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I am a complete and total novice, and I realize this question may be common knowledge to experts, but I figured it would still be a good place to ask. I am also a member of a tortoise forum, which is where I met Tidgy's Dad, who eventually enticed me to check out this forum too! Among the general population, it seems there is the idea that turtles (and tortoises) lived at the same time as dinosaurs and outlived them. I already know that MODERN turtles and tortoise did not coexist with dinosaurs. My question is "What animals DID coexist with the first MODERN turtles and tortoises?" Thanks! Bea/ Moozillion

Anyone going to the fossil expo in Edison, New Jersey at all this weekend? It’s going to be my first time going. I wanted to know if anyone could tell me what to expect there? I’m sure it’s going to be really cool.

I recently purchased a pile of Moroccon fossils. But I can't recognize some of them, so it would be great if you guys could help me with the ID. This first one is a sphere shaped object that I can't recognize at all.

Decade of fossil collecting in Africa gives new perspective on Triassic period, emergence of dinosaurs Michelle Ma, University Of Washington News, http://www.washington.edu/news/2018/03/28/decade-of-fossil-collecting-in-africa-gives-new-perspective-on-triassic-period-emergence-of-dinosaurs/ https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2018/03/decade-fossil-collecting-africa-gives-new-perspective-triassic-period Memoir 17: Vertebrate and Climatic Evolution in the Triassic Rift Basins of Tanzania and Zambia, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ujvp20/current Yours, Paul H.

The Mesozoic is an area that is sorely lacking in my collection. I don't know why, but I just never got around to collecting in it. I never fell in love with dinosaurs or mososaurs like a lot of other people. That was until fairly recently, when I finally took it upon myself to diversify my collection and get to know better my area's (and in some ways own backyard!) geology and paleontology. I set out to discover more about Maryland's Mesozoic Park. I guess it would be best to start off from the beginning. I started the journey not knowing what I'd find, but knowing what it was I hoped to find. I wanted a piece of the hallmark of the Mesozoic, the age of reptiles - my very own Old Line State dinosaur! There was only one problem - I didn't know where to find one. I knew generally what formations to look in, but not where, nor even what to look for. So I took up the ole' Google machine and my own literature at home and started uncovering more about where to start looking. That's what lead me to the first site. A TREK INTO THE TRIASSIC It would be disingenuous to say that I did this all by myself, and I would like to thank @WhodamanHD for helping me out tremendously. Without him I likely never would have gotten this together. For those who don't know, I'll take the liberty to describe the geology of the Free State. In Maryland, the only Triassic aged rocks exposed are those of the Newark Group, here divided by the Maryland Geological Survey into two formations - the New Oxford and the Gettysburg Shale. Both units are exposed in the Culpeper Basin (centered around the town of Poolesville, Montgomery County, Maryland) and the Gettysburg Basin (centered around, in Maryland, the town of Emmitsburg, Frederick County, Maryland). After several months of searching I was never able to find a good exposure near the famous former quarries around the Seneca region in Montgomery County, which is what lead me to the area near Frederick. Here the Triassic rocks are more readily exposed, with reports of numerous fossil discoveries of dinosaur footprints, plants, fish, and others in the area near Mt. St. Mary's University and Rocky Ridge. The Gettysburg Shale in this region is the most fossiliferous, and that is the one I ended up collecting in. Thanks again to @WhodamanHD for giving me info about the site! I spent a good hour or so at the Gettysburg Shale site, my mind full of images of that amazing Grallator sp. print I'd know I'd find. Unfortunately, as the shadows started growing and the day grew colder, I was forced to give up my quest without any dinosaur specimens from this unit. Still, it was nice to finally be able to collect in it and get to experience these amazing rocks up close and personal. The vast majority of the finds from this site were simple trace fossils of I assume to be annelid worms, these being most common in the glossy looking shale.

