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Location: Missouri Period: Pennsylvanian Formation: Iola Limestone (Muncie Creek Shale Member) Hello! I have happened to come across a strange structure while attempting to retrieve a fossil from a limestone rock. While breaking the stone around this nodule the force was enough to separate 2/3rds of the fossil leaving the other section still in a massive slab of limestone that will need more time to dig out Nevertheless here is the structure in question Rotated: 1 of the 2 pieces I was able to retrieve and contains the round "ball structures": I will note I have seen the odd "ball" pattern once before from a post I made over a year ago and I was unable to get it properly identified beyond it possibly being fish ribs/support structures or something else, but I'm hoping this new perspective will help nail down this mystery. I decided to retake some of my original photos since my old device was restricted in file/image size

I was given the fossil fish below. It didn't come with any details, but this looks like a Green River Formation fish, which means it could be from Colorado, Wyoming, or Utah, right? Any thoughts on genus and possibly species? Thanks!

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to meet up with @digit in Gainesville Florida where he very graciously provided my wife and I the opportunity to do some matrix fossil hunting in a local stream. We sieved for a good long time collecting many nice shark and ray teeth as well as other items out of the large portion. At the end we nearly filled a five gallon bucket with gravel that we ran through essentially window screen in the creek to get out the silt and clay. My original trip report can be found here: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/114209-north-florida-fun/&tab=comments#comment-1264293 Back at Ken's house, he was nice enough to sort the bucket of matrix into sizes for ease of picking. We then ran the matrix through 3 stacked sifters since we had already picked out anything caught by the 1/4" screen in the stream. The coarsest material from the sifters would have been caught by the 1/8" screen so (1/4" - 1/8" range). The next finer size range would have been (1/8" - 1/12") and the finest would have been (1/12" - 1/20"). We bagged it up into 3 gallon ziplock bags of coarse matrix, 1 gallon bag of the medium and about 2/3 gallon of the fine matrix. Once home, I dried it out and began the picking and identifying process See some links below for my ID questions and some answers. Thanks to all those that helped. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/119245-florida-mysteries/&tab=comments#comment-1309402 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/119097-gainesville-shark-teeth-question/&tab=comments#comment-1305867 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/119485-small-florida-sharkrayfish-teeth-help/&tab=comments#comment-1310743 So far, all this you have heard or seen before as numerous folks, including Ken, have made many nice posts about sorting and picking matrix for micro-fossils. Some of them are pinned under this Micro topic. What I wanted to impart with this post were the results of my picking efforts, or at least the start of it since I have not gone through all of the matrix by a long shot. But I think I have gone through enough to give a reasonable summary of what can be found in this material. After I have gone through more of it, I can always update the info. You can also search on the forum and find many other excellent posts from members that have looked at this material, but I don't think I have seen a complete summary of what can be found (if I missed it somewhere, sorry). I am not going to post a bunch of pictures of what I found in this thread because I have placed many pictures in an album. Feel free to check it out if interested: My procedure was to pick though the matrix and remove anything that was a fossil, whether I knew what it specifically was or not. After that, the first thing I did was a volume calculation to see what percentage of the matrix is fossil material. Out of the coarsest matrix, the fossils made up 3.2% of the volume, they were a bit less in the medium material (1.9%) and even less in the fine material at 1.1% When you put it all together (remember there is a lot more of the coarse stuff) it comes out to 2.6% of the bucket was fossil material. To me it seems like a small number when I think that in nearly every small scoop I put under the scope I would find numerous fossils. It of course is really only all that interesting if one can compare it to other matrixes, but it gives one an idea of what to expect from this material. My next step was to sort and identify everything. Easy to say, but that was the hardest part since this matrix was new to me. I should be able to do future batches of this stuff much more quickly. Once that was done, I counted the number of specimens of each fossil type and just made a simple spreadsheet of each matrix size. So what did I find? Here is a sample from the coarsest matrix: Keep in mind, most of these fossils are not complete specimens. So for example, while there are 608 Mylobatidae ray teeth, only a small percentage are whole teeth, but if they are in that category there was enough present to be able to ID it. You can see there are over 16% that I know are fossils, but not good enough to be part of one of the listed types or even good enough for me to figure out yet what they are. With more time (and knowledge??) I can probably ID many of those, but that is for another time. Were there differences between the three sizes of matrix? Yes, and I lumped the list of types shown above into broader categories so you can see how the four classes of material (I included the hand collected stuff) compare: And lastly, if you put everything together, you can see what type of fossils you are likely to find in the 2.6% of matrix from the creek: lots of rays, lots of sharks and a smattering of other marine material. That's all. Not sure if anyone else will find this interesting, but I'm sort of a data guy, so it was fun for me to look at it this way. Thanks for looking.

