Plano West Students Excavate Rare Fossil Discovered in January
September 25, 2009
A rare fossil discovered in January on a dig site at Plano West Senior High School has been excavated with the help of students. During this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, students discovered and excavated the 85 million year old mosasaur (marine reptile) fossil.
Plano West Senior High School students who helped excavate a rare mosasaur skull discovered on their campus in January are pictured with Biology Teacher Wesley Kirpach. They are (l-r) Allison Tan, Phillip Yu (Mr. Kirpach) Christina Lu and Ben Zhao.
"There are only a handful of these fossils in the world," noted Biology Teacher Wesley Kirpach. "The best is located in Germany and another excellent fossil is in Kansas."
Mr. Kirpach and his students will immediately route the fossil to Paleontologist Mike Polcyn and graduate students at Southern Methodist University in Dallas who will study and preserve the remains at the Shuler Museum of Paleontology at SMU.
"The fossil will eventually be displayed at the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science," said Mr. Kirpach. "But that is a few years down the road. We're thrilled now to share with students, teachers and the public the results of our excavation."
The remains were discovered by Plano West students at the beginning of this year during a dig at a small man-made creek located between Plano West Senior High School and Renner Middle School.
“This discovery has provided a unique opportunity for the Plano ISD students and faculty,” said Mr. Polcyn. “To teach students about the role of fossils in understanding earth history in the classroom is one thing, but then to be able to step outside and find those same fossils in the rocks takes that lesson from the abstract to one the students will never forget.”
The fossil's skull, neck and lower jaws are shown here in detail, after Teacher Wesley Kirpach completed the rough preparation two weeks ago in his garage "lab" with an exacto knife, air scribe and more than 250 hours of work. He was able to uncover the skull from the stone.
The remainder of prep work, computer aided scanning, reconstruction, molding and replica production will be completed at SMU's laboratories.
A videotape is being produced of the find, excavation and preparation and will be available to classrooms throughout the district upon completion of the project.
Mr. Kirpach said, “The new mosasaur find is scientifically significant and very rare in this condition and in rocks of this age." He said that student Liz Arroyos found a small piece of fossilized bone on the edge of the creek. The bone turned out to be part of the rear portion of the jaw of the 12 to 15 foot long mosasaur, known by the genus name Platecarpus (which means flat-hand).
About 10 yards from Liz’s first discovery, Mr. Kirpach later found six neck vertebrate and a section of jaw embedded in the white rock. The skull and remainder of the skeleton seemed to disappear into rock. While digging into the rock this week the mosasaur’s skull and a few other bones were also uncovered as well as a small skull of a fish called Enchodus.
During the excavation, Plano ISD students and staff visited the excavation site to observe the work. The excavation was videotaped for use in Plano ISD science classrooms. Student workers were chosen to participate in the actual work being conducted at the site.
This is not the first discovery made in this creek. In 2006, Mr. Kirpach’s class found and excavated the remains of a large fish called Xiphactinus. Last year, they also uncovered and extracted the lower jaw from another Enchodus fish.
Mr. Kirpach said that the difference in this current discovery and the previous ones is its relative scientific significance. “Due to the abundant nature of our previous fossil finds, we were able to excavate and keep the fossil remains in a school collection for use in the classroom.” Mr. Kirpach added, “They have served as excellent teaching tools, and are important in the classroom. I recognized early on the rarity of this type of mosasaur fossil, and knew this find was an absolutely amazing discovery.”
He also said, “These types of fossils must be professionally preserved as part of the fossil record for paleontological research. Since SMU has a world class vertebrate paleontology program, the choice of a repository was an easy one. The best part of the discovery was being able to share this unique experience with the students and teachers of Plano West High School.”
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