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Since moving to Gainesville I've had the opportunity to work more closely with the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH). In addition to volunteer digging at the Montbrook site I also get to work on prepping fossils in the prep lab on campus. This brings me into contact with the major players at the museum which is a great fringe benefit to be able to have access to chat with those with lots of paleontological experience. Bruce MacFadden is on the second year of a program to develop an interesting course plan for STEM teachers around Florida. It's an interesting program combining science, paleontology (kids love fossils) and AI which is really trending these days (I promise this text was not written by ChatGPT). As part of this program the teachers will train an online AI program to recognize megalodon teeth from photos. After training one of the things they will do with the class is to see how the AI will do at recognizing partial megalodon teeth (AKA fraglodons). Since each teacher is given a number of fraglodons to use while teaching this program to their students we have a need for less than perfect megs. The teachers get to keep the fraglodons as they will (hopefully) continue to teach the program year after year. I've been able to contact some fossil hunters I know who would likely have a cache of broken megs looking for a good use. Those donations were helpful for the first cohort of teachers but the second cohort (new STEM teachers) are getting ready to work this program into this year's class and we are in need of new fraglodons for them to use. Bruce brought in some of the fraglodons they used while teaching the program this year so I could take a photo showing the variation in completeness. Note that these are all Florida fraglodons so they are all the usual grayish-black in coloration. Bruce mentioned that color is not a factor and broken megs of any color would be very welcome (even little corners of a root with just a bit of serrated enamel showing). He said that they could really use around 100 fraglodons so I'm putting this out to the forum to see if any of you have some of these less than perfect teeth sitting around in your collection looking for a higher purpose. If you think you have some fraglodons that would help this year's STEM teachers get kids interested in AI and fossils, please contact me via PM. Thanks in advance for all who have something they'd like to contribute. Cheers. -Ken

Hey everyone. Last summer I found an interesting piece of late Cretaceous fossil bone with a unique texture in New Jersey. It was later identified as a Nodosaur osteoderm by Ralph Johnson. Dinosaur material in general is rare in New Jersey and this specimen to my knowledge is the second Nodosaur osteoderm found in the state of New Jersey. Recently, I had the pleasure of donating this specimen to the New Jersey State Museum. I am honored to be able to contribute this specimen to science for future generations to study. Here are photos of the specimen.

Bison bison. Wisconsin glaciation. Southern Minnesota, Brown County. Science Museum of Minnesota. Found in a riverbed in September of 2020 on a joint citizen scientist and Science Museum outing. I found this femur by noticing the femoral head sticking out of the river bottom. External Post:

The partial repaired jaw was donated to a geological organization in Phoenix. I thought that I would try to ID it before giving it away probably to a young fossil enthusiast. No provenance is known. Is this an oreodont? Any idea where it came from? First photo of entire rock has a field of view of 4 inches. The second of the teeth is 2.25 inches for a field of view. Thanks, John

In 2008, I found one of the prizes of my collection amongst a pile of sand and broken bits at Calvert Cliffs. I knew from seeing museum specimens of Isognomon maxillata that even with the tip broken off, this was a great find. After admiring it on my shelf every day since, I decided to share it. Today it has a new home at the Delaware Museum of Natural History, which did not have any of this species or much of anything from that region amongst its 2,000,000+ mollusk specimens. Along with the Isognomon, I donated a Chesapectin nefrens shell with a number of pearl buds on the inside and a Tongue shell (Glossus santamaria) from the same location. The curator was happy to tell me that after 40 years of displaying modern sea shells and fossils of dinosaurs, they are finally putting together an exhibit of fossilized sea shells. Who knows, maybe one or more of these will end up on public view?

Hello All, I reached out a few years ago with the same question but I have plenty of SharkTooth Hill material for donation to museums or schools. the think I have most is marine mammal bones but I also have other rarer materials. Please contact me if you would like some stuff, all I ask is you pay shipping and provide me a deed of gift to your institution. Thanks Jesse

Was hoping to get some help from someone on here. Not sure if this is the right forum. My wifes work is getting Christmas presents for the local orphanage/children’s home. One of the kids put on his info form that his favorite animal is a Megalodon. I was wondering if someone on here might have an extra Megalodon tooth that they’d be willing to donate or sell cheaply so we could help this kid out for Christmas. The boxes go out on Dec. 4th so I’d need to have it by the 3rd. Thanks so so much everyone for your help in hopefully giving this kid a very special Christmas.

