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My daughter found this back in June in the hell creek formation in Montana. I'm not sure what kind of bone or dinosaur it would have come from so she asked me to post it on here for the experts to advise. My best guess was part of a vertebrae but I'm not sure. Thanks in advance.
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Excavating Dinosaurs at Redding Farms Near Rudyard, Montana
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Paleontologists unearth more dinosaur fossils north of Rudyard By: Josh Meny, MTN News, KRTV, Great Falls, Montana, Aug. 19, 2017 http://www.krtv.com/story/36172339/paleontologists-unearth-more-dinosaur-fossils-north-of-rudyard Redding Farms has unearthed dinosaur fossils for decades By: Josh Meny, MTN News, KXLH, Helena, Montana, Aug. 19, 2017 http://www.kxlh.com/story/36170618/redding-farms-has-unearthed-dinosaur-fossils-for-decades Down on the dinosaur farm By Martin J. Kidston Independent Record, August 6, 2005 http://helenair.com/news/down-on-the-dinosaur-farm/article_0d3f3f53-a8ca-5a9f-8596-a97319bdaddb.html Yours, Paul H. -
Also in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, we found this interesting bone. It was in two large pieces, and then I later attached two smaller pieces to it. I had shown it to another paleontologist (before it was cleaned and glued together), and he suggested maybe mandible end, or another condyle. To me, it has a femur like quality..... Any suggestions as to what this is, and what it might be from? I'm leaning towards triceratops, based on odds.....
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My uncle found these rocks and he thought they were interesting. My thoughts were volcanic, maybe a spindle lava bomb and another strange rock that has a porous top layer, but is heavier than pumice.
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So this was the largest bone we picked up on our great Out West trip. We had found it out on a ranch in Montana, as part of the Hell Creek formation. The bulk of the bone was a bit fragmentary, so our guide put a plaster wrap over the top of it. Turns out she just applied it directly to the bone, so I've spent the past few days scraping and scrubbing to get the plaster off. I reglued the loose pieces as they came off, and assembled the fragments that were directly around the bone (during excavation) into 3 medium sized pieces (below). The smaller piece on the right was located *directly* under the large bone. In my dreams this would be a recognizable bone, and one I could make larger by attaching the other pieces to it. Here's the current state: As you can see, it is interesting, and has shape. The socket in the large piece is what caught our attention initially. The smaller piece (right) that was found directly beneath the bone also has a socket. The bone structure in the large piece hints at shape (from the grain and the bits of outer bone that's left), and the small piece has a nice point opposite the socket. The bottom of the large piece (see below) is a nice smooth curve. So...any thoughts? We were leaning towards some sort of hip bone, but feel there are a few other options that might fit as well. Or not at all. We're new to this. At this point, I thought if by chance I could figure out what the shape was supposed to be, that maybe I could better attempt the jigsaw puzzle.
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So I'm working my way through my tiny fossils, collected in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana. These are gar scales, right? They are quite blue! Is there a species name, or just "gar"? And this next set I'm not too sure of. Some sort of skin/scale/scutes? The third is quite more spiky, and the fourth is much more smooth than the other two. The 2nd and 3rd here I think are scutes? From crocodile? And what's in the first container? And finally, some misc. items. The 1st I think is a turtle rib (shown from inside the shell?) And the 2nd is an edge of a turtle shell (smooth on both sides, curves down to the nice edge on top). The 3rd has slight ridges on it. And the 4th looks like a random bone fragment....but it broke in a nice zig-zag pattern (at the top) - or is it actually something?
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Ive been through many earthquakes in California, some small some rather large and dangerous. None of those earthquakes made any noise. Last night, (I live outside of Helena Montana), both my wife and I were wakened up by ground shaking and then realized it was a very noisy earthquake! My wife was very frightened. I figured it was over, but was now wide awake. Then about 10 minutes later we both heard a very strange noise but no ground shaking. Figured it was a small aftershock. Then another 20 minutes or so and we heard another really loud noise comin our way the house begins to shake! After 2 more of those everything quited down. The most bizzar night I have ever experienced!!! Im gunna havta run into town and get the newspaper and see what and where. We dont get any local news. RB
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I found it in the Montana rocky mtns in a old dried up riverbed.
