Momasaurus Gets her Tooth

July 2, 2009

Thursday morning brought us sunshine after a brief rain storm last night. I arranged with Ryan to help me mail Laurel's package before we left for collecting. We got a later start than usual because the students wanted a group photo before some of them depart tomorrow morning. Two students are ill, and Esther has not felt well since she arrived. Hopefully everyone will be recovered by tomorrow.

The prospecting people were divided into two groups and I went out with Ryan, Alex and the Evans family to ranches I am familiar with from my last two years. The morning session found us in a valley with sandy areas on either side. These were are targets for fossil hunting. Ryan found a large T. rex claw in this valley and he made a bee line for that spot in hopes of finding a toe bone to go with it. I headed for the sandy areas on the right and others chose their own directions.

We made plans to meet back at the vehicles around 1:00 for lunch. After two plus hours of searching for bone spill, and if found, following it up, I had only a small bag of "kibbles and bits".
In one of my climbs up the hardened clay face of a small formation, I found what appears to be an artifact: a beautiful scraper made from a translucent stone or petrified wood. Since this rancher likes artifacts, I may not be able to keep this find. In a way I will take it as a compliment if he wants it.

Ryan checked in with all of us and the consensus of the group was to return to the vehicles early and find another location. The valley was not producing for us, so we ate lunch at the vehicles and drove to another ranch. I looked at Jason's fascinating find which is part of a whole Gar fish. We are always laughing at the scales we find everyday, but to see the scales actually set in part of a fossilized body was astounding.

Clouds were beginning to gather which meant we might have to stop collecting early. You cannot be in the field in a thunderstorm for risk of lightning strikes. In addition, one of the vehicles is two wheel drive and could not risk being stuck in the mud should it rain heavily. We received an overview of the collecting areas and headed out for the afternoon session.

Laurel and I collected this location last summer. I had the good fortune to find an ant hill that had never been worked. It was fabulous for teeth and tiny bones and even two raptor claws. I always show my friends the photo of Ryan holding his T.rex claw which is about eight inches long, and then I hand them one of my claws in its special box, and a magnifying loupe so they can see it. My claws are really beautiful, but very, very tiny....3/4" long! Not all dinosaurs were giants.

Just as Ryan set out for his claw site on the previous ranch, I headed for the site of the ant hill. As luck would have it, the ants had abandoned this hill so the collecting was easier. There were some plants with tiny burrs and cactus to watch out for, but that was less challenging than trying to avoid mad ants. Jennifer joined me on this site and we had fun picking up the tiniest of fossils for the next hour. I found lots of Champsasaur teeth, Ray teeth, one salamander vertebra, crocodile teeth, fish teeth, and bone shards. One tooth in particular stood out as different from the others: it was curved instead of straight. I hoped it might be the elusive raptor tooth.


We decided to try some other areas and headed toward the direction the rest of the group had gone earlier. We did not get far when Ryan alerted us that we should return to the area of the vehicles because of the threatening weather. The skies were definitely darker to the east, but we still had light gray skies. We walked toward some areas with exposure (likely fossil material), to look for fossils while the others made their way back. Ryan said we could continue to look as long as the weather held.

On our way back to the vehicles I made one more pass at the ant hill and Alex joined me. We both found more teeth and had fun looking at each others' tiny treasures. He had found a wonderful little bird tooth earlier in the afternoon so I got to see that. He looked at my collection and thought the tooth in question was certainly from a raptor (therapod is more acceptable) because he could see the serrated edge. His 15 year old eyes are so much stronger than mine. I remember those days. Anyway, it seemed most likely that indeed I had my special tooth, albeit a tiny one. So my friends, you will get to see my new tiny treasure, but you'll have to use a loupe!

The skies grew very dark and the thunder just a little too close for comfort, so we walked quickly back to the vehicles. Ryan looked through my container of micro fossils and comfirmed that the tooth in question is indeed a therapod tooth. HOORAY! Though our collecting day was cut short, I came back with my special tooth and hopeful thoughts for tomorrow's prospects. One more day of collecting. These two weeks have really passed quickly. The days are beautiful, the air is crystal clear and the scenery is magnificent. Best of all are the wonderful people who share this passion for the outdoors and the magic of fossils.

Cheers.