See fossils on display of Dinosaurs, Mosasaurs, Ancient Shark Teeth, primeval clams, and much more.

Student groups can arrange a visit to a dig site with an experienced "hands-on" Paleontologist/ Geologist as their host and mentor. See Bulletin Board.

Tour groups can arrange a visit to the Museum and a short, ( 1/4 mile round trip ), hike to some dig sites of Mosasaurs etc. with talks about the  local geology. These tours are about 1 hour long.

This museum and lab is not funded by any outside source other than small fees for groups and donations. I am retired and draw a small social security check so I have to work to support it. I work driving a shuttle buss for a river outfitter, ( Far Flung Adventures Taos N. M., www.farflung.com ), in the summertime, and drive the buss for the Big Bend Ntl. Park fire crew when needed in the Spring and Fall.
So the museum is not open from the middle of May - Agust 1st. etc., call 432-424-3447 to make sure I will be open, leave a message. Home 432-371-2445.
     

       Self made
paleontologist Ken Barnes
has been digging up fossils and dinosaur bones in the Big Bend area for the past twenty-two years.

Barnes founded and is now Curator of the Mosasaur Ranch Museum, which houses, protects and displays his extensive, hard won collection of precious and irreplaceable fossilized remains of the region’s distant past.
Seas and Shores of the Big Bend of Texas
From Mosasaurs to Dinosaurs


                          Ken Barnes
                          Founder & Curator

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This page was last updated: November 14, 2010
Mosasaur
Ranch
designed with Homestead
Eagle Webula
Local Cosmic Cinnections
University of Texas at Dallas students help remove shark fossils
The now mountainous Big Bend area of West Texas was under seas for millions of years, and the last sea, the Western Interior Seaway,  receded away from West Texas about 80 million years ago, receding to the Southeast to where the Gulf of Mexico is today. These vast marine deposits preserve every kind of marine fossils including Mosasaurs which are not Dinosaurs but marine lizards that evolved from small land lizards that went to the sea about 90 million years ago. These mosasaurs grew to gigantic size. After the sea went away the Dinosaurs moved in to occupy the land until they went extinct 65 mya. The mountains came much later. They are too young to talk about, they are just kids.
 
Mosasaur Skull
Welcome to the  Mosasaur Ranch Museum web site.  My name is Ken Barnes and we will take a journey "back in time" up to more than 100 million years and observe some of the magnificent creatures that lived in the seas and on the shores of West Texas in the ancient past. 

I have studied Geology at the Terlingua "school-of- hard-knocks" for over forty years, and began collecting fossils from the Big Bend area of Texas twenty-two years ago. I founded the Mosasaur Ranch Museum fifteen years ago in the Terlingua/ Lajitas area.

All collected fossils came from privately held property with the owners permission. Do not collect or disturb fossils, rocks, artifacts, etc. from the Big Bend National Park or the Big Bend Ranch State Park.

NO FOSSILS ARE FOR SALE
Mosasaur Ranch Museum
Mosasaur Ranch Museum
Seas and Shores of the Big Bend of Texas
From Mosasaurs to Dinosaurs

HWY 170, 6 miles East of
Lajitas, Texas, or 6 miles West of
TerlinguaGhost Town
Phone:  1 (432)  424- 3447
Home: 1 (432)  371-2445
Email:  kbarnes@bigbend.net
Ken Barnes, Curator

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Ken Barnes - Science teacher to science teachers
Sierra
Nevada.
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Map of the Study Butte - Terlingua Ghost Town area. The Mosasaur Ranch Museum is 11 miles West of Study Butte & 6 miles West of Terlingua Ghost Town and or 6 miles East of Lajitas.
OPEN MOST DAYS
10:30 - 2:30 +/- 
AUGUST - APRIL
or call 1 (432)  424- 3447
for reservations