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Hi everyone! Well, I have another weird Kem Kem bone, one of the last mystery bones in the batch. And I'm completely stumped. The closest thing I have to a guess is fish and that's only because fish seem to have a lot of weird looking bones around their skull. I don't have anything to compare it to. There's a lot of weird nooks and crannies on this piece so if you all need a better picture focusing on a specific area let me know. Measures 9.8 x 5.2 cm and thickness ranges from 2.8-1.7 cm Any insight is appreciated as always

Hello All, I have seen a previous topic on FF about Kem Kem Pterosaur teeth vs. fish teeth. Which got me thinking about a tooth that I collected last year from the Toolebuc Formation, Queensland Australia, but just thinking it was a fish tooth, however its quite long, and Im not sure it matches exisiting fish from the Toolebuc. Scale is in CM. Thoughts? thanks Rodney

I have been trying to finish up my ID's of small teeth I collected last year from Moss Creek in Texas (near the North Sulphur River). This material is Upper Cretaceous, Campanian and I have found at least a dozen genera of sharks with Cretalamna, Scapanorhynchus, Pseudocorax and Squalicorax being the most common forms. I'm going to start with seven teeth that I think may be the same but I can not put a name to. I have been through the references I have specific to this formation or age, elasmo.com, and many very helpful posts on here, but I am still at a loss. In Welton and Farish, they look most like Microcorax crassus, but those are supposed to be somewhat older, and even then there are still some differences. They may be posteriors of one of the more common forms, but I have not found a good match yet, so I'd appreciate some help. I'll tag a few a the folks I know are usually pretty good with this stuff: @Al Dente, @MarcoSr, @ThePhysicist, @fossilsonwheels and a couple I know have collected here recently: @EPIKLULSXDDDDD, @Ironhead42 I do not see any serrations or nutrient grooves on any of them. My pictures from above did not come out very well, so I'll just post a couple (with matching numbers from above) that I think show the patter most of them have (flat on the one side and quite convex on the other with a more expanded root). Thanks for any advice you can offer. Mike

