HOW COOL IS THIS????

[indianasmith]

As some of you know, I am into collecting artifacts and fossils as a hobby.  A few years ago I met an SMU paleontologist named Mike after another collector and I discovered a 45 foot Tylosaurus skeleton eroding from the floor of a creek.  One day when Mike and I were over at my house, I showed him some various bones I had picked up that I was puzzled about.  One of them was this section of  fossilized jawbone:



It did not resemble any other form of reptile or fish I had ever picked up, and sure enough, when Mike finally finished with the Tylosaur and was able to study this piece, he got back with me and informed me that I had found the only documented piece of a pterosaur (pterdactyl) ever found in the Sulphur River area!  I am still pretty happy about that!

[Ash]

So you thought you'd found a piece of one of these:


But actually found a piece of one of these...


That is pretty cool!   

[Sister Grace]

congratulations on your discovery!!

[indianasmith]

Actually, I found both!!!  The Tyulosaurus is so big that SMU can only do a virtual restoration . . . the real skeleton is too big to mount in their exhibit hall.

But the pterosaur is much smaller.

Thanks, SG!!

[Patient7]

Neat. 

[Ash]

The Tyulosaurus is so big that SMU can only do a virtual restoration . . .

What exactly is a "virtual restoration"?

[CheezeFlixz]

The Tyulosaurus is so big that SMU can only do a virtual restoration . . .

What exactly is a "virtual restoration"?

I think it's a 3D scan and built on the computer.

Cool stuff Indy ... all we have around here are a few arrowheads and small marine fossils, mostly small calms. Every few years or so some one will find a mammoth bone.

[indianasmith]

Each bone or piece of bone is scanned with an MRI and then the computer does a digital, 3-D restoration of what the animal would have looked like.  One interesting thing, they can use the virtual program to create a mold that is exactly precise and make a perfect cast of any bone, or of the entire skeleton.

[AndyC]

Sweet.

[ulthar]

Very Cool, Indiana.  You have such an interesting hobby.  It is looking like my son's birthday party "theme" this year will be dinosaurs.

Two weeks ago, we were in western Colorado and made a run up to Dinosaur Nat'l Monument (the Utah side).  Then went over to Red Fleet State Park...there is a recently discovered tracksite there.

It was a pretty good tracksite.  We visited the one North of Moab last year, and though it had theropods and sauropods at one site, they impressions were not jump-out-at-you great.

The ones at Red Fleet are pretty good.  Two trackways, both theropods (but two different individuals), but very good, distinct impressions.  Maybe later I can post some photos (they came out pretty good).

Anyway, congrats!   

[indianasmith]

Very Cool, Indiana.  You have such an interesting hobby.  It is looking like my son's birthday party "theme" this year will be dinosaurs.

Two weeks ago, we were in western Colorado and made a run up to Dinosaur Nat'l Monument (the Utah side).  Then went over to Red Fleet State Park...there is a recently discovered tracksite there.

It was a pretty good tracksite.  We visited the one North of Moab last year, and though it had theropods and sauropods at one site, they impressions were not jump-out-at-you great.

The ones at Red Fleet are pretty good.  Two trackways, both theropods (but two different individuals), but very good, distinct impressions.  Maybe later I can post some photos (they came out pretty good).

Anyway, congrats!   


Send me a PM with your mailing address and I'll send him a mosasaur vertebrae for his B-day!

[RCMerchant]

That's groovy. When I was a kid,we had a large gravel pit down on Prospect Cemetary Road,me and my brothers would dig up rocks and stuff...we would find old shells and little fossils...and indian arrow heads. Once in a while we would find a small bone.(REAL small.) I wish I had a car....and could still do stuff like that.

[Raffine]

Q. HOW COOL IS THIS???? 
A. PTERO-BLY COOL!!!

Most of the rocks around here have at least some fossilized shellfish and fish parts. It's pretty mind-blowing to think this entire area, which is in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, was all once under water.

[CheezeFlixz]

Have you seen this story regarding other Texas fossils ...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357129,00.html

[indianasmith]

I wonder if one of those could help with our grasshopper problem.