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Hi A Russian Pliosaur or Ichthyosaur tooth. I think the tooth looks real, but the root looks somewhat suspicious... Is it common practice to fabricate root in Russian fossils? The locality is: Lower Cretaceous, Stary Oskol, Belogrod Oblast, Russia. And, is it good to say this is from an Ichthyosaur? I googled the locality but was not able to find info..

Had a great day today at Saltwick Bay, after a little while scratching around picking up Dactys, I split a couple of nice big Hildoceras, one of which I’ve left with the shop in town to get tidied up. While looking around to try to beat my finds, my daughter found a little piece of gyrosteus bone. After stopping to do a bit of splitting (including a nice little pyrite Dactylioceras) we headed back and daughter was really pleased to find a slightly worn little ichthyosaur vertebra. That refocused the eyes and I spotted a partial ichthy skull in the shale, once we’d got over the excitement we scoured the area for more. The only other thing we found that looked like bone was this (top six pictures), could it be bone or is it something else or nothing? Thank you for looking.

Hi everyone, I got offered this pair of marine reptile teeth as those of ichthyosaurs, but am having a hard time making my mind up about their identification. I'd therefore like to ask for your opinions. The teeth were found during works around Nancy back in 2004, and, based on other ichthyosaur finds from the region, likely dates the Toarcian stage of the Early Jurassic (though, from what I can tell, Oxfordian marine deposits are also accessible in the area). This makes them roughly the same age as material from the Posidonia Shale/Holzmaden and Whitby, but slightly younger than that of the Lyme Bay area. The above photograph is the only one I have, with the seller being on fieldwork and unable to provide much further information for the next couple of weeks. Although we can safely eliminate marine crocodile as contenders for the original owners of these teeth, and I think they are too big to have belonged to fish, I'm undecided on whether these are just highly worn ichthyosaur teeth or plesiosaur teeth. There's something to be said for both. The tall, slender shape of the teeth and their slight curvature, for instance, would seem to fit plesiosaurian teeth, as would, most significantly, the round root of the bigger tooth. In that case, however, the smaller tooth does seem a bit stubby, and the traces of ornamentation along the midsection of the larger tooth surprisingly equidistantly spaced. Generally, the morphology of the smaller tooth to me suggests ichthyosaur rather than plesiosaur. But if that were the case, I'd expect either enamel folds on the crowns themselves, folds on the root, or both (even when ichthyosaur teeth have smooth enamel, I find they still have folds on their roots). I'd also expect the root to be more polygonal in shape, somewhere in the range of triangular to (rounded) square. This is not the case. Now there seems to be some ornamentation midway up the larger specimen which equidistant spacing correlates well with patterns of the folds found on ichthyosaur teeth, thus may indicate the tooth is ophthalmosaurid and therefore Oxfordian rather than Torcian in age. The below image I drew up makes the comparison: As you can see, the match is less then ideal, as the top part of the French tooth is completely devoid of enamel folds, whereas in an ophthalmosaurid tooth the plicidentine folds actually taper out until the enamel is clear. @belemniten, however, posted images of a couple of his ichthyosaur teeth from Holzmaden, one of which appears to show a similar pattern as visible in the middle of the French tooth under consideration here, including what appears to be a round root: However, when looking at other images of the same tooth, it turns out that the root does have folds, as you'd expect from ichthyosaur teeth: Similarly, the below tooth seems to have a superficially similar appearance to the French tooth for the hairline cracking of the enamel, and the fact that enamel appears to be missing from the crown immediately above the root proper (which, again, exhibits folds, however). Still, if the "smooth round root" on the French tooth would've been covered by enamel as well, this would make for a very tall tooth as far as ichthyosaurs go. As illustrated by the specimen below (source), though, ichthyosaur teeth do occasionally have round roots: Moreover, the folds on the root don't always run the full height of it (image source): Lastly, as the specimen below demonstrates (source), the entire root can look completely smooth, presumably from wear: As such, I'm wondering whether the French tooth specimen might not be a very worn ichthyosaur tooth, with its parts being composed as such: This doesn't particularly make too much sense to me either, as the part of the root with folds is rather long and has a very abrupt transition into the remainder of the root. In addition, it raises the question of how the tooth would've gotten so worn. Though I understand there are fluvially exposed sites around Nancy, could this have caused the wear we're seeing. Or would the wear rather be peridepositional? So, I guess I can summarize my questions as: Do these look like plesiosaur or ichthyosaur teeth? If plesiosaurian, what would the equidistant striations on the midsection of the tooth be? If ichthyosaurian, do these teeth look more ophthalmosaurid or pre-ophthalmosaur? How might the wear I think I'm seeing be explained? Thanks for the help! cc @paulgdls @PointyKnight @DE&i @Welsh Wizard @RuMert @FF7_Yuffie

