Search the Community

Found in Wenatchee, Washington. Deltoid leaf with palmate venation and serrate margins.

Hello Everyone! I can honestly, finally, say that I'm beginning to figure out the fossil-enigma that is Summerville, SC. It is a strange land where fossil deposits start and end within a matter of feet - a few inches of glorious gravel separating the sandy, ghostly-grey Chandler Bridge and the compact brownish marl of the Ashley Formation. If, by some miracle, you can find a ditch with the exact right depth, enough width, a little flowing water within a fossil-bearing strata that hasn't been hit by a million other collectors, you just might be able to put something together. Thanks to some nasty weather and a couple of days off of work, I've managed to finally find some spots that fit the bill. The finds pictured below come from two creeks (of maybe 15 that I checked) over the course of the last two days. The angustidens were the obvious gems, with one shamer nearly four inches long and nearly four inches wide! All-in-all, its been a great couple of days and I couldn't be happier with my success. I'll be planning another trip in the near future! Take care and as always.. Happy hunting, SOSC

Hi, I was out this morning doing some collecting at Bouldnor Cliff (thought I'd mix it up from Hamstead for a change) and came across this distal portion of a mammal humerus lying on a mudflat. I'm regular collector along the north coast and know the vertebrate taxa and stratigraphy like the back of my hand but this humerus is unlike anything I've found before mammal-wise. I noticed straight away that it has a supratrochlear foramen, which from my own knowledge and some online research is a feature often found in canids. Material from amphicyonids like Cynodictis and Amphicyon have been found from the Bouldnor Formation (Rupelian aged, and spans 34.0 - 32.5 mya) but I'm unaware of any canid material, so I was looking to perhaps get a second opinion on whether this is canid, and/or whether the supratrochlear foramen is a reliable indicator of canid/carnivoran material. Any help is much appreciated.

I'm looking for some help from any expert of the White River Badlands to help with the ID of these two partial fossils skulls I'm working on prepping. I purchased both of these at auction from old collections so sadly I don't know the locations they were collected, but I'm confident that they're White River specimens from the Oligocene. I'm pretty sure that both of these are examples of early rhinos like Subhyracodon and Hyracodon but I'd love some help with ID if possible. The first skull (first 3 photos with the darker teeth) is the largest at roughly 25cm across (although this is partial skull only) and has beautifully preserved teeth (albeit a very fragmented skull). The second skull has lost a few teeth (second 3 photos with more orange colored teeth) but the skull is better preserved - roughly 22cm across - this one as a much shorter snout. Both skulls have a reverse side hidden by matrix which I'm yet to remove. I'm hoping that the preservation is better on the other side. Looking at these closely, I believe these are two different species as the dentition looks different. I'd welcome anyone's thoughts.

1/2 cm long mammal tooth found in some material from a creek in East central Mississippi. This creek produces a ton of vertebrate material from sharks, crocs, dugong etc...and some land mammals. Crazy small tooth, any thoughts?

All my text disapeared when i posted... so in short: Lake deposit oligocene age South of france 3 cm Fruit , pine cone ?

We get a lot of posts on TFF on eggs which mostly turn out to be geologic specimens. So I thought I would post a real Oligocene bird egg and some eggshells from my sons’ Nebraska ranch. The egg and eggshells are from the Scenic Member of the Brule Formation. Here is one of three complete bird eggs that my sons have found on the ranch in 2016 and 2017. This egg, found by my son Mel, is around 2 ½ inches long. I’ve found a large number of eggshell pieces in the anthill matrix that I’ve been taking from the ranch during the last two years. I’ve found eggshells in all 18 areas of the 360 acre ranch where I took anthill matrix. I was really surprised about how common the eggshells are throughout the ranch especially with the fact that I didn’t find bird bones. A good number of eggshell specimens from my September 2016 trip to the ranch have just been given to an eggshell researcher. I’m really looking forward to her opinions on them. I’ve been assuming that they are all bird eggshells. I again found a large number of eggshell specimens from anthill matrix from my May 2017 trip to the ranch. Below are close-up pictures of an individual eggshell specimen which is 5mm by 3 mm by 1mm thick. Outside of eggshell (note a good number of pieces have this pattern but there were a number of other distinctive patterns on the outside): Inside of eggshell (note the inside of all specimens pretty much looked like this): Cross section of eggshell (note the very thin white outer layer): Below are a number of eggshell specimens from my May 2017 trip. For size reference the gem jar cups are 1 ¾ inches in diameter. The specimens in each cup are from a different area of the ranch. Some eggshells have the outside of the eggshell face up and some have the inside of the eggshell face up. A few eggshells are missing that thin outer layer of eggshell. Note that there are several distinct patterns on the outer eggshells. Marco Sr.

