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Hello again forum! Remember that bucket “goodie bag” I took home from the torn up Post Oak Creek a few months ago? I finally went through it and found some excellent stuff! (Im actually wow’d with some of this stuff because I’m just an amateur!) Surprisingly- I found tons of other stuff that ARENT shark teeth for once! I grabbed a 5 quart bucket and took a big shovel scoop of gravel/mud from various parts of the entrance of the creek where the construction was and some from the first sandbar. Im working on an educational frame display I might actually eventually donate (there IS a massive park being built there for tourism !) and wanted to label found bones correctly. You’d think because I come here SO often I’d be an expert at the finds here but I’m not a real paleontologist or biologist, just an outdoorsy lass who can find fossils and loves learning about ancient animals. I tried my best to ID some of these finds myself, however I just found myself stuck and not very confident with IDing these bones. Because there’s so many mammal remains found here as well I wanted to ask you guys for help- and give me pointers how to ID cretaceous reptile bone, fish bone, and mammal bones. (Teach this woman to fish metaphorically. ) Unfortunately my bone finds are worn and some are tumbled fragments which make it harder for a novice like me. Any help appreciated, and happy to learn! Post Oak Creek is in Sherman, Texas. Cretaceous, Eagle Ford and theres also “Ice Age” fossils and even more recent fossils found here too. Everything here I can confirm is fossilized and very much stone. I also added in 3 bones from last trip than need ID’d plus a few other cool things. ***I took a TON of pictures and have to load them on seperate posts-please be patient! I will add captions to them all as well so wait until I post “Done!” Sorry for super dry hands. The process! The Finds: all spread out! Ruler is in MM (milimeters). I labeled them by letters and there’s some bonus things in there to ID! These are the bones Im most curious about! (More photos below) These are more recent fossils, I feel confident at least that G, I, & J are turtle shells. No idea about H or K but might also be turtle? M & L look and feel lighter but are still very much stone- maybe mammals. Someone already helped me ID that N and O are fragments of mammoth teeth but what the heck is P!? Could it be a pig tooth or even…human!? * Bonus Round! * ?1 I think is the tiniest ptychodus tooth ever! I have no idea of the species however it’s probably one of the tony teeth in the outtermost bottom part of the jaw (the teenie long ones!) ?2 I think is some sort of spine? It almost reminds me of a belemnite or sea urchin spine. Its definitely organic and not man-made. ?3 I THINK I FOUND A NATIVE AMERICAN CLAY BEAD! I find a few of these every once in a while there, usually small. Are these little Cretaceous sponges?

I'm hoping to know what I found is fossilized bones and if so what it might have come from. I found the specimen after some road work was completed. The location is in northern Illinois, USA. Less than half kilometer from Volo bog, the only remaining open-water quaking bog in Illinois and the southernmost quaking bog in North America. After I cleaned the mud from the rock I found that the pice on top was able to come out since it was cracked in half unfortunately possibly from the construction equipment. Thank you for your time and would be very interested in your insight regarding my find.