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Howdy all. Trying to make a list of floral and faunal species from the Black Creek group of North Carolina. Does anyone know of any species other than: - Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis - Deinosuchus rugosus/schwimmeri - Hypsibema crassicauda - Lophorhoton atopus - Coelosaurus antiquus - Leptoceratopsidae indet. - Dromaeosauridae indet. - Brachyphyllum squammosum - Moriconia cyclotoxon - Geinitzia reichenbachii - Androvettia carolinensis Floral species would very much be helpful as I'm attempting to reconstruct the ecosystem that was present there, but anything would be very helpful. Thanks, Anthony

I recently read that the only skeleton currently known of Appalachiosaurus was of a juvenile, and the adult animal was significantly bigger. The juvenile skeleton was about 21 feet long, and the animal likely weighed 1,300 pounds. This skeleton is about the size of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex (using the "Jane" specimen for scale, BMRP 2002.4.1) and, this raises a question in my mind. Is it possible that Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis would have attained adult sizes close to what we see in adult specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex? And as such, could we classify it as a megatheropod? Of course there are several other factors in this, such as age, growth stages, and environmental pressure that the animal may have experienced in life.

Tyrannosauridae Dinosaur diversity was unique in the Western and Eastern areas of the North American Continent during the Late Cretaceous era around 95-66 Million Years ago) as a result of a seaway the cut the continent in two (creating the continents of Laramidia (now Western North America) and Appalachia (now Eastern North America)). By the Maastrichtian stage of the Cretaceous 68 Million Years ago, the seaway decreased in size and a land bride formed between Laramidia and Appalachia. https://deeptimemaps.com/western-interior-seaway/ This is around the same time Tyrannosaurus rex emerged in Laramida and other Tyrannosauridae including the smaller Dryptosaurus lived in Appalachia. Map of the currently known Tyrannosaurus rex fossil discovery sites Maps of the currently known Maastricthian Tyrannosauridae fossil discovery sites in Eastern North America (not shown on the maps here are Late Cretaceous Tyrannosauridae fossil sites in South Carolina and North Carolina) https://paleobiodb.org/navigator/ What I'm wondering is even with this land bridge formed, what prevented Tyrannosaurus from colonizing the Eastern portion of North America during the Maastricthian Cretaceous? If it didn't prevent this, has there been any fossils found in the Eastern portion of North America that belong to the Tyrannosauridae genus Tyrannosaurus?

Really interested in this specimen. Found in Barbour County, Alabama. Described as being Deinosuchus rugosus. Is that accurate?

These are a few things that some of my family members found when we went on a hunt in the Coon Creek Formation in McNairy County, Tennessee. I'm pretty sure the smaller one is just some hematite formation but I'm not sure about the other one.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230202-the-weird-dinosaurs-of-americas-lost-continent

My last few excursions have been a continuation of my exploration of the Woodbine. In my experience, it is a very difficult formation to hunt on, so even the smallest of discoveries is a welcome sight to behold. If you have the fortune of finding something there, it is likely to be different and unlike anything from the nearby surrounding formations. My most recent outing took me to an exposure rich with coalified material. The "peat" layer I dug into was extremely brittle and fell apart with minimal effort. Densely packed in was numerous chunks of wood and fragments of leaves likely from the forest floor of the ancient continent Appalachia. If I hadn't dug it out from under several meters of rock myself, I would have thought these things to be modern in age (many of the leaves were just like the dried ones you could find in throughout a yard). I tried my best to spot any bones, but it seemed that only plants were present. I spent most of the day carefully splitting these slabs only to find bits of leaves that immediately fell apart upon exposure. Luckily, I was able to grab a handful of nice specimens that I could take home and consolidate with some paraloid b72. They are much sounder structurally now, though they are still very fragile. I'm not sure if it's even worth trying to ID as many of my specimens are extremely fragmented. However, I think they are distinct enough to see the general shape of the leaves and create a crude snapshot of a Cretaceous forest floor. If you see something you recognize, feel free to share! Here are some photos: Piece 1: Sort of looks like a conifer leaf Piece 2: Piece 3: Piece 4: A tiny leaf Piece 5: This one is actually double-sided. On the front is a large leaf. The other side has a conglomerate of many small leaves similar to the ones found on piece 3. Thanks for reading!

