were toothless birds.
The beginning of the Cenozoic saw the establishment of mammals as the dominant group of large-bodied terrestrial vertebrates. Early on mammals colonized both the sea and the air as well.
During its beginning the Cenozoic world was warm and wet, much like the Cretaceous. However, a number of changes of the position of the continents and the rise of mountain ranges caused the climates to cool and dry.
As the world cooled and dried, great grasslands developed (first in South America, and later nearly all other continents).
Various groups of animals adapted to the new grassland conditions. Herbivorous mammals became swift runners with deep-crowned teeth, often living in herds for protection. Mammalian predators became swifter as well, some becoming pack hunters.
Other new plant communities evolved, and new animal communities which inhabited them. The rise of modern meadows (dominated by daisy-related plants and grasses) saw the diversification of mouse-and-rat type rodents, many frogs and toads, advanced snakes, songbirds, etc.
A group of arboreal mammals with very big brains, complex social communities, and gripping hands—the primates—produced many forms. In Africa one branch of these evolved to live at mixed forest-grassland margins, and from this branch evolved some who became fully upright and moved out into the grasslands.
This group of primates retained and advanced the ability to use stone tools that its forest-dwelling ancestors already had. Many branches evolved, and some developed even larger brains and more complex tools. It is from among these that the ancestors of modern humans and other close relatives evolved, and eventually spread out from Africa to other regions of the planet.
About 2.6 million years ago a number of factors led to ice age conditions, where glaciers advanced and retreated. Various groups of animals evolved adaptations for these new cold climates.
The early humans managed to colonize much of the planet; shortly after their arrival into new worlds, nearly all the large-bodied native species disappeared.
At some point before the common ancestor of all modern humans spread across the planet, the ability to have very complex symbolic language evolved. This led to many, many technological and cultural diversifications which changed much faster than the biology of the humans themselves.
In western Asia and northern Africa (and eventually in other regions), modern humans developed techniques to grow food under controlled circumstances, leading to true agriculture. (Other cultures are known to have independently evolved proto-agricultural techniques).
This Neolithic revolution allowed for the development of more settled communities, specialization of individual skills within a community (including soldiers, metallurgists, potters, priests, rulers, and with the rise of writing, scribes).
From this point we begin to get a written record, and so the historians can take up the story…

This list is obviously not comprehensive, and there are many elements that I had to ignore to keep it relatively short. Still, I hope this overview helps put where we as a species fit into the larger perspective of Life’s long voyage, a voyage that could only have been traced by the study of fossils.

Joyce the Lambeosaur

2011-02-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

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?

Dinosaur Wars: Tonight on American Experence, PBS

2011-01-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

The Victorian age was the first boom of American paleontology, which coincided with the opening of the west with rail travel. Many of us learned in school of Paleontologists E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh, and their bitter "Bone Wars" that were fought both in the press and across the badlands, but the extent of the feud has never been covered in such detail. The battles ended up with hundreds of prehisoric animals named, most which would later not hold up. Paleontologists today are still weeding through these names. I myself was recently involved in renaming Cope's "Protosphyraena" gladius, formerly Portheus gladius and now, finally (I hope) Bonnerichthys gladius, Even the animal I studied at KU, Camarasaurus, had been named Morosaurus, Cathetosaurus, Caulodon and Uintasaurus over the years (though to be fair, one or two of those names may not be because of Marsh and Cope's feud).

The feature is full of great photographs, some where I can recognize sites where we dig today. The personal stories of the two scientists are tragic, and spoiler alert: they both die poor and miserable. It's amazing that even after this cautionary tale, the egos in modern paleontology are so rarely kept in check.

See the trailer here, and be sure to check your local listings for tonight's air time.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/trailer/dinosaur/

Almost there!

2011-01-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

It's down to detailing and painting the restoration on the Explodosaurus. It's starting to look better than I ever thought it would. Hopefully this time next week it'll be safely in a crate and out of sight. If you look closely, the mosa-tisserie has been used for it's fifth skull restoration project. Hopefully more to come.

Explodosaurus gets teeth

2011-01-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

Not much progress this week on that cute little Tylosaurus kansasensis, been busy getting the Baryonyx, Steller's sea cow and Minke whale skeletons in their crates and out the door. Next week will be shoehorning the palate in place and hopefully a ton of detailing and painting.

First Baryonyx on display in the western hemisphere?

2011-01-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to pass along some photos. It's being crated tomorrow for our travelling "Darwin and Dinosaurs" display, which is headed to Florida. Sorry you missed it, but it'll be back someday!

Explodosaurus redux

2010-12-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

Just taking an opportunity to update the project before we get buried with snow. Lower jaws are on and positioned, but I still have to finish the braincase and palate.... then on to fixing the whole total lack of teeth problem. Top of skull is 40.5cm long. Such a cute little Tylosaurus.

Explodosaurus reconstruction

2010-12-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

Earlier this summer paleo tech Jacob Jett happened upon the exploded out skull of a small Tylosaurus kansasensis specimen in Lane County, KS. I would have found it first, but I was distracted watching a couple of bulls fighting a few hundred feet away while simultaneously noticing the lack of a fenceline between us and them.

Yes, that pile of rubble is the specimen.

It's taken a lot of puzzlework to get the pieces back together, but they are looking better every day. The skull will end up being under 17 inches long when finished. Most bones are still present and I am actually a bit shocked how much of it has fit. Now, how to get the bleached bone to look like the in situ material....

Patting ourselves on the back

2010-12-10T13:55:00.000-08:00

Discover Magazine came out with their list of "The Top 100 Discoveries of 2010"

We came in at #50 with our Bonnerichthys paper that came out in Science in February.

I can't reveal much more yet, but there is further exciting research happening with this critter, so stay tuned.

And lastly: the Sternberg Museum in Hays, KS is putting their Bonnerichthys gladius specimen (that RMDRC helped collect and prepare) on public display starting this weekend, so be sure to stop in and say "Hi"!

http://discover.coverleaf.com/discovermagazine/201101?pg=59#pg59

DRAMATIC MUSIC TIME!

2010-12-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it's best to hit mute.

Saurodon finally reconstructed!

2010-11-19T14:38:00.000-08:00

In the 3+ weeks we've been working on this project, I never thought we'd finish before I left for thanksgiving break. I use the term loosely, the skeleton still needs paint and detailing. We'll be bringing it to Tucson, and in the meantime it will be proudly displayed in our marine hall for all to see when they visit the RMDRC.