Hey! I didn't know if anyone knows the best places to collect or look for Onchopristis rostrum fossils and Sclerorhynchidae fossils. I work at a National Park that protects pretty much the last remaining population of smalltooth sawfish and was looking to try to get my hands on a fossil specimen of each or see if people wanted to potentially donate a specimen of each to the park to help tell the story of this incredible critically endangered animal. If you or anyone you know is willing to help in sending me in the right direction on excivating, searching, purchasing, or donating please give me any pointers! Thanks to everyone on here for the help!

Hi guys, How are you? Just to let you know that I donated few fossils to 熊本市博物館　(Museum of Kumamoto city). The fossils I donated are a big nodule filled with danian ship worms from Amakusa Shimojima, a silurian piece of "coral" not yet identified from Yamatocho and my best (I won the FOTM contest with this beauty but its place belong to a museum as would say of famous archeologist ) Santonian sea urchin found in Amakusa. The Urchin should be part of the permanent exhibition as soon as they make some place for it. I will post pictures of the fossils I donated later after work. David

As a new fossil hunter I am thrilled to have found what the Florida Museum of Natural History has determined to be "an important scientific discovery". After notifying the Museum of the find they have asked that the specimen be donated in accordance with Florida law. I am happy to do so. The specimen will be added to state's fossil collection for preservation and research. Specimen specifics: Common/Scientific name - Parietobalaena (Kelloggithere) baleen whale ear bone Geological formation/age - Miocene Region where found - Hardee County, Florida USA Museum/Univ. receiving fossil - Florida Museum of Natural History

On November 8th of 2018, a wildfire destroyed the town of Paradise and several other small communities. 12,000 homes were destroyed and 85 people died. The Camp Fire was the most destructive and the deadliest wild land fire in the history of California. Chico is located 8 miles from Paradise and we all know people who lost homes. I know 40 plus people who lost everything they had. I have lived in Chico for 20 years and I spent a lot of time in Paradise. It was a beautiful town. All of the schools from Paradise have settled in Chico. Many of the schools started getting up and running in temporary locations as early as December 5th if I remember correctly. I work for a museum a CSU Chico and we volunteered to give some free field trips and presentations for the students from Paradise. I have been an educator for a decade and I volunteered to do programs for the kids. One of those was a trip to a local charter school that had turned its gym into a temporary home for two K- 8th charter schools from Paradise. I took a few fossils from the museum and stood in front of 250 kids. Here is the kicker, every single kids in the gym had lost their home. Every single teacher had lost their home. 275 people in that gym and I was the only person there who had a home. It is fair to say that experience and my other volunteer efforts during and after the fire changed me. I used to be an outdoor science educator and a wildlife researcher. I led hikes with kids, rebuilt habitat, photographed wildlife from all over California plus my kids and I even rescued wildlife. I was snarge good at that job and I loved it. It was a wild life and my kids grew up on trails and around wild animals. In October of 2017, I broke my back and lost the ability to walk for 4 months. The injury ended that career. I was already working at museum but I knew I would never get back outdoors as an instructor. I am an insurance liability. I also stopped educating. I was just a supervisor at the museum. I did nothing with education until I started working those Paradise kids. It fired me up again and I went on a mission. Fossils on Wheels was born. Most of our spring programs are going to be freebies for kids from Paradise. We have some programs with Chico teachers and a few paying gigs too but the focus is on helping get those kids some creative education. The fire was a national news story but the recovery is not. People forget as they get on with their lives. We do not have that luxury. We now share a town with those that lost everything. The conditions for education are less than idea. Some schools landed in nice locations. Other are housed in old buildings that should not be schools. The teachers have it rough as you can imagine a teacher having it yet they are doing their job every day under the worst circumstances. I am writing this to explain further what we do but also to put the spotlight on member here that made a donation that will go to those kids, @JBMugu. He is giving our program a bunch of mammal bones and shark teeth from Sharktooth Hill. The overwhelming vast majority of those shark teeth will end up in the hands of kids who lost homes and everything they had in this world. You may not think a few shark teeth make a difference but they really do. I gave away quite a few of my own in the fall right after the fire hit. The kids were so happy to have some shark teeth. It makes a difference to them. These teeth will be sorted by a group of intermediate schools that first met 4 weeks after the fire. There school is in an old hardware store. They will sort and ID teeth that will be given to the little kids from Paradise and they will also get more teeth. Without the donation from Jesse, we would not be doing this lab and we would not have these fossils to give. His donation has given us the ability to pass on the generosity that he showed to a lot of kids who need good things to come their way. I have learned that The Fossil Forum is not a place for fossil collectors. It is made up of some really great human beings that happen to also collect fossils. It is an honor to be part of this community and it is an honor to among people who are so quick to help fellow collectors and in our case, put fossils into the hands of kids who lost everything. Thank you Jesse and thank you to everybody here who gives their time, knowledge and their fossils to help other collectors.

