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So I was recently lucky enough to very generously receive some amazing and very very rich STH micro matrix! So here’s the finds, ID help courtesy of @digit and @MarcoSr’s website. Starting off with the shark teeth - alongside the micro mix I was given a very nice C. planus tooth. So here’s that alongside the 2 C. hastalis teeth I found: Bigger other shark teeth - Negaprion, Carcharhinus: Squatina - Angel Shark: Squalus - dog shark: Cretorhinus - Basking Shark: Galeorhinus - Tope Shark: Symphyseal tope shark: Triakis sp. - Hound Shark: Heterodontus sp. - Horn Shark: Posterior: Anterior: Dermal denticles: Vertebrae and fish spines: Fish teeth: Pharyngeal fish teeth: Now onto the Ray teeth - Dasyatis and Gymnura cause I can’t tell the difference - there were SO MANY OF THESE! Easily 300+. The nuptial/male/breeding teeth from Dasyatis and Gymnura: Mustelus sp (Smooth-hound shark) and Rhinobatus sp. (Guitarfish) cause I really can’t tell the difference either: Mobula sp: And finally, the 3 Raja (Skate) teeth I found: There were a couple other finds - couple triggerfish teeth, a barracuda tooth, etc as well! I went through the matrix twice and I know I’ve missed stuff too. Im surprised I didn’t find any shark denticles, but ah well. Also not included is all the Ray mouth plates and broken shark and Ray teeth I found! Tons of stuff that I’m very happy with! If anyone wants pictures of anything in particular do let me know!

Hello all! Sorting through some new Cretaceous Post Oak Creek matrix and have a few questions on what some of these might be. Thanks for any help! First is this round tooth....could it be croc? It doesn't have any striations, which I think croc would, but it is perfectly round so not a worn shark blade, I think. Anyways, any suggestions would be appreciated! 1. Tooth? 5 mm 2. This little piece...may not be identifiable as anything, but the surface texture is just interesting. 2mm other side 3. Possibly a denticle? Or tooth? I've found lots of sawfish teeth but this one doesn't seem to match anything else. 2mm other side 4. is this turtle? 1.5 cm 6, And lastly....this "claw" thingie. . 2 mm Thanks for looking!

Hello everyone, I hope life has been pacing along well for all of you. At the moment, I find myself at school and away from my idealistic home, that is, buried alongside the Cretaceous fossils swimming in the various soils of NJ. No worry though! I have been going through some micro gravel in Ohio and today will present you with my second batch of finds. I believe I've found some cool things so far. The most notable differences between this post and my previous (besides the fossils of course) is that I post fewer photos and more group shots. Enjoy. Meristodonoides sp. Rhombodus laevis + Other Rays Scapanorhynchus texanus (symphesial) Paralbula casei Hadrodus priscus Lonchidion babulskii Ischyrhiza mira Other Shark's Teeth Ptychotrygon sp. Osteichthyan Vertebrae Unidentified

Hello everyone, in addition to posting my other topic today, I am going to post this one. With the summer coming to a close, I am preparing to go back to college in Ohio and continue my study of Neuroscience and Mathematics. The rain in Ohio and ID'ing NJ fossils in the ID section often make me lament all of potential NJ hunts I am missing out on because I am at school. So, I thought it would be a good idea to collect micro matrix using a window screen and stock several buckets full of gravel to look through during the semester. Over the last two weeks or so I've had the opportunity to do some early looking and will share my finds in this post. Hopefully I will be able to make many more NJ Micro trip reports during the course of the semester. I am still figuring out the proper mixture of lighting and camera angles. Also, you may notice it in this post, but I am adjusted the properties Exposure, Shadows, and Sharpness to get the optimal view of the fossils. The black borders and resizing of the photos were automatically done by a Python script I wrote. Perhaps with more micro reports I can become better at ID'ing what I find (there are still many things that I have found where I am at a loss for what they are) and taking photos. Enjoy. Here is my setup currently Here is some gravel I've looked through FOSSILS Format: <suspected ID> Maybe Rhombodus laevis AMALGAM OF RAYS 1 (tooth) 2 (tooth) 3 (tooth) 4 (tooth) 5 (tooth) 6 (denticle) 7 (denticle: In middle) Lonchidion babulskii Ptychotrygon sp. 1 2 Ischyrhiza mira 1 2 3 4 5 6 Squatina hassei (potentially) Hadrodus priscus 1 2 3 Ischyodus bifurcatus SHARK TEETH MISCELLANEOUS BUT POSSIBLY DIAGNOSTIC 1 2 GENERAL FINDS 1 2

I found these fossils in matrix from the Aurora spoil pile. What kind of shark teeth are these two specimens, please. Can the coral be ID'd? Thanks for looking.

