It's Tucson Time Again

Sorry for the lack of updates. We're working on a ton of new projects this winter for an awesome Tucson gem and Mineral show. A few teaser pics, more and better ones as we get closer to shipping the show. Now back to the salt mines.

Enchodus vs. Hamburger-sized turtle

Newest fish

Headbutting Sandy

Cap'n Chuck's back end

Platecarpus restoration complete! All hail Cap'n Chuck!

After 8 long years of work, our Platecarpus tympaniticus specimen RMDRC 06-009 "Cap'n Chuck" is finally finished! These last few weeks of the project had been dedicated to finishing the details of the armature as well as packing it for its trip to its new museum forever home. It seems like just yesterday when I was lifted in a freezing drizzle in a Bobcat excavator bucket one October day to investigate a lonely vertebra poking out of the side of a gully wall. Poking around revealed what looked like the rear of a skull, and we decided to come back the following spring to finish the job.

Working on turning a vertical surface into a flat surface

By the time we completed the excavation, we could walk down the debris pile to the gully bottom. We took out multiple jackets since the bone density was so high, working on them in the lab was much safer for the specimen.

Main body and skull block in the Show Prep stage

Once "show prepped" (preparing the jackets to show what is inside of them) we disassembled them and placed the bones in drawers in the Clean Room for safe keeping. There it stayed for years until a customer was found.

Coming together. The white bleached bone 4th from the left is the first bone found

Earlier this year we started restoring the bones for mounting. While we had the bones handy, Cap'n Chuck was molded so copies can be sent to other museums in the future. The mosasaur was incredibly undistorted, the ribs were even round in cross section, unlike the typical Kansas condition of being squished pancake flat.

Dillon (left) vs. Cap'n Chuck (right)

Snakey!

The final result is pretty spectacular. The undistorted ribs helped us get a very accurately shaped torso, with cartilage and even an interclavicle. The skull is beefy and bulldog-like, much different than the lower chalk specimens of Plesioplatecarpus planifrons.

Showing off the pterygoid teeth

Paddle and chest detail

Vertebrae are much larger and more robust than the lower chalk specimens. Surprisingly, the finished mosasaur was a bit shorter in length than we had anticipated, coming in at just over 17 feet (5m) long.

Skull detail

Beefy Platecarpus Restoration Update!

For the past few weeks, TPI field crews have been scouring the outcrops of Western Kansas and finding some spectacular specimens. More on those in a future blog update.

Since the field crew was gone, the lab crew is much less distracted and has made great progress in assembling the Cap'n Chuck specimen of Platecarpus tympaniticus. Skull reconstruction is now complete and painting of the small restored areas is all that;s left. total length ended up being 52cm, but the width gives it more of a bulldog appearance than the lower chalk Plesioplatecarpus planifrons. I'm still trying to get used to all these new names since the reclassification of plioplatecarpines a few years back.

Top view

The only bones I was completely missing were both squamosals, but they were pretty simple to fabricate.

If you look carefully, we even included the mounted epipterygoids

The skeleton has had individual clips fabricated to hold each bone securely in place. Those subassemblies are now being fastened to the armature. The specimen is intended to be hung at its future museum home, however building it on cables in the lab is too unsteady. The posts supporting the superstructure will later be removed before shipment. The light colored vertebra fourth from the left is the first part of the mosasaur I discovered coming out of the outcrop.

Ribs beginning to be fit, though all still need adjustment

Individual bones are assembled into segments so that it can be quickly and precisely set up in a new facility. All limbs are removable, as are the ribs and skull. The vertebral column breaks down into segments. With any luck though, the steel armature will be nearly invisible on the final mount.

Front paddles nearly assembled.

Cap'n Chuck Rises: A Teaser

Like many places, progress on various projects here ebbs and flows. Sadly, the Pete III Daspletosaurus restoration project has been temporarily put on hold so we can address more pressing matters. In this case, it's Cap'n Chuck (RMDRC 06-009), a fairly complete and extremely well preserved Platecarpus tympaniticus specimen that I discovered one cold October day in 2006. A recap of the early part of the project can be found by clicking here. Once prepared the specimen sat in drawers in my office for years.

Squalicorax bites on the top of the skull

That's a nice set of ribs

Recently the powers that be have decided that we should restore and mold the skeleton to replace the smaller Platecarpus planifrons skeleton in our cast catalog. Comparing it to the lower chalk mosasaur, Cap'n Chuck has a nearly identical skull length, more gracile lower jaws and wider top of the skull, however its postcranial skeleton is radically different in proportions. Humerei and vertebrae are nearly twice as big. The ribs are surprisingly uncrushed, preserving their original round cross section as well as curvature. In fact they are so well preserved we can even with some degree of certainty determine which ones belong on the left or right side (nearly imossible to do on typically crushed ribs).

