Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'dinosaur fossils'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
    Tags should be keywords or key phrases. e.g. otodus, megalodon, shark tooth, miocene, bone valley formation, usa, florida.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Fossil Discussion
    • Fossil ID
    • Fossil Hunting Trips
    • General Fossil Discussion
    • Partners in Paleontology - Member Contributions to Science
    • Fossil of the Month
    • Questions & Answers
    • Member Collections
    • A Trip to the Museum
    • Paleo Re-creations
    • Collecting Gear
    • Fossil Preparation
    • Is It Real? How to Recognize Fossil Fabrications
    • Member-to-Member Fossil Trades
    • Fossil News
  • Community News
    • Member Introductions
    • Member of the Month
    • Members' News & Diversions
  • General Category
    • Rocks & Minerals
    • Geology

Categories

  • Annelids
  • Arthropods
    • Crustaceans
    • Insects
    • Trilobites
    • Other Arthropods
  • Brachiopods
  • Cnidarians (Corals, Jellyfish, Conulariids )
    • Corals
    • Jellyfish, Conulariids, etc.
  • Echinoderms
    • Crinoids & Blastoids
    • Echinoids
    • Other Echinoderms
    • Starfish and Brittlestars
  • Forams
  • Graptolites
  • Molluscs
    • Bivalves
    • Cephalopods (Ammonites, Belemnites, Nautiloids)
    • Gastropods
    • Other Molluscs
  • Sponges
  • Bryozoans
  • Other Invertebrates
  • Ichnofossils
  • Plants
  • Chordata
    • Amphibians & Reptiles
    • Birds
    • Dinosaurs
    • Fishes
    • Mammals
    • Sharks & Rays
    • Other Chordates
  • *Pseudofossils ( Inorganic objects , markings, or impressions that resemble fossils.)

Blogs

  • Anson's Blog
  • Mudding Around
  • Nicholas' Blog
  • dinosaur50's Blog
  • Traviscounty's Blog
  • Seldom's Blog
  • tracer's tidbits
  • Sacredsin's Blog
  • fossilfacetheprospector's Blog
  • jax world
  • echinoman's Blog
  • Ammonoidea
  • Traviscounty's Blog
  • brsr0131's Blog
  • brsr0131's Blog
  • Adventures with a Paddle
  • Caveat emptor
  • -------
  • Fig Rocks' Blog
  • placoderms
  • mosasaurs
  • ozzyrules244's Blog
  • Terry Dactyll's Blog
  • Sir Knightia's Blog
  • MaHa's Blog
  • shakinchevy2008's Blog
  • Stratio's Blog
  • ROOKMANDON's Blog
  • Phoenixflood's Blog
  • Brett Breakin' Rocks' Blog
  • Seattleguy's Blog
  • jkfoam's Blog
  • Erwan's Blog
  • Erwan's Blog
  • marksfossils' Blog
  • ibanda89's Blog
  • Liberty's Blog
  • Liberty's Blog
  • Lindsey's Blog
  • Back of Beyond
  • Ameenah's Blog
  • St. Johns River Shark Teeth/Florida
  • gordon's Blog
  • West4me's Blog
  • West4me's Blog
  • Pennsylvania Perspectives
  • michigantim's Blog
  • michigantim's Blog
  • lauraharp's Blog
  • lauraharp's Blog
  • micropterus101's Blog
  • micropterus101's Blog
  • GPeach129's Blog
  • Olenellus' Blog
  • nicciann's Blog
  • nicciann's Blog
  • Deep-Thinker's Blog
  • Deep-Thinker's Blog
  • bear-dog's Blog
  • javidal's Blog
  • Digging America
  • John Sun's Blog
  • John Sun's Blog
  • Ravsiden's Blog
  • Jurassic park
  • The Hunt for Fossils
  • The Fury's Grand Blog
  • julie's ??
  • Hunt'n 'odonts!
  • falcondob's Blog
  • Monkeyfuss' Blog
  • cyndy's Blog
  • pattyf's Blog
  • pattyf's Blog
  • chrisf's Blog
  • chrisf's Blog
  • nola's Blog
  • mercyrcfans88's Blog
  • Emily's PRI Adventure
  • trilobite guy's Blog
  • barnes' Blog
  • xenacanthus' Blog
  • myfossiltrips.blogspot.com
  • HeritageFossils' Blog
  • Fossilefinder's Blog
  • Fossilefinder's Blog
  • maybe a nest fossil?
  • farfarawy's Blog
  • Microfossil Mania!
  • blogs_blog_99
  • Southern Comfort
  • Emily's MotE Adventure
  • Eli's Blog
  • andreas' Blog
  • Recent Collecting Trips
  • retired blog
  • andreas' Blog test
  • fossilman7's Blog
  • Piranha Blog
  • xonenine's blog
  • xonenine's Blog
  • Fossil collecting and SAFETY
  • Detrius
  • pangeaman's Blog
  • pangeaman's Blog
  • pangeaman's Blog
  • Jocky's Blog
  • Jocky's Blog
  • Kehbe's Kwips
  • RomanK's Blog
  • Prehistoric Planet Trilogy
  • mikeymig's Blog
  • Western NY Explorer's Blog
  • Regg Cato's Blog
  • VisionXray23's Blog
  • Carcharodontosaurus' Blog
  • What is the largest dragonfly fossil? What are the top contenders?
  • Test Blog
  • jsnrice's blog
  • Lise MacFadden's Poetry Blog
  • BluffCountryFossils Adventure Blog
  • meadow's Blog
  • Makeing The Unlikley Happen
  • KansasFossilHunter's Blog
  • DarrenElliot's Blog
  • Hihimanu Hale
  • jesus' Blog
  • A Mesozoic Mosaic
  • Dinosaur comic
  • Zookeeperfossils
  • Cameronballislife31's Blog
  • My Blog
  • TomKoss' Blog
  • A guide to calcanea and astragali
  • Group Blog Test
  • Paleo Rantings of a Blockhead
  • Dead Dino is Art
  • The Amber Blog
  • Stocksdale's Blog
  • PaleoWilliam's Blog
  • TyrannosaurusRex's Facts
  • The Community Post
  • The Paleo-Tourist
  • Lyndon D Agate Johnson's Blog
  • BRobinson7's Blog
  • Eastern NC Trip Reports
  • Toofuntahh's Blog
  • Pterodactyl's Blog
  • A Beginner's Foray into Fossiling
  • Micropaleontology blog
  • Pondering on Dinosaurs
  • Fossil Preparation Blog
  • On Dinosaurs and Media
  • cheney416's fossil story
  • jpc
  • A Novice Geologist
  • Red-Headed Red-Neck Rock-Hound w/ My Trusty HellHound Cerberus
  • Red Headed
  • Paleo-Profiles
  • Walt's Blog
  • Between A Rock And A Hard Place
  • Rudist digging at "Point 25", St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria (Campanian, Gosau-group)
  • Prognathodon saturator 101
  • Books I have enjoyed
  • Ladonia Texas Fossil Park
  • Trip Reports
  • Glendive Montana dinosaur bone Hell’s Creek
  • Test
  • Stratigraphic Succession of Chesapecten

