New Additions

I think that it's about time that I share some slightly belated photos of the more spectacular fossils that I picked up in Tucson.

This critter is a crocodilian from the Sichuan province (supposedly) of China. It appears to be mostly real, except for the retroarticular process of the right jaw.

Directly above is the same Moroccan Dyrosaur (an Eocene Crocodilian) in two stages of preparation. At the left is how it looked when I first got it and at the right is how it looks now. I'm still not done yet, but obviously much closer. What lies ahead of me is lots of fine detail work.

Here is the greatest prize in my collection, a Moroccan mosasaur skull. It is fairly small and has an oddly short muzzle, but it does actually seem to be genuine. The view of the underside shows where repair work has been done to hold it together and improve it's aesthetic value. The red shows major cracs that have been repaired and the green outlines areas that have been filled in with rock putty. The top of the skull has been stained and laquered to give the bone more contrast from the maxtrix. Clearly, I've got alot of work cut out for me before I can declare it ready for study.

What I can tell so far about the skull is that it's definately not a tylosaur because the teeth go all the way to the end of the snout and that it's not a globidens (what is visable of the teeth is the wrong shape.) Because of the small size, I'd be willing to say for now that it could be a Halisaurus, but I'll know better once I've removed the matrix. If anyone else familiar with mosasaur would like to venture a guess, please feel free.

As for the fate of these fossils, please rest assured that once they are cleaned up, I will write descriptions of each and then deposit them in a museum so that I can publish.