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Showing results for tags 'new jersey fossils'.
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To pass some time I've been recently researching early Paleocene life and I keep coming back to researching (in my view) the two strangest and controversial Late Cretaceous-Early Paleocene Formations I know of. These are the Hornerstown Formation dating 66.5-65.5 Million Years ago in what is now New Jersey, U.S. And the Takatika Grit Formation dating 66.5-60.0 Million Years ago in what is now the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=0b3baee9ab1afc7973337f5047495b723fcfa4f2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315461615_The_age_of_the_Takatika_Grit_Chatham_Islands_New_Zealand https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195667109000184?via%3Dihub I've read many reports about these formations and the pretty controversial stuff that's been found in both these areas (Paleocene ammonites and reports of archaic marine reptiles like Paleocene Mosasaurs). I'm really not 100% sure what to make of this as I've heard conflicting hypotheses on whether these more archaic marine reptile fossils were reworked from older formations while others say it's not too too likely? https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-paleontology/article/abs/maastrichtian-ammonites-from-the-hornerstown-formation-in-new-jersey/4F051D07668B7B893EEFECF0506E2F1B https://bioone.org/journals/acta-palaeontologica-polonica/volume-57/issue-4/app.2011.0068/Short-Term-Survival-of-Ammonites-in-New-Jersey-After-the/10.4202/app.2011.0068.full For most of these "controversial" specimens, I would say reworking is likely while some I'll admit I'm not sure? For the Mosasaurs, it's clear that the astroid impact 66 Million Years ago caused their total extinction, but I'm still not 100% convinced that none emerged from the event alive (at least barely) and swam the seas in the very first days of the Danian Paleocene but not too long after. Unlike the mostly terrestrial Non-Avian Dinosaurs, which could only hide in so many places and it's very unlike more than a tiny amount of individuals (not enough to support a population) made it into the Paleocene, the Oceans have slightly more areas to hide and more even for endothermic air breathing animals like Mosasaurs (though as an endotherm, food does become a major issue especially when the ocean food chain nearly collapsed completely). What I'm wondering is how valid are at least "some" of these supposed archaic marine reptile and ammonite fossils from the earliest Paleocene sections of the Hornerstown Formation and the Takatika Grit? Also, of all the Maastrichtian Mosasaurs known so far, which ones would have been the mostly likely to have (at least briefly) survived the Cretaceous-Paleocene Extinction Event of 66 Million Years ago (would it have been generalist feeders, ones that specialized in deep sea hunting, ones with cosmopolitan distributions, ones small by mosasaur standards but still around the same size of the few confirmed large reptiles that survived the event like the 8 meter (26 feet) in length Thoracosaurus, or ones with all these traits and advantages)?
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- ammonites
- cretaceous
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Tagged with:
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Hello, and thank you for your help and interest. I have collected from Big Brook in the past, but this time I was finding items of similar composition in the same general area of the stream bed. There had been recent heavy rainfall and the stream bed seemed layered differently. I have been tricked before, and could be getting tricked again, because after a while I trick myself into thinking everything is a fossil. After reading "When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey," I went back to Monmouth County with a renewed excitement. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated if any of these specimens could be fossils. I placed the numbers under the specimens, and a standard ruler at the bottom, hoping that could assist. I changed the angles of the specimens. Thank you for your time and have a nice day! Bill
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- big brook nj
- cretaceous
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Wanted to share an usual fossil I self collected a long time ago from the Triassic of New Jersey that I can't really find images of elsewhere on here. This a fossilized large Gall wasp nest, took me awhile to figure this one out initially. I've seen fossils insects but its a pleasant suprise to see a fossilized insect nest.
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Out of the countless New Jersey cretaceous crab claws I've seen and found this has to be one of the strangest claw partials yet. Seems to be an ornamented shell as apposed to the smooth claw textures that are typically found. Definitely a very interesting piece, anyone have any ideas on a possible species or if any ornamental crabs have found in nj cretaceous, or any other new jersey cretaceous hunters ever come across one similar? Definitely a head scratcher
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Found this thick bone piece in a new jersey cretaceous creek and wonder if its possible to maybe id since one side has a distinct rough texture while the other is flatter and striated, I would guess either large turtle, mosasaur, or dinosaur. My friend joked its a theropod maxilary skull fragment, but we all know around here that material seems close to impossible to come across haha. Interested to hear any other thoughts.
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Hi all, awhile ago I saw shark river had a sewer leaking into the stream and I was wondering if anyone has been there lately or could tell me if it’s open, there hasn’t been anything in the news about it since September and I’ve wanted to go there for a long time. TIA.
- 7 replies
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- fossil site
- fossil sites
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Hello everyone, found this mysterious tooth in a cretaceous stream in New Jersey. Haven't come across any similar or anything I can really compare it to, plus its kinda worn. Which doesn't help but the leaf-like shape alone is very interesting, hopefully this one can be figured out.
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- cretaceous
- fossil id
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Large Interesting Bone New Jersey Cretaceous? Scute? Dinosaur? Turtle?
Kurufossils posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello everyone, had a super quick trip to the cretaceous creeks of new jersey and found this particularly interesting large bone fragment, likely it is a chunk of miscellaneous bone material but it reminds me alot of a scute like ankylosaurus or some sort of other bone scute especially the edge, or from maybe something like a large turtle but I am entirely not sure if it's dinosaur, marine reptile, etc or if there is anyway to tell, looks super suspicious to me anyways so if anyone has any ideas I'd definitely love to hear them. (If more pictures are needed I will definitely be able to get some more angles if necessary)- 10 replies
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