Search the Community

Hi all, This claw has been posted on a certain popular bidding website described as "raptor or T. rex", although several of the image filenames from the seller say "Anzu". It's just over 3 inches long, and was found in Hell Creek, South Dakota. It's the right size for Anzu, but there's no protruding dorsal "lip" of the articulating surface that Anzu hand claws have. The articulating surface also doesn't look like it extends all the way down to the bottom of the claw, as in Anzu foot claws. I can't imagine it's ornithomimus or struthiomimus, as their claws don't have much curvature. Could it be subadult T. rex/nanotyrannus? Dromaeosaurus? Dakotaraptor? Cheers!

(Note: I don't know why half of this is in bold, I wrote this in a google doc first and copy pasted it to here, and it defaults to bold without the ability to undo it. This tends to fluctuate. Easy to see though!) "Dinosaurs are overrated", Mike teased to me. We were sitting together at the flooded dig site of our mosasaur in the early morning hours, having just finished a jam-packed but enjoyable conversation about his research and other matters related to paleo. Naturally, dinosaurs were brought up, as our schedule had to work around my upcoming internship to the Hell Creek formation. "You're right" I chuckled back - yet we both knew otherwise. Our jabs were at the insane media attention that the Hell Creek mega fauna receive, not at the neglected fact that these animals were just that, animals. Mike at his core is a biologist, a naturalist even, studying mosasaurs and their evolution. I hoped that I would get a chance to really appreciate dinosaurs in that same naturalist-esque light in person. Dinosaurs are just different to dinosaur paleontologists, and I'm glad now that I got to immerse myself in that. The group I was meeting with was actually a duo - "Fossil Excavators" is a small non-profit with big research ambitions (based on some amazing material they've discovered) run by two awesome guys - Harrison Duran and Dr. Mike Kjelland. Some may know them from this discovery that circulated a couple years ago, of a Triceratops skull named "Alice" with an interesting brow horn deformity. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/26/745760553/college-student-discovers-65-million-year-old-triceratops-skull So, while not an internship with a school, it was an internship nonetheless and I gained experience, inspiration, and friendships. As for friends, Harrison and two of the other interns, Dawson ( @Dawson Sensenig) and Piper, as well as our amazing photographer Brittany Nailon who took many of these photos I'll show later, deserve a special mention. We spent the first few days scouting for new sites, and to good success. Mike came across the best of these new sites, which we since have dubbed "The Graveyard". It's a river wash deposit, so there's very little that's articulated but there is a great diversity of species. Better yet, the matrix is the polar opposite of the hard shales and limestones I'm used to here in Texas. In this deposit at least, it was like digging through a sand box (delightful!). Here are some quick pics from that spot: Just such a picture perfect insitu for this vert, sitting at the base of a hill among lots of other scattered bone: This well preserved edmontosaur carpal that @Dawson Sensenig found big ol' gar scale from Piper I actually made fewer direct discoveries than expected (which is ok, we worked as a team and we're directed to a spot to dig so it's not like I'd be able to take much credit for finding something anyway ). I was however happy to find this (likely) Dromaeosaur claw Though, it paled in comparison with the find 15 minutes earlier close by, from another intern (cameron) - this awesome theropod claw shown below, maybe from Anzu wyliei. A tiny tooth that we assume to be the ever enigmatic Paronychodon: This Edmontosaurus metatarsal that Dawson spotted (though I'm holding it) A stingray tooth I found, because of course I will find something aquatic here - never far from my roots! A small, broken rex tooth spotted by our photographer Brittany and a dromaeosaur tooth: More Edmontosaurus material - jaw pieces and a rib: More edmontosaur materiel, this time from a different clay site - due to the more stable matrix, there was some articulation here, though just a few verts There was also the usual assortment of leaves and ceratopsian teeth. One cool thing that stood out to me was this seed preserved in ironstone. There were a few rainy days, and one of them we spent in eastern montana on the bearpaw shale, collecting campanian invertebrates. The storms up there were hard and brief, full of orange lightning. I also include a photo I took below of one of those cloud bursts: Our bearpaw formation cephalopods! The ammonites found by our group above were exquisite, and I was particularly excited about the nautiloid. It was also a day of firsts, in that for the first time ever, I accepted a fossil into my collection (yes, we got to keep our finds that day!) that I didn't find myself. @Dawson Sensenig discovered the ammonite shown right before the nautiloid, and graciously insisted I keep it. How could I decline? As a quick break from the fossils, I'll include some of the extant fauna of the hell creek we ran into, and some other shennanigans: Beautiful prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) I encountered while scouting high up on one of the many buttes: A gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer) I caught that may even be the same individual we initially discovered in our outhouse And a constant dig companion in some spots: In addition to the creepy crawlies, the landscape was one full of mule deer and pronghorn. I have a deep admiration and fascination for pronghorn, considering their vestigial speed from outrunning Miracinonyx. I had this idea that I would like to chase down/ follow a mule deer or pronghorn for as long as I could manage, as our ancestors did while persistence hunting. Needless to say my few attempts failed quickly - though I had sandals good for running, they were not good at guarding me from the cacti that flourish there. I was still pulling spines out of my feet two weeks later . Dawson and I became fast friends