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Found these at Greens Mill Run last week, first ever ecphoras! The whale cervical vert. is ~ six inches from left to right, it's fairly beat up. The mosasaur tooth is pretty worn too, but the articulated scallop was nice.

Found on an island in the Canadian Arctic. I think it's a Mosasaur tooth, but I'm really a newbie at this. The whole piece is about 3 inches in length. Thanks for any help!

Hey all! It's good to be back and writing a trip report again - I've certainly been busy this summer. As some of you may recall, my step brother and I found a basal mosasaur in September of 2021. I haven't spoken much about it publicly, but rest assured it hasn't been forgotten! Research and preparation of the specimen is reaching a fever pitch this summer, both of which I'm happy to say I'm actively involved in. The reason for the silence has been to avoid leaking details that might scoop our paper. However... This year at A&M I'm participating in a grant for science communication, and because of this I have permission to show a little more about our animal now, since it's research is the subject of my internship with SMU right now. So! What's been happening with the mosasaur since the last trip report of it (below)? Here is the very abbreviated continuation... January 2022: On a whim, I decided to return to the site - just in case we missed anything. It felt almost foolish to hope for more, considering we already had a significant amount of skull material and a few verts. I came in with no expectations. I did not take long to see more of the animal. I started working several feet away from the pit we had dug, with the idea to work inwards, but instead almost immediately found the terminal vertebrae of the tail.... in near perfect articulation Below: Four vertebrae with haemal arches locked together (several are shrouded by a white layer of paraloid b-72) Realizing what I had, I strenuously chopped a trench out around the block with three chisels and a rock hammer, then somehow lifted the entire thing and walked back the distance to my car. Here it sat below: One year later, these terminal verts were prepped. I think they are spectacular. Let's zoom back to the moment though... I realized we now had both ends of the animal - the back of the skull from September, and the end of the tail from today. Where was the middle? I called Christian (my step brother) and let him know what I found, telling him that we had to attack the site together again to see what more there could be. The following weekend we did just that, expanding our pit until eventually were were met with this sight: This was huge, and we realized we had potential for the entire animal being buried here now. I called up the researchers at SMU i had just connected with, and was instructed to glue the block back into place until a more formal excavation could carry out. Months pass. Multiple attempts at resuming the excavation professionally are made, each falling flat due to unlucky weather or last minute personal commitments. This string of bad luck continued until one day in October... October 2022 Realizing we might not reach years end with an excavation, the folks at SMU suggested I borrow some power tools for the weekend and conduct one on our own. Christian unfortunately couldn't make it, since he had just moved to Washington. Despite his absence, I constructed the best team I could think of.. @JohnJ, @LSCHNELLE, and my dad. For an entire day we happily slaved. I took absolute loads of photos and videos, to avoid the same configuration confusions the SMU folks and I have encountered already. John's experience is the stuff of folk legends, and he has performed many excavations on his own finds before, while Lee practically has Eagle Ford shale running through his veins. Their presence proved to be invaluable and I will never be able to thank them enough. It was an epic hail-mary to undertake in a single day, but we finally extracted the bulk of the animal in several large blocks. I still can't share photos of diagnostic bones, but here are some images from the day below: From left: My dad, John, and I making a trench. Below: An unusual symphyseal ptychodus tooth found while trenching: As the day neared an end, our pace picked up - we were on a serious time crunch and had to make it out of the site soon. With 30 minutes to spare, we all together lifted one of the final slabs and were met with a sight that can hardly be described with words... Lying before us was a pair of dentaries, in amazing condition apart from where the slab split them. Fortunately, the damage is not irreversible - the part and counter-part fit back together absolutely perfectly. Part and counter-part, below: The site, after the end of a long day. Four exhausted, fulfilled men walked away from here. Fast forward to this spring, were I got accepted in a science communication grant program, allowing me to take the research of this mosasaur to new levels with my mentor at SMU. By the end of the summer, we strive to have an abstract for our paper. The work is building to a breakneck pace, but I love and it's what I hoped for... until next time!

Hello, I will tag you directly @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Praefectus. From this jaw which measurement should one take to estimate the full size of the specimen being this a thalassotitan atrox? I know head to body ratio of thalassotitan ies 1:8 more or less, what I am not sure is here which would be the correct measurement for the head size. From point A to B measures 135cm. Would this be the right measurement? Then full size 135*8/100= 10,8m more or less?

