A 12-year-old boy from Kansas has made a remarkable prehistoric discovery while on a field trip with his 4-H club, unearthing an 80-million-year-old marine fossil buried underground.
The Discovery
Corbin Bullard of Clearwater found the fossil in September when he was 11 years old, during a visit to Jewell County with the Sedgwick County 4-H Geology Club. The youth program teaches children aged 7 to 19 about earth science, rocks, and fossils through hands-on activities.
“He said, ‘Whoa.’ So we looked down and found what I think were seven or eight large vertebrae,” Corbin’s mother, Wendy Bullard, told KWCH on Tuesday.
It took three separate trips to fully excavate Corbin’s discovery from the site. Although Corbin has long been interested in dinosaurs, experts identified his find as a tylosaurus, a type of mosasaur—a large marine reptile that swam through an ancient sea covering Kansas during the Cretaceous period about 80 million years ago.
“Pretty much all of the middle of America used to be underwater,” Corbin explained to the news station.
About the Mosasaur
One version of the marine creature, the Tylosaurus proriger, was around 45 feet long and is related to modern-day snakes. The creatures lived around the same time as the dinosaurs but are technically not dinosaurs. They propelled themselves through the water with their tail and used paddle-like flippers, according to National Geographic.
The fossil consists of eight pieces and stretches more than 15 feet. Corbin has already spent at least 30 hours carefully cleaning it, he said.
“I feel like it’s very surreal to have had this happen. I’m very proud of Corbin for sticking through it and finding everything,” Stephanie Hays, the Sedgwick County 4-H agent, told KWCH.
Future Plans
Corbin will soon showcase his findings at the Sedgwick County Fair from July 8 to 11, where he plans to display the fossil for the public to see.