Hi all! Those who follow my reports know I was planning another trip to Ulyanovsk in spring. Well, here is the report, in continuation of 1, 2 and 3. This time I was on the shore for 3 days. In short, the weather was fine, the ice abundant, the competition high and the finds scarce. The trip felt more like an extravagant outing than a productive fossil hunt

Hi, I always struggle to tell the difference between a Plesiosaur tooth and an Ichthyosaur tooth. This tooth comes from Goulmima in Morocco (lower Turonian) so I believe it is a Plesiosaur tooth (possibly a Pliosaur tooth), but wanted to confirm it here. The tooth is 4.2cm in length and retains the ridges on the tooth which I think is how you might tell the difference between Plesiosaur and Ichthyosaur. Thank you!

I wanted to very briefly share something really pretty awesome. Some folks here know that in addition to Fossils on Wheels, I also work for the Gateway Science Museum. It’s a small children’s science museum and our fall exhibit is going to be about fossils. We are part of CSU Chico and the Geology Department is using our facilities to do some preparation work on a few fossils for the exhibit. I took some pictures of one awesome specimen. The table in the center of the frame contains multiple pieces of a Shastasaurus. It is a remarkable and scientifically important specimen. It was found near Shasta Lake and it’s Triassic. Close to complete and containing something special that I can’t really elaborate on. All of those bundles are ribs and verts. The second picture is a close up of one slab. I got to pick it up and it is really quite heavy but not everybody gets to hug a Shastasaurus so totally worth it lol In the far right of the picture, you can see the edge of a table and on that table is a partial Mastodon jaw includes a complete tusk though in two pieces. I’ll take pictures of that and a baby whale piece next time I’m at work. My desk is to the left of the whiteboard you see in the frame. My workspace has been taken over by large fossil critters !

Hi all, I've had the below piece in my collection for a number of years now, having acquired it thinking it was a juvenile plesiosaur propodial. It comes from the Oxford Clay of Peterborough and is of Callovian Jurassic age. However, when recently doing some research towards answering another question on TFF, I realised that - even though there's some plastic deformation going on - it doesn't quite look like the juvenile plesiosaur propodial I have from the rhaetic at Aust, nor does it look like a plesiosaur propodial in a more general sense (see both post and images below). There are some oddities that have started to make me wonder, in not a plesiosaur propodial, what else it may be in that case. The bone is quite dense, so is definitely marine reptile. And, since I'm quite sure it's not ichthyosaurian, this, I believe, leaves only pl(es)iosaur and teleosaur. Morphologically, the bone consists of a shaft that widens towards one end, with the other end having broken off. The widened end, top-side, forms a bit of an overhang across what appears to be an intact articulation surface, with a notch cutting into it from the right. At the broken end, also on the right, there appears to be a slight twist in the bone. This is, moreover, the side that's rounded along the length of the bone, whereas the other side appears carinated. Although there's some crushing on the underside of the bone, that surface appears markedly more flat than the obverse. It is primarily the facts that one of the edges is (more) angular and that the bone thickens towards the widening end - rather than thins out, as in a typical plesiosaur propodial - that make me feel this is not a plesiosaur (sensu lato) propodial. Unfortunately, I don't have enough qualitative reference material on teleosaurs myself (some images below) to evaluate whether they could be a candidate for the bone - such as long or girdle bones - and didn't find anything matching amongst the figures in Johnson, Young, Steel and Lepage (2015) or Young, Sachs & Abel (2018) either. So I'm left thinking may be it could be a plesiosaur ilium, as in the other post referenced above. There are definitely some features that seem to argue in its favour, such as the flat back, slight twist and widening distal end. But lacking the proximal end of the bone makes it harder to judge, and the thickening of the bone towards the widened part seems to conflict with the idea of the bone being an ilium. Still, there are very few flat narrow bones in a plesiosaur outside of its extremities... Machimosaurus sp. at the Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen in Brussels (source: Wikipedia) Thoracic region of Machimosaurus sp. at Paléospace l'Odyssée at Villers-sur-Mer Metriorhynchus superciliosus at the Paläontologische Summlung MUT Tübingen Thoracic region of Steneosaurus sp. at the Fossilienmuseum Dotternhausen Steneosaurus spp. specimens at Urweltmuseum Hauff in Holzmaden Steneosaurus sp. leg bones at the Paläontologische Sammlung MUT Tübingen

