Soon promoted to Associate Curator, Schevill traveled with Professor Raymond on "significant fossil-collecting expeditions to the Burgess Shale, British Columbia (1930) and to Estonia, Norway and Sweden (1934).

[11][14][15] After dynamiting the nodules out of the ground (and into smaller pieces weighing approximately four tons[3][16]) with the aid of a British migrant trained in the use of explosives,[17] Scheville had the fossils shipped back to Harvard for examination and preparation.

The skull—which matched the holotype jaw fragment of K. queenslandicus—was prepared right away, but time and budget constraints put off restoration of the nearly complete skeleton - most of the bones of which remained unexcavated within the limestone blocks - for 20 years.

Indeed, he had been rejected for military service because of chronic iritis, but he joined a small group that worked with Allied submariners on monitoring the temperature of the ocean's upper levels so as to exploit it for stealth when dealing with enemy sonar.

[3] However, in spite of his change in field, it is reported that Bill Schevill split his time equally between the MCZ and the WHOI - his work with the latter likely relating to Cetology as opposed to fossil studies.

The US military suspected that low frequency blips were being used by the Soviets to locate American submarines, whereas Bill showed these were produced by fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) hunting prey.

"[3] William E. Schevill technically retired in 1985, though he continued to work unofficially even after, and died of pneumonia Monday July 25, 1994 at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass, where he lived; survived by his wife, daughter, and son.