After seeing @digit great post on his fossil adventure at Clarkia, Idaho, it reminded me of a piece that I had put away in a drawer years ago. I thought it might have been from the same location, but the nomenclature on the plate stated that it was from the John Day Formation in Oregon. I am just looking to see if one of the FF members can identify some of the leaves on the plate. I know some are ID'd, but I also see different types. Any help would be appreciated.

OK...the wife and I are starting to plan an epic fossil hunting trip for next year (our 30th anniversary). We've wanted to hunt the White River near Chadron, Nebraska forever. Now's the time. I have no connections to property, so I'm looking to the collective knowledge of the Forum. I know property is pretty sealed up vs. how it was in the 90's. We're willing to pay (within reason) for access. Anyone have suggestions?

Hello found this in northern Puerto Rico in middle to late oligocene limestone. Measures about 1 cm any ideas on what it is? Thank you!

Hello, found this in my usual fossil / mineral hunting spot in a river in north puerto rico. The fossil I find are in Limestone from the middle to late oligocene. Any Idea or information on what this might be? Thank you!

Hi, Sorry I haven't been that active on here recently for the last few weeks, I've been incredibly busy. I've made a few trips to Hamstead over the past few weeks (I'll post some of the highlights later) and have just got back from a very wet and windy trip today, which as usual did not disappoint. The most interesting find of the day, along with a snake vertebra and an anthracothere premolar, was this fairly intact vertebra. My initial thoughts were perhaps crocodilian or mammalian but it looks very different from any Diplocynodon vertebra I've ever found, and I can't find a match to any mammals. The spinous process is nearly intact and it has a very narrow neural canal. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Theo

This is a cobbled together report of a couple of short excursions in July. Early in the month I took the kids to visit my mother at the old home in northern Pennsylvania. It was a nice escape from the heat and fun to introduce the kids to some of the areas I explored when I was their age. We spent a lot of time playing in the creek. Fresh, living biology was our main interest, but my daughter picked up a couple of nice fossils on the side. She secured a lovely plate, naturally oval shaped, less than 1 cm thick, full of cross-sectional crinoid segment impressions. She also found a nice plate of brachiopod casts. This area is Mississippian or Devonian. These are common fossils for the area, but it's pleasing to consider that these animals were fossilized for millions of years before the fauna we "normally" hunt evolved. Last weekend I got away for a few hours to hunt a local South Carolina waterway for Oligocene and newer material. The water level was ideal and the water was fairly clear, but the overcast conditions made for a bit less than ideal visibility. With the 90+ F air temperatures, being in the 80+ F water with mask and snorkel felt marvelous. I turned up a fair number of teeth of the typical broken-tipped and fragmented variety, mostly C. angustidens (I think) with a single very worn C. megalodon. There were a small handful of fairly nice smaller teeth mixed in. I picked up a couple of nice turtle plastron fragments with good surface detail. I also found an alligator osteoderm which I think is actually a modern piece. Sorry about the dark fossil photos--I never seem to have time to get good photos in daylight, but I'm going to work on it. G

Anyone able to help with ID on an interesting lepidopteran in Mexican amber from Chiapas (ca. 18-25 Ma)? Any/all thoughts much appreciated. It looked like a nymphalid (perhaps Eurema?) from merchant photos. However after getting the amber and holding it, I'm totally thrown off! There's no record of butterflies from continental Neotropical amber---and preservation is exceptional. Associated with the lep are the flowers, foliage, pollen and seeds of Hymenaea and at least 2 other legumes. Perhaps there's even an orchid hidden in there. (The max file limit's too small to include these hi-res photos...) Amber matrix: ca. 7 x 4 x 2 cm (oblong) Wingspan ca. 3.5 cm Length of wing at longest point ca. 2 cm (crude estimate) 'Unfortunately' (for ID) the amber heavily fluoresces a lovely blue/green: the foliage, pollen, flowers obscure the specimen's body on the (presumably) dorsal side. It's further complicated by refraction on what would be the ventral side. What looks like a dark antenna in the pics is actually just the a side-view of one of the flowering legume's pinnae. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a geometer moth, but what a remarkable fossil if it proves to be a skipper or true butterfly (nymphalid? lycaenid/riodinid?). Thanks all.

Hello, found this in a river in northern Puerto Rico in the Lares Formation - middle to upper Oligocene

Hi there. More fossils from the estate sale, this time a vertebra. I don't know an exact location, but the rest of the lot contains many examples from the Oligocene era, and some have been found to be from the White River formation in the Badlands. I don't have much information other than that. I've done an image search on Google, but there are so many that I am having trouble spotting one that looks similar. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Hey all, On Thursday some colleagues and I published a new archaeocete-like baleen whale from the Oligocene of South Carolina. This is one of the most primitive baleen whales known, and the skull bears many primitive features in common with basilosaurid archaeocetes. We named it Coronodon havensteini - Coronodon refers to the cusps which make a crown-shape, and the species name after Mark Havenstein who collected the specimen. A life restoration I've made of the animals likely gross-looking mouth can be seen below, along with a photograph of the skull. Here's some press releases: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/beast-from-the-past-wando-river-fossil-turns-out-to/article_cd4317c0-5ce5-11e7-965a-274b18c78111.html http://today.cofc.edu/2017/06/29/baleen-whale-fossil-current-biology/ And here's the published article: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30704-2 And if you go to the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History facebook page, there's a video of me on the news last night being interviewed! Edit: our collections manager uploaded the news clip to youtube:

Hi everyone! I have just started this new hobby with my 9 year old son. We are enjoying the finds literally right in our backyard as we live in Summerville, SC. So far, in only a week, I think we have discovered some really nice finds!

