“Tanis” site fossils being prepped at the Field Museum
Roy Plotnick has another interesting article on Medium. In this one, he discusses the recent New Yorker article about "Tanis" site in the Hell Creek Formation. There is a good summary of the backstory of the actual discovery of the site. It was found by an old ESCONI member Rob Sula! Also mentioned are Paleo Prospectors and Lance Gande of the Field Museum. It's a great piece... check it out!
A more serious issue arises with credit for discovering the site. The New Yorker article refers to an unnamed private collector who found the site, decided that is was a “bust” and told DePalma that “he was welcome to it.” In a posting in Facebook, Steve Nicklas of the commercial collectors Paleo Prospectors, stated that “The fossil locality was discovered in 2008 by Dr Steve Nicklas, Rob Sula and half a dozen other team members. It was Rob Sula who first discovered fossils in the immediate area. After careful examination of the site, another team member, William McLane, found a well-preserved section of sturgeon skull with remarkable ornamentation. Dr. Steve Nicklas figured out the fossil producing layer and exposed the first articulated sturgeon…” Fish specimens were jacketed and collected and eventually given to Lance Grande of the Field Museum for study (Grande has received an NSF grant to examine the specimens).
