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Showing results for tags 'Upper Cretaceous'.
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I prepped another Niobrara coprolite and found an interesting inclusion. With my limited knowledge of fish anatomy, My best guess is some kind of connecting bone where the vertebrae meet the skull? The coprolite contains both large and small fish vertebrae in addition to this bone. Thanks in advance for your help!
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This two fossils were laying for about 1 year in my room and i dont know what i should do with them. The first step would be to know what specimen they are ... I found both in the upper Cretaceous from Gosau (Austria). The first one looks like an heteromorph ammonite but i dont if you can find them in Gosau .... I also found some more ammonites in the matrix ... arent ammonites very rare in Gosau ? Its about 7 cm long ... (maybe there are two ammonites ? I am confused ) And here is the second one ... First i thought that its a coral but i dont think its something like that .... Maybe a rudist ? Its 6.4 cm long and very massive:. Thanks for your help !
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Spine-shaped marine fossils from Upper Cretaceous of New Mexico
Jeffrey P posted a topic in Fossil ID
I found this sandstone slab last week when I was out collecting Upper Cretaceous marine fossils with Mike and Brian in the Rio Puerco desert northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have no idea what the spine-shaped fossils are. Any feedback would be appreciated.
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On Tuesday, August 30th, I had the pleasure of collecting with fellow members @Pilobolus and @Jeffrey P out in my beloved Rio Puerco Valley. I present a photo collage, from my point of view, of that great adventure with both old and new friends. Enjoy.
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These are from Eagle Pass, TX. This layer is Upper Cretaceous. These look like weathered iron concretions, but for two things: (1) some of them have an ammonite curve to them and (2) some have a series of equidistant radial bumps. I thought it was likely they were concretions, so I just marked them in GPS and left them there. Do you think they are worth more investigation?
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I see these all over the place and wonder what they are. They all have the same surface crazing and pitting. Color varies brown, orange, pink. Attaching a photo of the surface and the inside after a good hammerin'.
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I've posted some of these before, but these are more complete specimens, so maybe possible to get a better ID. I'm finding lots of these, so you can't accuse me of being a lopha. Found in Eagle Pass, TX. Upper Cretaceous. Found on top of the ground, which is a sandstone layer above layers of soft shale and mudstone. Sphenodiscus and oysters found in this area. Based on photos I've found similar to what I can see of these specimens, I estimate the total length of the animal at 15 to 20 cm from stem to stern. I am uncertain of the actual shape. Since the specimens I have are somewhat spherical, I assume they are a fragment of both halves of the animal, making the total thickness 4 to 5 cm, and the width 5 to 6 cm. The orientation is interesting. I've found a half dozen of these. All the ones with the "face" feature are oriented with the "face" positioned on the top and dead center. Assuming the samples were pushed to the surface and weathered top down, then all of the samples came to rest on the bottom oriented the same. This tells me the animal probably has a domed upper half and a flat lower half or the center of gravity caused it to orient itself the same way when it died. I've seen photos online of frons, travisana, and cristagalli that resemble these specimens one way or another. Not sure these were all present in Cretaceous. Travisana looks most like these two specimens. The cristagalli I saw has the peculiar "deaths head" face feature. I have provided a top view and 360 degree view of each new specimen 3 & 4 and a comparison with the older specimens 1 & 2. New Specimen 3 Detail New Specimen 4 Detail Compare Old 1 & 2 w/ New 3 & 4
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These finds are from Eagle Pass, TX, Upper Cretaceous, marine, found lying on the ground on a layer of sandstone at a construction site. I see a lot of these doodads, but never picked one up until today when I sat down on a rock for a rest. I noticed it had a bunch of little cubic crystals. I thought maybe iron pyrite, but some of the dark brown crystals almost have an organic look to them, and aren't quite as regular in size and proportion as I'd expect crystals to be. The other thing is most of the objects are roughly the same size, proportions, and have similar rounding. I thought there was a chance they might be coprolites and the bits were chewed up chitin. If they are, then clearly the host wasn't getting enough fiber in its diet. I'll see whether Lori agrees or just poopoos my theory. Edit: You know, the more I look at the magnified images, I think they are just inorganic crystals. Stuff that had been chewed up wouldn't be that regularly shaped. Also, the crystals have that "fractal" self-similar look to them. Not sure why they got clumped together in similar fashion for each specimen though. I probably need to break them open and see what's inside.
