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My sons brought back about 3 gallons of ant hill matrix from their September trip to the Nebraska badlands. The matrix is from the Oligocene Brule Member of the White River Group. All I had to do with the matrix was to fine sift it to remove the fine sand. If you mouse over the pictures you will see the file name which has the specimen size and my best effort at identification. I rarely search terrestrial matrix so I don’t see a lot of terrestrial mammal and reptile micro specimens. If you can identify anything further or you see id errors please contribute to this post. Below is a gem jar display which shows some of the nicer specimens that I found. Double clique the photo to see an enlarged version. The gem jar cups are 1.75 inches in diameter for size reference of the specimens. Edited per comments from Jean-Pierre 1. Mammal and reptile bones (Most of the bones are little mammal caudal verts.) 2. Mammal and reptile bones (mostly toe bones) 3. Mammal bones (caudal verts) 4. Reptile vertebrae 5. Claws 6. Mammal teeth/jaw fragments 7. Mammal teeth (rodent incisors) 8. Mammal teeth [Paleolagus (rabbit) teeth] 9. Mammal teeth 10. Mammal teeth/jaw fragments 11. Lizard osteoderms (mostly Glyptosaur Changed Peltosaurus to Glyptosaur based upon input from Dr. Krister Smith ) 12. Lizard jaw fragments Continued in the next reply. Marco Sr.

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

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.

Here are five new claws for ID please. These were all found in TFF member Sacha's new Merritt Island, Florida Pleistocene matrix. I have included the first one I found here again for comparison. Auspex said the #1 is "from a small species, possibly as small as a least bittern." There were several more claws in the matrix, but these were the most complete samples. It would be great if I could get IDs for them. Thanks for looking. 1 2 3 4 5 6

After researching my more obscure fossil finds from Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek matrix, I am left with these four that I am not sure of. (E. Miocene - Coosawatchee Fm., Hawthorn Group.) Please have a look, and let me know if anyone has any ideas. Thanks for looking. 1) 2) 3) 4)

I found this broken tooth in Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek matrix. I am wondering if it is from an alligator, or even a croc. Seems way too big for a fish tooth. Any help would be appreciated. Scale is in mm. Thanks for looking.

I just found this tonight in TFF member Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek matrix from Gainesville Florida. I took photos from both sides, top and bottom, and the joint end. Thanks for looking. Julianna

I found this broken tooth in TFF member Sacha's Gainesville, Florida matrix. I thought this one looks like a cow shark. I compared it to the examples sent to me by sixgill pete, and I can't see a difference. I don't see any serrations either. I am hoping it is not another fragment of some other kind of shark tooth, but I'd really like to know. Thanks for looking.

I found this tonight in Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek, Gainesville, Florida matrix. I know there is some Eocene in it as well as the more recent.

I have been searching some matrix for micros from the MM quarry at Belgrade NC. Late Oligocene. I have lots to post but decided to start with the gastropods as I am without a clue on IDing these. ( I really need to spring and get the new volume from the NC Fossil Club on Fossil Mollusks) There are also a couple ray teeth and a cool bivalve. Looking at all of these by eye you cannot see the wear/damage. The usb microscope I bought is very cool. Takes great pictures with its 2 megapixel camera. First the Gastropods. 1- 5.73mm 2- 5.19mm 3- 4.97mm 4- over 6mm 5-3.26 and 2.51mm 6 - 5.98mm 7- 5.25 to over 10mm

Here is the summary of my finds from the Florida matrix sent to me by TFF member jcbshark. It is his famous Cookie Cutter matrix! It contains fossils from the Miocene thru Pleistocene. Thanks again Jeff for this great matrix. I was very pleased to find these three Isistius teeth. Here is a selection of the shark teeth from this matrix. continued in the next reply

I finally finished sorting and photographing my Rattlesnake Creek , Florida matrix finds. This matrix contains Miocene - Pleistocene fossils and some Eocene. Thank you Sacha for sending me this matrix. There were a lot of good finds and I had a hard time deciding which to show here. I don't have IDs for everything, and some I do might be wrong, so please feel free to correct me. I am here to learn. I found numerous ray teeth. Here is some of the ray material; Dasyatis Rhynchobatus male Dasyatis stingray spines continued in next reply

Here are some of my first finds from the matrix sent to me by member Sacha. It is pebble matrix from the Rattlesnake Creek in Gainesville, Florida. Mostly Miocene. The colours of the teeth are really nice, and the preservation is excellent. I have attempted to ID what I can, but please correct me if I am wrong. First, here are some shark teeth. I think that 'A' and 'D' are Carcharhinus. not sure about the rest... Again, I think 'A', 'D', 'E', and 'I' are Carcharhinus. I had to add this one just to show the great colours! I realize that these are probably too worn to ID, but 'C' looks like a Hemi. Some of these teeth are almost translucent. I already know 'E', and 'F' are Lagodon, as I have found one of those before. And the crushing teeth are 'A', 'C', and 'D'. 'B' and 'G' are new to me tho.

Hello Everyone, I was hoping someone could help me identify two teeth I found in some Lee Creek reject material I brought home from the Aurora Fossil Festival this year. Both teeth are approximately 1cm in length and have rather large roots for their small size. Here is the first tooth: At first I thought maybe a whale shark or possibly a basking shark, but really have no clue. I'm hoping one of the experts could give me a positive ID. Sorry if there is not enough detail in the pictures above to make a positive ID, these little micros are hard to shoot. Here is the second tooth, which I really have no clue what it could be. Thanks in advance for any assistance with the IDs.

Like many people here in eastern NC my first full fledged exposures to fossils was at the Aurora Fossil museum. Growing up here, I had seen and found my share of smaller sharks teeth and "petrified" clams as we called them, but never thought much about it. Never had anyone able to expose me to the world of fossils.(Plus, I was much more interested in baseball ..... then girls.) After I had grandkids a friend said, hey you should take them to the fossil museum in Aurora. So I did and the rest is, as we say, history. I was amazed at the teeth and everything else that was on display there. The first day in the piles there my grandson Nick(who I hunt with regularly and the one who coined me sixgill pete) found a 2 plus inch meg and a 2 plus inch mako. We were hooked. We went back to those piles tirelessly, as often as we could. We found huge numbers of mako's and tiger's and some megs and some cow sharks. Everything the piles had to offer. Then I got into the mine, wow, I found some amazing things in there, my favorite being the cow shark teeth. But there had to be more, so I found GMR and then all the MM quarries here in the eastern part of NC. Did research and found out about the beaches and rivers and much more. Then I discovered micro's and as many of you know, they are among my favorites. Beautiful little things the eye can barely see, but amazing and in many cases some of the rarest teeth. I also discovered shells, and echinoids. Then came The Fossil forum. Without a doubt, the finest fossil site on the web, great people and a plethora of USEFULL information. And the knowledge here is 5 star A+. I have learned so much and continue to learn everyday I am able to log in. I recently was able to get my first trilobite from fantastic forum member xonenine. Here in NC, there is no where to find them. My collection has come along way since its humble beginnings. So here are a few highlight's of it, some of my favorite pieces. Don a.k.a. sixgill pete my first big meg, 4 3/8" from GMR a 2 1/8 lower hastalis from Lee Creek two upper hastalis 2 1/8 and 2 3/8 from Lee Creek my two favorite rics a beautiful gun metal blue perfect 2 1/16 and a very rare parasymphyseal, both found on the same day at the Onslow Martin Marietta Quarry From GMR a very nice about 1 1/4 Great White in matrix Also from GMR a 2 1/2 inch great white