@paulgdls is it possible to best guesstimate the size of a Ophthalmosaurus icenicus from just one solitary anterior caudal vertebra. Height 10 cms Width 10.5 cms Length measured at the neural canal 3 cms

Daughter and I had a walk in the Whitby area this morning, didn’t come away with much but these two little chunks of bone made the trip worthwhile. The larger one (pics 3-6) appears to have ribs no more than about 5mm in diameter along with a lot of other bones. The smaller one (pics 1,2,7,8) looks to have two or three partial verts, but I can’t see if the centres are concave like ichthyosaur and to me they look too flat to be ples/croc. Can anyone shed any light on either piece? Thank you for looking

This is an unprepped ichthyosaur from Luoping, Yunnnan Province of China. It measures 70cm in length. Any idea which species is that? And the completeness of the fossil?

Hi, I'm considering this partial ichthyosaur jaw with 5 teeth (3 in a natural position and 2 others that have been displaced--one is on top and one is on the backside) from Jurassic (Tithonian) deposits in Tartarstan, Russia. The seller, who is also the finder/preparer, has identified this as Undorosaurus and noted that there is repair to the last tooth at the end, which broke and has been glued back together, and some holes that he filled in on that tooth--these are shown in the second photo with the red line (repaired break) and circles (filled in holes), as drawn by seller--but no other restorations or repair. The size of the piece is 6 x 5.5 x 1.8 cm, and the teeth (including root) are 3.5 to 4 cm long. Does this look to be as it's described above, including the genus ID? Any red flags or other things I should know or ask? Thank you!

Hello all I acquired this tooth recently. It's those famous russian deposits that produce ichthyosaur and pliosaur remains. I bought it as an ichthyosaur tooth, but could it be it's pliosaur? I've noticed rootef ichthyosaur teeth have a bit different root, like a pronged root. But I'm hardly an expert so I'd greatly appreciate feedback from others

I have just seen this for sale and while it could potentially be a nice addition to my daughter’s ichthyosaur collection, the attempted prep is a bit off putting. The seller says it’s on ‘calcite beef’. How difficult would it be to just tidy up those air scribe marks? I don’t see the need for any further exposure, just a bit of tidying. Do forum rules allow me to ask what the appropriate cost of getting this done professionally would be if I didn’t fancy attempting it? Thank you for looking

Hi, I am interested in this. Sold here, seller says its ok to have a second pair of eyes look it over. From Holzmaden. Slab is 50cm. Jaw is 14cm. Seller thinks jaw has been added. My main concern is have the vertebra been added too? Thanks

Braved the cold today to have a long walk around Runswick Bay and beyond. Best find was this vertebra, found in a slab of ammonites. Needs a little more prep to get the shale off. Any idea if it’s Ichthyosaur or something else?

I propose to buy this specimen if it is real. The seller told me that this specimen should belong to the pliosaur based on his experience, but I had a hard time to identify whether it is an ichthyosaur tooth or a pliosaur tooth. Is it an ichthyosaur tooth or a pliosaur tooth?

New 'sea dragon' species discovered by amateur fossil hunter off English coast By Jack Guy, CNN, December 10, 2020 The open access paper is: Jacobs, M.L. and Martill, D.M., 2020. A new ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur from the Upper Jurassic (Early Tithonian) Kimmeridge Clay of Dorset, UK, with implications for Late Jurassic ichthyosaur diversity. Plos one, 15(12), p.e0241700. Yours, Paul H.