Lower jaws, slender and displaying symmetrical tooth replacement

Nearly complete axis showing beefiness

The differences really are amazing. A few years back, Takuya Konishi split Platecarpus planifrons into its own genus: Plesioplatecarpus. I was very skeptical of this split for a long while, but now after comparing the low chalk mosasaur against its upper chalk relative, I'm really beginning to see his point.

More Mosasaur Fun, Complete With Spectators

Just finished a sort of long-term new project for us. Occasionally we get requests from museums and universities to come out in the field with us and collect specimens. Even more occasionally, we oblige. In 2011 a class from the University of Tennessee - Martin (actually 2 classes, one in geology, one in journalism) came out to our digsites in western Kansas to find and document fossils for a new museum project. TPI fieldcrews supervised and instructed, however we let the students do the finding. They came up with several neat little fossils (several Spinaptychus, a Chelosphargus partial skull, Martinichthys skulls) and lots of partial fish. On the second day, one student hit the jackpot: the tip of the lower jaw of a mosasaur poking out from just under the alluvium. 

Ever feel like you're being watched?

Here, Aaron (the discoverer) works to remove overburden from the specimen. TPI does the same thing, though usually with fewer spectators. He decided to name the mosasaur "Kimberly". I've named specimens worse things I suppose.

Digsite viewed from across the gully, right near MU 5

 The specimen was tentatively identified int he field as Platecarpus planifrons. Though reasonably well articulated, it was missing the front limbs and everything back behind the mid dorsal vertebrae. UTM students preimetered, stabilized and jacketed the specimen. Most importantly they also carried the slab across the badlands to the nearest truck, which was great for me!

Standard TPI field photo pose, before jacketing

Back in the lab, preperation was begun by UTM students under TPI guidance. Mosasaurs are usually pretty straightforward to work with, however this one presented a few challenges. The proximity to the alluvium meant that this specimen encountered some weathering back during the last ice age, and roots made matters worse. The prognosis was grim initially, as the bone and teeth looked to be in pretty rough shape. But careful consolidation and prep resulted in not only stable bone, but the discovery of the preserved remnants of tracheal rings, as well as extracollumnellar (ear) cartilage. At the rear of the left lower jaw, one of the scavenging sharks, Squalicorax falcatus, left its calling card.

Kimberly's skull

Next up the specimen will be delivered to the new museum in Tennessee, where it will go on display later this year. Luckily the whole process was documented by the journalism students, almost from the instant of discovery. If I see the video, I'll post a copy on the blog in the future.

Not a bad little mosasaur.

Soft tissue preservation in a Platecarpus

This past week we were able to do a bit more work on a specimen that we collected last spring with a student group from the University of Tennessee-Martin. This small mosasaur, a Platecarpus planifrons RMDRC 11-001,  was just about the only recoverable mosasaur material seen on that trip. This specimen was discovered by a UT-Martin student, and the discovery, excavation and recovery process was recorded by a UT-Martin journalism student group.

How many people can you fit on one digsite?

The specimen was brought to the lab and awaited the UT-Martin student group to come to Colorado to prepare it. That chance came this week. The skull was weathering out first, and the roots of nearby plants had started growing around the bone making preparation a bit tricky. The students and film crew covered the preparation of the torso and neck, which was in much better condition. I was left to work out the skull.

Partially prepared torso, neck and head

We were paying special attention for anything that would tell a story about the animal. First we discovered gouges from shark bites on the lower jaw, then a shed sharks tooth at the left articular. While slowly preparing around the quadrate, we located the extracollumnellar cartilage, a semi rigid plate that often gets mistaken for a calcified tympanum. I waas shocked that this was still present with so much root infiltration. later while preparing between the pterygoids, small remnants of the tracheal rings were also discovered. I expected them there if present since they tend to get blown forward through the mouth after death, looking like a linguine dinner after a hard night of drinking. Unfortunately, no skin was present on this specimen, but as always, we'll be keeping an eye out

Can you spot the tracheal rings?

Tracheal rings in another specimen, this time a Clidastes

Finished! Platecarpus skull pictures

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

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

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.

Jonesing for mosasaurs

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

The Reassembly of Dillon III- Finished

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

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

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!