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Showing results for tags 'microsite'.
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From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
These large lizards are kin to modern monitors like the Komodo dragon. The possess sharp, finely serrated teeth and long claws good for climbing and digging. They likely preyed on smaller animals like other lizards and mammals, and may have been the bane of parent dinosaurs as some paleontologists have suggested they could raid dinosaur nests. Varanoid “monitor lizard” fossils. A) trunk vertebra, missing a good portion of the process; B) tooth showing basal cross section silhouette and closeup of serrations. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
I found a few holostean-grade scales that haven’t been attributed to more precise taxa, and are referred to as holostean “A” and “B” in the literature. These are not gar and are something else. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Lonchidion was one of the last of the hybodonts, a lineage of shark-like fishes spanning nearly 300 million years before they went extinct along with the non-avian dinosaurs. Lonchidion had barbed spines on their dorsal fins and a durophagous dentition more suited to grinding than grasping. Like most hybodont teeth, their roots are fragile and their teeth are only rarely found complete. In this deposit they seem to be fairly rare; I’ve thus far only found two. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Mussel shell fragments litter the matrix, so much so that even in the finest grain size it looks to have been laced with glitter. The original shell material that makes them appear iridescent (nacre) is preserved, which makes it somewhat surreal to sort through - as if this dirt was shoveled from a river yesterday. The colors are more vibrant when they’re damp. Unfortunately they are extremely fragile and crumble if you so much as look at them. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Illustration of pre-fossilization channel weathering effects: physical and chemical. River action physically tumbles and erodes details and sharp features, the acidity of the water may chemically erode surfaces, causing pitting. A) Trionychid turtle shell; B) holostean fish (Cyclurus) maxilla. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Under the microscope, one may find these tiny treasures - microscopic shark teeth! They are uncommon and require a lot of effort to find.-
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From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Some bones are so river tumbled that they become rounded, even to a near-polish in some cases, and are referred to as “bone pebbles” in the literature. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
The vast majority of what I find looks like this - chunks of bone and fish bits. In leaving “no stone unturned”, I’ve picked out thousands of pieces of this stuff just to recover a handful of exquisite specimens. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
A representative sampling of the diversity captured in microsites - everything from Tyrannosaurus to mollusks.- 6 comments
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From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Acheroraptor was a small theropod (dromaeosaurid) "raptor" that lived in the same paleo-ecosystem as T. rex. Its blade-like serrated teeth possess diagnostic apicobasal ridges.-
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From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Gars are predatory fish, armored with diamond-shaped scales coated in a hard enamel-like substance. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Myledaphus (a guitarfish/ray) teeth are quite common, as expected for a riverine deposit. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
Sections of ossified tendons from ornithischian dinosaurs. Especially in an energetic channel environment, these fragile structures are broken into pieces. You’ll notice the surfaces and ends of several of these are rounded from river transport prior to final deposition. -
From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
A fragmented piece of fiery orange amber. Most amber from the HCF is quite small, this one was only a few mm in diameter -
From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
The Hell Creek formation exposed in Montana - a fossil-lover's paradise.- 1 comment
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
A shed Triceratops tooth found at a microsite-
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
Richardoestesia teeth have very fine serrations. A couple of mm of the tip was reattached after I found it in the matrix I was scrupulously searching. -
From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
A monitor lizard from the very end of the Cretaceous. The carinae are slightly serrated, and in basal view the mesial carina projects from the silhouette like a wing. -
From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
Among the iridescent mollusk shell shrapnel, lies a molar from a small Cretaceous mammal. -
From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
A hybodont "shark" found in a channel deposit. This was among the last of the hybodonts - a group that spanned nearly 300 million years before going extinct along with the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago.-
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
An Orectolobiform shark that swam the rivers of the Hell Creek ecosystem. Their teeth closely resemble those of the modern carpet shark, the "wobbegong." This was found in matrix from a channel deposit.
