Excerpts from the Zuni Diaries "The Smiling Face"

Excerpts from the Zuni Diaries

Part 1

Where does our story begin? Perhaps it was when a 7 yr old boy digging in the dirt hills at a construction site found half of a fossilized seashell, and upon returning the next day found the matching half! Or perhaps it was when on a Young Adventurer’s trip from Chicago to the Grand Canyon a 16 yr old stopped in Round Valley and his mentor said “This would a good place to settle”. Could it have been when as an undergraduate in geology a young man was invited by a friend and mentor to assist in a paleo survey, that in turn led to a graduate research project. Or was it being challenged to look for that missing gap in time during a Dinofest Conference in 1996?

Perhaps we must go further back in time to 95 million years ago when a herd of Zuniceratops, a horned dinosaur, Nothronychus, a therizinosaur, and Jeyawati , a duck-billed dinosaur, found themselves the prey of a pack of feathered tyrannosaurs in a forested  swamp were turtles and crocodiles filled the waters.

All these factors were at play when Douglas Wolfe, then an Adjunct Curator at Mesa Southwest Museum, was leading an exploration trip with volunteers from Southwest Paleontological Society. Douglas climbed a steep and dangerous cliff and off in the distance he saw a hidden basin within badlands. Unfortunately, time was up for that day, the intriguing badlands would have to wait. Douglas returned 2 weeks later with his wife, Hazel and their 7 yr old son Christopher on 11/11/96. They had camped out late the night before and awoke to the day with Doug’s watch having stopped at 11:11 on 11/11, an interesting coincidence! When the Wolfes descended into that hidden badlands basin they started finding bone scattered upon the surface! Hazel found the first bone, a beautifully preserved metatarsal.

Hazel’s Metatarsal 11/11/96

Christopher called the badlands basin “Two Rocks Balanced Basin” for the rocks balanced upon a thin layer of mud at the location where the first bones were found. The name stuck, and this Basin is where the Zuni basin dinosaurs have mostly been excavated from. The day was filled with discoveries throughout the basin, Christopher was learning fast what bone looked like.

Two Rocks Balanced Basin 11/11/96

It was getting late in the day by the time they made their way to the back of the basin. Douglas could see different colored rocks on a crumbly black shale hill. Douglas challenged Christopher to climb the hill and he would make it worth his while. Christopher climbed up the hill and picked up a bone calling to his Dad “I think I found the tip of a dinosaur horn!” Douglas laughed, “That would be amazing because there are no known dinosaurs with horns from this time period.” It would take some time to figure out what those bones belonged to.

It was an incredible day! The Wolfe’s returned to their home in Phoenix and immediately called partners, Jim Kirkland and Robert Denton to share the discovery of the basin, and the possibility of a horn. Jim was uncertain about the bone being a horn, since no horned dinosaurs were known from the Middle Cretaceous. The period the bone came from. The Wolfe’s with permission from the BLM took the partially covered bone to Jim Kirkland in Fruita, Colorado, where he was working for Dinamation International Society. Douglas and Jim’s excitement was rising as he agreed it resembled a horn, but without preparation the bottom could not be seen.

Douglas & Christopher Wolfe with Jim Kirkland Feb 1997

So off the Wolfes went to the Denver Natural History Museum to have Ken Carpenter clean the rock off and exam this intriguing bone. The cleaned bone revealed an eye-orbit attached to a small horn. The only animals to have an eye-orbit as part of the horn were the horned dinosaurs known as Ceratopsians. This horn was from 90 mya, and no others with horns were known to live in North America for at least another 20 million years! Ken took the Wolfes down into the vaults of the Museum to compare this small horn with the Triceratops from 68mya.  It was astounding, they had the same shape, but the Triceratops was over 4ft long and this little horn was only 4 inches! Christopher had been right! Douglas certainly made it worth his while, as Douglas named Zuniceratops christoperi after Christopher in 1998. Christopher became the first child to discover and have a dinosaur named for him!

This little horn, so unexpected, discovered by a 7yr old boy, launched the formation of the Zuni Basin Paleontological Project by Douglas Wolfe, Jim Kirkland and Robert Denton. Mesa Southwest Museum director, Tray Mead agreed Mesa Southwest Museum would be the repository for a Federal BLM permit supporting the research of these unique rocks. The first permit was received in May of 1997 and the expeditions began!

