Protosphyraena find

OK - so I've found the Protosphyraena before. It's one of my favorite finds because of the beautiful teeth-like ridges along the pectoral fins. It's pretty amazing, in my opinion. I came across one (and actually 3 total were found over the course of one day - JUNE 2011) and we had high hopes it would be the complete girdle, but almost immediately after removing some of the overburden, we could tell something was weird about it and it would likely not be complete. BUT we pressed on anyway. 

Here is my father clearing away debris and overburden while I take a quick camera break. We had another little bit to go at this point, but it was apparent the whole fin was not there, let alone the whole shoulder girdle!

The knife is there for perspective. That's about the size of a regular old kitchen chopping knife.

 

Here is my shoddy attempt at preservation. Using Butvar on the bones (an acetone-based glue) allows the fossils to harden up for transportation. I did not stay between the lines...

Tool of the trade - pick hammer :)

Here we are ready to take the thing out. The matrix was such that it would not come out in one piece, so we ended up just removing the fossil from the rock completely. It was a sad, sad end to the Protosphyraena's 80 million year old legacy.

Here's what we walked away with. The majority of one pectoral fin and some jumbled pieces of the pectoral girdle. Nothing glamorous, but it was a satisfying find, nonetheless.

Scenery in the chalk

Despite being high prairie and very dry, Western Kansas has had a pretty good couple of years with regards to rain (as of 2011). A LOT of the chalk has been reclaimed (covered up) and I took some pictures of some of the new "wetlands" in the bottom of this one particular valley.

 About 60' directly above the creek that cut through the chalk formations.

The water was actually running at a pretty good clip all day - and we were onsite for a good six to seven hours. 

Ground-level view of one of the open areas of water (there were three in this chalk exposure).

I've been coming out to the formations in Western Kansas for 30 years and I can't remember ever seeing everything so green and vibrant. It was a new experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope you like these pics too!

Flora from Western Kansas

I spent a good deal of time on the June 2011 trip taking flower pictures for my daughter. I definitely grew more interested as I proceeded. The variety of wild flowers on the western prairie is stunning once you actually stop to look. 

First pic and a bit blurry. This is Missouri Evening Primrose. Orange buds with a bright yellow flower. Grew everywhere on the rocks.

This is Catclaw Sensitive Briar. This picture does not do it justice. It's a extremely vibrant pink in the green fields. Definitely draws the eye.

Dang the wind! This would have been a great picture, but the blur was caused by the wind moving it around. The Prickly Poppy was not everywhere out there, but pretty common. Almost every single specimen had this strange June Bug-like beetle in the flower (seen here).

I know you're thinking Dandelion, but nope! This is Goat's Beard and I caught it after the flower's had already moved into the seedlings.

Good ol' Yucca plants in bloom.

A pretty grass called Foxtail Barley, down in the wetland portion of the area we were in. 

It wasn't blooming, but this Arrowhead plant was a neat find.

Tall Thistle. Uncommon in the field we were in, but a pretty common plant.

I really liked this one - the Indian Blanket. It was one of the few two-toned flowers in the field.

Just a fun pic (Yucca husk)

The only cactus I came across the entire trip.Some sort of Fishhook cactus, I think

I really enjoyed hunting the flowers on this trip - not as much as hunting fossils, but it was quite a bit of fun and a good change of pace when I was getting frustrated at not finding anything else!!

Fossilized Fish Skull (unknown)

As of posting this, I'm holding a fossilized fish skull of unknown type in the Smoky Hill Chalk.

We took the entire skull out in the conveniently pre-made chalk cast (LOL) and I've it at my house waiting to be freed.

EDIT: It's still sitting in my garage waiting to be freed after 35 million years in the chalk!!

Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum)

We found two Horned Toads during the trip. The first one was a full grown critter.

The second one I caught and was definitely less than a year old.

He scurried around quite a bit and was hard to catch, but once I did catch him, he was calm as could be. Sat in my hand like he was meant to be there. I think my hand was probably pretty warm compared to the cool ground.

Video:

Antique License Plate

There was a really neat (and pretty old) truck license plate out in the middle of this field. Had to take a pic.

Tiny Squalicorax Tooth

About midday we went to a road-side site my Dad knew about; it was actually very picturesque. There was a clear creek running by the road, the reeds were high and the cottonwood trees provided a lot of shade.

There were also some beavers nearby:

However, on the far side of the bank we came across a plethora of tiny Squalicorax teeth. In this picture there's one - can you find it???

Ancient Fossilized Clam shelf

I came across this huge, complete shelf of in situ clams while walking through the grazing pasture. It's unusual only because most of the time the cattle crush these rocks and shells to bits.

Neat find.

First Day Digging - Shark Teeth

We visited the site to which my Dad had been referred. It had been hunted previously by an another amateur paleontologist who had found a large collection of Ptychodus shark teeth (some 40+ teeth - Ptychodus was a shell eater and thus had an entire mouthful of very blunt teeth).

We went back to see if they had missed any - which they had. It was a fairly uneventful day otherwise.

First Shark's Tooth

Ok, while this is NOT the first shark's tooth I've ever found, it is the first one I'm going to post on this blog (and the first blog post, for that matter).

This is from a small and now extinct species of shark, Cretoxyrhina, 100 to 80 million years old.

Link to additional teeth photos