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What life form caused the pattern of deformation seen in this gastropod. Five points each for Kingdom, Class, and Family. hint: It was found on the shore of a lake in Maine.

Are these fossils or modern? Found in Idaho.

These are not fossils, but the concept could be useful in understanding ichno fossils. At first I came to the pool without tadpoles, it was late in the afternoon on a warm day and I moved slowly as I contemplated how the craters were formed. Had birds been probing the mud ? There did not seem to be a direct correspondence between the tracks and the pits though. The next pool I came to was deeper and perhaps allowed tadpoles a better escape from predators. The pictures were taken the next morning and the tadpoles were more disturbed by my approach so it doesn't show the behavior, but they seemed to be covering themselves with silt in the pits. Applying sun screen perhaps ? Or is the correlation coincidental ?

Hey everyone, I recently walked on a beach near Keansburg, New Jersey, and came across an unusually large amount of dead animals. There were mostly crabs (blue crabs and spider crabs), baby shells, and jellyfish lying on the beach. However, I came across three small sharks. Does anyone know what factors might be responsible for the dead animals, such as rising water temperatures? If anyone knows what type of shark (I believe it is the smooth dogfish, Mustelus canis) and jellyfish that is, please comment. Thanks everyone, Joseph Jellyfish: Shark #1 body (with a fish behind it) Shark #1 dentition: Shark #2 remains: Shark #2 dentition:

Back in the 1970's I was given these 4 teeth and was told they were fossil shark teeth. How can you tell if they're fossil or modern?????

Ok as if the clam wasn’t enough excitement for the day, not that this is exciting I also found what I believe is a very old, but modern cow skeleton, which I believe is most likely fully articulated. I just want to confirm it is cow. I went fossil hunting yesterday, which was almost a complete and total bust for me. Rarely happens, but that was the case fossil wise. However that does not mean I didn’t find some really cool, very, very cool, want so badly kind of stuff, but I couldn’t carry them out because they were too big and heavy. Anyway, it was miserably hot. I believe I found the hardest, most difficult, poison ivy overgrown path I could possibly find into the creek. First attempt was a 25 foot drop straight down into the creek. I scouted a small section of the creek out, found lots of very cool stuff, but only a coupe of oysters and that was it fossil wise. I was hot and wanted to check out another place before dark so I looked for an easier way out. I found one I thought I could manage. Problem was I was in my flip flops. I had no traction. If I’d been in my boots I’d had no problem at that spot. I couldn’t make it so I went further up creek. The creek water was like warm bath water and offered no relief from the heat. I came to a spot in the creek where a pool of water was divided off from the sandbar. I stepped into it and too my surprise the water was cool and sooooo refreshing. I splashed it all over myself to cool down and walked on. I walked maybe 10 feet and saw this on the edge by the creek bank. It seemed to have recently fallen about 4.5 feet from the middle of the creek bank above. There was a large clump of bank to the right that had more bone in it. I have to mention that I was a few hundred yards from a cemetery so it gave me pause. I had to process it a moment and determine that these were not human bones. Wouldn’t that be horrible! The cemetery could be 100 yrs old. The creek changes course over the years and encroaches upon the cemetery and graves start washing out into the creek!! Yikes! I’m sure it must have happened somewhere once upon a time. Didn’t happen here though. Moving on. This was embedded in the bank about 4.5 feet from the portion of the creek I was standing on and about 5 feet down from the top of the bank. No way it could have been redeposited since it seems largely articulated. I’d been seeing concretions in the bank of the creek so initially I thought the ball to the right was a stone. I was taking a pic of the broken bone. Rib maybe? The ball and one above it I think are heads of femur or something. Here is the bank. You can’t really see the other bones in the bank in this pic. They are there though. Bad quality pic, but I removed some of the dirt from the bank to expose the bone. There is more bone to the right and left. Some of the bones that had fallen from bank. A vertebra Anyway, do you think it is cow or could it be bison? That’s about all the pics I have. It’s modern, but I’m curious. I am assuming the cow must have gotten stuck in the mud and died. The cool water in the creek had to be coming from an underground spring. This was maybe 10 feet from there. Maybe it made the soil very soft and contributed the the bovid’s demise. I have come across cow skeletons on numerous occasions that died in a field and are completely disarticulated from wild animals scavenging them. That didn’t happen here. It must have been mud or something.

