Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'eocene/oligocene'.
-
I donated thousands of specimens that I collected from anthills on my sons’ M&M Ranch (mostly upper Eocene but also a few Oligocene small areas) in Nebraska to the Smithsonian and to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Museum of Geology. There are currently six researchers studying the specimens with multiple papers in progress. Covid-19 slowed the progress down significantly but it looks like a few of the papers are now starting to move forward. Below is a link to one of my TFF posts that shows a few of the micro specimens that I collected and donated: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/66138-oligocene-micros-from-the-mm-ranch-in-nebraska/&tab=comments#comment-692680 Below is a link to a TFF post that shows macro specimens that are also found on the M&M ranch. The specimens shown in this post were not part of my donations. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/94904-mm-ranch-in-nebraska/& The first paper that will get published (in writing right now) describes mammals (insectivores) from the M&M Ranch. Below is a preliminary illustration of what families/genera/species were found on the ranch. I was really happy that there was a new species of Oligoryctes and a new genus of Soricidae (shrews). However, the specimens provided further scientific value as summarized in the below e-mail statements by the insectivore researcher: “The effort was definitely worth it. Even for some of the already known species, the specimens in this collection preserve parts of the animal not seen in previously described specimens and there are also quite a few range extensions (both in terms of age and geography). And this is just the “insectivores,” I am sure the other portions of the fauna will also be informative and provide many new discoveries” The numbers in parentheses represent the number of specimens. You can see that for some of the species there were a very large number of specimens like H. fugax where there were 501 specimens. When the paper is published I’ll add a link to this post. Other papers that will eventually be published will describe Squamates (snakes, lizards and legless lizards), Amphibians (frogs and salamanders), Mammals (rodents) and eggshells from the M&M Ranch. Marco Sr.
- 101 replies
-
- 17
-
- eocene/oligocene
- mammals carnivores
- (and 4 more)