Saurodon Reconstruction Update 2

2010-11-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

We've been molding quickly.Yhere are a lot of pieces to this critter. Missing bits are being reconstructed based off of our Ichthyodectes cast skeleton. Cast vertebrae are being remolded (this animal seems to have 115-120 vertebrae) and ribs/spines are being manufactured as fast as we can make them. Assembly should begin sometime next week.The fish itself is 13% larger than the famous articulated Saurodon specimen that Marion Bonner discovered, which is at the LACM. A quick bit of scribbly math puts us at a total length of about 8 1/2 feet, with a skull at over 19 inches long. It's a lot bigger than I assumed based on the pile of bones we began the project with.

Below is the right dentary, that had damaged/missing teeth in the center. We molded the left dentary and used cast copies of the teeth to reconstruct the missing bits. The more I work with this thing, the weirder this critter becomes.

3 Dimensionalizing a Saurodon

2010-11-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

Finally an update on a specimen I discovered back in 2006. Tony I (named after my father) is a completely exploded Saurodon skull and pectoral fin assembly. Saurodon is an ichthyodectid fish (related to Xiphactinus, Saurocephalus, Gillicus, Ichthyodectes and of course Prosaurodon) that had a peculiar chin spike, in this case over 6cm long. The teeth are like mini flat knife blades. This specimen was discovered disarticulated at about MU 18-19 in the Niobrara Chalk of Logan County, Kansas. The locality is surprisingly high in the Niobrara, I have found several specimens of a later relative (Saurocephalus lanciformis) in the rock layers immediately above this specimen. Below you can see the predentary along with one of the premaxillas.Nasty, but luckily not articulated like the majority of Saurodon leanus specimens in other institutions. No, Tony I looked like it swallowed a hand grenade, kinda like the ending of the movie Jaws 3. That's just how we like to find them. Preparation shows that the majority of the skull is present. The missing bits will be reconstructed based off of our Ichthyodectes ctenodon reconstruction. Be sure to stop by the museum and check in on the project. We hope to have the prototype skull assembled by Thanksgiving!

Martinichthys bonanza

2010-10-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

It appears that our field season in Kansas is about finished for the year. Last week Mike Triebold, Jacob Jett and I went out to Gove County to explore in the lower Niobrara. Collecting was pretty sparse, Jacob and I dug a fairly sizable dry hole looking for the source of a mosasaur. We also collected the partial skull of a very small Tylosaurus that Mike found. Mike also found some fish material and a chunky Pteranodon wing. Jacob's typical luck held up. I wouldn't call it a bust with those results, but luckily I stumbled across a very rare fish skull that made the whole trip worthwhile for me.

Martinichthys is a strange plethodid fish with a characteristic blunt rostrum. Prior to this field season only 2 relatively complete skulls were known. In June I discovered RMDRC 10-024 from around MU 6, which I was excited about. This trip I found RMDRC 10-031 from slightly lower, right on MU 5, thereby doubling the known specimens. 10-031 is interesting because not only does it preserve the skull, but also vertebrae and epineurals. Below are both skulls. They may not look very pretty, but we're excited about them here! A great year for this new fish.

Mosasaur skin prep

2010-10-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Recently Dr. Johan Lindgren of the University of Lund, Sweden visited our lab to look at our mosasaur collection. He has just published a paper with colleagues on soft tissue preservation in the mosasaur Platecarpus from western Kansas, available here. I had noticed some non-descriptive"smears" around the skull of our Tylosaurus nepaeolicus specimen "Tracie" RMDRC 08-002 while preparing it, and thought it warranted further investigation. We removed the specimen temporarily from display and I brought it into the clean room for further preparation. This was important so that I could shut off the lights. Why on earth would I want to do that?

Simple: The phosphatized remains of mosasaur skin will glow under blacklight! They are much more visible than under natural light and it makes preparation easier.

Preparation was fairly difficult, but we may have discovered the first skin preserved from the head region of a Tylosaurus ever. I'm currently writing a paper on the preparation techniques involved, so stay tuned for updates soon!

New Book by Greg Paul

2010-10-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

I've just been sent a copy of Gregory S. Paul's new book, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs! The 320 page hardcover volume is jam-packed with over 600 illustrations of over 735 different types of dinosaurs, many of which even I have not heard of before. Skeletal reconstructions are supplemented with color pencil illustrations and in a few cases stunning environmental reconstructions. I must admit there is a huge amount of information packed into this book, and even a hyper-dino-nerd like me has not had a chance to read every single word of it yet. Luckily it is very heavily illustrated, for those of us that cheat by looking at pictures.

The book begins with a 65 page section of text and illustration covering dinosaur research, anatomy and biology. After that it dives headlong into the dinosaurs, arranged by type. Not surprisingly the theropods are first. Each species of dinosaur is listed with a brief description giving their size, how much of the animal is known, distinguishing characteristics, age, distribution and some special notes. Several of TPI's dinosaur specimens are illustrated including "Sandy" the Pachycephalosaurus and "C1/C2" the unnamed North American oviraptor now housed at the Carnegie Museum.

Paul takes some liberties with the taxonomic assignments, seemingly destroying some types of dinosaurs and ruining people's childhoods in the process, however this is a general interest book, not intended for use by scholars. Parents with children interested in dinosaurs may have to spend some time explaining what happened to Lambeosaurus, Torosaurus or even Daspletosaurus. And then there is the seeming revival of Brontosaurus, an issue that sometimes makes me want to pull out what little hair I have left! On the bright side there is elimination of Opisthocoelocaudia, so at least we don't have to stumble through that name anymore.

Would I recommend this book? Most certainly! It is leaps and bounds better than the stuff I had available to me as a child, and it would have kept my interest for days on the first read-through. The price is right too at $35.00, and can be found online for even less. If you're a parent that has a dino-lover in the family, this would make an excellent holiday gift!

The Reassembly of Dillon III- Finished

2010-09-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

After a final binge of puttywork and painting of the restored/donor plastic pieces, our Platecarpus sp. RMDRC 10-007 "Dillon" is ready for its public debut. Be sure to check it out this week in Denver at the Coliseum Gem and Mineral Show.

The Reassembly of Dillon II- Mosasaur Boogaloo

2010-09-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

The Mosa-tissarie is alive and well. Back from the field (more on that in another post) and right into the final push of this project! The lower jaws are now mounted although still a bit wonky. Just about everything is in place and now it is time for the final restoration of the teeth, braincase and pterygoids. The last step will be painting all the restoration to match the original fossil color. Be sure to come visit it at the RMDRC before it heads off to the Denver Coliseum show next week.

The Reassembly of Dillon

2010-08-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

The squished incomplete and partially disarticulated Platecarpus sp. skull is coming back together! It's taking a lot of time and some hefty restoration, however it does indeed now look like something!

The top of the skull has a welded steel support frame holding everything together. Lower jaws will be removable for shipping but also are attached to a steel superstructure. All missing parts are based off of our Platecarpus planifrons cast, including the donor braincase (which is an odd thing to go missing on a skull and neck this complete). Next up is mounting the 5 cervical vertebrae recovered with the specimen and final detail/paint work. Hopefully it will all be finished shortly after Labor day!

Basilemys reconstruction

2010-08-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

In 2007, a friend of Dr. Kraig Derstler accompanied TPI crews doing field recon in the Judith River Formation of central Montana. In one gully he discovered some very large turtle shell parts coming out, and we traced them to their source. Though obviously belonging to the "emperor turtle" Basilemys, this turtle looks as if it had swallowed a hand grenade, where all parts were disarticulated and spread through the outcrop.

Excavation was conducted in 2007 and 2008 (and even a bit in 2009), and about 50% of the animal was recovered. Since the specimen, now nicknamed "Doug" after the discoverer, is disarticulated, this gives us a great opportunity to reconstruct the specimen in inflated form, as opposed to the crushed articulated specimens found until now.

This specimen is also remarkable because it preserves several non-shell skeletal elements, which is rare for this type. These include both pelvis assemblies, scapula, dorsal vertebra #1 and toes. An isolated Basilemys humerus found on a nearby ranch will also be used in the reconstruction. Stop on by the museum to see how the project is coming over the next few months!

More Cephalopod Fun

2010-07-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Throwing a bone to the invertebrate guys out there, here's new images of RMDRC 10-018 Spinaptychus sp. that yours truly found earlier this spring in Gove Co., Kansas. Ammonite remains are fairly rare in the chalk since the aragonitic shells do not readily preserve. These jaw parts however are calcitic in nature, and are occasionally found. We lent this specimen to Neal Larson of Black Hills Institute for detailed preparation and a bit of restoration before molding. He and his staff did an absolutely phenomenal job. Thanks again, neal!

The specimen is fairly large at over 5 inches wide, 4 inches long. The next project is determining what ammonite this specimen belongs to. Hopefully a paper will be coming out soon!

The Disassembly of Dillon

2010-07-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

Back in April of this year Paleotech Jacob Jett discovered a small mosasaur in the upper Niobrara Chalk of Logan County, Kansas. This critter, a Platecarpus (RMDRC 10-007) consisted of a skull and 5 cervical vertebrae. Part of the upper jaws were exposed at the surface, and there was extensive calciteAbove, Jacob works on preliminary excavation immediately after locating the specimen. Luckily there was little present in the way of overburden.
A few hours later, Jacob has found the perimeter of the specimen (he finally discovered something, so I went to search other areas of the outcrop, finding the big Clidastes Tony II RMDRC 10-008). The entire exposed area will be covered with a plaster and burlap jacket to transport back to the lab. Unfortunately, after the jacket was made, the area was hit with torrential rains (6 inches in 24 hours) and we were not able to get back to the jacket to bring it home. It had to sit out exposed to the elements for 2 weeks.
The jacket was "show prepped" (prepared to expose what is present) once it returned to the lab. As you can see, most of the skull is there, missing only parts of the left maxilla and for some strange reason, the braincase! I am currently in the process of getting these heavily concreted bones separated so that Dillon can be reassembled as a 3d skull and neck mount. As you can guess, it is a time-consuming and delicate process, and the results will be shown in the next blog update.

More on Gil

2010-06-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

Show prep is continuing on our duckbill! Time for a little background information. Gil, AKA RMDRC 04-001, was discovered in 2004 by and is named in memory of "JC" John Cully Gilpatric, who sadly passed away 2 years ago. It comes from the upper Judith River Formation, putting its age somewhere around 75 million years old. Excavation began on June 26, 2004 and had been completed by July 2nd. Gil wad found in a fairly soft sandstone with low overburden, which greatly sped up the recovery.

Above is a sketch of the site when TPI field crews excavated it that summer. As you can see it is highly articulated but missing the skull and lower legs. Unfortunately for hadrosaurine hadrosaurs those also happen to be the most distinctive parts, so identification down to genus is still a little tentative. We have been considering Gil to beling to Miasaura, however there exists the possibility that It could belong to two other non-crested duckbills that existed at the same time: Gryposaurus or Prosaurolophus. Below is a photo of the 54cm long right humerus, which may or may not be distinctive. In any case it's pretty, and also slightly longer than the radius.Prep work is ongoing to find more distinctive skeletal elements, so that we may get a better idea of the true identity of this critter. Special thanks goes out to Dr. James Kirkland for providing PDF reprints so that I may attempt to clear this up!

Duckbill tails from the past!

2010-06-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

We've been able to do a slight bit of preparation on a Maiasaura that was collected by TPI crews in 2004 from the upper Judith River Fm of Montana. Unfortunately no skin was discovered preserved in this jacket, however there were a few surprises.

The anterior 6 vertebrae show pathological neural spines, perhaps an old bite wound that healed. The chevrons (Y-shaped bones under the tail) are tiny, much smaller than what would normally be expected on a dukbill of this size.

This jacket contains 32 articulated caudal vertebrae in a string nearly 8 feet long. Strangely the chevrons are all nearly gone and the ossified ligaments normally found in ornithischian dinosaurs are completely missing.

And now for a rare one: Martinichthys

2010-06-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

Even though the past two (hot) expeditions to Kansas have been primarily aimed at recovering various Xiphactinus skeletons that we have discovered over the years, we did have a little time to scout some outcrops low in the Niobrara chalk. Last Monday, I stumbled across some fish skull parts on an outcrop and followed them up to their source. This is what was coming out:

The rostrum of this rare fish is the most commonly discovered part recovered, mostly because it is the densest and most durable bit, and most likely to be found after weathering out of the outcrop. The teeth are tiny and resemble small barbs, though they number in the thousands. We may have found postcranial material with this fish as well, and a recovery operation at the site will be attempted next time we go to Kansas, though that may be a few months.

Martinichtys seems to have gone extinct between Marker units 5 and 6 (this specimen is the highest one I can find data for, about 1m below MU 6), as do several other animals int he Niobrara (such as Thryptodus, Tylosaurus kansasensis, and several invertebrates). I am curious what happened to wipe these species out.