I recently did some work for someone In the coal mining industry in Southwest Virginia/Appalachian Mtns.I noticed they had some fossils and they let me have some of them. Most of them were fossilized trees/fauna and such. But these right here stood out and was curious as to what they was. I'm no paleontologist but my impression it is some type of alligator. It was found near one of the coal mines on a mountain. There are a couple of other bones as well. I apologize if the quality of some of the pictures isn't the best, we're currently having lighting issues in my shop. Thank you for your time.

Hello all, and thanks for being here! I am looking for an ID on these fossils for my own gratification! My focus is in archaeology, so I come across fossils often during surface collection adventures! A little about the location: These were found in Nancy, Kentucky, USA on a partially man made flood-control lake called Lake Cumberland (Cumberland river basin/Cumberland plateau). The banks are rich with small to medium chert concretions, fossiliferous sedimentary stones, and small to medium iron inclusions. Preservation of these specimens are, generally, fair to good. I found this piece along with horn corals, only a couple of brachiopods, and a wealth of crinoid stem pieces in less than 20 minutes! I thank you all in advance for any information you can give me! -Skelly B. Specimen 1- Specimen 2 - Specimen 3 -

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

A new paper regarding a new hadrosaurid from the eastern US is available online: Albert Prieto-Marquez, Gregory M. Erickson and Jun A. Ebersole (2016). "A primitive hadrosaurid from southeastern North America and the origin and early evolution of ‘duck-billed’ dinosaurs". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Online edition: e1054495. doi:10.1080/02724634.2015.1054495. It's no surprise that we have been deciphering the evolution of hadrosauroids and hadrosaurids in North America during the late Turonian to Santonian interval, but the discovery of Eotrachodon provides new insights into the early evolution of hadrosaurids in North America by showing that hadrosaurids co-existed with non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids in North America during the Santonian. However, the statement by Prieto-Marquez et al. regarding the geographical origin of Hadrosauridae should be taken with a grain of salt because Sebastian Dalman informed me of a soon-to-be-published tyrannosaur species from the Cenomanian of New Jersey and it's possible that a small number of Cenomanian-Turonian species from Asia currently classified as Hadrosauroidea incertae sedis could end up as basal hadrosaurids, in which case it may be clear that hadrosaurids in Laramidia made it to Appalachia during the Cenomanian before the Western Interior Seaway cut off Appalachia from Laramidia.

Happy holidays everyone, I was fortunate enough to find a mini-horde of fossilized bone in a small area. This area is near the Tennessee line in Kentucky and is rarely visited. The last time anyone was there was nearly 20 years and then it was logged only. Unfortunately they seem to have ran over many complete bones and I have 2 - 40 pound tubs of pieces. They are mostly end pieces and are nearly all gray. This area is filled with beautiful evergreens and rolling hills and is on top of a 60 foot mound area. getting through the canopy is difficult but once you do it's like stepping back into time. There are even prickly pear cactus growing at the top of this hill, something very unusual for that area. That area is mostly slate yet I still found a few large pieces that are clearly fossilized bone. as one goes down to the path pieces of fossilized bones are all along the side where there is a slight berm that goes all the way to the bottom. the most amazing thing is that despite people have been here, these bones were laying right on top the ground covered by just a little bit of grass and leaves. the round fossilized ball objects of all sizes were so numerous that they were rolling down this path and catching themselves on grass tufts. It was almost like an Easter egg hunt ! I also recovered one HUGE piece that (through days of researching), seem to be a Triceratops clavicle (or in that family) {still needs prepped however]. The item in question was near enough in proximity that it could be part of that skeleton and maybe the humorous bone. it does seem that the ends are missing and this fact haunts me because I would love to find more of this skeleton in this area but it is 2000 miles away and nearly inaccessible by a flight. But despite these clues I have looked at every skeleton real or re-created as they appear on the Internet and have found nothing exactly like it. I hope that someone has an idea because if it is part of that clavicle / shoulder assembly I would like to be sure that they stay together and to knows while looking through pieces I may find the connecting piece. Any help would be appreciated thank you very much. .. jp PS. Happy new year to all.