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At the moment I happen to be picking through some micro-matrix fines from Shark Tooth Hill that @ynot graciously sent to me some time ago. All sorts of interesting micro-chondrichthyan fossils are plentiful in the really fine matrix (2 mm down to 0.5 mm). I'm also finding bits of the dactyl claws of stomatopods (mantis shrimps). There are two main types of mantis shrimps--the smashers and the slashers. The smashers have front claws ending in a hardened rounded "hammer" that they use to smash through the exoskeletons of crustaceans and mollusks (with the force of a .22 caliber bullet). The slasher types hide in burrows and wait for prey (mainly fishes) to swim overhead. They dart out of their burrows and with a very praying mantis style motion impale their prey upon these spiny dactyl claws. We also find both dactyl claw parts and the rounded ends of the smasher's "hammers" at sites in Florida and this has Roger Portell at the FLMNH interested in fossil stomatopods. I recently let him know that while I haven't yet found any "hammers" in the STH matrix, I have found smaller fragments of the slashing dactyl claws which are turning up in my matrix picking. It would be really useful to have some specimens of larger fragments of these dactyl claws from STH for our research. I'm wondering if any member out there who has picked STH micro-matrix has noticed these stomatopod dactyl claw fragments and more importantly saved them with the rest of the diverse micro-fossils from this wondrous locality? If you have some stomatopod material from STH I'd love to hear about it. You can reply here or drop me a PM. Thanks in advance. Here are some images of really nice stomatopod dactyl bits from the Montbrook site as well as the more usual smaller fragments from Cookiecutter Creek. Also, a link to a great page about stomatopods and an image of the two types of claws to help you envision how these fit into the larger picture. Cheers. -Ken https://arthropoda.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/why-stomatopods-are-awesome-i-super-strength/

hello everyone! These are Korean fossils I dug up a while ago! Age: Middle Miocene, Cenozoic Era Location: Pohang, South Korea 1. Cosmopolitodus hastalis. tooth(mold) 2. Carcharhinus sp. tooth(mold) The cast has not been preserved. 3. Leesquilla sp.(mantis shrimp) 4. Unidentified fruit 5.Boreotrophon xesta.(gastropod)

Hello. I found a fossil quite some time ago, I do not remember the exact location but I found it somewhere in northern Israel. My initial thought was that this is a mantis shrimp fossil but now I don't think it's a mantis shrimp but I do believe it's some kind of an arthropod. I would love to hear any opinion about what this fossil may be and there is a picture with a covid mask for scale.

Rare mantis shrimp fossil from duho formation, pohang, south Korea

Crustaceans are a large, diverse group of anthropods which includes the crabs, prawns, lobsters, barnacles and other shelled animals. Perhaps owing to their hard shells and marine lifestyles, crustaceans have a rich and extensive fossil record, extending up to the Cambrian, though they do not appear in abundance until the Carboniferous. They make for attractive and familiar fossils, and are one of my favorite groups to collect. Allow me to present my humble collection. Eryon cuvieri 155 million years old | late Jurassic Solnhofen Limestones; "Plattenkalk” Malm Zeta 2, Eichstatt, Germany Galene bispinosa 5 - 1 million years old | Pliocene to Pleistocene Sangiran, Central Java Carpopenaeus longistrosis 95.5 - 93 million years old | late Cretaceous Haquel, Lebanon Weichangiops rotundus (Triops) 145 - 125 million years old | early Cretaceous Dabeigou Fm; Hebei province, China