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Found 25 results

  1. Today is my last day off before I go back to work and I was supposed to spend the day making fossil starter kits. I have a cold though and I do not want the kids to think that 12 million year old shark teeth gave them a cold lol I am pretty bored so I thought I would post about our Judith River dinosaur fossils and how we are going to get discuss this formation. I am really surprised how much I am enjoying learning about these dinosaurs and this will be a formation that we spend a good bit of time on. It must have had some very productive ecosystems and there is a great diversity here to discuss. The kids will also get to see some familiar dinosaur families while learning about species that are new to them. I think during adaptation related presentations, this formation lets us get into ecological niches and discuss how two Tyrannosaurids existed as did at least two species of Dromaeosaurids and a Troodonitd plus other predators including non dinos. That is a lot of hungry mouths so niche selection and adaptations become very important. THere is also a great diversity of herbivores in this formation. I love the Ceratopsians from this formation and the diversity gives my son a lot of artistic options. We currently have one tooth but by the time we present we will have a couple more I think. This allows us to present a few species and say the teeth are not diagnostic so the teeth could have belonged to one or more really cool looking horned dinosaurs. This also gives the kids knowledge that there other Ceratopsians besides Triceratops. This will also be the point where we introduce Dromaeosaurids. Raptors are just iconic and this formation gives us the chance to really hit on adaptations. We have a Saurornitholestes tooth and will soon have a Dormaeosaurid caudal vertebra. While not assigned specifically to Dromaeosaurus, the vert will presented that way so we can talk about the differences between the two raptors. Of particular interest is the larger skull, more robust teeth, and specific wear patterns on the teeth of Dromaeosaurus. We will also have a small tooth tip from a Tyrannosaur indet. The kids will love learning about other Tyrannosaurids and I will leave it to the kids to imagine which one it belonged to. The real owner of the tooth is not important. That two existed in this formation is what is important. They must have occupied different niches plus a lot of kids may think T-Rex was the only member of that family. The last fossil I know we will have from Judith River is one of my favorites. It is an Ankylosaurus tooth and thanks to some help from TFF members, I spotted this among a few Nodosaur teeth. In our inventory, this is Ankylosaurus indet. However, in every single dinosaur presentation we do this will be Zuul and it will be a rock star. We want the kids to understand that there are many new discoveries being made and there will be a lot of new dinosaur discoveries made by THEIR generation. Everything about Zuul will be cool to kids. It is the one of the most incredible fossils ever found, armored dinosaurs are just cool, and it even has a pop culture name that a lot of kids will recognize from Ghostbusters lol Only 5 fossils but we can do A LOT of quality education with these fossils. I also have a very clear idea of the next items to find from Judith River. #1 on that list is a Dromaeosaurus tooth. A tooth gives us the perfect way of illustrating the difference between the raptors. We have two more purchases to complete before I buy again so I will save up and in the spring I start searching for that tooth. I also would love to add a hadrosaur bone from this formation and eventually I will track down a frill piece. Anyway, here a couple of the fossils... Pic 1- our Saurornitholestes tooth. Not a great picture but a really nice tooth. Pic 2- the Dormaeosaurid indet vert. Not here yet but will be right around my B-day. Pic 3- the Anky tooth. It is just a cool tooth and Zuul is a great dinosaur to teach kids about so Zuul is what this tooth is for Fossils on Wheels. Our only fossil from an armored dinosaur.
  2. Fossilized Dad