Hey everyone, I've been looking at this Mosasaur for sale online and it looks alright. the skull is a bit flattened and the detailing is not great however it also has a very good price. Does this look genuine to you all? The seller claims its 100% complete with 70% the same skeleton and the rest from various other finds all from Morocco. Thank you for all your input! photos here:

Hello! I wanted to ask you IDs for these two teeth I have in my collection. These two fossils are from Oulad Abdoun Basin in Morocco. Thank you!

With my limited time in North Texas before my move south, I decided to revisit my favorite sites as opposed to scouting new ones. The NSR is a classic locality, but I had never actually gotten to check out the famed red zone for myself. Yesterday, I made the drive to the fossil park. I was supposed to hunt with a couple others, but it unexpectedly turned into a solo hunt. I won't complain though. The vast river emanates a magical aura that is uniquely felt when you're exploring on your own. The primary goal of the day was to snag a decent specimen of the red zone ammonite, Trachyscaphites spiniger! In an attempt to beat out the stiff hunting competition and high afternoon temps, I arrived to the site in the early hours around seven. Unsurprisingly, I was far from being the first car in the lot. As luck would have it though, none of the people there before me had their sights set on the distant red zone exposures. It's a long and taxing trip that only so many people (the crazy ones) are willing to undertake. After crossing under the 2990 bridge, I took in the view and tried to visualize where the destination might be. It was quite daunting, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Red Zone Road It was gonna take a lot of walking to reach the mouths of the red zone creeks, so I tried to keep the gravel hunting minimal along the way. Nevertheless, my eyes were still scanning the ground around me and the vigilance steadily began to pay off. After a few Enchodus fangs and a Carcharias holmdelensis tooth, I came across the first prize of the day. Cemented together in red zone matrix was a mass of turtle shell that I had never before seen a similar specimen of. It has some good weight to it and cool three dimensional character. I don't know enough to identify it to a genus assuming that's even possible. I believe Archelon and Ctenochelys are known from the NSR as well as other genera I'm sure. Articulated turtle shell fragments in red zone matrix Some time later, I came across an interesting bone fragment that I don't have much of a clue about. The texture seems like fish. It has pronounced ridges running longitudinally and a U-shaped spongy cross section. I held onto it in case it might be something cool. Mystery bone Here and there I came across various red zone ammonite chunks to whet my appetite. None of them were keepers in part because I had high hopes for what lay ahead. Maintaining my steady pace brought me to the mouth of the first creek I had circled. Yesterday's 25 foot rise was still draining and the sound of rushing water filled the air with occasional thuds from falling shales. In the high cliffs I could see a distinct red band of matrix slicing through the grey shales. Tracing it with my eyes, I followed the line upstream until it was within reach. It was absolutely filled with phosphate chunks and nacre-covered Baculites. After a short time, I locked onto a Trachyschaphites that was just poking out. Excitedly, I threw out my tools and began excavating. My enthusiasm was quickly washed away as I realized the chunk sticking out was just a chunk. This sequence of events repeated itself along the entirety of the creek and before I knew it, I was exiting with a bag of assorted Trachyscaphites pieces. The only interesting things to show were a beat up red zone mosasaur vert and some snails. Red zone mosasaur vert Gastropods from the red zone Now the temps had crossed into the 90s and beads of sweat were covering my face. Wanting to take a break from the red zone, I began a thorough search through the massive gravel bar outside the creek. It took awhile to warm up my hunting goggles, but eventually I spotted the first keeper of the bar: A big ole worn mosasaur tooth. Sadly, it was sliced in half and had chunks busted out of it. Not too long after, though, I got it a smaller, much more complete friend. Likely Tylosaurus proriger After these mosasaur teeth, I scored what I like to call a "pseudo-mosasaur" or its other name, Pachyrhizodus. It was pretty easy to spot the difference since a little bit of bone was attached beneath the crown. Still a cool little fish tooth. Pachyrhizodus I'm not very good at spotting artifacts despite having spent many hours in the creeks of Austin. Now and again though, I manage to blindly stumble my way into a killer point or two. Wedged into the sand beneath the receding waters, was the unmistakable base of a Gary. Haven't found one of these before, so I was pretty happy to add this NSR classic to my collection. Gary in situ Gary point The last and most interesting find of the bar was a huge chunk of Xiphactinus jaw! It seems to match up exactly with the very distal end of the lower jaw. Within two matrix-filled tooth sockets are a couple of emerging teeth. Distal end of a Xiphactinus lower jaw with a couple of teeth. Finally, it was time to set my sights on the creek across the river. To my knowledge it doesn't have a name as it is quite small. The disappointment of my previous red zone expedition set my hopes low. Although the tree cover was nice, with it came swarms of mosquitos and some sort of biting fly. I spent most of my walk through it flailing my arms trying not to become a walking buffet. The red zone was much better exposed and I quickly spotted a couple of Squalicorax that sadly weren't keepers. There were many Trachyscaphites fragments to waste my time, but at long last I ran into exactly what I was looking for! With careful swings, I worked the heteromorph out of the shale and quickly stored it safely in its own private Ziploc bag. With the primary objective met, it was time to quickly evacuate the mosquito hellhole and return to the safety of the sweltering sun. Trachyscaphites spiniger heteromorph (my favorite ammonite). There is a significant crack that hasn't completely split. Hopefully the b72 will hold. It was about 4 pm and I was close to my limit. There was another spot further ahead known for arrowheads that I wanted to see, but I was saving that for the people I was intending to meet (no cell service so I didn't know plans had changed). It became apparent no one was coming, so I gathered my bucket and pack for the long trek home. The adrenaline of fossil hunting had definitely carried me through the day. The river now seemed endless and every step of foot sucking mud taxed me more and more. After retracing my route at home, it seems I river walked at least 5 miles! As I crawled into my blistering hot car, I told myself one red zone hunt was enough for the rest of my life. But after a good night's rest and cataloguing my finds, I'm ready to go again . I guess we'll see how I feel next summer. Thanks for reading!