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I planned a trip with my daughter to head out to Glendive Montana as her birthday present to go collect fossils. As I've posted in the past, fossil hunting was something we started together as we both loved everything to do with the local museum here. I thought what would be better than to go hunt in the badlands for real dinosaur bones. After doing lots of research on here, reading books, and government literature we planned our trip out to legally collect fossils at Baisch's Dinosaur Digs. We planned a trip out for a week, booked 2 half days and 2 full days. This gave us 3 days to hunt for invertebrates(part 2 when I get around to it, probably not until at least next week) and chill. We arrived at the ranch at 8am last Tuesday, and met Shana, who would be running our tours. Marge used to run the tours, but about 2 years back she decided to hang up her boots. Shana gives you a tour of the stuff they've collected over the years, much of which is pretty cool. I wish I had decent pictures of inside there, but my daughter took those ones, and they are a bit blurry. After getting a tour of all the things you can find out there, of which there is a lot, we headed out to the badlands. You can drive with her or take your own vehicle and follow. We chose to follow as I wanted to bring along a portable toilet for my daughter as needed. Shana provides you with a screwdriver, paintbrush, and bags to put your fossils in. For most of the stuff you're finding, that should be sufficient. If you need more stuff, like casting material, hardener, etc, she carries that stuff with her as well when you find something good. I would do it day by day, but really the process is very similar, just the spots are different in what you are looking for. We drive out to a spot and park. From there, we'd hike out a little or lot depending on the site. You start scouring the ground for anything that looks like fossils. At the micro sites, you're pretty much just scouring the ground for chunks of bone, gar scales, teeth, turtle shell, and the like. Other spots we went to, you would check the ground and cliffs. If you found bone, you'd start moving up the wall to see if you could figure out where it was coming from and hope you find something nice. For me, we mostly stayed with the micro stuff, as my daughter just turned 7, is not graceful and was scared about travelling up to higher ground. Most of the bigger and more articulated bones they find are found higher up. We found tons of chunkosaurus and turtle pieces. There's also an unlimited supply of agatized wood if you like that. Overall we had a great time and I'd recommend Baisch's to anyone looking to experience hunting for fossils and actually getting to keep what you find. They keep anything carnivore to help pay for the ranch, but most of what you find is herbivore material. Here are some pics from our trip.
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Hey there, I bought this nice vertebra a while ago and the seller said that it belonged to a Pachycephalosaurus. It was found in the Hell Creek Formation in Carter County, Montana. Just wondering if it is a Pachycephalosaurus and what part of the body did it belong to? Thank you for your help; much appreciate it! Let me know if you need more photos of different angles. Jojo
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This by far has been the most ambitious trip that I've done, but it was certainly worth the long drive times, poor truck stops (to sleep at), and lack of time to sleep and even eat. In just 10 days I traveled through 7 states (WY, ID, MT, CO, UT, AZ, NM) and covered at least 4700 miles (I might actually have broken 5000). Not only did I alot some time for general fossiling/rockhounding, but also time to stop at a few of the more "touristy" types of places (national parks/monuments, etc). The first day I visited a couple sites in southeastern Montana, with the first being known to produce oysters. It took longer than expected to find, but afterwards I discovered the site to be completely loaded with oysters and oyster fragments. The majority were completely covered with just a tiny bit showing, but after finding a few it seemed like all of them kept popping up one after another. Most were under 1cm in total length, but I found a couple that were larger. The next site was a little disappointing in that due to poor road conditions, I couldn't make it out to a few of the stops that were rumored to yield crinoid pieces (given that I've been working on crinoids for the past year at university, this was going to be one of the highlights of my trip for rockhounding). But I did manage to find one of the stops, which while it appears mostly picked over, did produce one nice piece of coral and several pieces with fragmented clams. This was actually a place that encompassed much more land than I anticipated, so I hope to return next year and alot several days there.
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Right guys, we need two big trucks and several strong guys. I'm planning a burglary. There are two properties in Montana owned by the same guy. He likes crabs but has stacks of other really high quality fossils. I want the massive dino vert and all the teeth and a few of the ammonites. Who's in with me?
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I found this wolf skull near the milk river in North Eastern Montana, please help me identify it.
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The misses and I went to Colorado to visit family. The day after we got home, I noticed some rocks sittin by my small garage. Ammo rocks! Ha! I dont even have to go fossil hunting any more. They just majically appear!!! HA!!! I must be doing something right? RB
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I recently bought this tooth from a sort of reputable seller that largely only deals in Hell Creek materials. I've been told that she sometimes do however get her Identification of materials wrong. This tooth here is labelled by her as Nanotyrannus but I had @Andy look at this and he said that I should seek better advice from the experts as he doesn't think it is a Nanotyrannus seeing that the tooth is a little too thick for Nano and a little too thin for T-rex. Attached are a few photos and I've also attached a microscopic zoomed in on the serrations. Serration count is 3 per mm.
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I've a large metacarpal that i'm sure if from a Tyrannosaurus, however, i'm not certain of the species. i found it in the Judith formation in the Montana Milk River Badlands just a mile or so south of Alberta. it measures 6 3/4" long, 3" tall and 3 1/4" across, but i don't think that information is important in the ID. Any help in ID even of where in the foot it's from would be appreciated.
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- judith formation
- metacarpel
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Request ID of Fossil shell encrusted geode/nodules Pryors Montana
Oxford posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Thank you for viewing this post. Found a group of geodes/nodules that are covered with small fossilized shells. They were found in the southern part of the Pryor mountains of Montana between Bear Canyon and the Dryhead. Has anyone seen similar rocks, do they have a name, or know any other information about these? Thanks again.
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Picture of the recent Pyrosoma atlanticum provided by Show_ryu - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15193539 Lit.: CUOMO, C., ROSBACH, S. and BARTHOLOMEW, P. (2015): INVERTEBRATES OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPIAN BEAR GULCH LIMESTONE – A TALE OF JELLIES AND TUNICATES ? 2015 GSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, USA (1-4 November 2015), Paper No. 327-5
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Taxonomy from Fossilworks.org Diagnosis from Lund & Poplin 2000, p. 429: "Aesopichthyidae up to 9 cm long, with a subterminal mouth; single median rostropostrostral remote from the rim of the mouth; premaxillae small and loose, not meeting in the midline, resulting in a median rostral notch; vertically oriented pillar-shaped antorbital; three infraorbitals, the first is below and posterior to the orbit, the third is T-shaped and contacts the nasal anterodorsally; suborbitals thin, one large and occasionally up to three; dermosphenotic small, triangular; two paired extrascapulars; tear-drop shaped maxilla; mandible with short, anterior, toothed portion, a coronoid process and greatly overlapped by maxilla; a single row of marginal teeth on the premaxilla, maxilla and dentary; preoperculum, high, nearly vertical with a long quadratojugal line; operculum shorter anteroposteriorly than suboperculum, vertical to long axis of the fish; seven to eight branchiostegal rays; characteristic ornamentation of the dermal skull with heavy transverse ganoine ridges on the rostropostrostral, prominent, thick and posteriorly pointed tubercles on the skull roof, but significant ganoine absent from suborbitals, preoperculum and dermohyal; first infraorbital and extrascapulars fringed with sharp posterior spikes; pectoral fin with well spaced, unbranched, entirely articulated rays; dorsal fin with contiguous and entirely articulated rays except the seven posterior ones which are separated, unarticulated and borne by a short scaled lobe; caudal fin equilobate and deeply cleft with webbed rays; 12 to 14 median scutes continuous from skull to dorsal fin, and small scutes between dorsal and caudal fins. For meristics and morphometrics see Table 1." Line drawing from Lund & Poplin 2000, p. 439: Identified by oilshale using Lund & Poplin 2000. References: Lund R. & Poplin C. 2000. — Two new deep-bodied Actinopterygians from Bear Gulch, (Montana, USA, Lower Carboniferous). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20: 428-449. Fossil Fishes of Bear Gulch
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- aesopichthys
- bear gulch
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Taxonomy from Fossilworks.org. Diagnosis from Lund & Lund 1984, p. 239: " Marine rhabdodermatids having large dentary, precoronoid and ectopterygoid teeth. The preorbital region is higher and more rounded than in other rhabdodermatids, the cheek bones deeply overlap each other and the operculum. The operculum articulates with the tabular and the posterior margin of the tabular is level with the posterior margin of the skull. Tubercular ornamentation is sparse on the anterior skull-roof and preorbital region, dense on the very thin cheek bones of large individuals. Dense vermiform ornamentation is found on operculum and angular behind the angular pit line; sparse linear ridges on skull-roof posterior to intracranial joint. The first dorsal fin plate has ventral processes indicating fusion from supraneural elements. The second dorsal fin is anteroposteriorly elongated and bears a posterior articulation for the fin axis, and the anal plate, which rarely ossifies, is a simple rod in the ventral body wall, anterior to the first hemal spine. Pelvic plates are very broad anteriorly, with 3 major and one minor anterior lateral process. The size ranges from 79 mm to 219 mm in standard length. Elliptical caudal fin and cylindrical body form." Line drawing from Lund & Lund 1984, p 239: Identified by oilshale using Lund & Lund 1984. References: Lund, R., Lund, W. (1984) New genera and species of coelacanths from the Bear Gulch Limestone (Lower Carboniferous) of Montana (USA). Geobios, 17, fasc 2:237-244. Lund, R., Lund, W. (1985) Coelacanths from the Bear Gulch Limestone (Namurian) of Montana and the evolution of the Coelacanthiformes. Bull. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist. 25, pp 1-74. Link: Fossil Fishes of Bear Gulch
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Found by a friend 20 miles north of Malta in Montana. I am thinking Bear Paw Shale formation in the Montana Group....reminds me of a joke i will post a little later....
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Hi everyone, I have another bone I would love for you to identify if you can. I also found this one in Montana. It's definitely hollow and theropod. It looks like it has some kind of process along the side. It's not a concretion. What's really neat about the bone is that you can still see the struts inside. From what I understand, struts are structures found within pneumatic bones that allowed the bone to be lightweight while also creating pockets of air within the bone (air sacs) which essentially aided in respiration. (Please correct me if I'm wrong ). Birds still have these struts today; which is pretty incredible to think about... Anyways, please let me know what you think this might come from! It's medium sized. Just over 8 inches long. Thank you!! -Lauren
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Taxonomy from Factor & Feldmann 1985. Diagnosis from Factor & Feldmann 1985, p. 331: "Palaeostomatopod with five carinae on posterior surface of carapace and six carinae on abdominal tergites. Terminal spike more than half the length of telson; telson serrate in region of caudal furcae. Uropodal protopod serrate distally; endopod a small spine-like projection; exopod styliform, serrate along distal third of outer margin." Line drawing from Factor & Feldmann 1985, p. 332: The bar represents 1 cm. Identified by oilshale. References: Ronald A. Jenner; Cees H.J. Hof; Frederick R. Schram (1998): Palaeo- and Archaeostomatopods (Hoplocarida: Crustacea) from the Bear Gulch Limestone, Mississippian (Namurian), of central Montana. Contributions to Zoology, 67 (3) 155-186. FREDERICK R. SCHRAM (2007): PALEOZOIC PROTO-MANTIS SHRIMP REVISITED. Journal of Paleontology, September 2007, v. 81, p. 895-916. Haug et al. (2010): Evolution of mantis shrimps (Stomatopoda, Malacostraca) in the light of new Mesozoic fossils. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010, 10:290. Schram (1969): Some Middle Pennsylvanian Hoplocarida (Crustacea) and their phylogenetic significance. Fieldiana, Geology, Vol.12, No.14 Link (04.2013) Factor, D. F., and Feldmann, R. M. (1985) Systematics and paleoecology of malacostracan arthropods in the Bear Gulch Limestone (Namurian) of Central Montana. Annals of Carnegie Museum 54, p. 319-356.
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Taxonomy from Lund & Poplin 2002. Diagnosis for P. hibbardi from Lund & Melton 1982, p. 486: "Tarrasioid fishes ranging in length to 136 mm; the maximum head length/total length ratio is 0.155; maximum body height total/length ratio is 0.172; the total length/snout-vent length ratio is 1.746. There are 27 to 29 precaudal vertebral arches and 68 to 73 precaudal scale rows. There are 28 to 31 scale rows above the lateral line at the anal notch and 50 to 54 rows below the lateral line. There are 27 to 28 caudal vertebral arches, disappearing at the downturn of the tail, and 78 to 81 caudal scale rows. There are approximately 4 jointed, unbranched fin rays to each vertebral arch." Line drawing from Lund & Melton 1982, p. 489: Identified by oilshale using Lund & Melton 1982. References: R. Lund and W. G. Melton Jr. 1982. A new actinopterygian fish from the Mississippian Bear Gulch limestone of Montana. Palaeontology 25(3):485-498. R. Lund and C. Poplin 2002. Cladistic analysis of the relationships of the Tarrasiids (Lower Carboniferous Actinopterygians). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22:480-486.
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Taxonomy from Fossilworks.org. Diagnosis from Lund & Poplin 1997, p. 467: "Wendyichthys with the following characters: dermosphenotic small, lateral to the anterior part of the frontal and with a slight variable contact with the nasal; thin sclerotic boues; two suborbitals not in contact with each other nor with the surrounding bones, occasionally with one additional anamestic element; maxilla with a sharp posteroventral angle; one row of marginal teeth; operculum in tight contact with suboperculum; 12—13 branchiostegal rays; presence of an extralateral gular on each side of the median gular; six to eight ridge scales midway between the skull and the dorsal fin; three to four ridge scales immediate in front of dorsal fin origin. For meristics and morphometrics see Table 1." Line drawing from Lund & Poplin 1997, p. 472: Identified by oilshale using Lund & Poplin 1997. References: Lund R. & Poplin C. 1997. — The Rhadinichthyids (Palaeoniscoid, Actinopterygians) from the Bear Gulch Limestone of Montana (USA, Lower Carboniferous). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17: 466-486.
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