Along Hwy 80 near Selma Alabama can be found outcrops of cretaceous rock forming acers of badlands. It was here, in 1987, that I expierenced my first Paleo dig.
My friend, Kraig Derstler ( Professor of Paleontology at the University of New Orleans) invited me to one of his student's mosasaur excavations. The student, Dave, was working on his Master's thesis and was unearthing a Prognathadon, of the mosasaur family. This was my first paleo dig and they put me right to work armed with nothing more than a pocket knife to chip away at the chalky rock. Half the mosasaur skeleton had already been excavated and brought to the lab at UNO. We were there to retrieve the remaining bones, which included the skull. Here I learned how to locate buried fossils, remove overburden, undercutting the matrix, and plastering for transport.
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Dave holds the jaw bone of the mosasaur.
Ribs lay on top the counter.
UNO collection
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 | Jaw bones, ribs, and vertebrae.
UNO collection
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 | Vertebrae with chevrons attached.
UNO collection.
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 | Mosasaur jaw bone with teeth, scapula, and vertebrae.
UNO collection
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 | Mosasaur vertebrae from my collection |
 | Mosasaur jaw parts with teeth, from my collection |
 | A tray of snails, ammonites, oysters, fish and shark teeth fossils.
Harvested from Marion Junction, along Hwy 80.
From my collection
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 | A mounted mosasaur at a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas |
 | I also found a turtle fossil eroding out of the ground.
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Visit Oceans of Kansas Paleontology to learn more about mosasaurs.
Return to Greg's Fossil Page