Hello all- With a five day weekend and some pretty good weather (for late November), and the honey-dos done it was time for a day in the field. I went to a new part of a ranch that I have only been to several times. Previous finds include an ichthyosaur snout and two plesiosaur verts. The goal was Jurassic ichthyosaur bones. But this place has a series of fossiliferous horizons to explore. Other targets included articulated Jurassic crinoids, pterodactyl tracks, and small dinosaur bones. I say small bones because it was a mile and a half (2.5 km) walk to the bottom of the hill with Morrison Formation, home to Jurassic dinos. And there is no way I was going to haul out anything like a sauropod femur today. I don't even want to find one. The same dilemma can be said of any accumulations of ichthyosaur bones I might find, but I was willing to do a bit more hauling for ichthyosaurs. It was about an hour and half drive. I got there at about 11:30 (lazy breakfast) so I had about 3 hours in the field. Without boring you all with details, I got skunked in the crinoids, pterosaur tracks and ichthyosaurs. But the dinosaurs showed up. Here are a few bones. What, you say you can't see any bones? They are in the dark spot in the base of the cliff. Here is a better view. But these are cross-sectioned (=half missing) and at the base of a boulder. They will stay there for another long time. But in the foreground are a few blocks of sandstone from a recent cliff fall. This looked like a good place to search. And it worked. Here is the find of the day. A nice theropod tooth. Allosaurus is the common theropod in the Morrison but is is twice the size of an Allo tooth. I'll have to look it up after I get it prepped. I thought that was the find of the day, but near the other end of the cliff fall... I pulled a basketball sized rock out of the rubble because I could see bone bits in it. Got a bunch of chunkosaurs and an interesting vertebra... and this little jaw. I thought it was crocodile until I saw the teeth. It is a little ornithopod. When the rock split, it split right along the tops of those teeth, but the rightmost tooth is complete and there are likely more in the rock. I did keep as many of the wee bits of teeth as possible. Wish me luck in matching them to their homes. I did find a more regular sized bone, probably a vertebra, but I left it for now... see comments above about the mile and a half walk. But I also found a road that will get me much closer, so I am going back tomorrow (with the landowner's blessing) to get it and see what else this limited available layer has to offer. A large tooth and a jaw in one place in a couple hours is really quite good for any dinosaur site. The birdwatching tally for today was pretty low but included a quality sighting... one bald eagle, a golden eagle, three ravens, four magpies, three horned larks and two of these guys... Gray-capped rosy finch. These guys come down from the mountains in the winter and can be seen in the plains of Wyoming, but they are not common, unless you run into a flock of 200, or have bird feeders out in the plains.

Hey guys, I just posted a video where I find some huge verts from an Ichthyosaur (towards the end of the video) They're the biggest articulated backbones that i've found!

Hey guys, I just posted a video where i find the 3rd joining piece to a big partial ichthyosaur paddle that i've found afew months back. Also some other ammonites and other interesting bits along the way. Hopefully you enjoy.

I recently bought a bit of a job lot of things online just to get an ichthyosaur tooth for my daughter’s collection. Along with the tooth, an ichthyosaur bone and some acrodus teeth was this. The seller stated that it is from the Rhaetic bone bed in Somerset and is triassic. It looks a lot like the other ichthyosaur bone in the lot, but is anyone able to identify it? Thank you for looking

Hi all! I was finally able to visit the Volga site thanks to a water level/ good weather window. The journey was mostly a success, I got a better understanding of the site, used new means of transportation and examined more of the shoreline. Among the finds were two dozens of marine reptile verts and bone fragments and LOTS of ammonites and other mollusks. Unfortunately the river level was not low enough, 1m higher than during my 1st trip, 0,5m lower than in the 2nd. But it was at least possible to walk the shore. There's still a lot more to do, but now I have a pretty clear idea how to maximize the hunt results for the next trip. The report will be picture-heavy and divided into several blocks I'll be adding in the next few days. Let's start with the scenery.

Hey everyone, I recently acquired this ichthyosaur vertebra that was originally collected in Penarth, south Wales, UK. What initially struck me was the vertebra's size, since it's by far the biggest one I have of any ichthyosaur: Now, other large ichthyosaur remains have been described from the very same location. The paper is freely available here: https://bioone.org/journals/acta-palaeontologica-polonica/volume-60/issue-4/app.00062.2014/A-Mysterious-Giant-Ichthyosaur-from-the-Lowermost-Jurassic-of-Wales/10.4202/app.00062.2014.full The cliffs at Penarth apparently contain multiple exposures of different formations, which can make assigning isolated remains from there to any one time period problematic. The authors tentatively date the bone described in the paper to the lowermost Jurassic based on attached matrix and microfossils it contains. Finding references for the sediment of each formation from this locality is tough, but the matrix on my vertebra resembles that in the paper at least superficially. I have tried contacting Dr. Peggy Vincent, a co-author of the study who works on Jurassic marine reptiles from Europe, but sadly no luck thus far. My questions are: - Are there any features that might help date this fossil to a certain time period, or identify the formation it originated from? - The authors of the study assign their fossil to Shastasauridae - are there any features that can identify this vertebra on a family level? Thank you for your help!

This looks authentic to me but I wanted to be sure. The fossils in the background of these photos kind of raised some red flags for me, especially the air holes in the trilobite mortality plate on the left. Ichthyosaur bones on a fossil plate, origin is listed as Posidonia Shale Formation, Holzmaden, Germany. Thanks friends!

Just found this at the base of a scree slope somewhere between Runswick Bay and Sandsend (too excited to wait until I’m home to take pictures with a ruler, sorry ) Pretty sure it looks like bone of some sort; can anyone confirm this and maybe identify it? Thanks for looking