GARLAND - Digging for Late Cretaceous fossils in Garland? That's exactly what more than two dozen volunteers did Sunday while in the hot heat.

The dig began after a Garland resident discovered a mosasaur near his home along Duck Creek.

The Dallas paleontological society members worked 400 hours to excavate the bones of the creature.

While mosasaurs weren't dinosaurs, they were lepidosaurs, which were reptiles with overlapping scales. The carnivorous sea reptiles swam in an ocean that scientists believe covered Texas millions of years ago.

"We finally got it to a point to flip the main jacket that contains the skull," said Rocky Manning, Dallas Paleontological Society.

"Oh, it's been interesting" said Charles Amyx, the man who unearthed the Mosasaur bones in January from the river bottom behind his home. "I've been taking pictures everyday and built me a path through my yard so people can come down here and see it."

The excavation of the creature started in March.

One volunteer said she traveled six hours to participate in the dig.

"It's really very fulfilling because a lot of this wouldn't be recovered without us," said Pauline Maullinex. "The museums don't have the money or the personnel."

The coordinated effort unearthed the animal scientists estimate to be at least 40 feet long.

"This was a particularly nice mosasaur," Maullinex said. "It was almost full grown. A full grown mosasaur has a jaw of almost four feet."

E-mail ddenmon@wfaa.com