News
Several years ago while fossil hunting I stumbled upon an odd fossil situated between several fern fronds. Not knowing what it was because it was an odd fossil so I kept it. When I got home I cleaned it and took a picture then posted it on a website for fossil enthusiasts. Shortly after posting the fossil the comments came pouring in saying I found a small section of armor from the Arthropluera Armana. The Arthropluera was a giant centipede that grew to lengths of 6-8 feet and lived during the Carboniferous Period in Alabama 300 million years ago. I also posted the picture on my Facebook Fossil Forum page. A paleontologist whom I had been talking to that lived in Canada over the years about some of my other interesting finds chimed in and suggested I contact my nearest museum to let them see it. He had contacted several individuals down in this area he had worked with in the past shortly after our conversation about the fossil. I later found out that what I have in my possession is the only Arthropluera specimen found in the state of Alabama. It's significance is because no evidence had been found they existed in this part of the country other than small trace fossils. Body sections of this big bug were mostly found in the northeast US, Cananda and Europe. After news broke I spoke with the collections director for the McWane Science Center and donated the fossil to them for study. I was told it will be sent to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History to be studied as well and included in a paper on the Arthroplurea Armana. As of 10/2/18, I spoke with the director at a Alabama Paleontological Society meeting and he told me after the study of that fossil and writing of the paper they are considering naming the find after me....wow! Stay tuned for more news...
My Art
As you guys can see, I have a butt load of fossils but no much room to store them so I came up with the idea to frame some of them! I have some experience in "custom framing" so I tried to figure out different creative ways to display my fossil finds in frames and shadow boxes. Now that storage space is at a premium I will eventually be running out of wall space!
Paleo Art
Here is my attempt at being a Paleo artist. I got on a roll and worked this drawing for about a month. I posted my progress online and got really nice comments on the drawing until I hit a snag. I consider myself an artist by trade but not a paleo artist. This was my first attempt doing a drawing with colored and graphite pencils, plus I bit off more than I could chew. This drawing is large scale and didn't anticipate the coverage of the detail that followed. I was also was told that in the past depictions of the T-Rex it's forearms were wrong. They weren't "slappers" but "clappers" meaning the forearm claws weren't in a downward direction but sideways. From that point I got busy with life and haven't made that change nor finished the drawing. Will I ever...that remains to be seen, hopefully I can get back on it soon?