Hey everyone, I'm back from my second Møns Klint Fossil Excavation - it was absolutely fantastic! For the majority of 2 weeks, I was down at the chalk cliffs of Møn; and recovered quite a sizable quantity of (mostly echinoderm) good-quality fossil material. All of it is still safely stowed away in ice cream boxes and kitchen paper "field jackets", but I can not wait to getting down to preparing all those fossils. Unfortunately, I did not manage to rediscover the "Echinoderm Quarry", but I did on the other hand have the chance to work on some new, very fossiliferous sites. Along with extensive fieldwork, I also got the privilege of analysing the MK Thoracosaurine jaw fossil, and meeting the Director and the Fossil Guide of the GeoCenter Møns Klint. I'll give detailed and illustrated accounts of all that happened* during this successful field session in the next few days... Stay tuned *Except, of course, for my studies of the MK Thoracosaurine - that'll have to wait until after the paper has been published (IF it does end up being published)

Hello all; Happy New Year! I recently made a 'fossil corner' in my basement and came up with an idea for the certificate I received for donating my New Jersey Cretaceous Squatina. vert to the Trenton Sates Museum. It's always tough to donate a nice fossil but this is going to make it a lot easier for me to do this in the future; I copied and printed out two pictures I took of the specimen and taped them to the document, then framed and put it on my wall. I really like the way it came it out and plan to do this with future specimens I donate. Also, it's not a finished product (as you can see, I need better lighting and I also have a few other displays to put up) but here is the start of my 'fossil corner'. Cheers! -Frank

Last year my son and I took a trip to one of my favorite museums, the Kenosha County Public Museum. This museum isn't the biggest, BUT it's free, very educational, beautiful, kid friendly and the dioramas are unforgettable. While there I noticed that they had mislabeled a simple pyrite blob for a critter that I am way too familiar with, the Essexella Jellyfish. So last Saturday I took full advantage of the warm weather that had blown in (a blazing 55 degrees) thawing us from our wintery grip, and made the hour trip to donate a proper Jellyfish. I also decided to donate a few more Mazon Creek fauna pieces that they didn't have. For most of you that don't know this, Kenosha County has been one of the best spots to find complete ice age mega fauna in the US for the last hundred years or so. Located on the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan, the Kenosha Public Museum proudly houses a cast from a local find of the most complete Mammoth ever found in the US. It also has a recreated dig sight from a local find as well of a rare Mammoth butcher site. All of these were found about 30mins from my home. But unlike most mega fauna hunters, I don't have the luxury of rivers to sift. These fossils are either under wetlands, 4'-10' of clay or are in a neighborhood with a house sitting on top of them. Because of this though when they are found they are usually almost complete and well preserved. To this day there is still a Mastodon under a local lake that I will not name. Hopefully funding will come soon so it can be finally uncovered, and I can only hope to volunteer my time to be a part of it. I'm getting off topic....... I highly recommend anyone that is visiting the Chicago or Milwaukee area to take a walk through the Kenosha Public Museum. It is small, but jammed packed with simple to understand information. The dioramas are just amazing. If you're at all interested in woodland Native American culture, this is the place for you. As most museums do, it has a timeline walkway that brings you from creation to modern day. This museum also has many other things to do and see, and it sits next door to a Civil War Museum and just down the street from the Dino Museum. The pyrite smear that I will call the Golden Ghost Faux Jelly. My chosen donated fossils (Jellyfish, associated group of Jellys, shrimp, shrimp molt, sea cucumber, coprolite and a Macroneuropteris. continued......