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NEWS
| October 9, 2003
It’s
a Dirty Job
Anthropology junior Phil Kirchhoff
hopes for more finds like his recent one.
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| Photo courtesy of: Phil Kirchhoff |
| Amateur paleontologists Phil Kirchhoff
and Bill Walker found Hadrosaur remains this summer in
northeast Arlington. This is the first dinosaur discovery
in Arlington. |
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By Christian
Ragunton
The Shorthorn staff
As a kid, anthropology junior Phil Kirchhoff used one of his mother’s
kitchen spoons as a shovel. He dreamed about being an archeologist.
At 51, he’s made the first dinosaur discovery in Arlington
— remains of a tooth, pelvic fragment and two pieces of vertebrae
the size of a cantaloupe from its tail. Kirchhoff and digging buddy
Bill Walker from Bedford came across tooth fragments while searching
for fossilized shells in June on a grassy field in northeast Arlington.
It took two trips, but they identified the fragments as remains
of a Hadrosaur, a duck-billed herbivore that ranged from 10 to 40
feet in size. They donated the fossils to the Dallas Museum of Natural
History. Plans to excavate the site are now under way.
“It feels great,” Kirchhoff said. “It’s
every amateur paleontologist’s fantasy to find a dinosaur
fossil, and we did. It’s a weekend warrior’s dream.”
Walker said he and his partner were lucky they found those particular
remains because teeth and skulls are the only fossil identifiers.
Derek Main, who works at the museum and is a UTA Geology Department
graduate student, said the findings are significant because that
Hadrosaur species is one of the oldest ones in North America and
the fourth found in Texas. The museum has two other Hadrosaur skeletons
from Montana and Alaska.
Kirchhoff and Walker, Dallas Museum’s Paleontologist Society
members, met in college and have been fossil hunting together for
the past three years. Kirchhoff also is a supervisor for an Arlington
call center, while Walker works as a crime scene investigator in
Bedford.
Despite his day job, Kirchhoff considers fossil hunting his first
passion. He said he hopes getting his anthropology degree at UTA
will pave a way to a career in anthropology. He has been fossil
hunting for 20 years and has also donated a jawbone of an ancient
fish to the Dallas museum.
“It’s just a really fun thing to do. The ability to
reach down in time and pull something from the past is so neat,”
he said.
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| Phil
Kirchhoff, anthropology junior, found the first
dinosaur remains in Arlington.
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