I was curious about the bare snouts I see on art/restorations of dromaeosaurs (and maybe other feathered non-avian theropods, but I mostly associate it with dromaeosaurs) and tried to do a bit of Googling on the topic, but I've found conflicting reports on whether or not there's strong evidence for it and not much in the way of actual specimens/papers that relate to it. I thought I'd throw the question out here, as I'm sure some of you have thoughts and/or sources on the subject! (Related: if at least some of them did have bare snouts, do we think they would have been covered in scales or bare skin?)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/03/15/study-dinosaurs-built-different-types-nests-their-eggs-depending-whether-they-lived-hot-cooler-clima/428858002/

I have numerous size rocks that are pure black, that I found this past weekend. Since I found them when the creek was low and they were grouped together I thought I found something!

Utahs top Paleontologist Jim Kirkland posted this chart on the dinosaur fauna in his state. Pretty amazing diversity See below for an enhanced poster into the triassic

Scotland has a lot to offer including good Scotch but when it comes to dinosaurs it's close to the bottom of that scotch barrel. The attached article reviews the meager and extremely rare middle Jurassic remains that exist. The Isle of Skye is the only place that have produced these remains. http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/8/2/53/htm

Hi all, I just wanted to let everyone interested in eastern North American dinosaurs know that my paper reviewing and analyzing Appalachian dinosaur faunas was published as Brownstein (2018). The full citation and doi are below. Brownstein, CD. 2018. The biogeography and ecology of the Cretaceous non-avian dinosaurs of Appalachia. Palaeontologia Electronica 21.1.5A: 1-56. All the best, Chase

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42945820

Detail of the show logistics can be found in the following topic Dealers are slowly getting into town and its a madhouse looking at the dealers setting up. The show officially starts Thursday but some are already open in the Ramada and Tucson Hotel that I visited today. Here are some pictures. Tucson Hotel City Center -

The Utah Natural History museum held their annual DinoFest this weekend so I was able to get some great pictures of the new skeleton of Teratophoneus, 80% complete. The skull Here are some close ups of Teratophoneus teeth Now for the foot claws!

Fossils returned to China Xinhua Net | 2018-01-13 19:01:35|Editor: Zhou Xin http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-01/13/c_136893270.htm Yours, PAul H.

