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Now that hockey season has ended and the lab is warm again, and perhaps due to my new found extra time in isolation, I am embarking on documenting my prep projects. I thought I would start the prep season off with something easy that should turn out fairly nice. Please welcome my new little friendly Oreodont, Miniochoerus gracilis. It came into my collection in the summer of 2013 and has sat jacketed in a box until today. This evening I concentrated primarily on consolidation and bulk matrix removal with an ARO, and still have a ways to go. The plan is to prepare the "down" side in the hopes of a beautiful orbit and zygomatic arch. I did notice a cross section of vertebrae on the rear of the block so there is probably some neck attached as well. I'm hoping there is enough matrix below the jaws to make a nice pedestal to sit on as well.

Forum member Ray Eklund recently offered several pieces of White River mammal material at auction to benefit the Forum. I was pleased to win one of these and received it a little over two weeks ago. I now hope to post a series attempting to show the progress in preparation. This fossil is the skull and lower jaw of Merycoidodon gracilis. This is one of the smaller Oreodonts, about the size of a modern red fox. Ray provided the following collection information: Brule Member of the White River Formation, Sioux County, Nebraska. Here are photos provided by Ray, posted for the auction. The remainder of the photos in this series were shot with a Nikon D600 with a 50mm, 1.8 lens mounted. These photos were processed in Photoshop Elements 11 and are greatly reduced in size/resolution for posting.

Psittacosaurus fossils are really hard to find on the web currently so am looking to trade my fossils for a psittacosaurus skull of a psittacosaurus here's the fossils I am trading The oreodont skull and the spinosaurus also come with a certificate This is a oreodont skull from South Dakota it has a little restoration A nice 4.7 inch spinosaurus tooth ...and this is a ceratopsian Epoccipital from Powder River, Montana

With a week of collecting under my belt I felt ready and excited to take on the next, this time exclusively on the White River formation. All factors being considered, the White River is probably the most difficult formation to hunt among those I've been lucky enough to explore thus far. For one, the terrain is often very rough, with all sorts of ridges, rises, washes and gullies to hike through. Another issue to account for is the reflection of light off of the white sediments, meaning that ample sunscreen is a necessity if you don't want to burn to a crisp. That harsh sunlight can lead to temperatures regularly topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with the highest I endured this week being 115. To say the least, the word exposure out here lives up to both of its connotations. