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Pretty sure this is a tooth. What do you guys think? North Central Nebraska, Miocene. @Harry Pristis @Shellseeker

Not only do I not know which critter this came from but I also I don’t know which bone it is. Getting a proboscidean or rhino feel. Any help appreciated. Most likely Miocene, found in North Central Nebraska.

Any ideas on this one? Should be Miocene like the rest of the stuff in my area. Nice little well preserved bone. Found in North Central Nebraska.

I think these are all pisiform bones but I’m not 100% sure. @Harry Pristis, I looked at some of your older posts about these bones but the shapes didn’t seem to match these. first one measures 68 mm x 54 mm. Second one measures 52 mm x 43 mm. The last one is 44 mm x 34 mm

This is the smallest one of these I have ever seen. Any ideas of what critter it may have belonged to? Found in North Central Nebraska Measures 20mm X 12mm.

It was along a fence line 6inches down. Previous owner had coral rocks up front. It is pretty solid and heavier than it looks. It's not magnetic nor does muriatic acid effect it. I don't want to use a sledgehammer. Any opinions? THANKS

Hi all, seeking some identification help from those familiar with marine vertebrates from the Pennsylvanian black shales (Nebraska, Missouri, etc.) I recently obtained a few ex. Ted White and Bill Rushlau specimens of Romerodus orodontus and a few very nice Iniopteryx rushlaui and one unidentified specimen was included. Just for context for some reading this, W.D. "Ted" White and Bill Rashlau were very prolific collectors of the Pennsylvanian black shales, primarily the states of Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa. The specimens that they collected and cataloged are in many museum collections. The Iniopterygiformes were named as a new order by Zangrel and Case, 1973, with the type species Iniopteryx rushlaui named after Bill Rushlau. Ted White was a recipient of the The Paleontological Societies Harrell L. Strimple Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in paleontology by an amateur. Gerard Case also received this award in 1992. Location: Hansen Quarry, Papillion, Nebraska. Stark Shale, Pennsylvanian T. White collection notes: Sat., April 5th 1947. Spec. # 8284. "Shark - unknown sp. A 20 x 40 cm. mass of rough textured tissue. up to 7 mm thick in one area. No shagreen observed. General features this is a probable anterior fragment suggesting an individual approx. 1.5 meters in length. 50 or more distinctive teeth unlike any previously found in these shales. These teeth range in length from 5 to 10 mm. unlike the fairly common Cladodus tooth, these have a roughly triangular shape and have only 1 crown or cusp. About 40 of the teeth are partially separated from the mass and are more or less in a normal orientation. A circular 2.5 cm in diameter defined by some more calcified parts may be an orbit or the symphysial whorl." I do not see any features that point to elasmobranch, but the remains do more resemble some of the "blown out" shark remains I have seen from the Penn. black shales. The teeth, which are pretty distinctive, do not resemble anything I can turn up. I also considered that they may be dermal denticles, but the arrangement does not make sense nor can not find any Pennsylvanian aged denticles that match. The "teeth" indeed measure up to 10mm in length, as described in White's collection notes. I am hoping some of the forum members familiar with marine vertebrates from the Penn. black shales can help. Pic of full specimen (teeth circled in red), pic of area with teeth, and a close up of some of the more complete teeth.

We are taking our camper from Ohio to the west and will be stopping in Nebraska and the Black hills. Can anyone suggest a place we can hunt dinosaur fossils and keep what we find? We can pay, but not much. We would also love to hunt for arrowheads. Also looking for somewhere to help a team that are digging. We are both ill and this will be our last chance. Thank you so much. Kathy

Not a true fossil hunting trip, but a hunt for an identification. In July last year, a saw a listing on online auction site for a fossil "shark/fish". I do not often make purchases on auction sites, as quite frankly I never see anything really cool, but I do look from time to time as I suspect many of us do. Something about the specimen caught my attention, but I was not certain based on the poor pics or info from the seller what the specimen was. I did email and asked some questions, with the response, "I bought it from an estate sale and have no idea what it is". I kept watching for a week - no bidders. I then did something unusual for me, I bid at the last min (I was the only bidder) and won. I just knew there was something cool about the specimen. I received the package and thought, it certainly looks very sharky, but unsure of an ID, I put it in the back of a display case thinking I would figure it out at some latter date. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago: a friend of mine sent me some pictures of disarticulated Pennsylvanian shark remains from MO in black shale, including pelvic fins and other remains. I was wracking my brain and going thru my reference material, but was having a tough time putting IDs on some of the material. I then remembered my copy of Case's, "A Pictorial Guide to Fossils" had some good images of Penn. sharks. I was flipping thru and wow - page 230, a near complete specimen of Cobelodus aculeatus = an exact match for the specimen I purchased in July! I had in my prior collection a few ex Case specimens, and have had him help me ID a few specimens many years ago. I was totally shocked, I had an ID and a near complete shark from Nebraska, and one published by Case. Even better was the cost !!! Image of my specimen and image from page 230, Case, "A Pictorial Guide to Fossils": Cobelodus aculeatus (Cope). An essentially complete shark in ventral position in black sheety shale. Wea Shale, Westerville Formation, Kansas City Group, Missouri Series (Westphalian D), Papillion, Sarpy County, Nebraska.

Recently for Christmas, I received the marvelous gift of a bunch on different unprepared fossils from an unknown location in Nebraska (Purchased of the auction site). The first piece I started was a smallish jaw from an oreodont that I think turned out ok. I still plan to clean up the teeth a bit, but I'm not sure what to do next, as this is the first time I've prepared anything other than Green River fish. I'm considering removing it from the matrix entirely, but I'm concerned about the stability of the fossil, as the matrix is quite crumbly and the back has been consolidated by whoever found it, along with aesthetics. Any advice as to what to do next would be appreciated (Or if anyone knows what it is more than an Oreodont)! Thanks! Dimensions of the jaw are 14cm by 6cm, or about 2.3in by 5.5in. Unprepared After a few hours of using hand tools and my Dremel Current state: Front Back

Hi, Recently I received several unprepared fossils from Nebraska, although the exact location is unknown. One of these fossils I have been preparing is a lower jaws from an unknown animal and I would like to know what it is, and if possible an idea of the time period and/or formation. Any help would be appreciated. I currently think that is probably a lower right jaw from the oreodont Merycoidodont. The dimensions of the jaw are 6cm by 14cm, and I am happy to post more photos if necessary. Thanks!

Thankyou ahead of time! This could be nothing as i am an amateur in most perspectives but on my normal dog walk/ rockhounding adventure i picked up something different, half buried, but uncovered in some new trails made by some heavy equipment here in south east nebraska. Will add several photos, im not sure of anything except i know its not a rock im familiar with! Thankyou again for any information!

This may be the best preserved Horse tooth I’ve ever found. It has very little wear and even still has the roots! I’ve looked through all the reference material that I have available and really haven’t found anything close. Even if I don’t get an ID I knew Jack would love to see this one! L=20.5mm W=13mm H=29mm. @Shellseeker

Hi, Looking for some confirmation on these vertebrae. Found below a eroding layer of Pierre shale. Thinking Mosasaur but the two lower "wings" seem odd. Also in the last pictures you can see the thin layer of orange matrix, top of Pierre shale? K-PG Boundary perhaps? Thanks in advance for info and insight.

My best guess is rodent. Hoping one of the experts can narrow down a bit.North central Nebraska. Miocene Thanks

I thought this might have a good chance of getting identified because of the unusual shape of the tooth sockets. parts of the teeth still remain in the sockets. Found in north of Central Nebraska. Miocene. @Harry Pristis

I had magnanimous offers to join 3 fabulous collecting trips this summer, those being Hell Creek for dinos, Morocco for trilobites, and Nebraska Oligocene badlands hunting. After careful consideration, I chose the latter, for a few reasons. First of all, I had been friends with the other 2 guys, Rob and Greg, since my first Oligocene vert hunt 10 years ago, where my wife and I met them. Our 2012 trip, however, wasn't very fruitful, so a rematch was in order. Greg had some good ranches leased and critical equipment in storage nearby, so a small group of 3 friends made good sense on this trip. I figured this venue might not ever be cheaper nor less hunted in my lifetime. Round trip airfare was a bargain at $365, so away we went. The other guys were delayed by about 10 hours coming from Florida, so I got our rented pickup truck and played tourist solo in Rapid City, SD for the day. I thoroughly enjoyed a visit to the Geology Museum at the SD School of Mines, and found the staff to be quite engaging. It isn't everywhere I can hold an intense, 2 way fossil conversation for an hour, then I have to be the one to end it due to time constraints. Great displays, but I only took one photo (Brontops, a harbinger of things to come), then strategically gift shopped for my wife, filled my belly with buffalo lasagna, and picked up travel weary companions before burning rubber south to Crawford, NE where we weren't settled into our cabin until 2 a.m.