that shared a lot in common, (besides just a love for paleo). I helped resurrect an interest in climbing he had while he helped inspire an interest in running in me. There's not much to climb in North Dakota, but we did find a boulder that offered some fun. Here's Dawson and I below: (Dawson taking a moment to blink the sand from his eyes before trying the big move on this ridiculous little climb) (Myself dangling immediately after the big move...with eyes full of sand). There was a rib 20 feet away around the corner here. I also became great friends with our photographer, Brittany. Her goal is actually to primarily be a paleontology photographer, pretty cool. She also used both film and digital, and I'm particularly fond of the film shots (though I can't post all of them yet!) (And I can't help from shouting her out.... if you need someone (or know someone who needs someone) to photograph geologists or paleontologists... she's your gal!). Here are a few of the photos she took that I was there for: (Digging on the Edmontosaur rib) Dawson and I shaking plaster covered hands, with Harry, who guided the process, in the background. An environment shot of the "Graveyard" on film one of the days we were chased away by weather - that's me taking a photo of a butte in the distance Another environment shot of the beautiful Hell creek strata, also on film. another film shot from Brittany of myself while scouting - I felt right at home on these big sandy hills... ample practice from the steep, unstable Ozan exposures back home! Another film shot below of some of the crew: This photo above was a cool memory. There was no reception, but at the airport, before I left, I deliberately left a tab open with @Troodon's marvelous write-up on the forum about "The case for Nanotyrannus" (below). I opened it up to get to talk about it with the other interns, and Harry looked over us to see what the fuss was about. Seeing this, Brittany yelled "WAIT keep doing that! Don't stop!" and took this photo, as well as two others, as we talked over @Troodon's fantastic write up. EDIT: When I posted this (at 3 am) last night I completely forgot to include two other highlights! 1) On one of the rain days, we drove into the small town nearby and rented out a theater for $75 an hour, and watched two episodes of David Attenborough's "Prehistoric Planet". I was pleasantly surprised by this documentary, it was tastefully done and very engaging. The ammonite scene was so beautifully made that it may as well have brought a tear to my eye . If you haven't seen it, you should! 2) Our team had beers at a little diner with Robert DePalma and his team (from the Tanis site). It was cool to get to know those guys, considering their impressive position in the field of paleontology they hold at the moment. Tanis was in the same "neighborhood" as some of our sites! Before my conclusion, I just want to include the two CRAZY finds Harry made with Mike and the rest of the team right after I left: While I was there, I was very keen to find mammal material. There's a very significant site that we were working on towards the end dubbed "Alexandria's library" (due to the wealth of rare specimens it has produced for the team in the past). I only got to be involved in working the site for a couple days, as the newer Graveyard site was able to be investigated thoroughly and efficiently in our time there. The main day I spent working at Alexandria's library was spent with Dawson slamming away at ironstone capping a hill, so that we could get to the fossiliferous sands and clays below. We finished the job but didn't get a chance to actually investigate the fruits of our labors there. Upon returning to the newly revealed sands, Harry then finds a DIDELPHODON JAW! As luck would have it, the big finds came in quickly after I left, with another amazing find that would've given me a heart attack (so it's probably for the best...) ...yeah. I was stunned when he texted me this. I'm so proud these guys. And so that was our time there, and I'm influenced. Never have I felt so inspired and driven to the paleo goal as I do now. There was a moment I had at the graveyard site that I will never forget. I was crouched, moving into a neighboring butte with a screw driver. I had my friends at my side, similarly driven and exceptionally knowledgeable, and each deeply focused on their task at hand. We were damp, as a sudden cloud burst caught us red handed an hour before. The sun was out again and the clouds were scattered but full of color and depth - the sort of beautiful sky you can expect in a waning afternoon after a strong storm. I looked out over the three buttes that dominated the sky line at this site, and finally settled a thought that I've been brooding on for months. I will fully commit to paleontology. This is what I want my life to be, and I'm willing to face the elephant in the room (money) if it means that I get to do what I was doing, right then and there, for the rest of my life. This is a life well lived. Paleontology is a sacred science, one of deep wonder and a wide range of demanded skill. Not only is a paleontologist a multi-disciplinary academic, excelling at the very least in both geology and biology (while often proficient in chemistry and physics) - a paleontologist is also an explorer and adventurer, with dirt under his nails and probably an ache in his back . It's a gritty science that occupies two worlds. Not only that though. What strikes me is the sheer amount of totally untouched potential still locked away in the rocks. A modern biologist has to look hard to find something new, in a place usually isolated. You and I might walk into the greenbelt by our neighborhood and stand a plausible chance of discovering something either unnoticed or just flat out never seen before. That is something special. Being a paleontologist today is like being a naturalist at the turn of the 20th century. We have the entire world open to us. And so that was the 2022 Hell Creek expedition. I do have a closer appreciation for dinosaurs now, and I even have a few exciting ideas concerning them on the horizon...but I must say it's a pleasure to be back to this hallowed, marine deposited ground. I missed our big lizards and sharks. Onwards and upwards!

