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Showing results for tags 'mystery fossil'.
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Requesting help with my first vertebrate prep job (It's a big one!)
DokDeino posted a topic in Fossil Preparation
Greetings! I'm Dok Deino, a Paleontology student who is going into fossil prep. Fortunately, I was able to negotiate a volunteer position with my college advisor. My job: to prepare some specimens that have been in the collection for about 60 years. And one of them is pretty big. It's an unidentified sauropod femur, approximately 1.6-1.8 meters in length, weighing at least 70 kg. Genus unknown, but it is most likely from the Morrison formation. I believe the attached photo is a caudal view of the femur, if anyone wants to take a crack at ID-ing it. My professor and I are currently brainstorming our method of attack, but since neither of us are preparators (yet, in my case), I wanted to reach out to people who are. There's another specimen as well, but we have no idea what it might be. It's a 1.2x.2x.5 meter block of plaster, basically. All we know about the specimen is that the people who retrieved it only jacketed Dinosaur remains. So, if anyone out there has some advice, please respond! Whether for these specimens specifically, or just in general. This is an interesting field that I am very excited to break into! Thank you for reading, -Dok- 37 replies
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Ok guys. I am new to this and really enjoying it. Figured I would share a few photos and hope that someone would possibly help me out here. The 3 fossils I have no clue about were found within 30 yards or so of one another. I appreciate any help, and thanks for looking! Ordovician
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This is number 3 of the 5 fossils I have been unable to identify in the last 2 years. This fossil has been found on the shores of Lake Huron, in the Grey Bruce county area in Ontario, Canada. I am not entirely sure if this even is a fossil, but it’s a unique pattern of holes in this rock that make me think there was biological matter that rotted away leaving many small imprints. Curious to hear your thoughts.
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Mystery Piece Found Along With Edestus Teeth Illinois Coal Mine Carboniferous
Kurufossils posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hi all, this strange piece came with a batch of edestus fossils that were found in a coal mine in Illinois. Have no idea what it could be, the front seems to be coated in black coal mostly while the back has what appears to be ridges. All I know about the location is it was found in a coal mine along with some edestus teeth that is Carboniferous in age. Hoping with some help to get to the bottom of this mystery.- 2 replies
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I recently purchased this vertebrae which was sold as a mosasaur (Clidastes) vertebrae. I wasn't convinced that the vert was Mosasaur (or even marine reptile for that matter) in origin when I bought it, I simply bought it because I thought it was a nice looking vertebrae. But now I thought I might give it a shot to try and get an ID on this thing. It was found in the Gober Chalk, Austin Group, Gober, Fannin County, Texas, USA and dates back to the Campanian, Cretaceous (± 80 mya). I don't really know what the vertebrae could be honestly, I don't believe it to be Mosasaur in origin or any other marine reptile like Plesiosaurs or Pliosaurs. I have been searching to see if it might belong to a cretaceous giant sea turtle like Archelon or something but I can't find really find any pictures of sea turtle verts to compare with. When I posted the vertebrae in my collection topic some members were inclined to point toward the vertebrae being mammalian in origin, but due to the size that would mean it probably isn't cretaceous in origin due to it's large size. So I made some more photos to get a better image of the vertebrae, I made some close ups a well of the bone structure and of the some of the places where you can clearly see remains of a chalk like matrix stucking to the bone. So I was hoping if someone might be able to put an ID on this thing and maybe if it is mammalian in origin where it might originate from should it not be cretaceous. Thank you in advance!
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A Late Devonian (?) ‘mystery fossil’ from New South Wales, Australia
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
McLean, G., 2017. A ‘mystery fossil’ is evidence for massive Devonian trees in Australia. Records of the Australian Museum, 69, pp.101-118. https://journals.australian.museum/mclean-2017-rec-aust-mus-692-101118/ https://media.australian.museum/media/Uploads/Journals/37694/1661_complete.pdf Yours, Paul H. -
I’ve only a moth-eaten note in the bottom of this old matchbox which I presume once had the description of this fossil. I can’t tell you much more about it I’m afraid, just that it’s a fossil and would appear to be hollow and is quite light in weight. Sorry not much to go by, Any help would be much appreciated please.
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I was going over some of bits of Permian micro mix from the Neva Formation in Kansas and I found a fossil I had come across in my initial search months ago. I recently looked at a publication on Permian sharks from Russia. I remembered seeing something similar in that publication. It was a monocuspid denticle attributed to Cobelodus and I can not help but wonder if our mystery fossil is chondrichthyes denticle of some sort. Any thoughts ?
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My best guess is turtle shell. The top layer of this specimen seems to be keratin... but beyond that I’m clueless. All layers are very crumbly. Specimen has no redeeming aesthetic value, beyond being mysterious and... weird. Found in a spoil pile near Aurora, NC.
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- animal or mineral
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Greetings... Assuming this thing is in fact a fossil, I hope someone might be able to tell me what creature it is, and from what general time period. The rock comes from deep in glacial till at Groß Pampau in Schleswig Holstein, northern Germany. Thanks!
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Hi, My Name is Herb Daly and I am just getting into fossil collecting with my oldest daughter. My first one, which I bought at a local auction, is below. Does anybody know what kind of fossil it is or where can find out some more about it please. Kind regards, Herb
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Interesting find in Possum Creek, Gainesville. What is it???
VAfossilguy posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello, everyone. While searching Possum Creek my son and I found this strange fossil. It essentially has four sides and each side is almost identical to the opposite side. If I didn't know any better, I would say it looks like a whole baby alligator head. Obviously that's not what it is, so any help with its ID would be greatly appreciated. We are stumped...- 1 reply
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A friend found this fossil in a rock shop in Moab, SE Utah. The rock was split open when he was visiting the shop. Does anyone have any ideas what it is? Thanks
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Hi. I work at a zoo and am currently going through the inventory of biofacts we use for teaching and found a box of fossils in the back of the closet that are not labled. I did the best I could to ID some of them but I could really use some help with the following. The first Mystery Fossil is a positive and negative cast.
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Hello everyone, I thought the readers on this list might have fun with the Cooper Center's YouTube channel, where we post a "mystery" fossil every Friday. Test your fossil ID skills here: We also have other series, including interviews with scientisits, an archaeology quiz show, and various programs to teach paleontology and archaeology to a general audience. Meredith
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