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I'm about to send out an email to my relatives bragging about my latest finds. You guys have identified all of them, but I never submitted one of the shells. It looks nice in the collection, but I'm not sure if it's just a fragment. It's the grey shell in the middle of the top row. It looks like a clam to me, but nobody shows the *inside* of the shell on the identification sites. :-)
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A beautiful split concretion embedded in a block of hard sandstone. Probably not a tree, but seems to have growth rings and outer bark.
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These specimens are from Eagle Pass, TX. They were found on top of the ground. This area is Upper Cretaceous and a marine environment. I see many casts of the burrows of marine animals. Some have parallel lines as in these specimens, but I've never seen any parallel lines on flat casts. I think they might be drag marks. I see some voids in the ends of one of the specimens. The marks are more or less parallel. There are some deeper marks widely spaced and some shallower marks between the deep ones. Specimen 1 Specimen 2
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Found near Eagle Pass just lying on the ground. According to maps, this region is upper cretaceous. This is a construction site, so the layers may be mixed. The upper layers are hard sandstone, middle are soft sandstone and beach sand, lower layers are mixed hard and soft shale and grey clay. I don't know which layer this specimen came from. The specimen appears to be in two halves. The photos show the specimen as I found it and with the halves separated. Some shell material is visible around the inner concretion. The closest modern equivalent to my eye would be an oyster. It's about the right size and shape and has the rough outer shell texture. But it's in such bad condition, it's hard to tell. Ground level above layers.
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This is from Eagle Pass, Texas. This area is upper cretaceous. Usually, these turn out to be infill, but something about this specimen caught my eye. I thought it might be a rib from a large fish, but for a fish that size, it's kind of short. Here's the area where I found it sitting on top of the ground. It's a dark grey color, and has an irregular surface texture. The inner curve of the surface has a texture almost like coral. There are a couple of chips or boreholes on the surface, so the structure appears layered. Here's a magnified view of the broken tip end.
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Specimens found in Eagle Pass Texas. This region is Upper Cretaceous. These specimens were all found on the ground or embedded at ground level. This level is about 2 or 3 m lower than the layers I've been working. It's mostly grey or yellow-grey clay and soft shale. These are all wider than the Sphenodiscus I found, so maybe Pachydiscus. Specimen 1 Specimen 2
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This is a layer of material that I believe are calcite fibers found in Eagle Pass, Texas in an Upper Cretaceous layer of mostly soft yellow-grey clay and shale. I have seen numerous fragment piles of this material and some very large stretches of it. The specimens are roughly 1.5 cm to 2 cm thick. At first, I thought these were asbestos fibers, but when I examined them, they weren't fine enough (and I've seen asbestos in the wild). I suppose I could examine the fibers under magnification and see if they are double-refracting to confirm. I believe, based on research, these may indicate the presence of Inoceramus. Can anybody confirm these are calcite fibers and whether they may indicate the presence of Inoceramus? A couple of samples of what I see at my dig site. An example of inoceramus with embedded calcite fibers I got from a Google search.
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This specimen was previously posted as "South Texas Upper Cretaceous Crab" and had possible identifications as rudist, cephalopod, sponge, brachiopod, and Inoceramus fragments. I am renaming it for obvious reasons. :-) Now that I've found a second specimen I think this is an anatomical feature, and so it's less likely this is a fragment of two pieces with junk on top of it. What's interesting about the new specimen is that the horizontal features cross the monkeyface as if he were in jail. Bad monkey! So now I know those aren't legs. Also, notice the shallow dome shaped fragments in both samples. The new specimen has some other interesting fragments scattered around it. I am hoping that the second sample in combination with the first one might lead to a definitive id. Both specimens. Original on top of the new one. Closeup of monkeyface on the new specimen. Closeup of monkeyface on the original specimen. New specimen all by itself
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These are all from upper cretaceous, shale layer, Eagle Pass, Texas. I find these scattered all over the ground near where I'm digging. I think most of them are boreholes and formations from mud. Since I am so new at this, I am trying to learn the difference between fossils that are of interest and those that are just boring (get it?). So I'm posting a ton of photos of these weird shapes and would like to be pretty sure they are all just junk. Thanks!
