Lois gets prepped! Mostly!

It is unusual for us to move so quickly from collection to preparation and mounting, but sometimes the stars align. We're currently working on mounting the largest skeleton of Xiphactinus audax ever found, RMDRC 08-004 "Mildred". Unfortunately, the sharks got ahold of the carcass before it sank to the seafloor. They eviscerated it, and it is now missing most of its secondary fins, as well as chunks of ribs and spines. For a display specimen, this isn't really ideal, so we're using a few donor fish (ones that are way too incomplete for display on their own) for parts. These will be incorporated to complete the skeleton of the mounted fish, and their parts will be documented so not to make anyone think the composite skeleton is just a single animal.

Initial site view at TPI takeover

Jackhammers are a backsaver

Lois (RMDRC 11-021) was discovered early in 2011 by another fossil hunter that had mistakenly been scouting on property that was under contract with TPI. No big deal though, our crews came out to the site shortly afterwards and recovered the specimen.

Later in the day, big big hole

It was largely disarticulated and found with its caudal fin rays all around the skull region: the proverbial "head up it's butt" position that we frequently find fossil animals. The low rise over the fish was removed with a Bobcat and we set about finding the perimeter, or extent of the specimen.

Mike with chainsaw, Jacob for scale (2 meters)

Unfortunately the jackstrawed nature of the bones meant we'd have to remove the main part in a substantial field jacket. I don't like doing that, big jackets are heavy.

Cleaning the undercut for jacketing

Lois has somewhat flakier bone than usual for a fish, mainly because much of it was near the erosional edge, making preparation a bit slow and less than easy. The smaller jacket is nearly finished, as well as the individual parts we were able to remove on site. The large jacket may take a few more days to show prep, due to the bone condition. It will however be very useful in completing the original bone mount of Mildred, which will be started in the next week.

Just a photo of learning marker units in the field

Bad day for a bad fish

Comfortable working conditions as usual!

As far as bony fish go, Xiphactinus audax was the king of its ocean. They reached insane lengths, up to 18 feet in articulated skeletons, like our "Mildred" specimen recovered in 2008. In 2010 we recovered a second 18 footer that was discovered by a Boji stone hunter on a private ranch which we collect on. This specimen was coming out head-first (or more precisely, the entire site was pretty much the erosional edge due to very low overburden).

The site, extending from the orange paint to near the blue tarp in the background

Detail of some of the "wonderful" bone quality on the edge

The fish was pretty stirred up and not as complete as we'd like for a stand-alone specimen. The entire caudal fin had exploded into individual 3 foot long bony rays, the skull was pretty much gone, all the ribs were jackstrawed into a massive tangle. There it earned the nickname "Goober", as the specimen appeared pretty goobered up. Luckily, the fish could still be useful to us as a parts donor for the Mildred specimen, which will be panel mounted this coming spring. We worked hard for several days removing the animal in 3 large jackets, as well as multiple smaller ones. The chalk was a bit fractured but still pretty dang hard. Air hammers turned out to be a lifesaver when undercutting the slabs of bone.

Can you see the tooth? Internal surface of the sclerotic

As with any paleo lab, we have a big backlog of specimens that need preparation. This specimen wass tored in our lab till yesterday, when we began preparation. More on that in future updates. Working on the specimen revealed several interesting things though, stomach contents consisting of a 4-5 foot long ichthyodectid fish, as well as teeth left by the scavenging shark Squalicorax falcatus. This morning revealed the tooth of one of these sharks lodged inside the sclerotic ring of Goober. I've had bad days before, but I've luckily never had sharks-biting-you-in-the-eye bad days. Ouch.

Baryonyx in Colordo: 100th post

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

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

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.