I did not see a posts for sea shells. all from sand deep into a local farm pond dug in the 1990s. and left on the ground. Filtered the sand to remove many fine stones with nylon window screen. One tiny crinoid bead and taken at 2X with my microscope. Put them in a squeeze type loose tea strainer into ultrasonic cleaner removing much dirt. #86 may be an olive shell.

I and others have been finding these in the matrix I've been collecting about a mile East of the Ernst Quarry in Bakersfield, California. Mid. Miocene, Temblor Formation. I have never found them from the Sharktooth Hill matrix I used to collect. Items all average about 3mm in diameter. Some sort of dermal denticle or fish scale? I hope the phone picture is adequate. Any ideas?

This is a chunk of Michigan clay with sand and probably calcium. I do not know yet if I can do much with it other than perhaps cut down the size to have the fossils. Don't know if a hack saw would help much. all are like micro size and one looks like an Crinoid Archimedes screw 0.7 cm x 0.3 cm. I would like to know what is the tire track like tract line? 5/8th inch, or 0.1 x 1.59 cm or 15.8750 mm. Is this an actual fossil or impression left by a life form. Two are with my phone zoomed in about 1.7.

I am offering up some Lee Creek micro matrix up for trade. I looking to trade mainly for other micro matrix, nothing that can only be sorted with a microscope please. I will entertain other offers as well. Adam

Here's a couple more finds from my Fla "Cookie Cutter" Creek matrix that have me stumped. No idea what they are, but the two look similar enough they may be variations of the same thing; or maybe they're just two similar looking rocks! (1st post has pics of the initial find, 2nd post has the other find plus comparison of the two. Scale is 1mm increments.) Hopefully some of you "CC Creek" or micro experts can point me in the right direction on these. Sorry for the lousy pics but its the best I could do with such small specimens without some better equip -- any suggestions? Thanks for looking.

Hello; Does anyone here has a good way to get micro shark teeth out of the hard chalk of hallencourt(FR) Greetings

Do microfossils come as small as the grains of sand, and if so, how do you separate them?

This is a quick post, with a few group pictures, on the anthill matrix that I recently collected from my sons’ Nebraska ranch this May. The specimens in this post are from anthill matrix that was collected from anthills that are in the flats of the ranch which are Oligocene, Lower Scenic Member, Brule Formation. I’m currently working with 2 amphibian (frog and salamander) researchers, 1 squamate researcher (lizards, legless lizards and snakes), 1 mammal researcher (rodents) and 1 bird researcher. I’ll soon be also working with an eggshell researcher and another mammal researcher (insectivores especially bats). I’ve been asked about trading some of this matrix by TFF members but can not do so until the research is finished and the papers are published. I finished searching one gallon of the seven gallons of anthill matrix that I just collected this May. I continue to be amazed at both the fossil density and quality of specimens that I’m finding in this anthill matrix from the ranch. So far the fossil density of this batch of anthill matrix from the ranch is actually higher than what was in the matrix from my September and May 2016 trips. One reason for that may be the 3 inches of rain that we had at the ranch the four days or so before I started collecting the matrix. To get that much rain is unusual with the rain probably breaking down and washing away a bit of the matrix itself. I’ve attached a number of group pictures of what I picked from this first gallon of anthill matrix. The white paper plates are 9 inches in diameter and the gem jar cups are 1.75 inches in diameter for size reference. There are lots of mammal specimens with rodent specimens by far the most common. There are also a good number of Lagomorph specimens. There are also a decent number of really nice insectivore specimens and other small mammal specimens. There are a large number of squamate specimens, with a good number of these being Glyptosaur especially Glyptosaur osteoderms. I’m not seeing anything that jumps out as being new from what I’ve previously sent to the squamate researcher but there are a lot of nice jaw pieces and vertebrae. I’ve only found at best two amphibian specimens so far. One looks like a frog humerus and the other possibly a damaged salamander vertebra. I’m not seeing bird bones that I recognize so far. However, based upon the squamate researcher finding eggshell pieces in the previous specimens that I sent, I did intentionally look for eggshell specimens. So I think there are also eggshell pieces in this matrix also. I decided to pick everything from this matrix, versus only specimens that I could recognize, like I did with the September 2016 matrix. There are a tremendous number of bone and tooth fragment specimens. Picking everything is taking a long time and I may not be through searching all 7 gallons of this matrix by the end of August as I had originally hoped. I wish I could recognize the diagnostic cranial elements but unfortunately I don’t have that expertise requiring that I pick everything so as to not lose something that might be of scientific importance. All and all I’m extremely happy with what I’m finding so far in the anthill matrix from the ranch. I also did take a quick look at some of the 1 gallon of Eocene anthill matrix from a neighboring ranch that I also collected in May. That result was not encouraging with only a few mammal specimens that were damaged found so far. Marco Sr.

