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Found this item in South Louisiana encased in clay. I tried to match with what is available on the internet and came up with a “Marsupial” which allegedly did not reside in this area. Also, the creature it has, I guess, locked in its jaws I have no clue but based on an artist rendering of similar creatures like these, the creature in the marsupial’s jaw has the same like expression as the artist rendering online. Any input appreciated. Thanks, TJ (Muuleey)

I was recently out vacationing in Wyoming and spent Saturday morning (7/24/21) hunting in the badlands. As I sat down to rest for a moment, I looked down and saw what I thought were a radius/ulna pair from a small mammal. Upon closer inspection, it was a pair of lower jaws freshly exposed on the edge of a nodule and on the backside, a small skull. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. I spent a bit of time making sure the specimen was consolidated (Paleobond Penetrant, wish I had brought some 4417) and packed it up for the trip home. I was thinking it would make a great Vertebrate Fossil of the Month but as I am unsure of my identification and being a skilled preparator, I thought it would be more interesting to show the process. I do suspect the specimen to be the marsupial, Herpetotherium fugax. However, without seeing the teeth, this is mostly a guess. I do have another specimen with a similar endocast which is what I am using as my basis for an identification at the moment. Though I am quite unsure if the endocasts of the Insectivores have the same character. Pardon my anatomy if I get this wrong but there is a fold between the parietal lobes and the occipital lobe that you can see in the above photo and that is what I'm guessing my ID on. Once we get the teeth exposed, we will know for sure. Here are the pieces on my desk with some better lighting and measurements. A bit of cranium on the negative. The top of the skull. And the lower jaw that was seen exposed. The plan is as follows: 1. Clean the blocks of any mud/loose chips 2. Glue the blocks solidly back together 3. Bulk matrix removal with pneumatic tools (ARO/Paleotool Microjack-3) 4. Fine matrix removal under a scope/micro abrasion I'll write up each step as I progress. Enjoy! And @jpc I apologize for not visiting you, but it was a whirlwind trip. I'll catch you next time!

Well, decided to check an old site before the year ended and really glad we did! @Ash and I originally went out on December 9th and found a part of a Diprotodon humerus, half a large Diprotodon incisor, and what looked to be an array of associated foot bones with the proximal ends of a couple ribs from the same animal. Given the heat, however, we had to turn around and come back that Saturday to plaster jacket the busted incisor out and to more carefully extract the associated bones, as they seemed fragile (they had cracks and some were already in pieces) and we were low on glue. So we came back on Saturday and set to work on the associated bones. This is as they were found: We could initially see about 4-5 bones: But as we progessed, there were more...tiny bones, amorphous bones...and it wasn't a foot-it was a hand! And those proximal ends of ribs? Were actually beautifully complete, large unguals!!! We were so excited-we had found a Diprotodon manus, complete with unguals! Or, at least, we thought. In the back of my mind I felt something was off. The unguals were HUGE and very thin. And I didn't recall coming across any photos pf Diprotodon feet with such large, compressed unguals, though I had seen a much smaller, similar one in an educational display being contributed as having been from Diprotodon. But all my reference photos showed the unguals as being smaller and more blunt and rotund. And as I pieced the bones together in as best their respective positions as I could figure from prior knowledge of basic anatomy and Diprotodon foot reference photos, I found the bones to be very 'funny'. I finally looked up Palorchestes-the only other marsupial mammal I could think of of similar size but that would have the possibility of accounting for the variance I was seeing when compared to Diprotodon. Palorchestes is, essentially, Australia's answer to the giant ground sloth, as far as we know. It had really large unguals, locked 100° elbows, strong, muscular forearms, and possibly a trunk. The unguals were a match to those in this paper, which details the known manus/pes elements of Palorchestes: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0221824 And after consulting a few experts, well... Meet Chester. Or, his left hand, at least. The only known manus of Palorchestes azael (the manus in the paper is that of P. parvus; P. azael was larger and existed until the late Pleistocene) :

I would like to know if it is possible to see the actual skeleton of thylacosmilus atrox. All the photographs and/or illustrations I have seen so far of this animal depict its skull. While I am aware that only two partial skeletons have been found so far, are the bones on display somewhere? And are there any photographs or illustrations of the rest of the skeleton besides the skull? I have seen numerous reconstruction of thylacosmilus in the flesh but I would like to see what the artists based their reconstructions on. I am grateful for any lead