    Dinosaur National Monument

    This past summer, we went to Dinosaur National Monument. I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in dinosaur fossils and people with kids. It's a great opportunity to see fossil dinosaurs in their natural state and in a quarry, plus other fossils are around too (e.g. mini clams). I know you can't collect there, but it's good to see sites with an abundance of fossils the way they've been for ages. Lloyd
  3. Carter and I have decided that we need to make some changes to Fossils on Wheels. This decision is being made in part because Covid forced it and in part because we both want thought it was just time to do some different things. We plan on continuing to educate people about fossils as soon as we can but that is still at least 6 months away, maybe more. The biggest change is that we have decided it is time to retire the Dinosaur Ed programs. This is not a decision that was made suddenly. It has been brewing since the lock down started and it is the right thing for us to do. Much of the decision is based on a conversation that we had about the future of the entire fossil collection. The fossil collection that we use in our ed programs does legally belong to both of us but the time is coming when I will change that. The ownership of the collection will go to both of my kids with Carter being in charge of it. He was perfectly comfortable with the ever growing shark collection. He, like me, is a shark dude. He, like me, is just not a dinosaur guy. He really did not want to deal with the dinosaur stuff should something happen to me. My first priority in life is my kids and I need to listen to what he said. I give him a lot of credit for being honest and direct about that fact. I also give a lot of respect for saying he was ok with us simply saying he enjoyed doing the dinosaur programs but it was time for other things. Another important factor, though not the most important factor, was the feedback we got from the people who enjoyed the fossils. Kids and adults all had the same suggestion as to how we could improve the programs. The suggestions were always the same and revolved around a glaring hole in our collection. We lack large, impressive, cool looking theropod teeth and stuff like raptor killing claws. It is just a fact and we knew it was the big hole in the program. The problem was that in order to recitify that situation, we would need to spend a significant amount of money. You can not really bargain shop for large T-rex teeth or Allosaur teeth. You also can not bargain shop rare theropd teeth or claws from outside the US. Well maybe some people can but we could not. Neither one of us had any intention of spending the kind of money it would have taken to fill that hole. There were always going to be limits on what we had. The other factor is that we simply are not dino guys. We started with shark teeth and that is where will eventually end. The dinosaur collection was started simply as an educational tool. It was a way for us to spread the joy of fossils and to some solid education work. We are proud of what we did with the fossils. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 people got to interact with those fossils. They traveled all over Northern California and we had a blast doing it. It was one of the highlights of my life. I just had some much fun working with kids and most importantly, working with my son. We had the big conversation and factored in everything, we knew the time had come though to let others enjoy those fossils. The time has come for us to find homes for our road hardened, battle tested dinosaur friends. It is the right thing to for us and the right thing to do for the fossils that logged so much time being education animals. Even though they are not alive, they really were education critters. They worked for hard for us and for that we are grateful. They were packed up, put in the truck of the car, unpacked, touched and handled by hundreds of kids during the course of a day, packed back up, put in the truck, and then stored until the next time. The amazing thing is that through all of that movement and being handled so much, not a single dino fossils broke or got any damage worse than an occasional chip. Remarkable I think. We are also extremely grateful to the TFF members who helped us build the collection and gain knowledge. We made a commitment early on that we would not profit from selling donated fossils and we will proudly uphold that promise. ALL DONATED DINOSAUR FOSSILS WILL IN TURN BE DONATED. Our hope is that they can continue to help bring education and joy to people but not a single one of those will be sold. The majority of the fossils were purchased and those will be sold. Now it is important to not that it is not worth your time to inquire about rare fossils, large theropod teeth, or dinos from outside of the US. We have very little, if any, fossils that meet those requirements. The collection was designed to be mobile, interactive, and was largely the product of extreme bargain shopping. museum quality stuff this is not lol Plus I only mention this to keep the number of messages here about the fossils to a bare minimum. This is not a sales post. Covid did take its toll on Fossils on Wheels and we will no longer do dinosaurs but it is not the end of our education mission. That will continue. We may not call ourselves Fossils on Wheels. We did let our business license lapse and Carter thinks we should call ourselves exactly what we are, Two Shark Dudes lol We are still as passionate as we were prior to Covid but the game has changed. We need to change as well. This is not a sad event for us. We loved having the opportunity to take our little collection on the road and into classrooms. We are so thankful that we could do it and we look forward to a future when we are back at it. I want to wrap this up the only that seems appropriate...... THANK YOU SO MUCH TO OUR TFF FRIENDS THAT HELPED US. WITHOUT THE FOSSIL FORUM, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE :)
  4. fossilsonwheels

    Some different Dino displays

    We starting switching up our displays for the different styles of Dinosaur programs we do. The formation displays are great but we wanted to try this style for the Dino report programs. I like how these are shaping up and they help the flow of the presentations. We can switch fossils between the different displays and this gives us some flexibility. The first one completed is the Ceratopsians. We have two different decent sized Trike frill pieces and various teeth from Hell Creek. The Leptoceratops tooth is from Lance Creek and we have two JRF teeth. From the Aguja, we have a frill piece. Lastly a toe bone and a small frill piece from Horseshoe Canyon. We use a 7” Hell Creek vert and a 3” vert from Horseshoe as touch fossils. The kids like seeing the various pieces of different Ceratopsians from different locations.
  5. musicnfossils