I tried researching this but all I can come up with is that it’s a foot/ankle bone from some mammal. Size is roughly 32 mm x 22 mm x 43 mm. Found in North Central Nebraska most of what I find is mid Miocene. @Harry Pristis

Hoping to get this narrowed down a little bit as to what critter this came from. Found in north of Central Nebraska. Miocene. @Harry Pristis @jpc

I can’t tell if this is just a very worn piece of vert or something completely different. Found in north central Nebraska. Miocene. Thanks.

Could use a little help with this one. I think I have it narrowed down to Nannippus but haven’t found a close match with the info I have available. Thanks. APL=24mm. TRW=23mm. MSCH=37mm. Thanks @Shellseeker @Harry Pristis

Just by coincidence I found a piece yesterday similar to the one that @PaleoNoel posted. Pretty sure it’s dog, would appreciate some input. Sorry no scale, current out hunting. North central Nebraska. Miocene. Thanks @Nimravis @siteseer @fossillarry

Hello All, I am hoping someone might be able to tell me what this is, or what it was a part of. A LONG time ago we were traveling the country, we stopped in Nebraska and Kansas and use to backpack everywhere. We found this in the sand one day after a hard rain the night before. We took it home, as we didn't really know what it was. We are thinking it is a fossil of some sort. So the item was found in the north west section of Nebraska. Was found in 1993 and sat in a safe since. I pray someone may be able to shed light on it.

I collected thousands of micro Squamate (lizards, legless lizards and snakes) specimens from anthill matrix from my sons’ Eocene/Oligocene, White River Group, M&M Ranch in Nebraska in 2016 and 2017 that I donated to the Smithsonian Institution. I spent over 3,000 hours over a year and a half picking the specimens from the anthill matrix. All of the squamate specimens have been with a squamate researcher in Germany since late 2017/early 2018. Unfortunately Covid and two other major projects that the researcher was working on, a major Messel Pit publication and a climate paper, delayed the study of my specimens. However, based upon recent communications with the researcher, the study of these squamate specimens should begin in earnest this summer. Because my specimens closely span the Eocene/Oligocene boundary in Nebraska, the researcher is eager to use these specimens to describe in practice his climate theories and how climate affected the evolution of squamate species. I just had a major publication, Korth Boyd Person Anderson 2022 Fossil mammals from ant mounds situated on exposures of the Big Cottonwood Creek Member of the Chadron Formation latest Eocene early Oligocene Sioux County Nebraska, published this May on the mammal micro specimens from the M&M Ranch, that I donated to the South Dakota School of Mines Geology Museum, and look forward to a major publication on these squamate specimens. Below I’ll show a few of the donated specimens and hopefully use this thread to update the progress of the study and eventually the progress of the publication. Below are a few pictures of the anthills that the Squamate specimens came from. The Squamate researcher currently has specimens from 19 different anthill sites in the flats (latest Eocene to early Oligocene) of the M&M Ranch. Below are Squamate specimens from several of the anthill sites, so you can see the large quantity of specimens that I found from each anthill site: A few pictures of the lizard Specimens. Lizard skull cap: Lizard premaxilla: Lizard jaws: Lizard osteoderms. Glyptosaur osteoderms. These are the most common shape found. Note the variety of colors. Note these are not Peltosaurus per the researcher. Additional Glyptosaur (Not 100% sure of this ID)osteoderms of different shapes: Another species Osteoderm: A few pictures of some amphisbaenian (legless lizard) specimens. Amphisbaenian jaw pieces: Amphisbaenian vertebrae: Snake skull pieces and jaw pieces are rarely found as fossils because of their fragile nature. Snakes are typically described and identified by their vertebrae. Snake vertebrae: I also sent over 200,000 (number estimated based on weight and weight of 100 specimen samples) cranial and post cranial bone pieces/fragments that I could not recognize to the squamate researcher. He picked several thousand squamate cranial and post cranial bone specimens from these bone pieces/fragments that will also be part of his study. Below is a picture of these bones picked from a single anthill site, so you can see the quantity of these bones. Marco Sr.

By some vast, cosmic alignment of karma, snolly has become the possessor of a horde of material, deaccessioned from a museum's abundance. Information is scant, but "Oligocene" and "Nebraska" are offered as clues. The foil wrapped specimens had apparently lain in benign neglect for a a generous span, the bone rests in pieces with sheets of dried, peeling consolidant and crumbling matrix. The specimens appear to be limb bones and Oreodont is the donor that presents as likely. At present, snolly is leisurely joining the puzzle pieces and removing old consolidant (white glue?) and matrix. Please glance at the examples pictured and offer any insight as to their identity. Here are a couple typical pieces. Note the detritus of peeled consolidant.... This piece is perhaps a tibia with sherds of fibula attached, hanging precariously by the dried adhesive....