I was hoping some folks on the forum could confirm this ID for me. I found this interesting little piece in the hell creek formation of South Dakota back in July with Paleoprospectors. I was told by one of the guides that it could potentially be a piece of skull armor from a young ankylosaur. I want to know what everyone here thinks.

Hey everybody, on my most recent excursion in the Hell creek formation ear the powder river in montana. I found some pieces of weathered out bone all in a 5 foot radius of each other on a small rise. Due to changing weather and approaching night I didn't have the chance to uncover anything else so I grabbed the weathered out pieces and will come back to the site in August. I am a beginner and am honestly stumped as to what these could be. The 2 largest bone fragments measure 22x10.5x2.5cm and 12.8x7.3x2.9cm respectively. I am inbetween chunkasaurous or a possible ceratopsian frill. But I don't see the pronounced blood grooves frills are supposed to have. For the next largest bone fragment measuring 10x3.7x2.0cm I was thinking a vertebral process, rib, or the edge of a frill, the rounded edge on it has the same sized round as the one present on the largest bone. The rest I have no idea the smallest pieces have some interest patterning that look like some patterning I've seen or turtle shells from hell creek but these are really small. I know @Troodon has been a wonderful help before but I'd love anyone elses opinion if they can be identified or are just a lovely addition to my chunkasaur collection.

Hi all, Trying to place an ID on it. Seller had it listed as "dromaeosaur". I wanted the near perfect troodon tooth that came with it so didn't matter what this was. Looks like a tiny little acheroraptor to me but I could be wrong. Still learning. Tough to get closer on the serrations even with a macro lens but if needed just let me know. Thoughts? Thanks, Frank From Hell Creek - Carter County, MT Measurements below in mm.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share my favorite find from the Hell Creek of eastern Montana from the last few weeks. It's overall shape and size suggest to me that it's a hesperornithid vert. The bone is a bit over 3 cm long and around 2.5 cm in height. After some comparisons to Hesperornis vertebrae online I feel that this is the best match. From "Identification of a New Hesperornithiform from the Niobrara Chalk and Implications for the Ecologic Diversity of Early Diving Birds" by Alyssa Bell and Luis Chiappe in 2015 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141690

I've recently aquired this Tyrannosaurid tooth from a local shop. The shop sold it as Nanotyrannus lancensis. I think the tip has been repaired, but not quite sure that it is worn or repaired. However the tooth does not show the indents on the bottom, which is sometimes to be expected on Nanotyrannus I heard. I was wondering if somebody could take another look for me and share their opinion, about what species this tooth belonged to. Thanks in advance. The tooth was found in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana

I got another odd man out in my hell creek group. What do you think? The hell creek formation CH: 11mm CBL: 6mm CBW: 3mm Mesial serration density: about 5.5/mm Distal serration density: about 4/mm Serration shape: Hard to tell, given that it looks like half of each denticle is worn away Base cross-section: Almond Mesial carina: Straight Thanks in advance!

Hiya everyone interested in a tooth seller says it’s trex but a help with id would be great thanks

Hi everyone! I'm new here and am hoping to find out if the item I have is indeed a triceratops bone from the Hell Creek formation (as it was labeled). When I look at photos of fossilized bones, I see the bone's "spongy" look and all the photos I've looked at to compare do NOT look like this item. Therefore, it seems to perhaps not be a bone, but it does seem to be something fossilized. I apologize for the less-than-crisp focus abilities of my phone camera, but as you hopefully can see there is what looks to me like skin or scale patterns and a lack of spongy-ness. If anyone has insight as to what this might be I'm very interested to find out.