Meet Tony II!

2010-05-26T10:25:00.001-07:00

Well, field season started off with a bang this year. The little mosasaur snout I found in late April turned out to be a nearly complete specimen of Clidastes c.f. moorevillensis, which isn't really supposed to be in the chalk. The critter measures 4.8m long (16 feet), and is so well preserved that it retains cartilage in the ear, sternum, sternal ribs and above the scapulas.
Above, Mike Triebold uses a chainsaw with a special blade to separate the block away from the outcrop prior to jacketing. This chalk was the hardest we've ever encounterred in nearly 3 decades of collecting in the Niobrara.

The site as seen from the top of an adjacent bluff. Luckily we could drive up to the site to dropp off air compressors and generators!

Below is the prepared front half of the animal. 45cm (18 inches) of backbone was lost in the mid dorsal section due to erosion years ago. The tail section was taken out in another large jacket. Come see the specimen, now on display in our marine hall at the RMDRC!

RMDRC gets published!

2010-05-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

A small project that I've been involved in for a few years, the discovery of the first heteromorph (open coiled) ammonite from the Niobrara Chalk.

Citation:

Everhart, M.J. and Maltese, A. 2010. First report of a heteromorph ammonite, cf. Glyptoxoceras, from the Smoky Hill Chalk (Santonian) of western Kansas, and a brief review of Niobrara cephalopods. Kansas Academy of Science, Transactions 113:(1-2):64-70.

We discovered the specimen while excavating the "Tracie" Tylosaurus nepaeolicus specimen in June 2008. Triebold Paleontology Inc. donated the ammonite to the Sternberg Museum at Fort Hays State University in 2009 after it became clear this was a scientifically important critter.

Email me if you need a PDF copy of the paper.

Kansas Field Season Commences

2010-04-20T15:19:00.001-07:00

Well we're heading out again for a quickie recon before my trip to Korea. Hopefully it will be more productive then the last trip, which was a lot of uphill and downhill walking and very little in return. We recovered a partial Xiphactinus skull that I found accidentally last spring, and I found another skull and partial skeleton (so far, it's still going into the outcrop) that we'll be puling out later this spring. Above the first Xiphactinus, I also found and recovered a small turtle, probably Ctenochelys, that even had limb material. This next trip will not have a film crew, so things should go pretty quick!

Disassembling a large jacket

2010-03-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we had to remove our big Daspletosaurus, Pete 3, in 75 different jackets. Jacket RMDRC 06-005-72 was done with a pallet method, weighing in at 4 tons. Paper here on the process.

This week we are making a concerted effort to take that enormous jacket apart, in hopes of keeping it stable as well as recovering a large section of real estate smack dab in the center of the lab. Unfortunately, some bones are going to have to be broken or cut to "unjackstraw" them, but will be reassembled later. The jackstrawed nature of the bones (as well as their fragility) is what made us remove the huge block in the first place, so it's not like it's a huge surprise. Still, it is a lot of work.

BCT is finished!

2010-03-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

BCT, our large Daspletosaurus that was excavated from 2001 to 2003 from a very very very hard sandstone in eastern Montana is now finished with prep. Paleo teach Jacob Jett finished the last dorsal vertebra, that was encased in a big ugly block of ironstone concretion. I'm just happy I didn't have to work on that!

Next up is restoration and molding. Stay tuned!

Meet Bonnerichthys!

2010-02-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

Just to toot our own horn.

There is a new name for the giant fish formerly known as Protosphyraena gladius. This fish has been known since the 1870s int he Niobrara Chalk, and Cope himself in 1875 had described the pectoral fins of (then) "Portheus" gladius as a "formidable weapon, and could readily be used to split wood in the fossilized condition". We here at the RMDRC do not condone the use of fossil fish fins for wood splitting.

The article covers two specimens, one that we prepared here in 2008, the other that we assisted Mike Everhart in collecting and are still working on.

The work showed that this fish, though related to the cretaceous swordfish analogue Protosphyraena perniciosa, was in fact a planktivorous filter feeder, much like modern whale sharks and manta rays. This type of feeding behavior was not yet reported for animals in the western interior seaway, and is pretty exciting, especially for an animal with a complete lack of sharp pointy teeth.

We are currently working on the first 3d reconstruction made from casts of the specimens in our collection. Keep checking back for progress! Painting at top Copyright Robert Nicholls, used in our paper.

Daspletosaurus vs. T-rex

2010-02-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

One of Pete 3's humerus compared to a cast of Peck's Rex. The other humerus is awiting removal from the main jacket.

More Daspletosaurus fun

2010-02-03T08:25:00.000-08:00

Pete 3 is rolling along in prep, with 5 jackets finished in the past week (to be fair, 2 of them were 95% done when we shelved the project last May). I'm working through the dorsal ribs and gastralia (belly ribs), because they're quick and easy and usually the last thing anyone wants to work on. The rib head below was finished yesterday, part of the material we had to pull off of the 4-ton jacket early in the prep process. The remainder of the shaft is still on the to-be-prepared shelves, but I hope to get to it very soon. Man, this Daspletosaurus was big.

Pete 3 now published!

2010-01-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

For all of you out there keeping tabs on our Daspletosaurus prep projects (which seem to be hitting high gear again), you probably know how much I complain about the matrix and bone quality issues on them. For BCT, it's soft-ish bone locked in a hard sandstone with Ironstone concretion. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum it is Pete 3 with very soft sandy matrix encasing super fragile and shattered bones.

I did a poster presentation on the Pete 3 issue at the first Fossil Preparations and Collections Symposium that Matt Brown helped host in 2008. The paper is now available online with the entire collection of presentations from the meeting.

Congrats Matt on making the volume available, and I hope to see some blog readers at this years meeting in Chicago.

2010-01-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

This turtle was recovered in 2006 from the Hell Creek Formation of southwestern North Dakota. Anyone have a guess to it's identity?

Daspletosaurus progress

2010-01-18T07:40:00.000-08:00

If you've been following the RMDRC newsletter since our museum opened, you're probably familiar with our BCT Daspletosaurus n. sp. specimen, nicknamed "Sir William". If so, skip ahead a bit.

