Old Dead Things & Bev Hunt in Bluff Country!

Jim, who goes by the handle “Old Dead Things”, and I have been chatting on thefossilforum.com for a while.

Well, he and the wife finally made it back to Minnesota and yesterday we had the privilege of fossil hunting together.

It was a beautiful crisp day with the first frost having laden the grass the night before,

blue skies, winds weren’t bad, with the trees in peak fall colors.

Jim in the rolling hills near Wykoff.

We got a late start, and it was a whirlwind hunt between 4 sites located near the towns of Wykoff, Fountain and Fillmore.

Jim hails from Casper, Wyoming and is a VETERAN DINOSAUR HUNTER!

“In November 1998, Jim found a mosasaur near Midwest [Wyoming].

The following spring, Warfield Fossil Safari excavated it…

The mosasaur that Jim found in 1998 has since been donated to the Tate Museum in Casper,

and as of January 2008, about 80 percent of it has been prepared.”

http://www.olddeadthings.com/about.html

http://www.olddeadthings.com/collecting.html

A Mosasaur Skeleton.

An Artist’s Depiction of a Mosasaur.

Jim said,

“At home I always keep plaster of paris, burlap and other items I

need in the truck, just in case I stumble across another dinosaur.”

Pretty Cool!

He got a crash course in Ordovician fossils from me, but what does he find –

what we both believe is a fossilized bone!

Jim with bone!

Jim is pretty sure it is some kind of joint bone, but we found it in the Stewartville member of the Galena Formation!

Of course, it could have washed down from the corn field above as there is lots of erosion.

And there are a lot of fossilized ice aged bones in Fillmore County, but an extraordinary find for sure!

Then he found what we believe is a curved cephalopod! That man has an eye for fossils.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it out of the matrix.

Curved Cephalopod.

And he is an intrepid explorer! Willing to climb cliff faces!

But we came home with a tailgate full of fossils including Maclurites, Hormatomas, Cephalopods, Bryozoans, Receptaculitids, Crinoids, Brachiopods, Hash Plates, Prasopora Bryozans, and even a beautiful quartzite drusy rock for me – sparkly creek rock, my favorite!

Quartzite Drusy!

New Fossil Hunting Friends!

Jim and Bev

Check out Jim’s webiste at OldDeadThings.com! He and the wife sell

Green River fish, jewelry, minerals, etc. at shows all over the Midwest and West!

Thanks Jim for a Great Hunt!