Dinosaur digs, Dinosaur tours, Dinosaur travel

Where oh where does the time go? I know I should be updating these postings a little more than once per year, but who can find the time??? The summer of 2009 was a busy one with little time for solo field work. The Spring and early summer was pretty wet, preventing much exploration in April, May or Early June. Late June, July and August were packed with not only our regular tours, but several large group tours. One of those tours was for the Young Presidents Organization, an international club that encourages top CEO's/Executives and their children to go on parent/child learning vacations. The kids and adults had a great time and we scored pretty high on their reviews (92 out of a possible 100!!!), so hopefully we'll see them again next year.

The summer months were also busy with other personal things. Our youngest son, Stephen turned one year old in August and boy is he a handfull. Running a 60 year old motel and chasing a 1 year old toddler is definately not an easy task. Our oldest son, was getting ready for kindergarten and given those two things the motel quickly became expendable! We placed the motel on the market for sale (I know, not the best timeto sell, but the motel is no longer needed and is becomeing more of a burden than a blessing). Hopefully, it will sell this winter and we can focus solely on the digs next summer and move to phase two... our own small museum!

In the midst of all that, we also decided to buy a new house in Florida, (time was definately right to buy!) so we could finally fly south for the winters. We're there now, and right now it's sunny and 85 degrees. I'll take that over the 12 inches of snow and 40 degree temps in SD right now! It's November 1st and it's pretty nice in the Swamp! We even went shark tooth hunting this weekend, and perhaps we'll have some Megalodon teeth in the near future.

Towards the end of summer, however, we made a few discoveries we will need to work on next Spring. The first is a potential Edmontosaurus skeleton we call "Splinter", because it weathers to splinters very fast. A foot or so into the hill though, the bone turns very nice. We have recovered a handful of things from this skeleton including a nice sternal, a few vertebrae and some ribs. The remaining exposed pieces (look like scapula, ribs, another sternal, etc.) were covered and re-buried, hopefully protected from the coming winter storms.

The second thing of note was a small weathered trail of large plesiosaur podial phallanges and one broken neural spine. This was recovered about 1 mile south of our MOD "Doc" site. The bones that were recovered were 2-3x as large as Doc, so it was definately a big boy. Hopefully the rest is in the hill somewhere, but the trail on the surface died and nothing has been found going in... yet.

The best find of the summer however was a partial skeleton of a large sea turtle. This was found about 1/4 mile south of where we recovered Mary the Mosasaur from about the same horizon. We call this specimen Violet, in honor of one of our lovely summer volunteers that was out exploring with us that day. Violet (the lady), has recently turned into her 80's and has unfortunatly decided that she needs to retire from her wild paleoadventures. Though we don't think she's too old for it, she believes her health is becoming an issue. We wish her well in her retirement. Violet (the specimen), is CONSIDERABLY older, approximately 83 million years older, and is in far worse condition. The sea turtle has been weathering out for years and has been slumping downhill and re-burying itself, much like our plesiosaur. Despite this, the bones are in very good shape and many of the fragments have already been put back together again. So far we are looking at 1/3 of the animal including elements of hips, rear carapace and articulated caudal and dorsal vertebrae. So far, it appears to be a Protostega, but there's still a chance it could be the remains of the mythical Archelon. If so, its a grand find indeed. There is still much more going into the hillside and we will return here ASAP in the Spring.

Whew! It's already December and my head still hasn't stopped spinning. 2008 was filled with lots of wild ups and downs, good news and bad, but not much on the discovery front. This year our tours were really in high gear. We were concerned that with gas prices reaching nearly $5.00/gallon that the tourist season was going to be a bust, but for some reason we were packed. We had a large school group from Brooklyn, New York for a three day, special trip in May. This was a lot of fun, but it took up much of my time. By late June-early July, we were turning people away on our regular family tours because all available dates were filled up. I simply could not get away to do exploration.

The summer of 2008 was also busy for two other major reasons. 1) We welcomed another addition to our family. Stephen Alexander Stein, future dinosaur digger, was born on August 14th, 2008. He is the light of our life but like all newborns requires a lot of attention. 2)We made our first large skeleton sale that had to be packed, shipped, and crated by early August. So, as you can see we had little time for exploration this summer.