BCT is a tyrannosaur discovered in 2001 in central Montana. It was originally thought to be in the Hell Creek Formation, making it a small Tyrannosaurus rex. Later, in 2005, it was discovered that the rocks were actually lower Judith River Formation, meaning that it is most likely Daspletosaurus. This specimen is an adult at 16 years of age (as determined by Greg Erickson) but displays some non-traditional Daspletosaurus traits, such as only 13 dentary alveoli (lower jaw tooth sockets), incidentally the same number as normally found in T. rex. Curious.

The excavation was very difficult, and took the summers of 2002 and 2003. The bones were encased in a combination of hard sandstone and ironstone concretions. Preparation was likewise slow.

This cervical vertebra is one of the last bones to be prepared from BCT, starting out as a 40 pound block of hard hard rock. After 30 hours of air scribe and air abrasion work this giant and beautiful bone is nearly done. Good job, Jacob, in getting this specimen ready for display!

Last of Leroy for the year

2009-12-30T15:06:00.000-08:00

OK, embedding of this Xiphactinus is done, assembly is done, now all that is ahead of us are hours upon hours of detailing. That and figuring out exactly how it's getting upright. That will be an interesting day... I don't think I want to take video of that.

On the bright side not only is the project almost done, but to preserve our sanity Jacob and I have been able to devote one hour at the end of each day to preparing other stuff. Special treat for follower Saurian, Jacob has been preparing a cervical vertebra from our BCT specimen of Daspletosaurus n. sp., out of the lower Judith River Fm. I on the other hand have a special secret non-dinosaur project, that I hope I'll be able to reveal in the first quarter of the new year. It's very exciting, trust me!

Below is a new photo of the progress made in the past week. Exciting, no?

Leroy part 2

2009-12-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

Well, assembly is pretty much finished! Leroy is embedded and now all that lies ahead are weeks and weeks of detail work. And of course the whole how the heck are we going to get that slab upright. It's ok, I have a plan, sort of. If it doesn't work you will all know about it in a few weeks. The mount right now weighs in at about 1200 pounds. Jacob is pointing to the specimen for scale. It's hard to get it all in one shot, with the overall size of 16'x7'. We need to start finding smaller fish.

The construction of Leroy

2009-12-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know, we are currently working on the construction of a plaque mounted Xiphactinus, nicknamed "Leroy", that was collected in the mid 1990s. "Leroy" is a big Xiphactinus at 15 feet, however not quite as large as "Mildred", the 18 foot long monster that we collected in the summer of 2008.

Making a plaque mount is a very time and labor intensive process, espescially when the bones are jumbled when in the ground. Each individual element must be removed and prepared, and of course prepared on the correct side. The right side of the skull was the best and prepared side, which drove our decision to have the right side of the entire fish displayed.

I'll post photos of or progress as we move forward. This is what the project looked like nearly a month ago when the major preparation was finished, and we decided to start laying out the fossil bones. Curator doing the classic TPI field pose (pointing "There it is") for scale. The size of the project is deceiving, the black rectangle is a 16 by 5 foot area of steel and 3/4" plywood. The chicken wire mesh is for strength of the material used to embed the bones. You can probably see that there are literally hundreds of individual bones (spines, fins and ribs)missing. The simple reason is that in this early stage, we don't want too much stuff floating around. You will see these elements get put in later stages of the process.

RMDRC on VOA

2009-12-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

We were filmed for a Voice of America feature a while back, and now it is online. Judging by the length of my hair I'd assume it was during field season.

Fossil of the week: revived!

2009-11-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking, I admit it. Here's the challenge of the week: The photo below is definitely a squamosal off of a chasmosaurine ceratopsian. The question is which one? Pleas guess int he comments section.

Pentanogmius now on display!

2009-11-23T09:59:00.000-08:00

Our new specimen of Pentanogmius evolutus, RMDRC 09-015, is now on display in the marine hall. This specimen was collected from the lower Niobrara chalk in Lane Co, Kansas earlier this year. Missing only the tail, this is one of the most complete and one of the few articulated specimens ever found of this uncommon fish. It's deep body and giant sail make it over 3 feet tall, with a total length of 5-6 feet. Pentanogmius was shown in the National Geographic IMAX film Sea Monsters, along with our Dolichorhynchops and Xiphactinus specimens also on display in the marine hall. As always, our exhibits are constantly changing, so come by this holiday season and see what else we're working on.

Painting of Pentanogmius evolutus adapted from an original work (Plate 30) by Deb Bennett (1983) as published in Kansas Geology, Rex Buchanan (ed.), University of Kansas Press, 1983. Image from http://www.oceansofkansas.com

Another rare fish

2009-10-27T08:38:00.001-07:00

The Niobrara sea was home to more than just Xiphactinus and sharks. There are dozens of other species of fish, some known very well, others from scrappy remains.

One of the rarest is the fish formerly known as Bananogmius, now Pentanogmius. The name change is sad, really, because I quite enjoy saying "Bananogmius", although not quite as much as I love getting other people to try saying it. It was a large fish with no big teeth, yet a large sail fin running the length of the animal. It had only tiny pectoral and pelvic fins.

The RMDRC has a new articulated specimen (photo above) recovered this year off of private land. The skull is to the left, with the sail fin taking most of the upper half of the large jacket. This one is much larger (over 5 feet long), more complete, and better preserved than the new Denver specimen. It has been "show prepped" to a plaque stage, and will be molded as is. This will get the fish ready for 3d reconstruction using casts of the original bones.

Preparing Fish

2009-10-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Nice specimens of Xiphactinus audax can be found occasionally in the Niobrara chalk, however articulated fish are extraordinarily rare. Unfortunately a jumbled pile of bones is not very pretty, so this month we are attempting to reconstruct a 15 foot fish as a panel (flat) mounted skeleton.Above is the skull of the fish, nicknamed "Leroy". It is currently partially prepared and has been on display in our marine hall since the museum opened over 5 years ago. The body was collected sometime in the mid 1990s. Below you can see Jacob Jett preparing one of the many jacketed slabs of bone and chalk. Trust me, that's really his hand.
I'll continue to update as we proceed, however progress is slow due to how delicate fish bones are, even on these giant predators. Stop by and watch us work in the lab, we will be at this for a while!

New Turtle Display Almost Done!

2009-10-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

I just wanted everyone to know our new surrogate marine hall is about finished and ready to open, hopefully for this (cold) weekend. We've got quite a turtle-heavy display, featuring skeletons of Archelon, Protostega, Toxochelys, Prionochelys and the shell of Bothremys. Also on display is a mosasaur-bitten Toxochelys shell, RMDRC 08-003 "Kraigums" that I discovered last spring, as well as the only real bones of Megalocoelacanthus dobiei on public display anywhere, the youngest fossil coelacanth found. There are also many more marine touch stations too. Please stop by and let us know what you think!