G'day all! After three years since my last visit to the UK, i finally returned in December 2017 for another massive collecting trip across England. This was my most ambitious tour of the UK's Mesozoic and Cenozoic vertebrate deposits thus far, with 20 days of collecting across ten different locations. These were (in chronological order from first visit): Abbey Wood in East London Beltinge in Kent Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight Compton Bay to Grange Chine on the Isle of Wight Lyme Regis to Charmouth in Dorset Aust Cliff in Gloucestershire Saltwick Bay in Yorkshire Kings dyke in Cambridgeshire Minster in Kent Tankerton in Kent. If you went collecting at any of these places in the last month, there's probably a 25.6975% chance you saw me looking very intimidating hunched over in my hooded rain jacket and muddy pants 14 of those collecting days were back-to-back, a new record for me, though it was very tiring! Having just come from the hot Australian summer, winter collecting in England was certainly a challenge at times and my fingers and toes froze to the point i could barely feel them on multiple occasions. Temperatures for many of the days reached 0 degrees celcius or below, with ice on the ground around me and even snow falling while i was trying to collect! I also went out during the middle of the night to collect using a head torch on some occasions (mainly at Bouldnor) due to the tidal conditions and bad weather which prevented collecting during the day. All in all i am certainly pleased with how the trip went, i was successful at all locations with the exception of Tankerton. For some of the locations (Aust Cliff, Kings dyke, Saltwick Bay) it was also my first and only visit, so i'm glad i still managed to do well with no prior experience at these sites and with such limited time at each. I have tried to write this trip report not only as a means of showing you guys my finds but also to provide an informative overview of some of the better locations for Mesozoic and Cenozoic vertebrates across England for others who might be planning similar trips. Anyway, here are the results! Pictures will be spread across the next 12 posts due to file size restrictions. Abbey Wood - East London (6/12/17, 30/12/17 and 31/12/17) Formation: Blackheath ('Lesnes Shell Bed') Deposit Age: 54.5 million years (Eocene) Fossil Diversity: Sharks, bony fish, chimaeroids, bivalves, gastropods, rare mammals, turtles and crocodiles This was one of only two inland locations i visited (the other being Kings dyke). As i have found, the majority of the UK's easily accessible fossil collecting locations are coastal! Abbey Wood is an excellent location just 45 minutes on the tube from central London. It is situated in a park called the Lesnes Abbey Woods and there is a small collecting area that is open to the public for shallow digging (see my first two pictures below). You definitely need a sifter, shovel and basin of water at this location to have any real success. Be warned though that once you combine the fine Blackheath sediments with water during sifting you get some pretty gnarly mud so expect to come away from this site looking like you've just been rolling around in the dirt. I'm sure i got some interesting looks from people on the tube going back to London it was all worth it though, as every single sift load produced at least one shark tooth across the three days i visited. Very impressive considering the number of obvious holes dotted around the ground from years worth of other collectors visiting. It should be noted though that the mammalian material from this location is of high scientific importance, and collecting here is allowed on the condition that any mammalian finds be brought to the attention of and handed in to specialists like Dr Jerry hooker at the Natural History Museum in London. I didn't find any such material on my trips unfortunately. Here is the designated collecting area. The statue at the front is of Coryphodon, one of the rare Eocene mammals that has been found at the site. The full haul of shark teeth from three days of sifting in the collecting area. Most are from Striatolamia and Sylvestrilamia. I gave up trying to count them once i got past 100 Some of the other fishy bits that often turn up during sifting, including guitar fish teeth on the far left and two dermal denticles (Hypolophodon sylvestris), one gar pike fish tooth in the middle (Lepisosteus suessionensis), one shark vertebra down the bottom and unidentified bony fish vertebrae on the right. I don't typically collect shells, but i picked these up for the sake of adding a bit more diversity to my Abbey Wood collection. These are bivalves and gastropods of various species. The molluscan diversity from this one location is actually quite impressive. Beltinge - Kent (7/12/17 and 29/12/17) Formation: Upnor ('Beltinge Fish Bed') Deposit Age: 56.5 million years old (Paleocene) Fossil Diversity: Sharks, chimaeroids, bony fish, rays, turtles, crocodiles, bivalves, wood This is my favourite shark tooth collecting location in the UK and probably my favourite that i have visited anywhere so far. The shoreline directly opposite the access point at the end of Reculver Drive in Beltinge is loaded with teeth and dare i say it's impossible to come here and walk away empty handed. The shore however is very flat so there is generally only about a two hour window of time that collecting can be carried out here, one hour either side of low tide. Conditions can also vary depending on how sanded over the shore is, whether the Beltinge Fish Bed itself is exposed and how low the tide drops. However even on a poor day you will still find teeth here, just not as many! I experienced this first hand as the first day i visited on December 7th the conditions were excellent. The tide dropped quite low, there wasn't too much sand covering the clay and the Beltinge Fish Bed was exposed. This allowed direct in-situ collecting of teeth from this rich layer and i ended up with something like 240 teeth from just a couple of hours of looking. The second visit i made on December 29 of the same month was almost the exact opposite. It's amazing how quickly these coastal locations can change! The shore was largely sanded over, the fish bed was covered and the tide didn't drop anywhere near as much. I was out about the same amount of time as the first but only managed 69 teeth (only ). Keep these things in mind if you are planning a visit. Luckily though i didn't just find shark teeth, i also managed to locate some of the other less common finds as you will see below! Here is the area of shoreline that produces teeth, photographed on December 7th. It was quite cold and rainy! Three teeth sitting next to each other as found. More as-found shark teeth. This one made me quite excited when i saw it. It's a large piece of chimaeroid fish jaw and mouthplate coming straight from the Beltinge Fish Bed itself (the darker, dull-green sandy clay in this picture). Beltinge is continued in the next post.

