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This carnivore coprolite was found in the Bull Canyon Formation (Upper Triassic - Norian), Quay County, New Mexico. It contains numerous fine, boney inclusions (white). There also appears to be a small jaw inclusion that has a shape similar to amphibians. Originally, I couldn't figure out why there would be so many finely crushed bones. It is not something I usually see. When bone fragments are present, they are usually larger. That said, fibrous osteoderms are also found in the same area. I have included an image of a fairly large one. They are made up of fine, boney fibers that have a configuration similar to woven fiberglass. So here is what I am wondering: 1. Could the fine bone fragments be the indigested remains of these boney osteoderms? Perhaps from juveniles? I do have some small fragments (somewhere), so I could dissolve them to see how they fall apart. 2. Does anyone know what type of animal had these fibrous plates? All I could find is information on osteoderms from phytosaurs and aetosaurs. Neither of those appear to be fibrous. I have found osteoderm fragments of that type in coprolites, but they look nothing like this. I know some of the Triassic amphibian-like tetrapods had osteoderms, but I haven't been able to find information on these. Since the shape of the jaw in the coprolite has a similar shape to those animals, I'm thinking they may have had this type of osteoderm. Of course more than one type of prey may have been on the menu. Osteoderm Magnified Osteoderm I've been away from the forum for a while, so I'm hoping there are new folks out there that specialize in Triassic critters. As always, thanks for looking! @Carl @MarcoSr
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Hello everyone, I am pretty new to the fossil hunting game, mostly just picking up a few shells or leaf imprints when I am out hiking but when I returned to school in Florida I started to get a bit more interested in actually researching and exploring with the intention of fossil hunting. On the drive back to Florida from Denver I decided to break the trip up into 6-8 hour drive days and camp while hitting some fossil opportunities. Also it kept me fairly isolated with Covid restrictions. With that in mind I planned a route to hit a few different sites: Quay County, NM has reports of phytosaur teeth although I was mostly hiking at this locale. Lots of literature on the area with some nebulous directions, I puddled around on a small streambed I scouted out prior to the trip and ended up finding a fossilized vertebra which I will call a phytosaur based on its size and reports that the area appears to host these species almost exclusively. I was a little out of my element and spent a bit more time hiking and enjoying the West side of the US while camping at the free Mills Canyon Rim Campground which I enjoyed very much. Mineral Wells and Jacksboro Fossil sites, TX - well known sites that I spent a bit of time at. Pretty much every other fossil I found on this trip came from these areas. I made a mistake and passed up my planned campground at Kiowa instead staying at Possum Kingdom campground because the reviews were good and was sorely disappointed. The area is very built up and it is more of a place to bring a boat and an RV than what I wanted. But never know unless you try, there is a nicer campground at Fort Richardson near the Jacksboro locality I would recommend instead. Found a few different specimens including an intact crinoid cup, a small trilobite, and some other common specimens. Embarrassingly while at mineral wells I found what I initially took to be a trilobite in Matrix and was incredibly excited as it was by far the most distinguished find there. Fast forward to being home I cleaned the specimen and started trying to id it only to find that it didn't really fit any description...then I gave it a quick lick and discovered that it was very much still organic and warm so I have included a picture if someone wants to tell me what strange bug eggs or cocoon I likely licked. 100% not a fossil though as it started to ooze once squeezed. North Sulfur River, TX - Flooded and rained out so passed it up largely because I didn't want to try camping after wading in freezing water all day. Campground is listed under freecampgrounds and is on the Ladonia Wildlife Area. I'll hit this site on the way back. Mississippi 'Red Hot Truck Stop' Locality, MS - No luck here either although I didn't put in much effort, the campground I selected was closed so I spent a night in the back of my car and felt like getting back to Pensacola. In retrospect, I should have spent more time touring around this area but the Red Hot Truck Stop is now a Walmart parking lot and I didn't really feel like poking around that area after spending the past week hiking around some of the areas out West. So overall, a mixed success trip but, like I said I was more looking for a good way to split up a drive back home and my experience is pretty limited. I've included pictures of the specimens I found with labels, if anyone from the areas wants to correct them please feel free, I am sure that many of them are wrong. If you would like a better picture of a specimen just let me know. A: Phytosaur Vertebra B: Assorted Crinoid Discs C: Chonetinella sp. - Brachiopoda D: Ditomopyge sp. - Arthropoda E. Bactrites sp. - Mollusca...some sort of orthoconic nautiloid
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Collected on private property owned by Larry Martin.
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- new mexico
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Welcome to another microscopic look into the wonderful world of coprolites. Here we have a squished (flattened) spiral coprolite from the prehistoric floodplains that now form the Bull Canyon Formation in the badlands of Quay County, New Mexico. Today's mystery was most likely not ingested. Many times the posterior (non-pinched end) of spiral coprolites can be hollow. I may be wrong, but I think this branchy thing (for lack of a better term) slipped in after it was expelled. To me this looks like part of a branch from a delicate coral - but the poop was in fresh water. Any ideas?
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The location where this was found contains both aquatic and terrestrial animals from floodplain habitat. In this coprolite, a small tooth plate impression with residual fragments can be seen on the surface. Since a similar tooth plate was not found within the coprolite itself, it is unclear whether this is an undigested prey remnant or if it was embedded upon deposition. An unidentified bone and numerous fish scale inclusions were revealed using X-ray computed tomography. This specimen was scanned in April 2016 by the University of Minnesota X-ray Computed Tomography Lab using a X5000 high resolution microCT system with a twin head 225 kV x-ray source and a Dexela area detector (3073 x 3889 pixels).