    Some New Finds in December

    Was lucky enough to go for a couple hikes just before 2020 ended and I figured I’d show off a few bones I found along the way. This area is now much more covered in snow than it was the day the photo was taken...that was probably the final fossil hunting day until spring at least. Got a hadrosaur claw as well as some more bones from the hand, another partial tyrannosaurid toe bone (that brings me to 4 now) and a couple more ornithomimid toe bones as well. Didn’t get skunked at least!
  6. Sergio Barbeira

    Spinosaurus marrocanus tooth (autenthicity)

    Hello to everyone! I recently bought a Spinosaurus marrocanus tooth, from Taouz (Morocco). I bought it from a Spanish fossil dealer. I wanted to know if you could give me your opinion about its possible authenticity from the photos attached. Thank you very much!
  7. PrehistoricWonders

    Dinosaur bone prep

    Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to remove dirt from dinosaur bones?
  8. A good read even for those who already are up to speed. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/17/montana-fossilized-dueling-dinosaurs-skeletons-dino-cowboy
  9. fossilsonwheels

    Dinosaurs in Yuba City

    We hit the road today and took our dinosaur fossils to Yuba City. We did two dinosaur programs for the second grade classes at Franklin Elementary. The kids had fantastic knowledge, asked tons of questions and were well behaved. Carter and I had a really great time and I think the kiddos did too. Thankful for the opportunity to reach new kids !! It was also our first chance to use the large Diplodocus bone and our Anzu claw. Here are some of the students checking out a big Diplodocus fossil while getting their fossils to take home
  10. fossilsonwheels

    The Magic Of Fossils

    We did three Dinosaur education programs at Shasta Elementary which has become our home away from home school. These were cute and excited little 2nd graders. After the first program, the teachers informed us of potentially problematic student. This kid had some pretty heavy duty behavioral stuff going on. The decision was made to let him stay in the classroom for the program. The program started and this students was at a table in the far corner doing his own thing. He made a minor attempt at being a distraction for about 5 minutes by tapping his pencil on the desk and making noises. The tapping and noises stopped. A few minutes passed and the student very quietly walked by me to his regular desk which was right next to me. He proceeded to get more and more engaged. He followed the class rules and was smiling the whole time. He was a model student through the presentation. He had some good knowledge and was behaving like the other kids just enjoying checking out dinosaur fossils. After the program, when we were done passing out the shark teeth for the kids to take home, he gave me a quick hug and said thank you. I told him he earned his fossil by following the rules. He smiled and with pride said " I did follow the rules." The teacher asked us to come back and do that again. He will be back in late January or early February. We will also be back in April or May. They will get sharks and they will get whales. Carter and I were both thrilled to have gotten through to all of the kids today but that one kid was the highlight of the day to us. 3 classrooms full of kids and they were all digging what we were doing. I have been an educator for over a decade so I know how to get through to tough kids but fossils have an absolutely magical power with kids. 80-90% of the kids we encounter stay engaged and all of them follow the rules to get their free fossils. Today was almost 100% as far as engagement goes. The fossils have such an impact and the kids really get involved. Tomorrow, I head off to Paradise to do programs at the site of the worst wildfire in California history. Carter has dental work to get done but tomorrow will be awesome. I worked with many students from paradise right after the fire in my other job so we are honored to be heading up there for some special kids. It will end our Fall season in a huge way. We did programs for 24 classrooms this fall. We gave away over 600 free fossil kits. For the year, we are over 1200 free fossils. We did a program for a retirement community. We traveled this fall. We reached new schools and new grade levels. I make this update with a great deal of pride. Thank TFF and all the members here who have been so helpful. You go to these classrooms with us
  11. fossilsonwheels

    A day in Paradise

    We wrapped up our 2019 season in Paradise California today. We did programs for all three 3rd grade classes at the new Paradise Ridge Elementary. It’s been a little more than a year since the Camp Fire destroyed most of the town and it was super cool to visit the new school. The kids were very sweet, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I think the 6 classrooms we did presentations for over the past two days represent our best work yet. Today was just special and so much fun. Carter ended making two of the programs despite a dental appointment early in the morning. This was a highlight for us. We also gave away 70 more free fossils. I took one picture which is one more than I usually remember to take lol
  12. fossilsonwheels

