MANY FARMS, Ariz. — In 1997, Nancy Mikeson, the counselor at Many Farms High School, stumbled upon an ancient Desmatosuchus bone while walking near her home.
Mikeson was an an amateur paleontologist and spent a lot of time searching her neighborhood for fossils.
Originally a biology major, Mikeson tapped into her love for science while living on the reservation. She enjoyed walking around areas that were chalk-full of fossils at the time and referenced her books to see what she found.
“Right north of Many Farms was beautiful country to look for fossils,” Mikeson said. “I just really like to walk on the weekends, and I would be able to walk around and it was so pretty and, my god, there’s all those fossils.”
On one of her walks, Mikeson came across a formation she thought seemed “quite odd.”
Above the ground was something that looked like a giant cattle horn.
“I just looked at that and pried around a little and then I called the museum.” Mikeson said. “I had no idea what it was other than it was a fossil. There wouldn’t have been any cow horns saved like that.”
Paleontologist David Elliott of Northern Arizona University obtained permission from the Navajo Nation to visit the area and brought his class.
“It was so cold,” Mikeson recalled. “Those poor kids, I think they camped out there. Several instructors couldn’t get them to concentrate. I think everybody was kind of miserable.”
What looked to be a cattle horn turned out to be a Desmatosuchus shoulder blade from the late Triassic Period, around 228 million years ago.
Desmatosuchus looks like an alligator with a smaller head and spikes on its back. The spikes on its spine and distinctive giant horned shoulder spikes were used to protect itself against predators. Desmatosuchus could be up to 20 feet long and weighed around 620 pounds.
Even in the early days of the internet, scientists knew that word about Mikeson’s find could spread if not kept under wraps.
“They warned me not to tell anybody because people would be looking somewhere on the internet, and if I said anything, they would start coming,” Mikeson recalled.
The following summer, Dr. Dave Gillette and Bill Parker of the Museum of Northern Arizona collected the rest of the skeleton. Parker did his master’s thesis on it.
“This specimen is the largest and most complete Desmatosuchus specimen,” Parker said. “This specimen showed that people had been mistaken about what it looked like…Nancy’s find was extremely important and is still studied today.”
The specimen is now housed in the museum’s special collections, and a student from India will be coming to study and do their PhD on it this week.
Parker said it’s possible that other hikers come into contact with ancient fossils often but don’t realize it.
“Most of the time I don’t think people recognize the bones as they don’t really look like ‘bones’ at that stage, just some busted up rocks,” he said. “It’s not until they are collected and cleaned at a museum that they look like what they really are.
Mikeson now lives in her birth place of Montana, but five years ago she came back to visit her old fossil hunting grounds in Many Farms with a local friend. They got rained out, Mikeson said.
MANY FARMS, Ariz. — In 1997, Nancy Mikeson, the counselor at Many Farms High School, stumbled upon an ancient Desmatosuchus bone while walking near her home.
Mikeson was an an amateur paleontologist and spent a lot of time searching her neighborhood for fossils.
Originally a biology major, Mikeson tapped into her love for science while living on the reservation. She enjoyed walking around areas that were chalk-full of fossils at the time and referenced her books to see what she found.
“Right north of Many Farms was beautiful country to look for fossils,” Mikeson said. “I just really like to walk on the weekends, and I would be able to walk around and it was so pretty and, my god, there’s all those fossils.”
On one of her walks, Mikeson came across a formation she thought seemed “quite odd.”
Above the ground was something that looked like a giant cattle horn.
“I just looked at that and pried around a little and then I called the museum.” Mikeson said. “I had no idea what it was other than it was a fossil. There wouldn’t have been any cow horns saved like that.”
Paleontologist David Elliott of Northern Arizona University obtained permission from the Navajo Nation to visit the area and brought his class.
“It was so cold,” Mikeson recalled. “Those poor kids, I think they camped out there. Several instructors couldn’t get them to concentrate. I think everybody was kind of miserable.”
What looked to be a cattle horn turned out to be a Desmatosuchus shoulder blade from the late Triassic Period, around 228 million years ago.
Desmatosuchus looks like an alligator with a smaller head and spikes on its back. The spikes on its spine and distinctive giant horned shoulder spikes were used to protect itself against predators. Desmatosuchus could be up to 20 feet long and weighed around 620 pounds.
Even in the early days of the internet, scientists knew that word about Mikeson’s find could spread if not kept under wraps.
“They warned me not to tell anybody because people would be looking somewhere on the internet, and if I said anything, they would start coming,” Mikeson recalled.
The following summer, Dr. Dave Gillette and Bill Parker of the Museum of Northern Arizona collected the rest of the skeleton. Parker did his master’s thesis on it.
“This specimen is the largest and most complete Desmatosuchus specimen,” Parker said. “This specimen showed that people had been mistaken about what it looked like…Nancy’s find was extremely important and is still studied today.”
The specimen is now housed in the museum’s special collections, and a student from India will be coming to study and do their PhD on it this week.
Parker said it’s possible that other hikers come into contact with ancient fossils often but don’t realize it.
“Most of the time I don’t think people recognize the bones as they don’t really look like ‘bones’ at that stage, just some busted up rocks,” he said. “It’s not until they are collected and cleaned at a museum that they look like what they really are.
Mikeson now lives in her birth place of Montana, but five years ago she came back to visit her old fossil hunting grounds in Many Farms with a local friend. They got rained out, Mikeson said.