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Hi all, me again, I wanted to share a closeup of the bone fragments that I found in Ramanessin to see if I could get them ID'd further since I know how the brook tends to make fake fossil bones i want to check that the ones I found are real fossil bone 1) the big one, i think it might be a cretaceous turtle shell, it passed the burn, and the lick test. 1A) I believe these are also enchodus jaw fragments. 2) 2A)

Stick around, this one's a read but I'll try to make it fun. So, I have been to big brook last year, and While I enjoyed it, since I went in early feb, the ground was frozen which prevented me from finding much, as the brook was stingy that day. Nonetheless I decided to try my luck with Ramanessin as i heard good things about it. Because none of my family or friends could be bothered, I decided to take a day off work and drive 4 hours to the area and spend the night so I could get the most out of the location. what follows is the result of 2 days straight of fossil hunting. which I will try to tell the story of in order. Day 1 the scoop I arrive at the site a little past 12, choosing to waste no time, I make my way down to the brook and start to sift the gravel. as opposed to when I went to big brook in winter, Ramanessin was generous with her gifts. I found 4 teeth in the first scoop. I took this time to make my way up the stream cutting back and forth sifting every gravel pile I could find. my personal method is to put no more than 5 scoops into the sifter. that was the way to guarantee I got at least something out of it. it was during one of these sifts that I found the curious reptile tooth here. I will be doing a separate fossil id post later of the teeth and bones. but this was one that i knew was something special. I also found this really nice cross section of ammonite. the sutures were beginning to separate, any longer and they would have come undone. It was also this trip that I found these chunks of bone, now I know the brooks have this nasty habit of producing concretions and discoloring modern bones to Look like fossils, but i am 80 percent sure that I found some genuine articles here. Taking the ###### at some point in this day, I decided I needed to pee. so, to avoid being spotted I ducked into a small mouth of a tributary to do my business. while I was wrapping up, something caught my eye, something I couldn't believe. the outline of the Biggest, and likely one of the best lateral goblin shark teeth I have ever found. I was absolutely giddy. after picking it up and doing a little field prep washing it off in the water it was easily 1.8 in. and as the story usually goes as I am looking in this little alcove of gravel, I see the root of yet Another massive goblin tooth root, this time submerged in the dirt. I chanted to myself "please be whole" as I carefully brushed off the tooth to reveal a gloriously intact fossil. easily one of the best and most fortuitous pee breaks i have ever had! It was on my way back that I decided to put the trash bag I brought to good use and pick up the garbage I saw on the way. I'm not going to lie here, I have found it pretty shameful how many shards of glass and cans I would find in this place. But I took it upon myself to fill the shopping bag as best I could. I didn't want to be stuck out in the dark, so I hurried back to the car and dropped the trash in the nearest bin. Lodging back at the motel, I spent the evening cleaning off my newfound loot. I took this time to carefully superglue the ammonite chunk so that I wouldn't lose it. I took one of the plastic cups in the hotel room and cleaned my fossils with it. Day 2 lost sifter After breakfast, I returned to try my luck again, but when I opened the trunk of my car I was met with the absence of my sifter. I t was then that it dawned on me that when I came back to the car I had only my shovel and my trash bag in hand, tricking my brain into thinking i had everything! realizing it was probably lost, I went back to the brook to try my luck surface collecting. The region had received some rain overnight and into the afternoon, and although it wasn't flooding, the water was considerably higher than last time. i was almost discouraged until i noticed something bright blue on the opposite side of the brook... it was my sifter. right where i left it on the top of the overbank. I was so elated I was laughing at my turn of luck. "Hang On! I'm comin!" I yelled at the inanimate object. there was a fallen tree 4 meters from the sifter, so in my full wading gear, I straddled the trunk and shimmied over to the other side and retrieved it. mosasaur it was now that I decided to make my way upstream and sift past the areas that I had already hit. I noticed a few tracks of bootprints here and there. I was initially discouraged by the fact that whoever it was got further than I was hoping they did. but that all went away when as I was sifting through a pile of gravel, I noticed a sheen of blackish enamel. picking it up I realized this was likely yet Another reptile tooth, and the chances that I bagged a mosasaur had effectively doubled. (did I mention yet that this was my 1st time to Ramanessin?) check your spoils as I made my way upstream, I came across the ruins of some old concrete structure in the middle of the brook, either a dam or a bridge foundation of some sort. to my right I saw a large spoil pile. out of curiosity, I started to look at it trying to see if there was anything the previous person missed. and boy was there. I found another huge lateral goblin, and (Pictured separately) a massive sawfish rostral tooth. it was crazy to me thinking about missing not one, but Two easily trip maker sized teeth in your spoil pile. let this serve as a lesson to newbies, to double check spoil piles you see, just because you never know what the last guy missed! crow island I waded and sifted my way upstream past the concrete structure, tactically using my shovel as a sounding stick of sorts and pointing my toes in the direction of the current so as not to lose footing. I stopped just past a footbridge where there was a little island of gravel that had accumulated over the weeks. as I scanned the shore, I saw another trip maker: an absolutely huge Squalicorax prisodontus tooth. it is at this point that I notice that I want alone, there was a group of boys that went bicycling overhead. now, all through the day I was completely alone, talking to myself about the stuff i was finding and being a general silly guy. I'm sure that if anyone came up to me while I was like this, they'd think I was insane. I took this brief encounter as my sign to start heading back to the car. the wade back the wade back I made it a resolution to not sift bit surface collect only. the thing is, that in the hours between when I got there and now, it had stopped raining. and when the rain stopped the waters started to recede after an hour or two. So here I was, walking back to the car past effectively virgin shoreline, with only an hour of sunlight left. I was delaying myself left and right with tooth after tooth that I would find on the shorelines. some being decent sized in their own right! after I returned home, I spent the remaining hours of my sanity cleaning and sorting the finds of the day. this is the total finds for day 2. Aftermath below is the combined total of fossils. of the identifiable items I found approximately 234 goodies over those 2 days. my display case for Cretaceous NJ was looking a little sparse before, but now its looking a little fuller as I am writing this. if you notice any special things in the pictures I missed, please let me know, I love educating myself on these things.