    New Dinosaur Education Displays

    We did a lot more work on our shark stuff this summer than dinosaurs but we did change how display the non touch fossils. We added a few new items too but stayed light on additions. First up is our updated Cretaceous North Africa display. We added a really nice theropod tooth that fits @Troodon ‘s Morph Type 4 Dromaeosaurid-like profile hence the label for the program. We explain the ID difficulties of fossils so for a tooth like this they know we are not sure of what critter had this tooth. I am pretty happy with how this one looks. We give a nice picture of Cretaceous North Africa from two different times. This is an important part of our program and we have some nice fossils I think. We also have two touch fossils with this section. A limb bone that we go with Spino as the critter and one is a theropod very that we use to talk about Deltadromeus.
  13. I have been working hard lately on all of our programs and we are very close to having the dinosaur presentation I want us to have. We have a name for this program, Dinos Rock. Yes it is not super creative but for 2nd graders, this is a geology themed program. For 3rd graders, it is adaptation based but the name works. We have added some pieces that gives us more than a few teeth. Nothing museum quality or anything but a few bones help the visual factor. I have been studying the biology, geology and ecology of dinosaurs so the science will be good. my son is working on the art but we wont have any done soon, he has school projects a head of this. We are close to being ready a full 6 months before I thought we would be. Hell Creek was going to be a focus for us because the fossils are available and this is the fauna that most kids will recognize. If you are willing to look hard, you can also find some real bargains from this formation. We turned a lot of early attention collecting attention to Hell Creek dinosaurs and I am actually really happy with where we are at with the fossil material we have. There is a lot of room to add and maybe upgrade in the future but this is a good start. This is the famous T-Rex and Triceratops fauna and we started our collection with those critters. Very early on, we were able to get a few Hell CreekTriceratops teeth. I am very happy that through a purchase from TFF member, we added two frill pieces. They are Lance formation but we are not covering the Lance formation yet so they will be used here. I also added a frill piece from Hell Creek. The kids will get to touch the largest frill piece which is a great bonus. An iconic dinosaur and I think well represented. Also early on, we stumbled into a great bit of a luck. A TFF member saw a post of ours and passed it on to another TFF member who sold us a beautiful Tyrannosaurus Rex partial tooth and gave us a really nice Nano too. It was very affordable and a generous gift was added that gave us nice pieces from the most famous dinosaur ever. The rock star really. I was not sure we would be able to get a decent example at all but to do it right off the bat was HUGE. This would not have happened if not for the members that decided to help us out. We are extremely grateful The first dinosaur fossil we got were two Hell Creek Edmontosaurus teeth that were a gift. We acquired a nice jaw fragment in a trade. I am a bargain shopper with a limited budget so I LOVE our Edmontosaurus as it has not cost much at all. I named this display Eddie I like it so much lol Hadrosaurs are important dinosaurs to talk about and I think a fair amount of kids may not know about them. I would like to add another bone later too. They seem attainable for us. Acheroraptor was behind only T-rex on the my list and we got a really beautiful tooth and it was another bargain pick up. I will talk a lot about this species and I will get deep into the biology/ecology of this awesome dino because I love Dromaeosaurids. Raptors are also an iconic dinosaur that kids love and this is a relatively new species which is another fun thing to discuss with the kids. We will also be introducing the kids to a theropod they have never heard of, Richardoestesia gilmorei. I have told me son to envision a toothed Cormorant type dinosaur as I lean toward them being a fish eater. It is pretty cool to get a Hell Creek dino that they will not know anything about. We have yet to add a Thescelosaurus fossil but we will before we start presenting. I want to add another piece of the fauna and it seems this is the most inexpensive option we will have. It will also give the kids another dinosaur they probably do not know and it will round out the basic Hell Creek fauna. There is no shortage of dinosaurs that we can add either. An Anky or Nodosaur scute is way up on the program list of fossils for me and hopefully we can find one from this formation. Dakotaraptor is #1 on my personal list and I will get one eventually. A Troodontid is also very high on the list as well. I know eventually i will also pick up an Ornithominid too. All three of these are more expensive so we will have to save and wait but each one would also make awesome educational dinosaurs. I also really want to add an Avian fossil. I have not researched this but my guess is they are very rare. Leptoceratops is another species I would love to add at some point too. They are really cute and kids will dig them. Anyway, here are some of the fossils. I think we have a good start going to our Hell Creek collection and I am looking forward to taking these to work with me very soon. Pic 1- Triceratops teeth and Eddie Pic 2- T-Rex, Nano, and Hell's Thief. I am so happy to have these fossils. Pic 3- One of the frill pieces. This one will end up in a larger Trike display with more teeth and another frill. Plus we will have nice frill for kids to check out too.
  14. I am currently spending a bit of time every day looking into dinosaurs that are off the beaten path. One of my goals with our education programs is to introduce kids to more obscure dinosaurs that they will not have heard of. We have a few fossils that accomplish that goal already in our program such as Thescelosaurus and Struthiomimus. Scientists and collectors know these dinosaurs but kids do not. They are that next level of knowledge beyond T-Rex, Trikes, Sauropods, etc. We are adding a Leptoceratops tooth for this reason. it is a weird little dino that the kids will not know but will be really interested in. Ceratosaurs are another that get that reaction too. They are overshadowed by the more well known large Theropods. We do this within the Dromoaeosaur family by busting out our Atrociraptor tooth. It is just different enough to really get their attention. I have been reading up on Alvarezsauridae lately and they are a really interesting group of dinosaurs. I doubt we will obtain any fossils but they may be worth mentioning without fossils which is not a common practice for us. I think the Troodontids fit this bill as I have yet to hear any kids mention them and I will be working on getting a Troodontid tooth here in the next few months. It is on the list for sure. I had a lot of fun getting ideas for non-dinosaurs to include in our programs so I thought it would be really fun and informative to get the opinions of the very sharp minded dinosaur collectors here. Keep in mind that our goal is to give fossil examples with the dinosaurs we discuss so do not get to crazy with species from China or South America lol Keep suggestions to North America, Africa, and Europe. I am not adverse to tracks and eggs either. What are some obscure or strange dinosaurs that we can look into to expand our programs?