1 Last picture is cleaned up the groove was interesting

Hey, hæ again forum! I had an amazing extended spring break full of road trips, camping with friends, splashing in rivers, and finding fossils literally led by flowers. Due to my class schedule I actually had almost 2 weeks off class since we had online work which was easy to do on mobile. It was a MUCH needed break from a lot of heavy stressful baggage February threw at me; being an adventurous & outdoorsy girl I only want good times with friends and nothing but memories filled with laughs, smiles, and nature. I started off my break the BEST way possible by hanging out with @EPIKLULSXDDDDD at my favorite spot in the NSR. He has an entire thread for that so go check it out! It was amazing to finally take a friend deep into my element and get to be myself without any fear- I even spoke Icelandic accidentally and threw my shoes aside to go play in the water. EPIK arguably found the coolest stuff! I was mostly happy to just feel free! Thanks for that day, man. Much needed fun. Some pics from that day! A ton more on his Classic NSR thread! (Lots of mosie and shark finds.) Fast forward a few days and my friends wanted to head down South in the TX National Forests for primitive camping and foraging! Not many Cretaceous marine fossils down there but I ran into an unexpected prehistoric surprise later. We started in Davy Crockett Nat forest and I was able to do some herping/enting for days. I was under some stress at the time of arrival because through everything I went through weeks prior, one of my online friends secretly keeping me stable by a thread went MIA and I couldn’t vent by randomly talking about nature with them. I finally got back with them, sad at their message, but relieved were okay. I just want to be the most thoughtful friend possible to all of mine after another friend of mine recently lost their life. Luckily, I had mother nature to bless me with some encounters to cheer me up: I was surprised along the trip to see Lúpína flowers EVERYWHERE here in Texas. This flower is known as “Blue Bonnets” here in Texas and is the State flower. Ive seen them only once but not this many up close- entire medians of them on the roads! Ive seen them in art and merchandise but it didn’t hit me these indigo flowers are a southern variant of the ones we have all over back in Iceland. I felt so comforted and took it as a positive sign I belong here, as that same friend has reassured me that my Icelandic heritage is beautiful and I shouldn’t hide it. Ive been a lot more open the past few months about living in “dual-worlds.” Texas has more in common with my family’s heritage than I thought. I’m happy that I came back and chose this place to be my forever home and to continue studying marine paleontology. To everyone down here in Texas: when you see these flowers on the side of the road- please think of me. 2022 back in Iceland when I was healing: Additional camping nature pics! We eventually hit up Sam Houston Nat Forest where the camping was free! I was going to meet up with a local Houston herper for not one but two grail TX snakes- but unfortunately he was expecting bad weather and I decided to call off for his safety, talked over the phone about using bait boxes as rattlesnake hides instead. I found something SO cool out here- a fossil I LEAST expected. Bonus: I unlocked a good pre-trauma memory! The stone path here looked…odd for Fleming Formation (Miocene). I was having familiar thoughts. It didn’t take long for me to find a fossil in the limestone path, imported dirt, and a name popped up in my head…”Conk” I said outload. Friend laughing at me… a taxon finally undusted itself- “Conchidium sp! This is Silurian!” I lived in Indiana as a museum staff member in the early 2010’s and remembered so many of them SC/GMS roadcut trips. I was curious if this same material was brought from the Great Lakes area. I held onto this find because it helped me recover information that was lost. Also: I found half a maple moth Taking a break back home, I decided to work on freeing my “Kate Bush” ammonite some more. I used KOH flakes to weaken the limestone, sprayed the sucker with the hose outside, using my chisel attachment on my ZOIC trilo airpen for the remaining work! So far I think I’m going with Metengonoceras sp. Back on the road, we ended break with a bang! We headed out to a spot I very vaguely remember before my trauma. I apparently loved Austin and San Antonio a bunch and found notes from a favorited Glen Rose site info from years ago. One of my closest paleo friends in the area couldn’t meetup on this trip- but there were famous donuts along the way he heavily recommended to me since Im a foodie! Ya’ll seriously check out Round Rock Donuts if you are in the north Austin area- when I pursue my Masters in paleo & marine I might get an apartment out there so I can have those donuts on-demand! Life changing. I arrived at the exact spot I wrote and searched the area. New buildings along the way, and no memory of this place. I looked everywhere looking for the layer I needed and was about to give up, thinking “past Larí” was cuckoo. It was starting to rain and I was getting worried, dropped my hammer to the ground, head held back with my wrists to my face frustrated as my roommate who tagged along wasn’t finding anything either. We dried SO many spots with Orbitolina t. sprinkled throughout the formation. I lost my Turonian baby shark bottle necklace, slid down a cliff, stuck by a nettle, and tore my new modeled clothes climbing through rumble desperate for urchins. The weather was reflecting my mood as we got slammed with a tornado watch and the sky was turning dark and green. I nearly gave up for the day went back to get my hammer and behold- LOOK what it landed by: I thought… surely not, right? No way. We went to another spot, without much luck. Foolishly choosing to ignore the hint nature just threw at me. I called up my close donut-recommending friend and asked what to do. I was in the right spot but something wasn't right. They assured to me something emotional was the cause, as I was hunting for a genus which recently caused me a bit of stress. He told me to go back, relax and use patience, use the clues given by nature and look there again. I thought this was crazy... I sat there in the rain for a while while my friend still looked, no luck. I did some thinking- what would I do if I tried something that seemed impossible? I thought about a particular stress, then the night before it all happened and that contained joy I felt at 10:30pm about to invite a friend out here to this exact spot. I focused on that feeling- relaxed, and the rain actually, coincidentally, subsided. My friend kept reassuring me over the phone I was in the right spot based on pictures of the microfauna I sent. We almost gave up at this location, I proposed we go back to the first spot. ON THE WAY BACK, WHERE WE WALKED OVER FOUR TIMES: Oh… My. Bloody. Sea Stars. I immediately ran for over to that indigo flower - and looked for more. About an hour left of useable daylight before the inevitable set of storms rolled in I looked for clues. It turns out, yes, I was in the correct spot near the blue bonnet- but I knew I needed to do something else first. Like Native Americans, Icelanders are said to have a deep connection with nature. A woman of science, I was reluctant to think of such things but remembered I usually have strange luck when something obscure in nature is involved. Paleontology is part luck anyways when it comes to finds so I thought why not? As the wind was picking back up, I abandoned all senses… threw on some ambient music… and trusted the flower. Closed my eyes for a few minutes. Opening my eyes I noticed another hillside with other flowers behind it- and I went. More random flowers along the way across a busy road off the highway. Keeping a sharp eye out for any echs, I noticed the forams then went from orange to black after a bit of a walk. I also noticed a change in the ground’s surface. I then used my knowledge of the lithography to find a walkable layer and of course within SECONDS, next to a flower at that: Staying in the area I managed to pluck the urchins out one after another! In Texas- we pluck urchins, not flowers. Imagine if I knew about the exact spot for this special honeyhole upon arriving- I would have SO many more Leptosalenia texana! I’m happy there’s so many left to find but… I no longer believe in coincidences and I think next time I’m meant to bring a special friend (or more!) along to share this spot with! The weather made us turn in for the afternoon which gave me time to read about my finds. That day I was grateful for my friends, flowers, and the intimacy shared with the planet in general. I found more than just fossilized echs that day- I found myself again. I found inner peace, regained my patience, and I remembered my nature-loving friend’s compliments about my heritage which kept my spirits effervescent. It took a while, but found more self-respect. I’m proud to show off two red white & blue flags because they represent who I am AND play a massive part in my journey as a future marine paleontologist. I belong in Texas getting dirty looking for lost prehistoric friends- it’s my job to recover these silent storytellers lost by time and tell their story to the world someday. The construction was going to hide them again and happy I managed to save a few! Next time- I’ll come back with reinforcements to save more urchins, clean then up, and put them somewhere safe to be appreciated. Bless, bless. ~ Larí ***Out of photo space for this post, will add microfossil finds later.