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I found several of these specimens near Eagle Pass, Texas. They all seem to have 8 legs, but I have not seen any with large front claws. One of the examples has two dents that might be for antennas or eye stalks. The surrounding rock varies from sandstone to soft shale and clay. These are found in hard sandstone. The only other fossils I've found near this layer look like worm burrows or perhaps coral. Possible crab specimens (4x) Other typical fossils from this layer (worm burrows or coral, not sure) Wide shot of the layers
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I am on a quest to find an ammonite in order to help date the layers I'm working. I saw these two possibles today. Not too hopeful about either one of them, frankly, but always worth posting to get expert opinions. Both specimens found lying on top of the ground in Eagle Pass, TX. Maps show this region as Upper Cretaceous. Layers here range from sandstone on the top to soft shale at the bottom. Specimen 1, various views. The first image shows a curved feature that might be the opening (like the door of a snail shell). There are some chips showing structure consistent with shell secretion. You can also see some flutes and banding in the axial view. In the last image, the striations aren't bilaterally symmetrical. They could just be scratches. Specimen 2, various views. This specimen has two features I like. The striations around the rim seem symmetrical, and there's an apparent seam around the rim.
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Found lying on the ground near Eagle Pass, Texas. At first, I didn't think these were bones because of the weird shapes and lack of joint ends (e.g. rounded or concave). I also didn't see any differentiation between the outer hard layers and the inner softer layers. However, I was thumbing through a fossil book over the weekend and saw some similar shapes, so now I am rethinking these specimens. Any thoughts?
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Can anyone tell me if I am on the right track. I collected this fossil in a creek bed in North Texas consisting of mostly upper cretaceous limestone with many bivalves, ammonites, etc. It appears to be a scapula to me possibly from a plesiosaur. Can anyone offer any input?
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Questions relating to Cretalamna Appendiculata.
David in Japan posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Hi, just a recap of my situation: I live in south of Japan in a city called Kumamoto and I prospect mainly for fossil shell the Himenoura formation which is an upper cretaceous (santonian) marine deposit formation. Even if I know that a lot of shark teeth were found at my usual spot, I never looked for it until my Super Secret Santa send me some superb cosmopolitodus Hastalli tooth and I caught shark tooth virus. Since then, I looked more carefully to this little beauty and found some. As my knowledge in shark tooth is still pretty limited, I ask to a japanese friend of mine who's more into teeth and who told me that the tooth I found was lamna's one. here is the picture of my the one I found. however I have some question about these tooth. As I was looking for information concerning cretalamna in order to determine the place of the tooth I noticed that all cretalamna tooth had cusp. Like this picture from an old post: http://www.thefossilforum.com/uploads/monthly_07_2015/post-3940-0-35234500-1436898635.jpg Did I misidentified the tooth or is there some cretalamna sub species which would have tooth without cusps ? Thank you very much for your help and I hope taht this post will help for futur lamna's teeth identification. David
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Termite Coprolites in Petrified Wood - Aachen, Germany
GeschWhat posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Double Duty
Here is a microscopic view of the coprolite. It reveals the almost "poo-fect" hexagonal geometry indicative of these tiny termite sphincter sculptures. Age: Upper/Late Cretaceous Formation: Aachen Sand Location: Buschtunnel, Aachen, Germany© &c
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Termite Coprolites in Petrified Wood - Aachen, Germany
GeschWhat posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Double Duty
In the upper left of the back face of the branch section, you can see that the cut was made through a single coprolite. Age: Upper/Late Cretaceous Formation: Aachen Sand Location: Buschtunnel, Aachen, Germany© &c
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Termite Coprolites in Petrified Wood - Aachen, Germany
GeschWhat posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Double Duty
Here is a microscopic view of the termite tunnel filled with coprolites. Age: Upper/Late Cretaceous Formation: Aachen Sand Location: Buschtunnel, Aachen, Germany© &c
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