Hi, I officially finished school forever on Monday so to celebrate my new fangled freedom I decided to spend an afternoon and evening collecting along the Hamstead to Bouldnor coast, so I thought I'd show some of the highlights from the trip. We had very strong winds and some rain here last week so I figured that the beach conditions would be good for collecting, and the Bouldnor Fm. didn't disappoint. I reached the beach at Hamstead point around 1:30pm, and the spring tide was the highest I'd ever seen it. The tide was technically going out but along this coast the tide doesn't actually fall until two hours prior to low tide, which meant that only a small area of beach was exposed and I'd have to wait a few hours until I was able to make a lot of progress along the coast. I decided to sift through the small patches of shingle exposed to kill the time, which can often produce a lot of smaller bone fragments and teeth, especially those of crocodiles. After a few minutes I'd collected a handful of fish vertebrae from Bowfins and Unidentifiable teleosts, turtle limb bones, some sections of crocodilian or mammalian ribs, and a worn centrum from a crocodilian cervical vertebra (most likely Diplocynodon, the genus to which crocodilian material from the Bouldnor Fm. is referred). I moved on to a new patch further along the still very narrow beach and again turned up fish vertebrae, mammalian tooth roots, small fragments of crocodilian scutes, and excitingly a large distal portion of a mammal phalanx (presumably Bothriodon). The tide still hadn't moved so I hedged by bets and moved as far as I possibly could hugging the cliff edge. The base of the cliff at Hamstead Point exposes the boundary between the Bembridge Limestone Fm. and Bembridge Marls Mbr. of the Bouldnor Fm. Just above the junction are the Insect Limestone (world famous for it's insect fossils) and the Oyster Bed (a marine in-raid deposit that can produce fish remains) so I gave these beds a look over but unfortunately nothing was weathering out (Hamstead is an SSSI therefore hammering into the cliff is illegal). Finally the tide started to move out, and when it does it moves out very quick, so there was soon a large area of beach to survey and I could begin making my way down the coast. The finds started coming in thick and fast after that, scores of turtle carapace and plastron fragments (more than 100 in total), crocodilian scutes, mammal teeth, fragments of mammal bones, and much more. The best finds of the trip were by far a large crocodilian cervical vertebra, pre-molars from the anthracothere Bothriodon, and a fragment of crocodilian jaw, again Diplocynodon. But the best by far was a large distal portion of a mammal tibia found lying in the mud a few metres along from the 'Black Band'. As of yet I don't have an ID for the tibia as it is larger than would be expected for Bothriodon. There are numerous other candidates it could be, so I'll research further (if anyone has any suggestions, even if just to an order level, then that would appreciated). It also seems to have provided quite a nice home for a lot marine colonial species and plants which are currently being removed. I wrapped up the trip at 7pm and headed home, with a nice haul of finds. Now I've got a few months off before I start university I should be hunting much more regularly, all over the Island, so hopefully the summer will turn up some good finds! I'll attach images below, including of the tibia fragment. Thanks, Theo The distal portion of mammal tibia, covered in seaweeds etc. A large cervical vertebra from a crocodilian (Diplocynodon s.p) A section of trionychid turtle carapace (Trionyx s.p)

Hi everyone! I figured I should introduce myself since I've already posted and received help. I'm fairly new to fossil collecting, though I've been interested in a long time. I came in to a large collection of fossils rocks, and I'm working on going through those and have many questions. Hoping to learn at least the basics of identification and preparation while I'm here.

Hi there! My daughter and I love to collect fossils, though we don't know much about them and can't identify most of what we have. We stopped by an estate sale today and bought 8 fossils, three of which were wrapped in brown paper and bound with electrical tape. When I opened them, I found three turtle shells. The best of the bunch is pictured below, and I'm wondering if I'm right thinking it's a Stylemus turtle from the Oligocene period. It's roughly 12" from front to back and 10" wide. I haven't taken the paper off of the bottom yet to see if there is anything underneath. The second turtle is in fair shape, but not nearly as good as this one. And the third I think is in bad shape. If you're interested, I can upload photos of those two as well. They appear to be different than this one. I don't know where they came from, just that it was part of an estate and they were in a lot of about 100-200 fossils. We're in the Rapid City, SD area. Thanks for looking, and any help would be appreciated.