Corbin Bullard didn’t know exactly what he’d found while on a field trip with his 4-H Geology Club, “but I knew that it was something big.”
Read more Texas scales up emergency response to combat destructive New World screwworm
Corbin, who was 11 at the time and in sixth grade, had stumbled across six or seven vertebrae, and they looked large. Several months and three excavation trips later, Corbin and his fellow Geology Club enthusiasts had unearthed a 15-foot-long ancient marine reptile that swam over Kansas some 85 million years ago.
Corbin’s big find
Big picture view:
Corbin, of Clearwater, Kansas, is a member of the Sedgwick County 4-H Geology Club. The club plans field trips to a nearby quarry, where crews are routinely shaving off layers of rock for commercial use. With every layer removed comes another chance to find ancient relics. Before Corbin’s fateful find in September 2025, he and his club members had found “boring” things like shark teeth, along with one large fish fossil whose tail was stuck too far into the ground to be excavated.
Corbin at the quarry where he found an 85-million-year-old fossil (Wendy Bullard)
When Corbin came across the vertebrae, he knew this was different.
READ MORE: High school student digs up 34-million-year-old whale skull on family farm
“I didn’t know what it was, but I knew that it was something big,” Corbin said in an interview with FOX Local.
Dig deeper:
After that discovery, Corbin and his crew returned to the quarry three more times to dig up more of the tylosaurus, a large marine reptile and apex predator that died roughly 85 million years ago. Researchers who helped to date the fossil knew it came out of the Smokey Hills Chalk, which narrows it down to 82-87 million years old. It lived during the Cretaceous Era.
Corbin at the quarry where he found an 85-million-year-old fossil (Wendy Bullard)
The team celebrates after a long day at the dig site (Wendy Bullard)
Corbin and the club found everything except for a piece of his tail, including his massive skull. The tylosaurus fossil turned out to be more than 15 feet long.
Corbin observes the skull of the giant tylosaurus he found while on a field trip with his 4-H Geology Club (Wendy Bullard)
What they’re saying:
“It was a little bit unusual,” recalled Shannon Crouch, mother of Geology Club member Zoe Crouch. “The skull was kind of flipped backward onto the back. Like the tylosaurus died with its head kind of cranked back on its backbone at an odd angle. And that was probably the most interesting thing and exciting thing once we figured out that was, he just died in a weird position. And it kind of made it challenging because we didn’t know what it was we were looking at in the ground at the time, just because of the weird angle of the neck, the way it was preserved.”
Fossil to be shown at county fair
What’s next:
Corbin, who’s now 12 and heading to seventh grade, will show the head of his fossil at the Sedgwick County Fair in July. He has a hunch his exhibition will be one-of-a-kind.
Read more Carjacking murder suspect accused of killing Houston father during stolen truck confrontation
READ MORE: Fossil of prehistoric marine reptile discovered in Argentina field
“I hope [the judges] say that it looks really nice and that we put a lot of effort into it,” he said.
As for where it goes after the fair, Corbin doesn’t know. It was found on private property with permission from landowners, which means the ancient fossil belongs to Corbin.
Part of the tylosaurus Corbin found (Wendy Bullard)
Corbin said he’s always been interested in geology, but now he’s sure he wants to turn it into a career as a paleontologist.
Zoe Crouch, who was 9 years old at the time of the find, was there to help every step of the way.
Although she doesn’t know if she’ll make a career out of the club like Corbin plans to, she still thinks geology is “really cool.”
“Like they’re the first person to pick up an 80,000-year-old tooth or something like that,” she said.
‘Get your kids involved’
What you can do:
Crista Burnett, the Sedgwick County 4-H Geology Club leader, said for parents whose kids are interested in rocks, fossils or minerals, “have them reach out to their local 4-H office and have their kids get involved in the geology program.”
“It is really awesome that Corbin found this tylosaurus, but he has also learned public speaking. He has learned a lot of research. There’s so much good that comes out of 4-H,” she said.
Corbin at the quarry where he found an 85-million-year-old fossil (Wendy Bullard)
Wendy Bullard, Corbin’s mom, echoed Burnett’s praise for the program.
“None of this would have happened without first of all 4-H, then the [geology] club, then the landowners and the leaders and permission to make it all happen,” Bullard said. “This is not something he and I can go out together and do on our own. It’s a 4-H community. So there’s a lot of branches … everything from horticulture to art, livestock, but, yeah … it’s a community and 4-H makes things like this happen.”
Read more Houston weather: Hot and humid all week with spotty storms