Tooth found yesterday (16 June 2023) at Big Brook Preserve, NJ. I am pretty sure it is a Mosasaur tooth.

These are a couple of mosasaur teeth I recently purchased and had delivered via the post. However, upon opening the package I remembered the labels to each specimen were kept separate in the package. Ordinarily, its easy to match the label to the specimen, but the similarities between the two teeth made this difficult. One is labelled as Eremiasaurus heterodontus, and the other Mosasaurus beaugei. Thanks in advance for any proposed IDs Othniel

Opinions on these images? Mosasaur skull seems too good to be true for a size this big from what I’m seeing but I don’t know how to judge. It looks relatively real to me but wanted you guys to weigh in. It’s like 3 feet long.

Hi everyone, I’m new to this but am curious as to whether these are legit or not. I’d imagine they’d be way more expensive but I wasn’t sure if this website is legit or not, and I really do not want to get scammed if I eventually buy something like this. Does this forum have a list of credible websites/vendors?

I am about 84.9% sure that this is a fragment of a mosasaur tooth. However I have been wrong when trying to id Mosasaur teeth before so I just wanted a few more opinions. It is from Big brook New Jersey and was found in May 2023.

Hello everyone, What are your thoughts on this Mosaurus Skull. Im considering buying it It should be a Tylosaurus, it was found in Kansas. Sized at 45 × 17 × 16 cm. There is also a photo showing the found bones.

Of late I have been organising my fossil collection, and in doing so I have realised quite how many I have which are not sufficiently identified, so I came to the fossil forum to make amends. Apologies for the irregular lighting and unfocused areas on some photos- I have a less than perfect phone camera. These two teeth are among the few for which I have any kind of trustworthy information- the left tooth is supposed to be a Mosasaurus beaugei, and the right one Eremiasaurus heterodontus- but I got them mixed up some time ago and can't remember which is which (a foolish blunder, I know). This is a fossil fish which has undergone some major reconstruction. Only the caudal fin, caudal vertebra and some of the cranium is intact. I possess no information regarding the whereabouts of this specimens discovery. I think its a Knightia, but I can't say for sure. This tooth is from a shark. The information sheet that came with it has been written in the most ambiguous way possible, but alludes to the fact that it could be from the Miocene and/or the USA- but as I say this not definitive. This tooth is from an animal almost certainly from the Merycoidodontoidea superfamily, described as "hog-like" on the accompanying information sheet. It is stated to have been excavated in South Dakota, USA, and is of the Oligocene strata. My thanks in advance for any proposed IDs, Othniel

Hi guys got a few teeth I’m not sure on here I would appreciate some help, thanks! 1. Carina only on one side so it’s one of those palatal teeth? And compression suggests eramiasaurus? But could be T. Atrox 2. slightly prismatic but compressed so Eramiasaurus? 3. Compressed so eramiasaurus again? thanks again guys @Praefectus @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon

Hi, I'm new on this forum and I wanted to ask you IDs for these two teeth I have in my collection. The first one is a Mosasaur teeth I bought in a newspaper shop in Italy when I was a kid (I believe it may be from Morocco). The second one is a shark tooth I also bought in a kiosk, but I'm not sure it's a fossil and I believe it may be a Sand Tiger Shark tooth (or even a fake) The mosasaurus tooth is 2 cm, the shark one is 1.5 approximately.