Despite the lack of time, we were able to do quite a bit of work at our two main fossil quarries TD (Tooth Draw) and ENS (Enigma Site). A lot of really interesting microfossils were found at both. From site ENS we recovered some Raptor material which is of great interest. Unfortunately, no skeleton, just isolated bits and pieces. We also really opened up our Tooth Draw quarry, removing over 30 feet of overburden above the bone bed. A lot of microfossils, juvenile dinosaur bones and T. rex teeth have been found thusfar and I anticipate more to come. Towards the end of September, we also found some larger bones (femur and scapula) heading in the other direction on the opposite wall, so this spot is very rich. Next summer is sure to produce even more interesting fossils from that locality.

We also finished excavating our Plesiosaur (nicknamed "Doc") skeleton from the depths of the local Greenhorn Formation. Doc was discovered in May of 2007, but various issues prevented us from finishing the dig last season. This year, we returned and found more fragments from the base of the hill. These are mostly rib and vertebral chunks, but are solid enough to suggest that they can be put back together again, with some considerable time and effort. Over the last few months, we managed to somehow find the time to finish initial preparation of the bones and isolated fragments. Our job now is to try and piece all the weathered fragments back together again like a giant jig-saw puzzle and try to determine once and for all its genus and species. We have compared our skeleton to the Pahasapasaurus specimen recovered at Fruitdale way back in 1934. Based on differneces in the vertebrae and the paddles I do not believe they are one in the same genus. By Spring I hope to have enough of the specimen put back together again to write a paper on it's collection. This work is currently in progress.

Our third season was long, busy, and full of exciting discoveries. Our biggest find of the summer was a very rare (1 of 15 specimens in the world), 15 -20 foot long, Polycotylid Plesiosaur from the Greenhorn Formation of Butte County, SD. Most people generally think of the Loch Ness Monster when you mention the word plesiosaur, but our critter, nicknamed "Doc" died over 90 million years ago and had a much shorter neck and longer skull than what most people envision for this animal group.

To date, we have collected over 250 bones (35%-40%) from this specimen, consisting of the entire pelvic girdle, portions of the pectorals (highly weathered), at least three paddles (with rare articulation down to the very tip on two), and fragmentary ribs and vertebrae. Unfortunately, we have not found any bones from the skull to date so exact diagnosis is not possible at this time. Tentatively, we have assigned the specimen to Trinacromerum bentonianum, however that might change as preparation and excavation continues. Most Trinacromerum specimens have been found in Kansas. Our specimen appears to represent the first reported Trinacromerum from South Dakota. A close relative of Trinacromerum is the recently described Pahasapasaurus found a mere 10 miles south near Fruitdale, SD, from an older rock formation. Another close relative would be Dolichorychops, which will take the starring role in an upcoming IMAX movie this fall. Trinacromerum and the other polycotylids ate fish and looked like a penguin crossed with a large reptile.

As always, our exploits in the Hell Creek Formation have yielded fossils. We can add two more bone beds; ENS (Enigma Site) and TD (Tooth Draw). Tooth Draw, was discovered by one of our great land owners, and appears to have a tremendous ammount of potential. The bone bed, consists of over two meters of channel lag conclomerates and sandstones, each of which contains hundreds of small to large fossil bones and teeth (hence the name). Many shed T. rex teeth, Raptor Teeth, Triceratops Teeth, Edmontosaurus and Crocodile teeth have been recovered. Larger bones range from numberous water worn chunks (showing high velocity stream transport) to isolated Triceratops and Duckbill pieces and parts, to potential associated skeletons. In September we began to recover several Thecelosaurus bones that may be from the same animal. Interestingly, we have recovered several more from what appears to be a juvenile Triceratops. We will keep you posted on our progress.

Our other finds include a potential duckbill skeleton, potential Triceratops skeleton and a site we call CS or "cliff site", where Struthiomimumus material has been found eroding out. CS however is going to be a problem since it is about 300 feet in the air with a 75-80 degree slope (I'm not found of heights! LOL!) and another 50 feet of overburden! EEK!