Hi guys, got a few more teeth, hoping these aren’t all thalassinotitan 1. This one likely is thalassinotitan but it has some unusual striations 2. this one has a weird root 3. I Would say thalassinotitan but it’s quite large compared to the others

1. Looks like frill possibly?

In 1995 (long ago...) a friend of mine and me digged at a highway-constructionsite in nw-germany. It was the Highway Nr. 2 between Gelsenkirchen and Gladbeck in famous Ruhrgebiet-Area. The construction site opens at a lenght of 3 km sandy sediments from middle Santonian, Zone of Uintacrinus socialis. We really found a lot..., beach sediments with everything from plants over echinoderms up to vertebrate fossils (some lang-living ones...), and stored it. Till now. Some weeks ago I started to clean, glue, sort..., to write a paper about it. Hope to finish in 2025, lot of work... I go to show piece by piece fossils from this site, might be one a day, might be one a week. depends. Start is a nice Cretalamna appendiculata, approx. 2 cm long, root is a little bit damaged.

Hi everyone! I'm back with another weird Kem Kem bone. I wasn't sure what to make of this thing at first. A buddy even suggested Crinoid at one point. The closest I can find is a gill plate of a giant fresh water coelacanth. Because apparently that was a thing. The pictures I've been seeing are all from Mawsonia though I'm wondering if I'm 1. on the right track and 2. if it can be IDed as Mawsonia or if in typical Kem Kem fashion there were a bunch of these things swimming around that all had a plate that looks like this. The bone is about 16.5 cm by 15.2 cm with 17.8 cm as the longest measurement and up to 1.4 cm thick. So what do you all think?

Dear Fellow Fossil Fanatics, I just had a great day at Big Brook, found some shark teeth but also 3 specimens that I am not sure at all what to make of. Any insights would be awesome! Best, Huttner

Hello! I've found this today near Swanage, Southern England in the Purbeck group - early Cretaceous. The initial thought was turtle rib but I'm not particularly familiar with turtle anatomy, so I thought I'd run it by the group. The location has yielded crocodiles, turtles, Iguanodontian dinosaurs and some mammals. Sadly, had a break in it when freeing it from a bigger block, but recovered most of the pieces. Note that it is flat, thin, does not appear to taper or pinch along the length - not clear from the photo but it's uniformly 0.75cm thick and before the break about 8 cm in length. Note the ridge at the right side end in the image - it would flare out slightly from this point if this is the head. The portion at bottom (the side of it) has a broken edge so would be slightly broader when complete, and the same may be true of the other side which is still in matrix. Any help to even a genus level would be great!

Just to show: it is possible to find fossil pearls. This three come from the campanian of Hannover. They are found in a layer together with a lot of Oysters, all Ostrea semiplana So, when you find Oysters in a bed, look for small balls, might be a pearl This ones are right for a paper we write, will be published end of the years. If someone has pearls from upper cretaceous, let me know, perhaps we can add it not necessary to be campanian age, but upper cretaceous or tertiary, please

Hi Everyone I'm an absolute newbie with no idea what I'm doing or looking for but had a fine time doing it. Exploring around north Canterbury New Zealand in an area known for yielding some great fossil discoveries. I found a number of oyster shell layers as well as some smaller crabs and other shells embedded in various rocks. When overturning some larger rocks I found this half buried underneath of one. I thought it looked interesting but again as I'm not really certain what I'm looking for it's likely nothing- but thought would post here as a learning opportunity. Size is approximately 80mm x 60mm. Have posted next to a fork for reference. Thanks for taking the time to look!

Hi everyone! I have my eye on this piece that is claimed to be a belly rib from a T-Rex from the Lance Formation of Niobara County Wyoming. The seller claims it's robustness positively ids it as rex, but seems to have forgotten to list exact measurements, which I have contacted him about and am awaiting a response which I will post as soon as I get it. Even then, always good to double check these things! Any insight is greatly appreciated as always!

'Big Ugly Diamond' discovered by Arkansas state park visitor BBC News, March 16, 2023 Hausel, W.D., 2008. Diamond Deposits Of The North American Craton–An Overview. Topics in Wyoming Geology: Wyoming Geological Association Guidebook, 2008, Pages 103-138 Howard, J.M. and Hanson, W.D., 2008. Geology of the Crater of Diamonds State Park and Vicinity, Pike County, Arkansas. Arkansas Geological Survey. Dunn, D., 2003, June. Diamond evaluation of the Prairie Creek lamproite province, Arkansas, USA. In International Kimberlite Conference: Extended Abstracts (Vol. 8). Dunn, D.P., 2002. Xenolith mineralogy and geology of the Prairie Creek lamproite province, Arkansas. The University of Texas at Austin. Clift, P.D., Heinrich, P., Dunn, D., Jacobus, A. and Blusztajn, J., 2018. The Sabine block, Gulf of Mexico: promontory on the North American margin?. Geology, 46(1), pp.15-18. Howard, J.M., 1996. Finding Diamonds in Arkansas. Arkansas Geological Commission. Yours, Paul H.

Went to the Brook yesterday and found this curious thing. Leaning towards a fish plate and found something called a porcupine fish but can’t seem to find a genus.

Received a few months back in a box of unprepped material unsure what it is exactly. 50mm long