Last year's Hell Creek finds

[hadrosauridae]

Here are some of the better finds from my digging trip in South Dakota last year.  

First up is what is likely an osteoderm from Ankylosaurus.  This specimen is gone for research.  I've got a "stupid rookie" story to go along with this if anyone is interested.

 

Next is a section of Edmontosaurus rib with the head and part of the main.  This still needs final cleaning and consolidation.  I'm still debating whether to leave them separate or re-create the missing portion and join them.

 

This is the largest and most complete ossified Edmontosaurus tail tendon I have seen.  Most of the time you only find little 1 inch sections.  This one is completed prep, retaining some of the matrix and a random BOB, as dug.

 

Nice chunk of turtle shell.  I have a love/hate relationship with these.  This is one is large and quite thick.  Most of them are extremely thin and fragile as egg shell.  Still needs final prep and consolidation.  Unfortunately its a covered in CA, which is making it so much harder. 

 

A very nice Tricerotops tooth that my son recovered.  He is like a magnet for these large trike teeth.  This is the 3rd big one he's found.  All I find are tiny spitters.  

 

This is a juvenile T-Rex tooth, found beside the Ed rib.  This one is gone for research.

 

 

There's also a small nano-T tooth missing its tip, and a large BOB which I think could be a bit of Trike frill.  No pics of those available at this moment.  I'll have to add them later.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice.

Thanks for sharing.

Go on then, let's here your 'stupid rookie' story.

 

[jpc]

good stuff.  Are you using cyanoarcrylate in the field?  I am not a fan.  I takes forever to remove.  I am a big fan of vinac.  And yes, we want to hear your ankylosaur scute tale.....

That ossified tendon is very nice.  Like you said, you rarely find the ends on these things.  I keep staring at it wondering if it might be a cervical rib....

[hadrosauridae]

28 minutes ago, jpc said:

good stuff.  Are you using cyanoarcrylate in the field?  I am not a fan.  I takes forever to remove.  I am a big fan of vinac.  And yes, we want to hear your ankylosaur scute tale.....

That ossified tendon is very nice.  Like you said, you rarely find the ends on these things.  I keep staring at it wondering if it might be a cervical rib....

Yeah, been using CA in the field.  I'm not sure how well something like vinac would work, I dont have any experience with it as a field stabilizer.  Most of the stuff from this site is highly fractured and punky and needs a lot of "help" before you can think about picking it up.  I may try some on this year's trip.

[jpc]

Some folks swear by paraloid B72, but I am a PVA B-15 man.  That's the technical term for vinac.  In the field we usually use a thick and a thin.  Thin for the punky powdery stuff, which is the bane of the Hell Creek/Lance.  Thick is good for cracked pieces that need to be kept in position.  Vinac take longer to dry than CA.  And if it is hot out, it may just stay rubbery.  This is where Paraloid is better, s I am told.  And then a plaster jacket around the whole shootin match.  In the lab, the vinac/paraloid comes off with acetone, which you can do with a small natural bristle paintbrush one small area at a time so as not to loosen up the whole bone. Or remove it with air abrasive if you have that.   

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Nice finds  That ossified tendon and the juvenile tyrannosaur tooth are particularly cool! Where did you send the tooth for research?

 

@jpc Sorry to 'hijack' the conversation a bit, but do you think vinac would work on small echinoderms and fish preserved in pure chalk? I tend to use cyanoacrylate when repairing/consolidating my finds...

[hadrosauridae]

50 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Nice.

Thanks for sharing.

Go on then, let's here your 'stupid rookie' story.

 

OK, here it is...

 

This site is packed with iron-stone and mudstone rocks.  Some of them as big as softballs.  Anyway, they have a deep red color to them, so its usually easy to see the brown of bone material in contrast.  As I'm working my way through matrix, I hit a big stone, same reddish color.  I start clearing around it so I can remove it without smashing any bones it might up against. The crack was filled with root mat (Look back at the OP pic, you can see 2 fracture lines).  As I'm clearing, It looks like it breaks in half. Good, I think.  Grab the broken part and toss it over my shoulder, down the cliff filled with excavation rubble.

 

Finally, I get the whole thing removed.  "dang thats a big iron-stone". "Wait, thats shaped weird"  So I start brushing it off.  Under that root mat I see a deep purplely-maroon.  OH @#$%!!  Thats the color that dense, theropod material has here.  I cant make sense of the shape but the color has me freaked out now.  So I carry it 1/4 of a mile back to the paleontologist to ask his opinion.  I tell him the story and hand it for investigation..... what does he say?  "Hmmmmm, thats interesting.  GO FIND THE REST OF IT!"

 

So back at my site, I climb all the down to the bottom and look at every rock.  None are my missing piece.  Back up to the top of the cliff I get down on my hands and knees and begin crawling my way down the debris slope.  Examining every rock that might possible be the one.  I was worried I wouldnt find it, but FINALLY I found what I was looking for.  At the end of the day when I showed him the now completed piece, he said "See, that why you dont throw material over the edge" obviously until youve gone through enough and you arent missing any parts.  Rookie lesson learned! 

[hadrosauridae]

6 minutes ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

Nice finds  That ossified tendon and the juvenile tyrannosaur tooth are particularly cool! Where did you send the tooth for research?

 

@jpc Sorry to 'hijack' the conversation a bit, but do you think vinac would work on small echinoderms and fish preserved in pure chalk? I tend to use cyanoacrylate when repairing/consolidating my finds...

 

I havent sent them anywhere.  I left them with the paleontologist who runs the site.  Only thing I cant take home are items that are very rare or have pathology which would need further study.  He makes them available for study or sends them to university or museum for research.  One of my finds from a couple years ago got sent for research (as a possible earliest evidence of boring beetles) and promptly disappeared 

 

Dont worry about hijacking, its a good subject to expand on.  

[FossilNerd]

Now that is a way to make an entrance! I just saw your introduction post and then I see this. Nice stuff and thanks for posting!

[jpc]

5 hours ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

Nice finds  That ossified tendon and the juvenile tyrannosaur tooth are particularly cool! Where did you send the tooth for research?

 

@jpc Sorry to 'hijack' the conversation a bit, but do you think vinac would work on small echinoderms and fish preserved in pure chalk? I tend to use cyanoacrylate when repairing/consolidating my finds...

I use vinac only in the field.  I do not coat fossils in general, and for gluing, I am a cyanoacrylate fan.