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Hello all! My new year's resolution includes finally working up the gumption to post here and not just continue to scroll and read with awe! In late 2022, my partner and I were with a small, lovely group in Nebraska, scouring the White River Badlands. We found three partial oreodont upper skulls, a good amount of teeth, jaw fragments and assorted bones. We also found what I believe is an oreodont endocast, and a tooth from a cat (perhaps smilodon related?). An incredible prepper located in South Dakota worked on these oreodont partials and far exceeded our expectations. Thanks everyone for sharing all of your incredible work around this forum and for giving a novice like me a place to share as well! Partial One (shown in inches) Partial Two Showing what I nearly stepped over on the ground, as it appeared in situ. Here are those same teeth I saw just sticking out through the ground, now cleaned up. Partial Three Endocast (apologies, no ruler in sight) Cat Tooth

Hello everyone, even though I haven't reached 35 fossils in my collection like I hoped for this year, I still managed to close 2023 with my 34th fossil! The one I'm going to show you today is, in fact, this 34th fossil, which is also the first mammal fossil I've ever owned Species: Merycoidodon sp. (Leidy, 1848) Size: ~3.0 cm long Age: 34-23 mya (Oligocene, stage indet.) Origin: South Dakota's Badlands (USA) About this fossil: a partial lower jaw of this genus, with four nicely preserved teeth. I personally like how, in this specimen, the matrix is still present, which helps to keep the two parts together and just makes the fossil look nicer

Finally got my compressor and air scribe set up, and am now getting to work on the concretions I gathered over the summer and fall. Just to see if I could do it, I took a crack at the smallest one I knew had a crab in it, at barely more than 3 cm wide. My friend lent me a scribe with a smaller bit than the one I bought 3 months ago, and it handled itself pretty well here. Did ding the carapace a handfull of times, but pleased with the outcome of this first crab venture. Prepping one this small was stressfull, so I'm looking forward to working on larger ones that don't demand as much precision.

Thought I’d start a thread documenting the preparation of a large Testudo tortoise we collected in Eastern Wyoming this summer. We were guided by expert @jpc I highly recommend hiring him as a guide not only for his knowledge and talent, but because he’s a really good guy and fun to collect with. Here are a couple of shots of the excavation and flipped plaster jacket.

I just finished the initial prep of a cute little Peobrotherium camel skull we found this summer in the panhandle of Nebraska. It was found upside down with the bottom of the mandibles exposed and in pretty crumbly matrix. It was pretty fractured. It's a beautiful skull and I will do some final restoration at a later date. Thought I'd share with the group. In-progress photos:

Summerville, South Carolina.

Found this in Goshen Oregon, not sure what formation it falls under, I have only heard it referred to as North Goshen Flora. I have read it has been dated to the Late Oligocene. Wondering if anyone recognizes what it could be. I know Pinus, Quercus, Hydrangea, Acer, Plantanus, Cinnamomum, and Sassafras have been identified in the formation, perhaps it is a seed or flower from one of those? Thanks for any help. Please be kind, I'm new and just looking to learn.

Hello, I am counting on your knowledge because I cannot identify this fruit or seed found in the oligocene (site quite close to Armissan - Aude) in the company of many plants. Size 33mm Thanks in advance

I recently saw a 1.2cm long Oligocene mammal jaw from South Dakota, judging by the coloration of the specimen from the Brule Formation, up for sale. The jaw is referred to as Leptictis haydeni, but the description states it to be from a primitive weasel. Moreover, I have never seen any Leptictis material for sale and the dentition looks as much like that of the relatively similarly named but much more common Leptomeryx than any leptictid. Thanks in advance for any guidance Othniel

I recently saw these Oligocene canid teeth up for sale, found somewhere near Brooksville in Florida, but they were not identified to a genus or species level. Thanks in advance for any proposed IDs Othniel

"Wie het kleine niet eert, is het grote niet weerd!" goes the Dutch saying (who does not appreciate the small, isn't worthy of the big). Three small fossils, any help with the ID's? The brown one looks like a bulla to me, from a dolphin maybe? No idea about the other two. All found on the Dutch coast, on the same location. Mammal bones on this location are from the pleistocene and holocene, shark teeth and bones from fish and sea mammals (dolphins and whales mostly) are from the eocene-pliocene.

Hello everyone Couple of unusual finds for me from diving in the Cooper River, near Charleston, SC. This river cuts through Oligocene to modern deposits so it can be tough to ID finds. The first looks like a Castoroides sp? broken beaver tooth? The shark tooth has a U shaped root, no serrations on the blade, and has cusps that appear to have a gap between the root and blade. Looks like a cusped P. Benedeni or possibly an upper lateral sand tiger (based on looking through elasmo.com). Doesn't look like an O. Angustidens or A. Grandis to me? I've seen a few cusped Benedeni's identified on the forum and was curious if that is what I found Thanks for looking