  15. We were asked to comeback to 2 classrooms we had done a shark presentation for and do dinos ! Very cool but the teachers threw me a curve. They want a program aimed at teaching kids note taking and writing short essay answers from the notes. This is quite different than just talking about adaptations or the geology of fossils. I happily said yes and now I have two weeks to plan an entirely different theme but this will help us going forward as it gives us another style of program to offer teachers. I am pretty stoked that the teachers though enough of our program to invite us back and have us help the students build some skills. Quite a compliment for a program just getting started I think
  16. It is with a good bit of giddy enthusiasm that we share our very first Jurassic dinosaur fossils. We have a start to our Morrison Formation collection and I am so excited to take these into class. This is also a proud moment because my son and I earned these fossils with our hard work. This is a gift to our program from us and a gift to the kids we want to educate. They are also big hunks of dino bone. We needed a couple of larger bones for these programs for visual flair and these fit the bill for our budget. It will be a week before they arrive but I am too excited to wait lol One of the things we learned from our first dinosaur program was that 2nd graders learn about Diplodocus when they study dinosaurs. It was a species they knew. So we purchased a partial Diplo coracoid bone. It is a 15" x 11" x 9" hunk of dinosaur bone that weighs 12 lbs. Our largest and heaviest fossil. This one will really get the attention of the kids I think and gives us a the opportunity to feature Diplo in the program We also added two partial Camarasaurus ribs that fused together during fossilization. It is 14" x 9" so it is good sized and is a great example of the geological process they are learning about. This gives us an additional Sauropod to cover in the program and lest us talk more about niches. This will be a great fossil for the kids to touch as well. We are also adding a few pounds of chunkasaurus bones. Perfect dino fossils for hands on exploration and a few special give away dino bones too. The pictures are not great, not sure why but I will upload more when they arrive. Here are the big ones.... Picture 1- Diplo coracoid Picture 2 Cam ribs
  17. Fossils on Wheels can officially say we are an elementary assembly program We will be doing two presentations for all of the students at Nord Country Day School. it is a small charter in the middle of farm country here. I personally love the single class presentations because they allow you to interact with the students in a more in-depth manner. The assembly style programs are our best way to travel to schools outside of city though. We can educate an entire school versus 30-35 students at a time. This is pilot program but it is very important to our future to develop a large scale traveling fossil program. Things are moving very quickly for us and we are starting to reach large numbers of students. A big leap forward for us and a chance to bring real fossils to an entire school. This will also be the debut for our Diplodocus fossil which is our largest piece. I am really excited to bring Dippy to a presentation.
  18. For the most part I am pretty happy with our collection so far and pretty satisfied with the fossils for our presentation. I know we are lacking a couple of items that kids will really dig. I am working on picking up a low quality, cheap Tyrannosaur tooth that the kids can handle. I know that is something kids will LOVE. I am close to having a Jurassic sauropod bone so we will have something soon that represents the massive size of a dino. Beyond that, I know what I want to add but not the order. Most of the next round of purchases will be bone not teeth. Dromaeosaurid teeth are an exception but the next few additions really need to be bones. Part of why kids dig dinosaurs so much is they were huge animals. Bones give a much better representation of that size than teeth do. I picked up on the basics of identifying dinosaur teeth pretty quickly but bones are a different. I am working on a basic anatomy lesson on dinosaurs for myself. I study for about a half a night as that is all the time I have right now. Feeling okay about basic dinosaur anatomy is a good thing but learning about the fossil bones as collectibles is pretty scary. I see bones all over the place so I am not worried about finding them. It is EVERYTHING else about that worries me. Figuring out if they are even dinosaur bones is pretty hard for me at this point. I see bones that look to be chunkasaurus to me but are labeled with a species. I also see a lot of fragments that have not only have species but are labeled as ribs or verts or limb bones. Where are the ID"S coming from? How does anybody know that fragment is a Triceratops limb bone? To me it seems a clear cut case of dealers wanting a species to move product. I get why it occurs but it is not helpful. For somebody new to this, it is pretty crazy to see so many bones with species attached. I avoid most of the bones I am seeing right now. I simply do not trust my knowledge and I do not trust a lot of what I see. I have taken to assuming most of what I see is not identified correctly. I may not know a lot about dinosaur bones but it has to be snarge near impossible to ID a fragment of bone to species level or even family level. This makes it hard to trust peoples identifications when it comes to bones that are probably more diagnostic. I am doing my best to study my bones and I am putting in the time to really increase my knowledge. I have already learned not to rely on dealer ID's but the bones take time to learn. Each dinosaur is different so you have to know quite a bit. I made a list of the bones we want to add and I study those 5 or 6 which I find helpful. I avoid impulse buys and I am very cautious. I will also use the forum more before I am ready to buy something. I plan on posting bones I see come up and get more informed opinions and developing resources. I have a few dealers that I do trust so that will help too. I think for the bones, developing connections and fostering relationships will be really helpful but I am still finding sources for fossils so my connections are limited. My advice to my fellow newbies is go slow and learn as much as you can. Invest your in knowledge before you invest in the fossils. Be careful and get ID's verified before you buy. I wish you all luck in your collections and good luck with dem bones
  19. fossilsonwheels

