Nyctosaurus restoration finished!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!