2012 Gathering 2013 Gathering 2014 Gathering 2015 Gathering 2016 Gathering 2017 Mid-Year Gathering Hi everyone, and Happy New Year! Singapore Fossils Collectors just had our end year gathering at a new location! As usual, there was food, there was laughter, there was trade, and there were so many fossils! Feast your eyes upon Calvin's personal museum collection. -------------------------- First up, a genuine Dimetrodon from USA. There are some restorations to the skull and bone, but the vast majority is original material. A high-quality Ichthyosaurus cast Stegodon tusk, various shark jaws, whale vert, mammal bones etc. The tiger skull is a cast, thankfully Plesiosaur skull from Goulmima Various amazing material. An authentic baby Psittacosaurus. Ammolite with mosasaur bites. Xiphactinus jaw. Pliosaur tooth etc.

Interesting article on the first scientist to study dinosaur footprints in the Connecticut Valley https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/edward-hitchcock-dinosaur-fossils-footprints-birds-amherst.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Hi everyone! I am really interested in collecting vertebrate fossils. I have a lot of things to offer: - vertebrate fossils from Eocene of Kyiv, Ukraine and Albian-Cenomanian of Ukraine and Russia (various species of shark teeth, bony fish teeth, turtle shell fragments) - Pleistocene mammal, fish and turtle bones from Kyiv, Ukraine (unfortunately, I am not very good at identifying mammal species, but I have a large selection; mostly rodents or other small mammals, I have larger bones, but they are less complete) - crabs from Kyiv Eocene (Eocarpilius (?), up to 4 cm, not perfect, but with almost completely preserved caparaces and some appendages) - Silurian invertebrates from Podolia, Ukraine (mostly corals and small brachiopods) - also some small Devonian placoderms from Podolia, Ukraine (Kujdanowiaspis) - various Ukrainian and Russian ammonites and orthocerid or endocerid nautiloids - a lot of Miocene and Pliocene molluscs from Ukraine - some Carboniferous plants from eastern Ukraine - some random things, ask me if you are interested in something else In return, I am mostly interested in Paleozoic to Cretaceous shark and reptile fossils (both bones and teeth), especially in specimens from rare locations (especially Australia, don't have any vertebrates from there, and any Permian/Triassic vertebrates or dinosaurs/pterosaurs/marine reptiles from other periods). PM me if you are interested, please. I will send you the pictures of specimens you are most interested in. I also accept sales instead of trades. Here is an example of some Eocene fossils from Kyiv I have for trade (here are various sandsharks, Isurolamna, goblin Anomotodon, turtles, Carcharocles, Notorynchus, makos, Jaeckelotodus, Striatolamia, rays, chimaeras, bony fish, Physogaleus). I have much more specimens available, this is just an example.

How some dinosaur discoveries might be wishful scientific thinking by Evan Thomas Saitta, The Conversation, November 6, 2017. https://theconversation.com/how-some-dinosaur-discoveries-might-be-wishful-scientific-thinking-86253 https://phys.org/news/2017-11-dinosaur-discoveries-scientific.html Yours, Paul H.

I was told I could not find dinosaurs in Florida.... Well,I beg to differ. ID anyone?

Hello, where can I buy dinosaur fossils from the Hell Creek formation for fair prices? I am having trouble finding a website that offers some good dinosaur fossils.

Asteroid impact plunged dinosaurs into catastrophic 'winter' By Jonathan Amos, BBC, October 31, 2017 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41825471 Dinosaur-killing asteroid impact cooled Earth's climate more than previously thought. PhysOrg, October 31, 2017 https://phys.org/news/2017-10-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-impact-cooled-earth.html The paper is: Artemieva, N., et al, 2017, Quantifying the Release of Climate-Active Gases by Large Meteorite Impacts With a Case Study of Chicxulub. Geophysical Research Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1002/2017GL074879 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL074879/abstract A related paper is: Pierazzo, E. and Artemieva, N., 2012. Local and global environmental effects of impacts on Earth. Elements, 8(1), pp.55-60. http://users.unimi.it/paleomag/geo2/Pierazzo&Artemieva2012.pdf Yours, Paul H.