It's now the end of September and what a busy season! Our tour business really picked up this summer with over 20 trips to the field and dozens of happy guests. We made lots of good contacts this year and now have six ranches under contract totalling over 70,000 acreas of land. That should keep us busy for quite awhile.

The majority of the summer was spent chasing ST deep into the hillside. Unfortunately it looks like the bulk of the animal either was not there to begin with or eroded out thousands of years ago (only to be re-buried by quaternary alluvial deposits.) EEKKK! The specimen is now known as "Ruthie" in honor of one of the land owners. Though preparation has not really begun in earnest, it appears Ruthie was a mid-sized, smallish Triceratops horridus. More details as preparation continues.

Also this summer we discovered at least six microsite bone beds including: "HH"- "Horse Head Butte", "DB" "Davis Butte", "CBA" and "CBB", etc. CBA and CBB I believe are from the same prominant channel lag (river) deposit which goes completely through a large butte and comes out the other side. Lots of very interesting microfossils have been recovered from these sites. Contrary to popular opinion, the little fossils tell us more about the Late Cretaceous ecology and climate that the big dinos. From the little fossils we get the bigger picture! Important specimens recovered include a fairly large (about 2 inches across) varanid(?) lizard braincase, mammal bones and teeth, pachycephalosaur toes and claws, and the tiniest raptor(?) toe and phallange that I have ever seen (phallange is less than 1 mm long).

Oh, and by the way... we are presently putting the finishing touches on the new AAPS sponsored "Journal of Paleontological Sciences"(JPS). The JPS is a professional, peer-reviewed, online publication that finally enables for the publication on privately held specimens. I won't even get into the back story and debate on this one it would take all night! Check out www.aaps.net for more information.

The 2006 season is starting off with a bang. We have aquired several new ranches for our investigations, discoverd a few more bone beds and have begun work on "ST" (see below). The specimen appears to be a partial skeleton of a medium sized Triceratops, but that could change after preparation. So far all of the elements are disarticulated with some pre-depositional breaks. The skeleton suffered some predepositional weathering and at least two periods of post depositional weathering (Quaternery alluvial deposits cut off the bone bed and the part of the sacrum). Elements recovered so far (6/1/06), include a large pile or ribs, sacrum, illium (?) and a few dorsal vertebrae.

The 2005 season was a busy one as we tried to tackle the creation of a new business, renovate a 50 year old motel and manage a two year old child(or was he managing us?). Despite the obstacles and the nay-sayers we were able to get into the field an average of two days per week for the entire summer and a good part of the fall. Dig-sites discovered this summer included the following:

CHM- Heather's Mosasaur- Pierre Formation, Butte County, SD- Partial skeleton of a Mosasaurus from the Didymoceras nebrascence zone. HEATHERS FIRST BIG DISCOVERY. Specimen was disarticulated with possible scavenging. A relatively complete skull (pending preparation) was recovered including elements of the neck, torso, and forelimbs. Unfortunately, it appears the majority of the rest of the body and tail were lost to time and the elements. This specimen will be prepared during the Winter and Spring of 2005/6 and will probably be placed on temporary display at the Tri-State Museum in Belle Fourche, SD until it finds a more permanant home.

LGD- Leonards Grey Dino- Hell Creek Formation, Butte County, SD- Partial Triceratops skull and possible skeleton. This specimen was found in a medium to light grey mud-shale and the color of the unweathered bone matches the color of the rock perfectly! Several elements of the skull were recovered, but time prevented further excavation. We intend to re-open the site in the Spring of 2006.

DED- Hell Creek Formation, Butte County, SD- Partial Edmontosaurus skeleton/bone bed in a really bad location. The site had bad access and was located in a remote corner of the ranch. Several bones were recovered including a nice femur but these pending preparation may indicate we are dealing with more than one animal. We may re-open this in the summer of 2006.

LBB1: Leonards Bone Bed- Hell Creek Formation Butte County, SD. Our main tourist dig site. Dozens of isolated elements have been recovered to date from a variety of different genera. These include Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, Dromaeosaurus, Nanotyrannus, Thescelosaurus, and other flora and fauna typical of a Hell Creek micro-site.