2009-09-17T08:31:00.000-07:00

Holly is done!

The Pteranodon sternbergi specimen (RMDRC 09-007) I discovered this spring was about 70% complete. The restored elements (mostly parts of the left wing and the lower jaw) are casts of CMNFV 41358, AKA "The Triebold Specimen". It is embedded in an artificial matrix simply because squashed flat bones are not useful for 3d specimen mounts. I am so happy this project is finally finished.

Disassembling Joyce

2009-09-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we've finally made time.

Our Lambeosaurus, Joyce (RMDRC 07-020) is being prepared, partly because the dang main jacket (map above) is taking up way too much space in the prep area of the lab. The problem is that the bones are very difficult to separate. They are jackstrawed together, brittle, and now that all of the water has evaporated out of the jacket, the matrix is much harder.

The site with Kraig and Jacob while exposed for NBC camera crew.

Below is the main block before jacketing. Getting this apart is our newest challenge.

Montana photo slideshow

2009-08-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, let's see if this crazy thing works!

Montana in photos

2009-08-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

I figure this is a good place to show some of the things we did this summer in Montana. Nothing spectacular was found, but there was a lot of evaluation hole digging. Above is Jacob and I trying to trace a thescolasaur on one of the easier to get to outcrops.

The country was pretty rough at times. Here's an annotated photo of what we were dealing with. The crew was secretly hoping that there was nothing to the dino I found at the bottom of the gully. Right next to the stream/standing water, complete with flies, gnats and mosquitoes.

While evaluating the site, Jacob and I discussed our options. Our helper Tor was trying hard not to be a witness. More photos to come in the coming days. Special thanks to Bill Montante for taking these pictures.

Irrational attachment to field vehicles

2009-07-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

During the summer, we spend a heck of a lot of time in our trucks. Since they're used off road in some pretty rough conditions, we try not to take anything new out there. It sure won't be new when it gets back. You get to know their quirks, and they seem to take on a personality of their own.

Here is my favorite: Dumpy the Suburban. Our oldest vehicle, this wonderful piece of 1991 technology is surprisingly one of the more durable and dependable field trucks we own, even with 220,500 miles on it. Deer kill markings on the drivers side are a tribute to the hazards of remote country roads at night. Dumpy has taken me all over the west over the past 5 years, yet never left us stuck or stranded. It's received scratches on the hood from angry locals, blown out tires and has tried to crush somebody. The huge dent on the door is from a deer at 65mph. Don't ask how it managed to hit the side.

Dumpy needs encouragement going uphill, usually sung to the tune of Aqua's "Barbie Girl". It moans on start up and smokes a little. Then again so do most of our field crew members at one time or another. But luckily, it has seemed to survive the cash for clunkers program (or as we like to call it, the Dumpycaust) unlike many of its cousins. If you see it rolling slowly around, make sure there is a driver in it, and wave. I will miss it when it is gone.

Prepping skin on WXT

2009-07-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

A jacket of WXT, a huge Edmontosaurus specimen discovered in southern North Dakota 2002, was brought into the lab for preparation this past week. Before I could even begin, I noticed the scale pattern of the skin preserved as a film on one bone. Skin is uncommon but not unheard of in the Hell Creek Formation.

Further poking around showed scales preserved in the sandstone matrix in 3 dimensions. The scales themselves are only a few millimeters thick, and are preserved in a layer that will not separate easily. I'm now determining the extent of the skin present, and what should be done to it to best preserve it. The photo below shows one of the counterparts of the skin impression that was removed from the block.

Call for volunteers

2009-07-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

So, you wanna dig dinosaurs?

We're looking for a few volunteers to come with us to central Montana this summer to help scout, recover the rest of our giant Basilemys turtle and begin excavation on a big hardosaur (the tibia is over 4 feet long). Our crew will be leaving from Colorado on July 28th, and will likely stay for 2 weeks. We will be headquartered out of a camping lodge, and there is no cost to volunteers besides transportation and food. All excavation equipment and supplies will be provided, personal tools are to be brought by each person attending. More on that after applications are reviewed.

Applications may be sent to me at anthony@rmdrc.com and should outline biology or geology experience. This trip is a wonderful way to gain experience for undergrad and graduate students in field collection methods. We will be focusing not only on excavation techniques, but data collection (mapping, stratigraphic sections and correlation, taphonomy) as well as site evaluation.

Introducing "Bev"

2009-06-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

We have a new addition to the RMDRC mosasaur family: a Platecarpus ictericus from the upper Niobrara Chalk of Logan County, KS. I discovered this one on June 17th, but we didn't return to excavate till the 19th.

It appears to be a complete skull and cervical series, with a number of articulated dorsal vertebrae and ribs. The skull is scattered, but preserves not only all of the bones, but also calcified cartilage. This specimen is a great candidate for further preparation and 3d

mounting. Judging by the size of the lower jaws (18 inches) the complete animal would probably be 18 feet long. Unfortunately, scavenging sharks (probably Squalicorax kaupi, however a Cretoxyrhina mantelli tooth was also found on the same outcrop, rare in the upper chalk) forcibly removed the front limbs from Bev before she hit the bottom of the Western Interior Seaway 83 million years ago.

You may notice that we give nicknames to the specimens, and there is a great reason why. This mosasaur was discovered about 30 feet away from (and 15 minutes after) another Platecarpus specimen on the same outcrop. Instead of referring to them a "you know, the first mosasaur that Jacob found that week", we name them to keep them straight, both in the field and the lab.

The person that discovers the specimen gets the naming rights. In this case Bev is named after my mother. It's a great way of discovering which relatives like you best.

Fun in the chalk

2009-06-23T08:33:00.001-07:00

It was a good trip...

We only got 2 days of scouting in before getting rained out of the field on Saturday, however we found some good new specimens. Jacob Jett was able to find his first mosasaur, a >Platecarpus specimen in the upper chalk of Logan County. I stumbled upon another mosasaur, >Platecarpus ictericus, about 30 feet further down the same gully, and elsewhere on the same private ranch I discovered the hips of a large diving bird, >Hesperornis.

Thursday we spent the day excavating a giant fish with Mike Everhart, currently identified as Protosphyraena gladius, however that seems likely to change in the next few years. It was extremely hot and humid, with the temperature at 7:00pm at 103 degrees. The photograph shows Mike Everhart, Jacob Jett and a little bit of Mike Triebold at the excavation site.

