Photos from a recent trip to Western KS

[Captain of the Titanic]

I recently went to Western Kansas on yet another fossil hunting trip. We did very well, including a pair of 6 foot pectoral fins from a Cretaceous swordfish. The fish would have been 18 feet in life. I'd love to catch one like that today!!

Here's a picture of the Beast getting ready to back it up the mesa to remove a fossil from the base of the mesa.

[Captain of the Titanic]

Here it is backed up to the mesa

[Captain of the Titanic]

Here I am with my Buddy's son. He killed us by finding a ton of fossils.

[Captain of the Titanic]

Time to get the hell out of Dodge... Or Gove County at least

[blockrockin]

nice pics.. looks like alote of fun !

[Desert Dan]

Let's see some pictures of the fossils

[ChiHummer3]

Great pics! :jump:

[Captain of the Titanic]

Fossil Pics Coming... Gotta get them off the Home PC....

[Agriv8r]

cool..

[Captain of the Titanic]

Here are the fins. Note that they are nearly 6 feet each. This is before we plastered them for removal.

[Captain of the Titanic]

Here they are plastered with the two shmucks that spent the day playing in the dirt. The guy on the left is the "real" paleontologist of the group. He is currently finishing his Master's thesis on a bizarre shark from the late cretaceous.

[Captain of the Titanic]

Here's a picture of what they will look like when prepped

(From www.oceansofkansas.com)

[Mr. I - Man]

Awesome pics.

[jmsspratlin]

Very interesting work man...thanks for the pics.:beerchug:

[Captain of the Titanic]

Very interesting work man...thanks for the pics.:beerchug:

I wish it was my work... I stay locked like a prisoner in a corporate penitentary. Monday through Friday I am a Large Systems IT Consultant. On the weekends I do the fossil thing. I am a little more rabid than the average hobbiest, and hunt about 40 days a year, luckily I live in Dallas which is virtually covered in fossils.

I have donated specimens to the Sternberg Museum in Hays, KS; the Sam Noble museum at OU, and SMU here in Dallas. So far I have 3 new species named after me, which are part of a collection of material I donated to the Sam Noble museum. I will soon have a wierd fish skull on display at the Sternberg museum. It's a swordfish, but the bill protrudes from the LOWER jaw. Very rare and very strange.

I don't try to make money off the fossils. I would hate for it to become work, although I do take a pretty hefty tax deduction off the stuff I donate to museums and to the kids programs at the museums.

Who knows, maybe it makes up for being a Worthless Piece of Crap Hummer Driver!!! :giggling: ;)

[jmsspratlin]

Who knows, maybe it makes up for being a Worthless Piece of Crap Hummer Driver!!! :giggling: ;)


Naw...its people like you who do it for no other than pure enjoyment that set a great example for others to follow. Thanks to your contributions, others have seen parts of history that they otherwise would have missed out on. Thanks....:beerchug:

[Desert Dan]

Thanks for the great pictures!

Have you found any Trilobites out there?
They may be too old (Cambrian) to be found in KS

[timgco]

I want a T Rex tooth! :jump:

I'll trade you for a set of U STeps and a spare tire/ rim.:clapping: Deal?

Nice pics btw!

[KenP]

COTT,
That's awesome! How do you find those out in the middle of nowhere?

It looks very interesting.

[frenzy1]

Wow ! That's a cool hobby bro !!! Thanks for the pics, they're awesome !! Keep up the good work !! And, whenever you feel like comin' to Belgium to hunt fossils, just let me know !!

Frenzy
Belgium

[Captain of the Titanic]

COTT,
That's awesome! How do you find those out in the middle of nowhere?

It looks very interesting.

Walk, Crawl, Walk, Walk, Walk, Sweat, Walk. All the while looking down.

It's great though. Instead of being stuck in Dallas, I am out in the middle of nowhere, screwing the the snakes, birds and other wildliife. I get to meet interesting country folk as well as see things I would have never seen otherwise.

You just haven't lived until you have stared down a 900 lb wolverine (Okay it was 90 lbs, but it was doing a good Grizzly impression :giggling: )

[Captain of the Titanic]

Thanks for the great pictures!

Have you found any Trilobites out there?
They may be too old (Cambrian) to be found in KS


There are some trilobites from the Witchita area. They are from the Pennsylvannian period (320 million years ago).

The stuff in W. KS is late creataceous around 70 MYA.

[Captain of the Titanic]

I want a T Rex tooth! :jump:

I'll trade you for a set of U STeps and a spare tire/ rim.:clapping: Deal?

Nice pics btw!

:D :D :D

I wish I had a T-Rex tooth. I have seen them sell for $75,000...

[timgco]

:D :D :D

I wish I had a T-Rex tooth. I have seen them sell for $75,000...

Suddenly my trade seems a little off. :OWNED: Got any other pics of what you or others in your group have found? Very interesting!!!

[Captain of the Titanic]

This is what we hope for. In 12 years I have found 2. They are currently being worked on. I hope to some day actually have the damn things done...

[Captain of the Titanic]

We also find the flying reptiles, though we have never gotten a skull or backbone, just the wings. I figure the body was the juicy part! This one is in the Sternberg museum.

[Captain of the Titanic]

I have one of these in my upstairs game room. It is only the Skull, but the whole fish would have been about 20 feet long. Imagine reeling something like that in.

[Captain of the Titanic]

You can take a look at www.oceansofkansas.com for more fossils from the State of Kansas.

We also do a lot of hunting in Texas as well as Oklahoma.

It's been fun sharing this all with you guys!!

:beerchug:

[jmsspratlin]

Nice pics:perfect10s:

[timgco]

Thanks for the other pics! Very cool!

That fish is creepy. Imagine getting bit in the ass when your standing in your waders flyfishing! :popcorn:

[3Hummer]

awsome pics!!!