Big Brook, NJ (Late Cretaceous): Rock, bone or other? Eight pictures attached.

Hi. Hope everyone is well. I found this really cool fossil last week at Big Brook. Has some really great detail and seems not to be water worn. Never saw anything like it. I did research and my best UN-educated guess is an osteoderm? Maybe from a crocodile? Would love some feedback on what this is. Thank you much for taking a look! The measurement is in MM.

Hi everyone. It has been way to long since I posted anything. Life has been crazy for me. I still stalk the forum everyday. Went hunting this morning for the first time since the summer. I have something that really looks like a tooth. Parts of it do and others parts does not. Really need other opinions on this one. I put it under the microscope because I just cant determine what it is. I hope it is something. Thank you for taking a look! Hope everyone is well.

I was sifting through my old finds in Big Brook and there was this curved item that was about an inch long. I have 3 pictures attached. Big Brook is known for marine type fossils. Not sure if its even identifiable but it is porous. Any idea what it could be?

Hey, last post for now but the main fossil of the trip had to be what looks like an edomontasaurus tooth fragment. There are serrations at the back of it and I suspect its most of the bottom half of one. The other bigger fossil most likely is a suggestive rock but I just included the photos haha. Could you guys confirm that the smaller fossil is possibly an edmontosaurus tooth fragment? I found them in big brook NJ, a popular fossil hunting site in a stream of water.

Hello everyone, first post in this forum! If I make any newbie mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this post/remember for next time. I have a broken reptile tooth sifted from Big Brook (a stream near Marlboro, NJ) that dates to somewhere between the Late Campanian and Early Maastrichtian. I posted this online at another point and it was identified as a crocodile tooth from the original pictures I posted. I’ve been sitting on this one for a while though and it doesn’t seem to line up with the teeth from other known crocodilians and from this area (Brachychampsa, Borealosuchus, Hyposaurus, etc). Can anyone offer a second opinion? It has really prominent anterior ridge on the front of the tooth which makes me think it’s possible a theropod but it doesn’t look like Dryptosaurus. The back half is broken which means I don’t have any serrations to use as an ID. I’ve included the files in this post. I have also included some bonuses to these image though. I believe I found what appears to be a bird femur in the brook but I’m not certain if this is a quaternary find or actually from the same formation as this tooth. Anyone have a family id or insight on how to check if this is fossilized or just turned black from the soil? I also included some images of saurornitholestine teeth which I personally thought are close in appearance to this tooth. Thinking I might be too hopeful on that ID but thought it was worth sharing my thoughts lol. Material of these dinosaurs has been found in New Jersey!

I thought I would add the first photo of some of the finds my fiancée and I had from a quick trip to New Jersey Cretaceous big brook. We went to numerous other spots but they will be posted after this as I need to be home to take more photos lol. Hope you enjoy! And if anyone can help with the IDs on these it is greatly appreciated! Thank you

Hello again, I have two more specimens that I cannot ID. I suspect the long yellowish rod is a belemnite, but it looks odd. It has a hole on hole side, but no hole on the second side. The small tooth like object is small and is not hollow, could it be a Saber toothed salmon tooth? Thanks, Marco

Hi fellow fossilers! I found some items in the Big Brook and Ramanessin areas that I have not been able to ID. Any help would be appreciated! I know belemnites and shells. Cow shark and others. The bones I don't know. My dad is a chiropractor and told me at least one is a wrist bone of some kind. Their is a tooth that looks like a foot that I can't identify in 5th image.