Hello, everyone. I went to a local fossil show today and found this fossil. I was told by the seller that it is a pipefish fossil. I believe he also mentioned it is from California in the Monterey Formation, but not entirely sure on that one. It looks somewhat different from pictures of pipefish fossils I have been able to find online. It measures about 5 inches in length. Any information is appreciated. Thanks!

Well, I know I said my last post on these tiny fossils would be my last, but I was wrong. Everyone was very helpful with the previous questions (as usual) so I'm back with a couple more tiny teeth out of the Gainesville Creek matrix that is generally Miocene aged Hawthorn Fm. All of these are pretty small, most just a few mm's across. You can see previous posts here for other info or ID's: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/119097-gainesville-shark-teeth-question/&tab=comments#comment-1305867 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/114209-north-florida-fun/&tab=comments#comment-1264293 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/119245-florida-mysteries/&tab=comments#comment-1309402 The first one is what I have tentatively called a Raja type tooth. But I know these are rare out of this material and it looks a bit different than other teeth labelled as this, so I am uncertain. Sorry for the big globs of sticky stuff in two of the pictures, I still have not mastered some of the fine points of pulling individual features out of pictures to clean them up - a work in progress. The next one are some ray dermal scutes. OK, I feel pretty good about the top two, but not the bottom two. In fact the lower right is almost certainly something else, I just don't know what. Any thoughts? Next up are some drum fish type teeth. I have separated what I picked from the matrix into three general types, two of which I feel good about the ID's. The first are what are generally called Pogonias, a genus of Drum fish. In this matrix, they are generally small, black in color, variably shaped and with a root that is rather plain (two on right side of picture). They are set as one layer of teeth in a bony plate. The second group of teeth are often blue in color, tend to be oblong, often have a figure-8 shape to the root and I found numerous multi-tooth associations where there are many teeth stacked on top of each other. I found several posts on the the forum and on the web that identified these as wrasse teeth, probably of the genus Labrodon. It is the third set of teeth that I am unsure of, they look similar to Pogonias, but generally are not as black and smooth and have a different root. it is a bit tapered and is striated. Any idea on what these are from? Lastly are several types of what I have thrown into my "unknown fish teeth" bucket. Maybe that is how they will remain and that is fine, maybe some are not even fish teeth. If anyone recognizes any of them, that would be great! The first two look similar to barracuda teeth, of which I found many, but differ in shape a bit. The first ones are thicker and not as symmetrical as my barracuda teeth and the second ones have a distinctive "S"-shape to them. The next ones: I just don't know. Ok, that's all for now. Thanks for any help you can offer. Mike

Location: Missouri Formation: Muncie Creek Shale Time Period: Pennsylvanian I have found many things in the phosphatic nodules from the Muncie Creek Shale formation ranging from scales, bones, coprolites and in some cases braincases or skull material however I have found very little of braincases and I was curious if someone could identify what they either belong to or in case of specimen #1 if it is indeed a braincase I was also wondering if someone could possibly link me to some material relating to Pennsylvanian period braincases as It may help me to better identify such material Specimen #1 I posted this one to this site quite some time ago but never got a response to what it was but I am not 100% sure if its braincase or just some other bone material or even the aforementioned coprolite Unfortunately for these last 2 specimens they are incomplete due to my inexperience 2 years ago when I first cracked them open. I neglected to collect the rest of the pieces hence why I have hesitated to show them on this site for the shame of losing something potentially scientifically valuable, nevertheless I was wondering if they could be identified Specimen #2 This one is 100% a braincase but i do not know what it belongs too and wish for identification if possible from the fragment i have Specimen #3 I only think the one above might be skull material is due to how it looks similar to my other more obvious skull/braincase that I own here is a photo of the one I'm describing, which i did have all pieces for:

hello! I went fossil hunting a few hours ago and while doing so I came across a phosphatic nodule that was naturally opened most likely due to freeze thawing Formation: Muncie Creek Shale nevertheless I was wondering if someone could confirm if this is a Campodus sp. tooth as I am assuming it is since it resembles my other Campodus teeth and also wanted to see if anyone can help me remove the the mud from this tooth without damaging the fossil inside by giving advice/Tips I do not have any prep tools Without further delay here is the specimen in question Unfortunately due to being opened naturally and not found soon after some of the pieces have fallen out and gotten mud into it, I only had about 10 minutes left of daylight so I plan to return to the location tomorrow after work to find more fragments the side on the left is the one with the most dirt i wish to remove any advice is welcome!

There have been a couple of small rises lately so i went out hoping to stumble upon something nice. Unfortunately the water did not rise enough to really tumble the gravel but it was still nice weather at least. Here are some pictures of my hunt a couple of weeks ago. As for my hunt a couple of days ago I don't have any pictures because i was skunked for the first time ever. No fossil or artifacts at all. I tried some of the large creeks, the ones that are basically as large as the river itself, and all i could see was dried up mud. I'm not sure if the creeks just have less material in them or if everything is just covered in mud. 1. 2. Mosasaur tail vert im assuming? 3. Not sure if coprolite or not but cool fish bones. 4. Rib of something 5. Fish jaw? 6. Turtle 7. Some cool little bone but have no idea what part or even animal 8.