Friday and Saturday were spent excavating the >Platecarpus specimens, and all the fossils made it safely back to our lab. Be sure to stop by in the next month to watch us prepare these critters and more in our lab viewing area.

Off to the field!

2009-06-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

No fossil of the week this time, our field crew will be headed off to the Niobrara Chalk in western Kansas bright and early Wednesday morning to investigate and recover more sea critters. I'll be taking lots of photographs so you can all see who's there and what we do, even some of the stuff we don't tell you about on our tours of the RMDRC.

Currently in the ground we have a small shark (probably Squalicorax falcatus), a small (12 foot) Xiphactinus audax, and a gigantic (18 foot plus) Xiphactinus that was partially poached from the rancher's property. Also, we'll be investigating a giant clam, Platyceramus, in hopes of putting it on display in our marine hall this summer. And who knows just what we may stumble upon once we start scouting!

Fossil of the week: 6/9/09

2009-06-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

Let's talk big fish this week!

Ichthyodectid fish are amongst the most common fish found in the Niobrara chalk. The genera Prosaurodon, Saurodon, Saurocephalus, Gillicus, Ichthyodectes and the giant Xiphactinus are all found at various stratigraphic levels. Fish have very delicate skulls, however many times they are recovered articulated. It is impossible to disassemble these skulls without damaging them, so we usually prepare them in profile view. Sometimes they are disarticluated, looking like they reenacted the final scene from "Jaws 3D". These scattered skulls enable us to reassemble the pieces and take out some of the crushing distortion from 82-86 million years of burial.

The photo is of a specimen of Saurodon leanus named "Tony" that I discovered in Logan County, Kansas in October of 2006. Stratigraphically we're at about marker unit 18, so fairly high in the chalk, nearing the Pierre Shale contact. This is one of the more rare fish in the chalk, caricterized by it's long eel-like body and distinctive chin spike. As you can see, the bones of the skull have blown all apart, making this specimen a great candidate for molding and 3d reconstruction. No one is quite sure what the spike is used for, my guess is probing into the bottom muds of the western interior seaway looking for soft bodied invertebrates (such as worms) to eat. Hopefully we'll find more specimens in the future that may include stomach contents.

Fossil of the week: 5/29/09

2009-05-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

This past week I was attending the 8th Conference on Fossil Resources in St. George, UT. The second group of talks all focused on the Campanian aged flora and fauna of the western interior. A few brief mentions of the poor neglected duckbill dinosaur fauna were made, but I wanted to share with you an image of one that I'd love to find: "The duckbill that ate Manhattan!" Paleo Tech Jacob Jett (6'4" tall, shown back in his younger days) is shown for scale.

This isolated rib bone was discovered in the upper Judith River Formation (Campanian aged) in the summer of 2004 while excavating a centrosaurine horned dinosaur called "UTC". Isolated duckbill skeletal remains are not uncommon at dig sites. In fact, juvenile hadrosaur jaws have been found at both our "Joyce" and "Pete 3" sites in the same area.

Unfortunately, isolated postcranial remains on hadrosaurs aren't very diagnostic, so it is impossible to say which critter this rib belongs to. It is a good deal longer than our longest rib on "Big Ed", the 34 foot long Edmontosaurus annectens that is now on display in Korea. I'd estimate the body length of this duckbill to be at least 40 feet.

Fossil of the week 5/14/09

2009-05-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

In honor of this week's late update, I present to you "Holly" RMDRC 09-007, a pterosaur from the lower Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas. It's only fitting, since the excavation of this specimen is the reason this week's update was so late. confirmation of the genus waits on further prep work, though we have a pretty good idea what it is.

I discovered this specimen Monday morning while scouting on a private ranch. Excavation took about a day, and the entire specimen (including the rarely preserved skull) is back in our lab now. The blocks contain most of the body and wings as well as the rear portion of the lower jaws. Preparation will commence as soon as I get back from a small spurt of paleo conferences over the next few weeks.

Pterosaur remains are not uncommon in the Niobrara, even though our dig sites are several hundred miles away from the nearest shore. Pterosaurs were strong flyers, and appeared to spend quite a lot of time hunting over the open ocean. The males had elaborate crests, most likely to attract females, just like their very distant cousins today!

Fossil of the Week 5/2/09

2009-05-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

For this week's dinosaur, we venture up to Montana and the Judith River Formation, 75 million years ago in the late Cretaceous. Larry, a rancher who loves to hunt for dinosaurs near his home, was exploring badlands with Dr. Kraig Derstler during the summer of 2007. He had just finished wagering Kraig the princely sum of 2 quarters that he could find a diggable dinosaur fossil first when he came across hadrosaur bone fragments weathering out of a very steep slope. A bit of excavation revealed a few bones clustered together, luckily a RMDRC field crew was already en route to Montana, and we would spend the next month at the site.

In the photo, Dr. Kraig Derstler and Paleo Tech Jacob Jett work on breaking up a large sandstone block above the dinosaur (under the white cloth near their feet). Small man-portable jackhammers help tremendously with digs like this.

Most of Joyce (Named after Larry's wife, whoever finds the dinosaur gets to name it) was buried fairly quickly, with only a few shed tyrannosaur teeth in the quarry indicating limited scavenging activity. Unfortunately, not long after Joyce was buried, a small creek had cut through the site removing most of the tail. Somehow knowing it had been missing for 75 million years made us feel a bit better. From the limbs, vertebrae and skull were were able to tell that it was a lambeosaurine duckbill dinosaur, one of the types with a head crest. The pile of bones was so extensive that we had to remove most of it in one large jacket, and slide it up nearly 50 feet of slope to load on a trailer. Preparation is ongoing, and we hope to have some bones on display in the coming months.

Joyce made her television debut in 2007 as well, with NBC Nightly News and ABC (Australia) both having camera crews visit us at the dig site.

Mosasaur Summmer Video Online

2009-04-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

The video of our 2007 field season is up and on Youtube. Enjoy!

Fossil of the week: 4/28/09

2009-04-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

Back to the exciting marine reptiles! This week is "Ono", a very large but headles Platecarpus ictericus that was recovered in 2006. Surprisingly, Ono is not named in honor of the wife of a former Beatle. Here's the story:

Our field crew had just left an area called "The Forbidden zone" because our owner, Mike Triebold, had decided we had found too many specimens in that small spot. This sometimes happens in the Niobrara. We instead headed to the nearest outcrops, about 200 yards to the east. While still 25 yards away, Mike tossed his pick to the ground and exclaimed "Oh no, not another mosasaur!" As we approached closer we could see the sides of 6-8 dorsal vertebrae exposed on the outcrop surface. Back in the lab we prepared the specimen and remarked at the articulated ribs, as well as probable cartilage in between the ischia (pelvic bones).

