Prominent fossil find tough to locate

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999 | 11:08 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - A long hike into a desolate central Nevada area paid off for science teacher Steve Scott - he found fossilized remains of a Mixosaurus, an ancient, seven-foot-long "fish lizard."

The reptile, a member of the same family as the ichthyosaurus - the state fossil - lived in what was once a warm, shallow sea covering most of Nevada about 200 million years ago.

Remains of a bigger relative, the 20-foot-plus Shastasaurus, are on display at Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park, near Gabbs.

The smaller Mixosaurus, which lived during the Mesozoic era, had a long body and snout, short legs and flippers, four crescent-shaped fins and possibly a dorsal fin. Its eyes functioned like the aperture on a camera lens.

"Up to now we had the giants. Now this is the opposite. It's the tiniest," says Jim Carr, a University of Nevada, Reno geology professor who helped Scott retrieve the hard-to-find fossils.

Scott, who teaches in the Clark County School District, first went to the site in the summer of 1997 in search of ammonites, snail-like fossils. He spotted part of the Mixosaurus in chunks of darker limestone: a head and jaw section, teeth intact.

Scott asked Carr to go on a second trip, and they found a Mixosaurus eye socket. On a third trip they found a flipper.

"It's the best find in Nevada and quite possibly the best find in North America," Carr said. "It's like walking down the street and finding a $100 bill. Although in today's terms it would be a $1,000 bill."

The two have never had to dig. The fossils were found in "float" - loose rock that sits on the ground's surface.

Carr said the two spent hours trying to retrace the fossils' journey over the centuries, in the hope of finding more fossils.

Since it was "float," what followed was several hours of trying to retrace the path of the fossils for 300 meters back up a hill, in hope of finding more pieces.

"Initially we thought, 'Do we really have a Mixosaurus or a juvenile Shastasaurus?' It is still possible that we have a new species of Mixosaurus. But it's definitely a Mixosaurus, that we know," Carr said.

Undoubtedly there will be more trips to the site. But the excitement of finding fossils can be marred by the arduous journey and carrying a pack full of rocks back to the car, he said.

On one trip, the car got stuck in mud, on another an oil pan on the truck was punctured. Carr said as he climbed one peak, he fell and badly cut his legs and on another, Scott hurt his back.

"It's such a rugged site. The hills are very hard and crusted, Carr said. "If I don't feel physically at my best I don't go. I wouldn't even attempt it."

The review necessary to authenticate the find will be equally challenging, taking about two to three years.

Each fossil will be measured, weighed and diagramed. Carr said it would be useful to scan each piece to determine if fossils are present within the rocks.

This will follow peer review. Paleontologists will review the documentation before it is published.

In the meantime, Carr and his colleagues will return, scalp the site for fossils and determine if a dig is warranted.

"The site really is deserving of a scientific survey, but we have few paleontologists at UNR," he said.