My youngest brother found this on his first microsite hunt. I could not believe it. I have not found many mammal teeth and am unsure as to what this belonged to. I also added some pictures of another tooth found in the area that I am having a hard time placing an ID on. Any help is appreciated! Hell Creek formation, Dawson County, MT.

Hello all, looking to get some opinions. 5-6 years ago I came across a ton of fragmented bones while scouting out a new collecting site. One of the first things that really caught my eye was this, lets call it a "claw". Like I said this was among a ton of shattered bone so it kind of stood out right away. I followed the bone fragments more up a very steep hill that turns into a cliff. This led me probably 50-75 feet from the initial sighting of bone to a place that was dangerously steep, but I could see more bone weathering out of the hill. It was in very bad shape and turned out to be a few vertebra. On my way up I also several pieces of what turned out to be a vertebral process. I collected what I could but a lot of it had turned to dust. I could tell there was more but there was almost no feasible way to safely dig. I began to look at what I was able to collect and I started seeing some interesting things. Some of the pieces of vertebra were very porous with large pores and I had found the "claw" at the base of the site. Could it be? Life got in the way, and I was not able to get back out until this year. To my surprise there is still bones weathering out. I found another vertebra in bad shape, and a shattered rib that I was able to reasonably piece together. This came out with minimal excavation and I saw there was more bone exposed at the same level around 6 feet away. It appeared to be another rib or flat bone, but it was in an even more difficult spot. Could these be Tyrannosaurus bones? I will include many more photos soon. Dawson county, MT.

Found: Baker County, Montana 9.5 cm Label says Tyrannosaurus but with a question mark. So, is it Tyrannosaur, or even Theropod? So many of these bone pieces labelled tyrannosaur actually turn out to be Edmontosaurus. I am guessing narrowing it down to T-Rex would be very unlikely and difficult? Thanks for the help.

Hi, What do you think? From the hell creek formation, Harding Co, South Dakota CH: 12.7mm is showing, but with the significant tip wear facet, I estimate at least 14mm CBL: 7.5mm CBW: 3.3mm Mesial serration density: about 7/mm !! Distal serration density: about 4.5/mm Serration shape: raptor (I think) Base cross-section: Oval Mesial carina: Straight Sorry, I'm stuck with caliper pics at the moment, but might be helpful in estimating CH. Pic below is accurate, but poorly lit. Estimate if full tip was present: mesial: ~7/mm distal: ~4.5/mm THANKS!!

This tooth is from Harding County, Hell Creek formation. Now--it is tiny. 1mm long, so is the smallest tooth I own by far, but it has quite clear serrtations that can be photographed. It came with a few others and this one stands out because of its fatness and squatness (most of the others are long, relatively speaking) I am wondering if possibly, maybe, hopefully .... I may have a baby/infant Rex? Now, unfortunately, the base is a bit thin--but could that be because of the size of the tooth? It's quite an unusual one and hope it can be ID'd

Found this piece associated with weathering bone chunks embedded in sandstone. My first thought was nose horn but the horn portion looks like it might be a sandstone cast of the inside of the horn. Location Glendive montana, hell creek. What do you guys think?

Hi I have a somewhat weird question you can probably help me with: I was currently discussing with some other fossil enthusiasts about how rare dinosaur fossils really are. Obviously, there are areas where no dinosaurs are found and then there are places where dinosaur fossils have been piled up and preserved in large numbers. My friends claim was that dino fossils are not rare at all but are very labourous to collect (and therefore rare). -> I am trying to get an idea about the number of dinosaur fossils per area or even better per volume. For example, If I look at a certain area (for example 1 km2) of a fossil rich formation such as Hell Creek or Morisson and then: - I carefully look at the whole surface, what can I expect to find? - If I would vertically dig through 1m of matrix on the whole area, how many bones or teeth would I find? - If I would vertically dig through 1m of matrix on the whole area, how many museum quality skeletons (eg 30%+ complete) would I find? I am aware that the example above is not practical to do experimentally. However, I am trying to get an order of magnitude (is it more like 0.001 dino or 100 dinos for the given volume). Is there any scientific data available about dino/volume?

Here is my new wood grain Tyrannosaurus rex tooth. Found in Hell Creek, South Dakota and just shy over 1'40 inches. I really like the split with the serrations. Makes it extra special for me.