Ono is a very strange case, as headless articulated torsos are nearly unheard of in the chalk. This mystery made us do some "digging" ont he internet, and we discovered that we were working not far from Cope's 1871 expedition camp site. There is a possibility that the missing skull may have been collected 130 years prior!

Fossil of the Week 4/20/09

2009-04-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

Back on the dinosaur side of things, we're working on a very large Triceratops skull. This unnamed skull was discovered in 1999 by Mike Triebold in Harding County, SD, and has been taking up a lot of room in storage ever since. We opened the jacket at the end of March and have been working at it in small increments ever since. There is a large area of ironstone concretion on this, the down side, making preparation difficult and time consuming. Once cleaned and stabilized, we'll rotate the jacket upright and work on the other side, hoping to have a 3d skull mounted in a few months. As you can see, it is missing its beak, lower jaws and a portion of frill. These items will be restored later with plastic and epoxy putty.

The interesting things about this skull is the morphology preserved. It has a relatively large nasal horn, yet short and fat browhorns. There is a high degree of variation known in Triceratops, primarily because there are more skulls known than skeletons. In fact, Triceratops skulls are among the most common dinosaur fossils discovered in the Hell Creek Formation. This is the exact opposite of how we find other dinosaurs.

Pete 3 Update

2009-04-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

Preparation is going strong on some of the larger jackets, which has the added benefit of freeing up space in the lab for other things! Here's the left ilium, with a total length of 1115mm. The bone is still very soft and fragmented. The only really well preserved parts tend to be the toes and legs. The object to the top of the jacket is a cervical vertebra, which we will separate from the ilium once this side is prepared and we can rejacket and roll the bones. Then it will be restoration (primarily crack filling) and molding time, which can be very challenging.

These larger jackets are chock full of surprises. Due to the softness of the matrix and bone we were not able to fully excavate or identify the individual elements in the blocks. Now in the lab we are finding that this dinosaur is much more complete than we originally believed.

Fossil of the week 4/13/09

2009-04-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

For our inaugural installment I present to you RMDRC 08-002, a Tylosaurus nepaeolicus specimen that was discovered in May of 2008 by John Bennitt in Gove County, KS. Lower jaw length is 757mm, for those of you keeping score. This was found on a private ranch where our company has been scouting for nearly 25 years. Because the Niobrara Chalk erodes so readily, the entire outcrop must be scouted every 2-5 years. In fact, this specimen was discovered less than 100 feet from a tiny Clidastes skull that I found 2 seasons prior.

Since this is an articulated specimen, not much else will be done to it. Taking it apart for a 3-D mount risks too much damage to the skull, and articulated chalk specimens tend to have a lot of distortion from being smashed flat. In any case, there are plenty of cool things about this critter that re already shown. If you look closely at the neural spines of the anterior dorsal vertebrae, you'll notice a nice arc of missing bone. Click on the image for a larger view if jacket 1 of 3. This is a bite mark attributed to the shark Cretoxyrhina mantelli, whose shed teeth were also found lodged in Tracie. There appears to be a little preserved skin in both the left dorsal and lateral temporal openings, and the sclerotic ring of the eye is still in place. The cervical, dorsal and pygal vertebral series are complete, however the limbs and much of the tail appear to have been forcibly removed from the animal, hopefully after it died. This specimen is currently off exhibit due to Darwin and Dinosaurs, however it will return on display in July.

Darwin and Dinosaurs opening tomorrow

2009-04-03T16:55:00.001-07:00

I can't give too much of the exhibit away. It would cheat everyone that is making the trek up to Woodland Park for our lecture and grand unveiling. However, to show you the depth of the coverage of Darwin, we have a specimen of the type of bug that bit him on his voyage on the Beagle.

We are expecting snow overnight and tomorrow morning, so please check with the RMDRC website after 4pm to make sure things are still happening as scheduled. If not, there will be an alternate date decided and posted then, however it looks like the storm will blow through early enough to allow the roads (and our parking lot) to be cleared in plenty of time.

Darwin and Dinosaurs: The Preview

2009-04-01T06:57:00.000-07:00

We are extremely busy getting ready for the Saturday opening of "Darwin and Dinosaurs". Dr. John Van Whye will be speaking across the street at the Ute Pass Cultural Center, then the whole party moves to the RMDRC for refresments and the exhibit unveiling. We will also have the debut of a few cast specimens from the British Museum of Natural History as part of the display. Part of our spiel from the RMDRC website about the new exhibit:

"These Darwin materials are part of a private collection and have never been on public display before. The collection is valued at well over $1,000,000.

The exhibit will include original Darwin letters, books, maps, and artifacts. A scale model of “The Beagle” will also be on display. The exhibit will run through July 5."

A special bonus for our lucky blog readers is a behind the scenes look at the work going on to ready these documents and items for the exhibit. More updates as the opening approaches

Welcome to the paleo lab

2009-03-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the RMDRC's paleo lab blog. We're a working preparation, molding, casting and mounting lab in Woodland Park, Colorado. This blog is intended to give you a glimpse at more of the projects we're working on both here and in the field than what we're able to show in the monthly newsletter. Constructive questions and comments and suggestions are welcome.

We specialize in late Cretaceous marine reptiles, fish and dinosaurs, however who knows what kind of project may pop up.

To start, here's an update on a long-running project of ours, Pete 3, RMDRC 06-005, a Daspletosaurus torosus specimen that we excavated in 2006 from the Judith River Formation in central Montana. It's in a very splintered condition, but we've developed techniques to allow us to prepare this material in order to mold it (paper in press). Currently there are 67 bones prepared, mostly ankle, pes and caudal elements. We still have an estimated 200 bones to work on. It is hard to tell for sure as we had to be very cautious in the field and expose as little as possible before jacketing. This gives us happy surprises of additional bones in the jacket.

We estimate Pete to be about 11m (36 feet) long, and it should take us a good year to prepare all of the material. Scapula-coracoid is 1100mm long, mt II (in photo) is 460mm. Prep is now concentrated on a medium-sized (we'll rate it as a 2-hernia) jacket with the left ilium and a cervical vertebra, as well as another similar sized jacket with articulated mid caudal vertebrae and chevrons.