Douglas and Robert planned a Memorial day weekend trip with members of the Southwest Paleontological Society, the volunteer group from Mesa Southwest Museum. This would be the first official Zuni Basin Paleontological Project Expedition. The plan was to sift sediments where some of the first bones were found at Two Rocks Balanced. It was a beautiful weekend and everyone was excited to share in the work. The team found small fragments of bones and even some teeth. While part of the group remained at Two Rocks Balanced, Brian Anderson, Adjunct Curator with Mesa Southwest Museum, and Robert Denton went to explore more of the basin, including the Mirror Mesa locality. This locality was named by Douglas for it’s mirror sheen formed from a white silcrete layer covering the surface of what appeared to be a pond deposit. There had been small bone fragments and fish scales found in the original exploration. Robert and Brian started finding pieces of what appeared to be a small snout. They were so excited at what they were seeing they sent a runner to retrieve the rest of the crew to assist in this new find. The team assembled and began to scour the surface, as Robert, Brian and Doug examined the snout more carefully they soon realized that there were serrations on the teeth! That really got everyone’s attention!! Finding a predatory, theropod dinosaur is a big deal! The crew spent the rest of the weekend finding every fragment that could possibly be associated. It was strange bone covered in a concrete like layer of rock, what could this covering be? What kind of theropod was it?

The weekend was too short! Plans were made to return in the fall for an expedition with Dinamation International Society. It would be the first of many expeditions with scientists, volunteers and students working together to explore the remote badlands from 90mya.

Robert Denton putting pieces together on Mirror Mesa May 31, 1997.

Brian Anderson and Douglas Wolfe Mirror Mesa May 31, 1997

Mirror Mesa locality where first specimen of Suskityrannus hazelae was collected May 31, 1997.

Suskityrannus hazelae first bones collected May 31, 1997.

Zuni Basin Paleontological Project volunteers and researchers May 31, 1997.

In May 1998 an Expedition was planned with the intent of working on a bonebed Douglas had discovered the previous fall. Southwest Paleontological Society volunteers and Dinamation International Society participated in the expedition. Sterling Nesbitt was the first student to begin working with Robert Denton and Douglas Wolfe when the project started. Sterling was passionate about paleontology and had a great eye for finding bone! Sterling had gone off exploring the basin, when he found fragments of a partial skeleton near Mirror Mesa. Sterling returned to the crew to get Douglas to see his find, on the way they realized that Sterling’s find was a second partial theropod skeleton. Even though the bonebed was filled with bone this was too important of a find to leave for the next season. Soon we had half the crew searching the hoodoo and drainages to find as much bone as possible. There is never enough time to do everything you want and planning is required as specimens can easily disintegrate over the wet winter months. When Jim Kirkland saw the specimen he was impressed with how much of the animal was on the surface. It was an exciting day. Discovering a specimen like this is every paleontologists dream and a young man had done so!

Sterling Nesbitt Suskityrannus hazelae discovery May 3, 1997.

Hazel Wolfe directing volunteers in collection of specimen May 3, 1997.

Sterling Nesbitt, Karen Poole and Brian Dent , student researchers Southwest Paleontological Society Sept 1998.

The theropod skeletons were intriguing but the concrete layer covering them was so hard that the preparators put it aside till the right tools could be acquired. The specimens coming out of the bonebed were much easier targets.

It would be 2001 when the Discovery Channel featured the Zuni fauna in “When Dinosaurs Roamed America”. They would announce Zuniceratops, Nothronychus and what was believed to be a raptor. Jim and Douglas cautioned Discovery that until it was prepared it was an unknown animal. Discovery Channel paid Douglas and he took that money and gave it to volunteer preparators Harold and Phyllis Bollan and their team. They were able to acquire diamond bits to get the concrete layer off the bones. Discovery Channel moved forward with the animation of raptors only to be told that it was not a raptor! They had to add the generic title “Coelurosaur” at the last minute! The research team was unsure where this animal fit. On the way to modern birds, theropod dinosaurs developed features in their ankles and feet; “the arctometatarsalian condition”, basically a reduction in the number of ankle bones so that “raptors”, tyrannosaurs, and related theropods walked on bird-like feet. They had feathered bodies based on extraordinary fossils preserving skin and integument. Only careful study and comparison with an emerging record of small tyrannosaurs clarified the identity of the Zuni Tyrannosaur.

It would be almost 22 years to describe and name this extraordinary discovery. Suskiytyrannus hazelae is the fourth of the Zuni fauna to be named. The paper includes the principals of the Zuni Basin Paleontological Project, two students that were mentored through this project and experts from around the world. It is a case study in collaboration with scientists, students and volunteers over a 20 year period to understand our planet and share that information with the public.

The Zuni Basin Paleontological Project is run by Zuni Dinosaur Institute for Geosciences, which continues to work with scientists, institutions, students and volunteers to paint the paleo landscape of our world at 90 mya when sea levels rose to their highest peak in the last 300 million years!