Hello again, this time I found this fossil encased in rock or sediment in Big Brook. Unfortunately the rock is quite solid and I can't remove it. The fossil seems shell-like. Would appreciate a lot if someone could figure what it is. Also any ideas on how to remove the rock, would acid etching work?

Hello! I'm pretty new to fossil hunting and I've been able to ID a few specimens but I'm having trouble with these. The ones here are from a couple trips to Big Brook in NJ. I tried my best to take good photos (when will smartphones come with a macro lens??). 1 looks like it could be a tooth or just a rock 2 seems to be porus (I did the tounge test) 3 looks like a jaw or just a rock 4 seems like it could maybe part of a turtle shell? 5 is definitely a vertebra, but I'm not sure from what 7 seem to be teeth or claws 8 is definitely a tooth but im not sure from what 11, 12, 16 are definitely teeth Thanks for any help

I have been fossil hunting in the Monmouth County, NJ area for quite a few trips now, and I have accumulated a good amount of fossils I haven’t been able to ID. Here are some of them: Note: feel free to ask for more angles; I didn’t want to post too many images. 1 inch for scale Found in Ramanessin - no idea what it is Found in both brooks - 5 in middle look to be same species; I believe far-right is pycnodont or hadrodus Left - found in Ramanessin; think its coral Right - found in Big Brook; thought it was coral when I found it but I’m now leaning toward coprolite Both from Ramanessin; Left seems to be an imprint from some sort of spine; My father thinks the one on the right is some sort of crinoid Both found in Big Brook; Possible reptile teeth; maybe mosasaur or croc, though they are very small Found in both brooks; left seems to be a possible Pachyrhizodus; all have distinct carinae Found in Ramanessin - potential hadrosaurus tooth fragment Thanks in advance for your help!

These fossils were all found at Big Brook in New Jersey. From what I know, they should likely be from the Cretaceous period. I was unable to find much reference on what the following fossils may be. Anyways, thanks in advance! By the way, I didn’t want to upload too many photos at once, so please feel free to ask for additional photos of any of the specimens.

Found this is ramanessin brook nj. I've been going since I was a kid and have never found anything like this. Any help IDing is very much apreciated.

Hoping this is something different as it's unlike any other tooth I've found there. More conical. A little worn. Any chance a plesiosaur!!! Thanks so much!!

This one has me a bit stumped. It's pretty tiny. Sorry for forgetting the measuring device but its 3/8" or 9.53 mm. I've researched the heck out of it and have no hollow teeth from there let alone this small? Thanks so much!!

Found both of these at big brook but have no idea what they are. Any help is appreciated.

I just took my friends out for a fossil trip their first time yesterday; where we could all get together and do something cool and introduce them to the fun pastime and interesting research I dabble in for my birthday. I should’ve known he’d have beginners luck but I was not expecting this find when he plucked it out from the water. They all had a blast and it was a beautiful day. Any and all input into trying to discern what creature it could’ve came from? The more the merrier! A couple other angles

Hi all, I ventured to NJ to visit Big Brook and Ramanessin Brook last weekend (Cretaceous, monmouth group). I found quite a lot of shark teeth I still have to sort through, but I could use help ID'ing some other fossil finds. Some comments on each 1. This looks a little like bone to me of some kind, but not sure. 2-5 look like plates or scutes. Not sure if turtle or croc. I realize 4 may be just a cool concretion, but I wanted to check. 6. This one is fascinating with a suture pattern of sorts that looks like it joins two pieces with the same finger like pattern as those prominences. 7. Looks like a small piece of something in matrix. 8. I think this might be a sawfish tooth but it would be my first one and I wanted to double check. 9. I think this is a large Enchodus tooth? It has only a single edge to it. 10. I think this is clearly a small ungulate tooth of some kind. Not clear if it's a fossil or an extant species. 11. Another something in matrix. You can see a bumpy/rough surface to the fossil in the second two photos. 12, 13. The tooth on the right I think is Enchodus, but I'm not sure about the one on the left. Thanks all!

Any thoughts appreciated. Can't find anything that looks like this found in Big Brook NJ. End seems too round to be in pincher? I know this is a stretch prob but the only thing I found remotely like it online was a pic of a baby Mosasaur jaw fragment. Thanks!!

Hi all This past weekend, we took a quick trip up to Big Brook, NJ and found these small, very worn fragments of what I suspect may be teeth of some kind I have a guess or two as to what they may be from looking around online, but I don't have much experience with anything besides shark teeth, so I was hoping for a bit of help clarifying Any ideas?

I think I found one also in Big Brook Yesterday. seems very similar. What do you think?

Found this oddly marked piece in Big Brook sticking out of the marl. The striations and pockmarks on it had me intrigued. Looks like maybe a tree or piece of wood or something. It broke and inside it has a striated texture as well as kind of marly. Anyone think it could be something fossilized?