I would like to know the approximate age of the fossilized Great White teeth pictured in my hand that I have found over the course of the last 9 months at Holden Beach North Carolina. (since August of 2022) These were found in addition to many other fossilized teeth that I have captured in additional pictures found below. Thank You

Hello, welcome to my report of this last week fossil hunting in Morocco. I have been this last week in Morocco going to different localities looking for fossils. As I have never done fossil hunting before in morocco, I contacted with Mohand Ihmadi from Ihmadi Trilobites Centre, a local geologist that does fossil hunting tours. I talked to him about all the localities that I would like to visit and we planned a route together. If you ever want to do some fossil hunting in Morocco, I have to recommend getting in touch with Mohand, if you search for him or the center in google, the contact information will appear. I will try to divide this fossil hunting in the main 4 areas that we hunted: KEM KEM BEDS This location is near the dunes, and going there you will have beautiful views. Once you arrive there, you will start seeing the typical Kem Kem colors. First you can try to find microfossils filtering the sand. We also found some workers there, and they let us visit the caves they make to arrive to the layer where they find the fossils. Here is me and my dad in front of the cave entrance. And here more photos inside the cave: In Kem Kem it's very difficult to find the stuff you see online so the normal thing is to find some micro fossils or chunks. This is what we found in and hour or so: Probably if you search harder and during more time, you can find more stuff, but we were more casual about this. And obviously, you can also try to buy the stuff the workers have found. ORDOVICIAN LOCALITY FOR CALYMENE Another locality we visited, was a trilobite locality. A ordovician Locality. Here, with heavy machinery, they extract the first useless layer, and then you can start to manually search for the trilobites. Here, we found several as it's pretty easy. One of them is this next photo: DEVONIAN TRILOBITE LOCATION The other trilobite location was a devonian one. There you can find phacops sp. pretty easily and if you are lucky some other species. Here is the typical limestone where you have to break them, find the trilobite, glued back and prepared it. After this, we went to Mohand workshop and he teached me how to prepare them: We were lucky and found a Paralejurus spatuliformis that he is preparing for me and will send to me. OUED ZEM FORMATION The last stop was the Oued Zem formation. It's the formation where we found most fossils, and it's easy to work with the hammer and find it. It's near the phosphates exploitation ground. And here some of what we found: We visited some more places, but this were the main ones. In conclusion it was an amazing experience and Mohand was the best guide we could have asked for. If you are planning a similar trip to Morocco and have some doubts or questions don't hesitate to ask. And just as an extra. As we all know, all the Moroccan material has a reputation of being restored, composited and altered. And while that is sometimes true, after visiting this places and talking to the diggers there, I bought some pieces from them, without the intermediaries, and they were really honest about what reparations or things they did to the piece. So my conclusion is that a lot of times the international dealers are the ones buying pieces without caring about the state of this ones because a composited/restored piece will be cheaper and they think it will sell at the same price and will make more profit.

Can anyone help? I sent the pictures off and they are pretty sure it’s a femur bone from a mosasaur. Does that look right? Found on private land along the Missouri River in South Dakota. Appreciate the help.

Is this a bite mark or natural wear? It’s a cervical vertebra

Hi guys, do you reckon these are all Carinodens or are there a few globidens mixed in? Thanks @Praefectus @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Hi everyone! I recently acquired this very large Mosasaur tooth and was hoping to get some help with two questions. The first is help with a species ID since it seems a lot of these are being IDed as this new species (thalassotitan) that was only discovered like a year ago I think? The second is what is going on in that root? There seems to be another Mosasaur tooth AND a Cretolamna shark tooth imbedded within the root. There's still some matrix around the fossils within the root which seems to have a very large cavity that shouldn't be there, so my hypothesis is that the root was broken and while lying on the sea floor matrix and other teeth gathered in the cavity. Either that or someone threw one heck of a party there 70 million years ago and things just got nuts. As usual though with something this weird I'm hoping for a second opinion. Tooth is from the Oled Abdoun Basin Moroccan phosphates. The entire specimen measures about 14.5 cm tall. The crown is 5.142 cm tall and 3.465 cm by 2.788 cm at its base. distal carinae seems to be lightly serrated. So what do you all think? Any insight is appreciated as always!