    Dinosaur Verts (Maybe)

    I need some ID help/education. I saw a few vertebra for sale and they are in my price range so I thought I would put them on the forum and gather some more informed opinions about these. First up is a "Raptor" vertebra from Hell Creek. It is around .8" x.5" inches. I lack the skills to determine if it is dinosaurian let alone raptor but my gut says likely not.
  20. fossilsonwheels

    Judith River Dino Id Help

    All of these items are from the same dealer and I am looking for some ID help. I researched these as much as I could on my own but I can only get some far with the knowledge I have. All of these come from the Judith River formation. For our education programs to really be solid, we need to expand beyond just teeth. We do have an Edmontosaurus jaw fragment and will soon have some Ceratopsian frill pieces plus some bones fragments from the Morrison Formation. I think it would be a good idea to augment the small dromaeosaurid teeth we have a bone or two so I am trying to understand this part of dinosaur collecting better before I make a purchase. I do not want to repeat the error I made with the Troodon vert (which did have a happy ending as the dealer graciously agreed to exchange that for a frill piece). Any help on this is greatly appreciated. The first one is listed as a the pedal phalanx from a Dromaeosaurus. I looked over as many photos as I could find of dromaeosaurid phalanx bones. It does look similar to several photos I found. I have a few questions on this one. Is this the phalanx of a dromaeosaurid dinosaur ? Second question is more of a general question. Can you even determine a genus or species based on an isolated phalanx? The second one is listed as a distal caudal vertebra of a Dromaeosaurus. This one was far more difficult to find anything to reference on the internet. I found nothing that could give me an insight as to whether or not this is a dromaeosaurid vertebra. Is this is from a dromaeosaurid dinosaur or any kind of theropod for that matter ? I have a pretty good idea now of what to ask dealers when it comes to theropod teeth but isolated bones are pretty new to me. Are there questions that I can ask of the dealer to further the ID process? Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide
  21. Today is my last day off of work which means I have time to do fossil stuff. It is also the last day for a little while that I will be discussing dinosaur fossil very much. We have shark programs starting at the end of this month so my mind has to get back on the sharks. Dinosaurs go on the back burner again for awhile. I will post a bit more of the collection but I also wanted to share a little bit about my experience with Jurassic dinosaur fossils during the early stage of building our collection. Hopefully it provides something useful to another collector. As we started window shopping in preparation for beginning a dinosaur collection, one thing stood out about fossils from the Jurassic era. They are expensive. The prices are so far out of my range that I did not bother to research them beyond the ones we first encountered from various dealers. I would have to sell a kidney to get a hold of anything from that era. I saw sauropod teeth for up to 2500$ and none under 600. Don't get me started on theropods from that era. It all looked just too expensive. Our collection is built on inexpensive fossils from formations (Bull Canyon, Kem Kem, Judith River, Hell Creek) that produce some great bargain stuff. i saw nothing in the way of bargain fossils from the Jurassic beyond bits of bone or bits of bone assigned a species even though I doubt you could assign a species to those bits. They are chunkasaurus not Camarasaurus is my theory lol Anyway, I had little belief that we would add anything Jurassic except for the chunkasaurus bones for kids to handle. It did bother me though that we would have a glaring hole in the program. Kids associate the Jurassic era with dinosaurs and vice versa thanks to the movies Jurassic Park. Even if the dinosaurs from those movies were not Jurassic, the word association is unavoidable. I decided to back track the origins of the super expensive fossils from that era. I have a theory that there has to be a primary source for all of those high priced dealer bones. I think one or two entities probably supply the vast majority of fossils from the Morrison Formation which seems the primary formation for North America fossils out there. I think I was successful in the attempt to find one of the sources of the fossils. I have seen affordable Jurassic fossils for the first time and I would tend to trust the ID's because these folks dug them up. I suspect season collectors will the know the folks I am talking about. I saw a few fossils that were in the price range that we set for ourselves. It is not a lot of money at all but I saw fossils that we CAN get. We can not buy right now. The Judith River Anky and I are in a firmly committed relationship so until that tooth comes home, I am frozen on purchasing for a bit lol I do have a source though and time to start learning about Jurassic dinosaur fossils before I buy any. I know the general profile of what type of dinosaur fossil we will add. It will be a bone, not a tooth, of a sauropod. It will give us a Jurassic dinosaur to fill that blank space in the program plus it would give us some visual flair. Point is...... a little bit of above ground virtual digging can unearth the fossils you want even if they at first seem to expensive to afford. Be patient, be diligent, do your homework, and you can build a pretty awesome dinosaur collection, with out going broke
  22. Back in November of last year, my son and I decided to start our own education non-profit. We wanted to combine his artwork, my teaching skills, and real fossils to create a museum on wheels that takes fun field trips to the classrooms. We had shark teeth and marine mammal fossils so we started building education programs around those. I am very satisfied where those two programs are at though I would love to expand the number of shark species we can present but that is a story for a different day. We knew we would need to get a dinosaur program going at some point but I know nothing about dinosaur fossils so I did not want to start collecting yet. My plan was to wait until late spring or early summer to start building our collection. A friend gave us two hadrosaur teeth and a Hypselosaurus egg shell piece in December so our program got started earlier than planned. As we do with every decision, my son and I talked about picking up a few bargain dinosaur fossils while we tightened up the other programs which are debuting in March. One of the first things I did was join TFF. I was very intimidated by dinosaur fossils and I hoped this place would help me educate myself. I have been a quiet observer so far and have not