Hello These are the adventures of myself and my dog Millie as we hunt for fossils and history along the Peace River. Our mode of travel is our 12’ Indian River Canoe, Balance. Im a 4th generation Polk county native, and Millie comes from a long line of Colorado ranch dogs. We do everything together. Including work, as I am a farrier for my day job, and the farm owners are more excited to see Millie than me! The goal of this journal is to document the learning along with the adventures. To go below our sieves, and learn why the river is presenting as it is. Other members have already posted pictures and info on every fossil I’m likely to find, but the river can still teach me/us why the hole I’m digging is delivering specific materials. Understanding what happened before what happened, happened. That’s what I want to know! Millie and I have been gifted this river and the ability to run it at a moments notice. That’s not the case for everyone. Even with access I still only get out for a morning or so a week. So this journal will also provide an avenue for those who can’t just jump in the boat with us. Jump in through this forum and help out along the way when you can/want. The more we learn the better the treasure!! Jp & Mille LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN! Season opener - Oct 2023 water depth day of - 8’ and falling. Like most things I’m impatient about, starting Fossil hunting this year was rushed. Millie and I ran head on into a river that’s a solid 3’ too high for me to handle any real working conditions. There’s places to work. We just haven’t found many at these depths! Yet!! After work arrived and we got started towards the river. Late arrival and definitely some dark water running ahead but at this water height you just gotta keep the boat in the middle. Got in late but just in time for a welcome back from the Peace! We woke up ready! Well, I did. Camp and my “Field Office” ready. Now to get wet! Because of the water depth I tied leashes to all the heavy tools and tied some extra pool noodle to them. That way I could drop them and just pull up the leader. Brought the “Velvet Touch” probe. No stopping us now! “What” I was after wasn’t an option this trip. I had only two available spots in mind that would be under 4’ deep. Both those spots are in a very recent deposit that I’ve been getting lots of Pleistocene and some Pliocene mammal material from. I ended up finding the time frame expected, and possibly an extinct sand shark nursery area. The river had sifted one spot completely away during the last flood so I was left with only one place to put in effort! At 4’ it was at my cap for height. I’m 5’6’’ and I could only dig 2 feet down before I ran out of shovel. So I had to figure something out. First I tried to fill the sieve on the River bottom and lift it up. FAIL! never got it to stay put long enough to do anything productive before I’d loose it and it would pop up down stream pulling on the leash. Next I tried to lift the gravel to the sifter on the surface. There was so much water the shovel load was gone before I broke the surface! FAIL! At a max depth of 2 feet down I wasn’t going to be learning much about the geography or layers I needed to work through. So I shifted gears and decided to focus on just the top 2’ as effectively as I could. The third try ended up succeeding. I would loosen the riverbed into a loose filled hole that had collapsed on itself and then use my scoop on a pole thing to transfer the loose material up to the surface. Not the best method but I’m grateful to have been able to stand there all day. I’d work forward 3’ and over 1’ then back again. All at 2’ or less deep or I’d go under. I suppose if I feel like moving a bunch of river bed again we could come back here and go deeper! One of my questions about this area is what is it old enough to find within it? Another trip! Here’s the gratuitous highlights shot! Not a bad day! The alligator tooth got a yell but the sand tigers and mammal teeth got me really excited. Millie and I were exhausted and COLD! I learned a few things this weekend to put in the journal. Before that. Let’s eat! Steak for me and steak for Millie. Yumm. Lessons: 1. I need appropriate clothes. Like wet suit stuff. Can’t be under water like that all day again. I got chilly and had to warm up several times. 85deg out too! What I wear is fine for knee deep wading but definitely time to upgrade the wardrobe. (I did try my new dive boots and that was the only part of me that wasn’t cold) 2. Regular shovel handles are way too short. Amend as needed to your stature. I need a 12’ handle to dig a hole in this water. So I’m out! 3. Jack, (Shellseeker) is insane!! This was my first time hunting this deep and it’s right in his sweet spot. You’re an animal! He tried to assist my tool tuning but until you run out of shovel that’s a new feeling to adjust to. 4. At two feet deep this area is where I will come for younger land aged fauna and I can expect the standard peace river sharks teeth assemblage with a higher than usual volume of sand sharks teeth. This was a great day hunting and I learned a lot. Maybe not about what my intended question was or the areas I’ve been thinking of but a ton about gear and technique! KEEP THE FAITH AND TRY TO DO GOOD!! Jp & Millie Here are the finds from this trip and some info used to figure out the unknowns. sand shark and some Hemi Serra Peace River mix fun and unique things - The mammal molar ended up being a Giant Tapir. By shape and size 3rd or 4th premolar. No root. Should have given it away. Mixed bag bottom to top of left- Gator tooth gator tooth Crappy Barbra’s incisor Canine- size 22mm broken suggest coyote or smaller domestic dog. 25mm would be the target. Tiny molar - it’s broken but by the face and measurements it’s most likely a rodent. Camel type tooth frag. Upper right - various tiger shark species to identify with Florida fossil hunters PDF middle - two deer horn buttons. One I already had but these were found 5 feet apart. Same deer?!? Bottom right- Eocene snail and crab shell fragments. Those are 37.5 Mya.?? Snail identification was general to the Ocala formation results of similar snail species.

As a professional woodworker I have a soft spot for anything "tree" but this might take the cake. Not 100% but this does seem to be a petrified burl, I have never seen such a thing but me and my woodworking buddies have fantasized about it more than once. Any input to confirm or deny would be appreciated, though this is one of those cases I'd almost rather believe regardless of the reality, call it my Santa burl. Came out of oligocene deposits near Eugene Oregon

Here's an aturia angusta nautiloid with some chunky calcite from the Lincoln Creek Formation in Washington state, US. Also, a recent paper on a bivalve of the same location, pliocardia? guthrieorum, named after my wife and myself by the author. We're aggressively searching for late Eocene and early Oligocene cetaceans, especially the odontocete variety. Maybe this will be our lucky year!