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Hi everyone! I wanted to post one of my new favorite finds from this past week of collecting in the Hell Creek formation of Montana. I found this little partial claw at a microsite which proved to be quite productive, making for a great day. While the articulating surface is missing, I still feel that it could be identifiable and my first guess is bird. Avisaurus in particular as I remember seeing similar claws being labeled as such on other platforms. It’s about two centimeters long and the bottom is flat, giving it a somewhat triangular cross section. photos from the field. Pics I just took from the motel. Unguals from the paper describing Mirarce, a close relative of what’s present in Hell Creek. I’d love to read some opinions.

While my prime focus is essentially learning how to accurately describe Nature in the precise language of mathematics, I've always been intrigued by natural history - it's actually what started me on the path to physics. The sort of interrogation that paleontology practices provoked me to think and question even further, down to the fundamental science which makes it all work. Collecting fossils has brought a large amount of enjoyment to my life, and is often a welcome distraction from what can sometimes be straining work. The knowledge that I accumulate along the way is also part of the fun. Here is my collection, which will always be a work-in-progress. There's still many things I haven't photographed yet, but I feel comfortable saying this is the majority. I don't have many big things, but I'm certainly pleased with the many small things I have so far. Links to albums: Dinosaurs Sharks North Sulphur River Post Oak Creek Permian Aguja Formation Harding Sandstone Devonian Galveston Fossils Miscellaneous Highlights / Personal Favorites: The ones underlined are linked to their respective fossil page in the Fossil Forum Collections, which has more information and photos. Infant Tyrannosaurus rex posterior tooth If I could keep only one fossil, it would be this one. It's from my favorite animal that has ever lived, and being from a young'un is just so darn cool. A true crowning jewel in my eyes. Juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex maxillary tooth Again, you can't go wrong with T. rex. It doesn't have the best preservation but regardless, there's a lot more to love. Tylosaurus proriger tooth (self-found) Undoubtedly my favorite find to-date. Finding fossils yourself adds that extra value to its place in your collection. I'll remember the moment I first saw it for a long time. Triceratops prorsus tooth Triceratops is another one of my favorite dinosaurs, I think we all grew up playing with toys of T. rex and Triceratops. Unique circumstances also allow for me to say it's Triceratops and not Torosaurus with some confidence. It's not perfect, but still a significant part of the collection. Avisaurus archibaldi tooth A bird tooth? Doesn't get much cooler or more uncommon. Dimetrodon cf. limbatus tooth I've always been drawn to "icons of life," since those are the ones we remember from childhood. Dimetrodon is definitely an icon, and I'm glad to have found one of these uncommon treasures (in micromatrix - it was a very nice surprise). Cretoxyrhina mantelli tooth One of my favorite shark species, the "ginsu" had sleek-looking teeth, ate mosasaurs and dinosaurs, and was overall a formidable animal worthy of admiration. Cretodus crassidens tooth (self-found) Another one of my favorite sharks. It's not big or complete, but the preservation is so rare for the locality (POC) - the gloss on the enamel is as if it fell out of the shark's mouth yesterday. Saurornitholestes langstoni tooth I'm currently working on growing the dinosaur component of my collection, and this is my first Dromaeosaurid. Dromaeosaur tooth (Hell Creek Fm.) My most recent addition (as of Sept. 4, 2021), and it's my best dinosaur tooth for sure. Unfortunately it will be labeled as only a Dromaeosaurid tooth for now, but it still is just a great tooth from a cool family of dinosaurs. Shark Tooth Riker Display I've got one riker that I've tried to squeeze as many teeth into as possible. I need to get a couple more, probably; there's a lot of teeth that deserve a riker, but are just lying around. I'll try to update this thread semi-regularly as I make acquisitions in the future.