I found these two metapodials while diving in South Florida. They are not fossil. But I'd like to identify them for placement in the reference collection. Hoping they are a native marine animal (manatee, cetacean, sea turtle). Any help would be greatly appreciated Scale is in cm (or about 3.75 inches long)

Hi all, Found these two shells in Antwerp, Belgium. It was in a place with lots of sand, and the sea was rather far away. There are tons of Pliocene shells there to be found. I also found these two bivalves. What I find really weird is that the periostracum (the brown layer) is still preserved!? How could that be? Nearly all fossil shells lose it when fossilizing, yet these two seem to have kept it. What do you think is the answer to this mystery? Fossils, with the periostracum preserved, or modern (but how did they get here?)? (Or maybe this isn't a periostracum at all. But what is it then?) I think that the species are Mytilus edulis and Spisula subtruncata (although that's by far the biggest Spisula I have ever seen) (both present modern in the North Sea, and occur as fossils in Belgium). I'm greatly anticipating your thoughts on this! Max

Apologies since this is modern versus fossil. But was my first ever experience with ray cartilage and I am excited. The vertebrae were found in different locations as were the 2 snouts I found. I also came across a ray's carcass that was intact but beginning to deteriorate. It's snout was skin covered but appeared to be the same. The vertebrae also looked identical to the ones I found. It was humped up I guess because of the drying and shrinkage of the skeleton. It had claspers so it was a male. About a foot and a half body with a long tail. The tail had hooked denticles? all along the top dorsal side curved toward the end. I was not as observant as I should have been to gather more details. I really wanted that tail! but I was unable to remove it and the body had a quite offensive smell. Also I did not have a camera so no pictures. Looking online the snout looks very much like an Atlantic guitarfish and its habitat is north Carolina and south US. Any help to confirm or point me in another direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi to all! Recently i post a content to identify the Wild boar tusk,is it fossil or not...Now the same thing.I found these stuff in my garden where mostly i have found Vinča's pottery and the tusk . I found here a molar ,idk is it a bison or a cow,looks very similar, but i think that it isn't a fossil...It smells a bit...Other bone which i think is from a deer antler is fossilized,it doesn't smell at all. And near by i found,which in my opinion looks like some kind of a hand made blade or something like that but is very sharp.If someone can help me to id the bones or the blade it would help.Thanks.

I found a bone in a SoCal creek, and was wondering if it was a fossilized or modern one, I tried the burn test and it didn't have a super pronounced smell, just a faint one- any ideas? it was found in the water of the creek.

I apologize as I did not keep any information about where I found this. But I saved it as I was curious. I have showed it to some experienced natural history collectors and those interested in skulls without any success. So I am asking if anyone can help. I do not even know for sure that it is fish. But I remain curious. Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Hey everyone! I know they technically aren't fossils, I have a drawer of modern shark teeth, of which many are starting to exhibit hairline cracks along the center of the teeth, which weren't there when I purchased them previously. Does anyone know why this is happening, and if so, how do I prevent this from happening further?

Hello everyone, this is not a fossil but since there is so much knowledge in this forum I thought I'd ask here first. Please delete or move if not appropriate for the Fossil ID section. This is a modern skull. The size puzzles me as well as the dental not quite a house cat. Bob cat? Other ideas? It is tiny!! Scale in inches. Found in North Texas, near to a Coyote remains. Lot of wildlife, including bob cats, raccoons. Any way to tell what this is exactly? Thanks in advance!

Found these two today whilst knocking around some dirt. Not sure if they are fossil or not. Down here we have a lot of shells and a lot of "reworked" dirt and sand,so to speak. Which means I'm not sure if they originated where I found them or if they were moved there by construction and/or backfill. Any input is welcome.

I can't remember if I brought this subject up before or not. During last years storms I gathered some bones (modern) along the beach that were washed ashore. I would like to find a way to clean out the stench from the rotting marrow so they can be displayed indoors without suffering the vomitous gagging from the smell. I have had them "airing out" in a field for almost a year and Mr. Stink just won't go away. I believe taxidermist usually boil out the marrow to clean bones, but these are a bit too big to fit a boiling pot. I was contemplating soaking them in a diluted bleach solution to hopefully take the smell away. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery? I live in a small apartment so any large scale operation is somewhat out of the question. Have any of our illustrious peers out there had much practice with cleaning modern bone?