A Kansas boy with a passion for geology made a remarkable discovery during a 4-H field trip, uncovering the fossilized remains of a massive marine reptile estimated at 82 to 87 million years old.
Corbin Bullard, now 12, found the fossil while participating in a September 2025 outing with the Sedgwick County 4-H Geology Club at a quarry in Jewell County. At the time, Bullard was 11 years old and in sixth grade when he spotted several large vertebrae exposed by rock removal operations at the site.
“I didn’t know what it was, but I knew that it was something big,” Bullard said, per Fox 4 KDFW.
His mother, Wendy Bullard, recalled the moment of discovery.
“He said, ‘Whoa.’ So, we looked down and found what I think was seven or eight large vertebrae,” she said, per KLTV.
The bones were later identified as belonging to a Tylosaurus, a large marine reptile, or mosasaur, that lived during the Cretaceous Period when much of what is now an inland sea covered the central United States.
“Pretty much all of the middle of America used to be underwater,” Corbin Bullard said, KLTV reported.
Club members returned to the quarry on three additional trips to excavate the fossil. Researchers determined the remains came from the Smoky Hills Chalk formation, dating the specimen to roughly 82 million to 87 million years ago. The excavation yielded nearly the entire skeleton, including the skull, with only part of the tail missing. The fossil measures more than 15 feet long.
The unusual position of the remains complicated the excavation effort, according to Shannon Crouch, whose daughter Zoe helped recover the specimen.
“It was a little bit unusual,” Crouch said, according to Fox 4. “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.”
She added that the posture initially made it difficult to determine what the team was uncovering.
“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,” Crouch said.
The discovery marked a significant milestone for the geology club, whose previous finds included shark teeth and a large fish fossil that could not be fully removed because part of it remained buried too deeply.
Bullard is currently cleaning and preparing the fossil, a process he said has taken at least 30 hours. He plans to display the skull at the Sedgwick County Fair in July. Because the fossil was discovered on private property with the owners’ permission, it belongs to him.
“I hope [the judges] say that it looks really nice and that we put a lot of effort into it,” Corbin Bullard said, per Fox 4.
The experience has strengthened his interest in pursuing a career in paleontology.
The discovery has also highlighted the educational opportunities offered through 4-H programs.
“4-H is definitely meant to help kids find what they’re interested in and do amazing things,” said Stephanie Hays, Sedgwick County’s 4-H agent, per KLTV.
Club leader Crista Burnett said the benefits extend beyond scientific discoveries.
“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,” Burnett said, Fox 4 reported.
Wendy Bullard credited the broader 4-H community and the cooperation of local landowners for making the find possible.
“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,” she said, per Fox 4. “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.”
For Corbin Bullard and his fellow club members, the discovery offers a rare glimpse into Kansas’ ancient past — and a reminder that remarkable finds can still emerge from beneath the prairie landscape.