I will be traveling to North Carolina in the next couple of weeks and will be within striking distance of Aurora, NC. Aside from across from the museum are there any other public access points to spoils piles from the Lee Creek mine that people are willing to divulge. I figure with the Aurora, NC fossil fair having just wrapped up that maybe there are some other access piles in the vicinity. My primary interest is screening some of the material to take with me to search for mircos. What I want to avoid is filling a five gallon bucket to then only be visited by the police. I don't get to this area very often so I am not at all familiar with the etiquette or regulations to be aware of. Any insight that anyone would be willing to share would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to PM me if that's easier.

Sometimes it can take me a while to do a trip report, but i feel like better late than never right? I headed out to Douglas Point for the main reason of getting some sand material that Ive been told is good for micro teeth. I found the material that i was looking for and loaded my backpack(way to full). I had just made a new sifter for micros and was looking to test it out, and I know literally nothing about them so if anyone wants to chime in on some resources i can study go right ahead. Anyways, I did my regular fossil hunting and didn't find much other than some nice Sand Tigers. I had a disposable camera with me that day that I was trying to use the rest of so I took some scenic shots with it. Enjoy!

I’m posting a few pictures from the trip I took with my sons in September 2016 to our Eocene/Oligocene Nebraska ranch. There are a couple of really neat areas on the ranch itself of which pictures are shown below. This is one small area of Eocene Chadron Formation on the ranch. The vast majority of the ranch is Oligocene Brule Formation. It is difficult to see clearly in these pictures but this area of the ranch has many visible different layers of the Brule Formation. The layers really stand out when the formation is wet and the colors are much more vibrant. These are two different dens in another part of the ranch. One had large footprints with five toes and claws all round it, probably from a bear. The other had large footprints with four toes and no claws all around it, probably from a mountain lion. I really wanted to get closer and get pictures inside the den but didn’t think that would be wise with the fresh footprints all around. We took out a good number of jacketed mammals and tortoises/turtles. However, none have been prepped yet. We still have over twenty specimens to prep from our May 2016 trip. I spent a couple of days collecting anthill matrix for the micro terrestrial vertebrate specimens that it contains. Below are a couple of the anthills I collected from with a garden trowel for size reference. I wound up with around 8 ½ gallons of processed matrix from 8 areas in the ranch. Below are group pictures of the nicer specimens that I found so far in the matrix. I still have 1 ½ gallons of matrix to search. The fossil hackberry seeds and rodent incisors really stand out in the group pictures but there are a myriad of other specimen types if you really look closely. I also have thousands of bone fragments that I picked to send to Dr. Krister Smith who will search them for squamate skull fragments. You need quite a bit of experience and expertise to recognize these skull fragments which I can’t recognize currently. Continued in next reply Marco Sr.

A few weeks ago I submitted a request for ID on a couple of tiny bones from TFF member Sacha's Merritt Island Pleistocene matrix. http:// Small Pleistocene bone for ID - Fossil ID - The Fossil Forum The help that I received was based on the limited photos that I supplied. Lateral views alone just don't cut it! I was not satisfied with 'mouse', so I 'dug' a little deeper. I decided to re-photograph a few of the odd little bones in different aspects this time. Duh... my results really do illustrate the importance of showing the 'ends' of a bone. It was very obvious from my new photos that these are vertebrae. Then came hours of research and many PDF downloads. Turns out that these cool little bones are autotomous lizard caudal vertebrae. There seem to be at least two kinds in the matrix possibly representing different species (or positions in the tail). I have included some of the links to helpful papers on the subject. http://‎www.scielo.br/pdf/aabc/v87n1/0001-3765-aabc-201520130298.pdf http://The Anatomy and Histology of Caudal Autotomy and Regeneration in Lizards (PDF Download Available) http://Lizard Caudal Vertebrae on JSTOR

I have found the perfect way to answer the questions I get when trying to describe my passion for micro fossils! While out shopping yesterday, we hit a few favorite hobby/craft stores like A C Moore and Michael's. I found this neat little pocket watch designed to showcase tiny finds and bought a chain to match. Now I can keep it in the watch pocket on my jeans and easily show off a selection of micro fossils from Merritt Island matrix.

I am currently cataloging the thousands of photos that I have accumulated of my finds from the Merritt Island, Florida Pleistocene matrix. Here are three that have me puzzled. The first looks like an ostracod... ? I was hoping that this tooth half was from something more interesting than a dolphin... It looks as though it has feeding damage...any ideas? And finally, this bit of jointed bone really has me stumped. Any guesses? Thanks for looking