engaged very much with the dinosaur experts here. I have read a lot of posts and this has been so incredibly helpful. Utilizing the expertise of the members here has also saved me money and stopped me from making one unwise purchase. I have only picked up a few dinosaur items up to this point but without being on this site, I doubt I would have made any attempt at starting this particular collection so soon. I am very grateful for the forum and its members because a lot of people really want to help. I quickly learned that our presentation will be centered on the Hell Creek fauna and we can augment it with some African dinosaurs. After a bit of window shopping, it became apparent right away that Jurassic period dinosaurs were simply too expensive for us. There is no way we will be able to purchase any and trades are unlikely as we just do not have much material that would have much trade value. I can live with this though. If we focus on the T-rex/Ceratopsian fauna of Hell Creek we are giving kids species they know plus introducing them to new species which I am totally cool with. We also decided we could talk Triassic dinosaurs with kids using Bull Canyon fossils. Now I am an avid reader here so I am aware that there is some debate about the species that are found in Bull Canyon and how things are labeled by dealers but I did pick some up because we want to teach kids about the evolution of dinosaurs and to give them a few species that have never heard of. I can not be sure if the teeth I have are Coelophysis teeth but we are still going to present them as such to the students because it is an opportunity to get to early dinosaurs. Same goes for a "prosauropod" tooth we purchased. We are not going to sell the fossils so the correct ID is less important to us than being able to at least have a representation of early dinosaurs for the kiddos. Our early efforts were given a huge boost when a member here helped broker a transaction between another member which resulted in us having a very nice partial T-rex and a Nano. This was huge for us. We got the centerpiece species and it was super affordable. I am still in a bit of shock to be honest and incredibly grateful. We also picked up some inexpensive Hell Creek Triceratops teeth. I found a nice Saurornitholestes from Judith River which gives us a "raptor" fossil for the kids. I got an inexpensive Moroccan sauropod tooth which gives us a "long neck" that we can use. It is really not a bad start in my eyes. We picked some species that we really wanted to include. We also have begun to find some teeth that kids can handle in the form of partial or shed Ceratopsian teeth and inexpensive Spinosaurus teeth from Morocco. I only made one questionable decision. I did not use TFF and ended up misidentifying a tooth. This led us to having two Richardoesstesia gilmorei teeth. We really did not need two fossils from this species but it was a learning experience. I learned that I need keep studying, learning and using the forum. Had I put it here first, instead of testing my own skills, I would not have picked it up . I would have filled another need in the program. Lesson learned and the upside is that I do have a dinosaur fossil I can possibly trade. It is not much for trade I am sure, but maybe I can use it to get a fossil that fills a hole in the program. The most important thing I have learned so far is that I really enjoy collecting dinosaur fossils. I am hooked. I was never a dinosaur kid myself. I preferred sharks and whales but I am really captivated by dinosaurs now. I have been cramming my brain with scientific information about dinosaurs and my son is really enjoying getting a start on his dino artwork. We have a long way to go before we are ready to unleash our budding dino education program. I have a long way to go with my own knowledge too. I do know it will be a lot of fun to learn and I am looking forward to getting more interactive with the dinosaur collectors here. We have settled on the next round of dinosaurs to add (Acheroraptor, Ankylosaur, Pachycephalosaurus, a Troodontid, plus more Ceratopsian material) and they seem attainable so I am excited to get to work on those in the near future. I also learned there are species from the Hell Creek formation that are awesome but we will never have due to price or rarity lol Dakotaraptor is #1 on that list but the avian dinosaurs are not far behind. All things considered, I am super happy with our tiny dinosaur collection and I am really enjoying the hunt for more !!
  23. On to the Dinos. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found some helpful information here about the Triassic fossil material from Bull Canyon before we started collecting the fossils so I knew going in that some of the dinosaur stuff may not be dinosaur at all or at least it may not be the dinosaur that they are sold as. The fossils are educational so we will present them as we purchased them while noting the uncertainty in documenting our collection. We want to do what we do with the sharks and start our programs as far back in the evolutionary line as we can get. Bull Canyon gives us possible dinosaur fossils that represent very early dinosaurs. The kids will likely not know much about early dinosaurs so these fossils are important in giving us that bridge. We bought three very small, and inexpensive, "Coelophysis" teeth. One of them looks that it could be a dinosaur tooth while the other two are probably not. I found a great piece by Troodon here that outlined what to look for in Bull Canyon teeth and using his profile of what to look for from a dinosaur tooth from Bull Canyon, I contacted the dealer I bought them from. He is going to find us one that fits that profile so I feel good that we will have one or two Triassic Theropod teeth. If they are actually Coelophysis or not is not a concern. That is the species we are presenting to the kids because they are such a well known early dinosaur. The kids can learn more about them on their own and they may get really interested in early dinosaurs if we can connect them to one. It gives a an opportunity to touch on basic theropod biology and get into evolution. We also got a small and inexpensive "Prosauropod" tooth. I did know before buying it that no diagnostic prosauropod fossils had been found in Bull Canyon. I can accept that this one is unlikely to be prosauropod but we are still going to present it as one because the kids will really enjoy hearing about the forerunners of the very well known Long necks. I do not have all the science info set for this part of the presentation. I am still learning about early dinosaurs. I do not think we will be able to add much to this part of the dinosaur program. There does not seem to be a lot of fossil material available so i think this will have to be enough. Pic 1 our tiny collection of tiny Triassic "dinosaur" teeth.
×
×
  • Create New...