I've seen several teeth that are purportedly from Cretaceous avian dinosaurs/birds, specifically Avisaurus sp. I've done some light digging, but I don't yet know how these teeth can be assigned to a bird. My thinking was that you need an identifiable jaw with these teeth, but I couldn't find any such literature on Avisaurus at least. My other guess is that they closely match the morphology of other Enantiornithine bird teeth? In any case, I'd be much obliged if someone could pass along some relevant paper(s). These are examples of Avisaurus archibaldi posted by @Auspex:

Unfortunately, cant get better pics. But hope these are ok. Avisaurus, Hell Creek, 6mm. Seller said there aren't serrations. Thanks

This is a pretty interesting tooth and I figured I would post it here to get some additional thoughts. This is labeled as an Avisaurus tooth from Garfield County Montana, Hell Creek formation. The first thing that stood out to me was that the shape was a bit different than most teeth labeled Avisaurus that I have seen. Granted I have not seen many but this looked different. It is also close to 1/4" which seems quite large for an Avisaurus. Since there are several Enantionithean birds from Hell Creek, it could be from one for sure but could it be something else? I did some research and found photos on line of a jaw fragments from an Ichthyornis from Kansas that had a similar looking tooth. I am talking general shape really, not saying that is what this is. I also found a comparative study of Hesperornis and Ichthyornis teeth on line and it has a similar shape to one of the Hesperornis teeth in that study. I am very unfamiliar with Avian teeth so I am strictly going by what little research I could find on line. I know there are a couple of Hesperorniformes and an unnamed Ichthyornithean from Hell Creek so it is possible that this tooth belongs to a bird that is not an Enantionithean but I thought this is an ideal tooth to put on the forum and seek some help from those with far more knowledge. Any comments, insights, or thoughts ?

I do not want to brag but I am going to just a little We did our note taking dinosaur adaptation program yesterday and it was really pretty awesome. Every kid in both classes took notes and they were among the most engaged students I have ever worked with. I already knew these kids from an earlier shark presentation so they were really pretty excited. They knew their dinosaurs but we were able to expand their knowledge and get them excited about new dinosaurs. We will be doing more these dual standard programs next year for sure. This was also the first presentation i had done where I got to work in information about the evolution of flight that came directly from one of leading experts on this subject in the world, Jingmai O' Connor. I had the pleasure of getting some information from her via email and it paid off in the form of more accurate information. This was also the program where our tiny Avisaurus tooth made its debut and it may be the last appearance for that tooth before it goes on a journey of scientific importance in the near future. Our program was so good yesterday that the students want us to come back to their classroom for round three before the end of the school year !!!

One of the stated goals of Fossils on Wheels is making contributions to science. it will be in the charter when we have finalized our 501c3 and it will be part of our mission statement. My son and I believe in this idea as much as we do in the education pursuits. I recently contacted a very well known Paleontologist who has made some ground breaking discoveries in the world of avian evolution. I wanted to pick her brain a bit and I told her a little about we are doing. i happened to mention we just got a small "Avisaurus" tooth for our program. She informed us about a research project to study Avian teeth and let us know we could contribute to that research. She did not ask or put any pressure on us. She was super cool and understood if we did not want to do it. It was just a suggestion. I searched pretty hard to find a bird tooth for our program and we have barely gotten to use it but that little tooth may be our first real contribution to the Paleontology realm. It took me 1 second to head to my son's room and ask him what he thought. He agreed with me that it was worth doing. We both loved the idea actually. Obviously my hope would be for the tooth to be studied and scanned then returned to us which may be a possibility. If it turns out that this is indeed a potential bird tooth, we will be sending it to the researchers. Little is known of Cretaceous bird teeth. If we can help further that knowledge in any way, we want to be part of that. So we may not have a bird tooth to show the kids but we will have a story of about one of our teeth contributing to real scientific knowledge which is something to be proud of

I was recently going through some old finds from last summer when I came across this little bone, it is partially hollow and has very porous bone structure. that's why I assume this bone came from a very small theropod. It shares some resemblance to a bambiraptor coracoid as shown in the last picture and is almost exactly the same size. the bone measures 11mm wide in the first picture

I really really love primitive birds and would love to see your primitive bird fossils, with scale if possible I only got a couple myself but would love your opinions!