Here is (hopefully) one last post to help me identify some items I found while searching through the micro matrix from a Gainesville creek that Ken @digit was nice enough take us to. Some other items have been covered in previous posts:; http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/119097-gainesville-shark-teeth-question/&tab=comments#comment-1305867 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/114209-north-florida-fun/&tab=comments#comment-1264293 The matrix comes from a creek in Gainesville, Florida and most of the fossils are from the Miocene aged Hawthorn Formation although there is occasional younger material. The fossil fauna is dominated by shark and ray teeth but there are lots of other items including: bivalves, gastropods, crab claws, fish parts, etc. (i.e. marine). What I have below are several items that I am uncertain about and hopefully someone can confirm my suspicion or give me a better idea. Thanks in advance for all your help. Item #1 is what I assume is a fish scale. Is that correct and can it be ID'd any more specifically? Item #2 is are two very tiny beautiful ray tooth. They look different from most of the Dasyatis and Rhynchobatus that I found with a much wider root. That had me thinking Rhinobatus but I'm not really seeing the uvula that I should expect so I could be way off. Any thoughts? Item #3 are a group of fish vertebrae. The two bottom rows are two views of the same 6 vertebrae and I have no doubt they are fish. It is the one on the top that I am uncertain about as it has a totally different shape. But I'm not that familiar with all the different permutations of fish vertebrae, so it may just be a different one. It reminds me of a mammal atlas, but maybe fish atlas bones look like that too. Item #4 are some items that I really have no idea. They look like little sacs and some are broken so that one can see sediment on the interior. While there is variability, most of them have a distinctive teardrop shape. Item #5 I am guessing may be burrow casts, but I'm not sure. Do they look familiar to anyone? Item #6 also look like casts of something, I'm just not sure what. They are generally very straight sections of a smooth tube form. All of the mollusk remains I have found are internal casts so no shell material is generally preserved in this deposit. Item #7 are, I don't know. My Paleozoic brain wants to call them eroded horn corals but I obviously know that is not right. Don't have another option in mind. And lastly, item #8 are probably worm tubes, just looking to see if that is right. They also have a common shape of being U-shaped or looped. They are not attached to a shell or anything (except maybe some matrix) like I am used to seeing with worm tubes. So that is my collection of oddities. I'd appreciate any thoughts folk have. Thanks Mike

Ich habe das vor 2 Tagen bekommen sieht etwas künstlich/bemalt aus? Kann mir jemand mehr darüber sagen, wenn es echt ist? Translation: "I received this 2 days ago does something look artificial / painted? Can someone tell me more about it if it's real?"

Hi. I have absolutely no information on this particular specimen. It was picked out of a group of fossil fish most of which were Eocene in age. I suspect it might be Osteolepis but really I have no idea! Any observations would be most appreciated. Thanks.

Hello, Next summer I am going to visit Northamerica for my first time, and would really like to visit a Green River commercial quarry; my problems (doubts) are: Which one is the better quarry?, referring to abundance and variety. I live in Spain, and I guess the fossils are too heavy to carry on a plane, so I thought to send them by mail, will I have problems with customs?. In that case, can someone from the quarry provide me a certificate that these fossils have been legally collected? Which messaging company should I use?, preferably a careful one. How should I pack the fossils to protect them? Any other info/advise will also be gratefully thanked.

Fossil ID please. From North Sulphur river.

Hi all, found this 100km south of Flin Flon Saskatchewan recently, any idea what it may be? I believe it is in limestone. Thanks in advance!

Simple question here: I've bought some fossil fish from the Eocene of the USA. Some of them are a bit dusty, and I wondered if I can use water to gently clean them.

Not about fossils but about the life of a man who had a passion for (fossil) fishes: Louis Agassiz. (PDF) Louis Agassiz (1807–1873): a passion for fishes (researchgate.net) (Only one remark: The fish Cyclopoma spinosum shown in Fig. 5 on page 135 is not a coelacanth but belongs to the ray-finned fish in the family Percichthyidae.)

Hi all My kids and I found this tooth a while ago from the North Sulphur River in Texas. We can't figure out its ID and would appreciate any help. There is no carina; however, there are deep groves at the base. It appears cylindrical. After looking at various images, I can't tell if this is from a fish or a marine reptile like at plesiosaur. Images are below; the scale is 1 mm between the smaller hashmarks. Again, thanks for any help! Bret

Hi! I've recently acquired unidentified fossil. It's from triassic location in Silesia, Poland. Can you give me some ideas on ID?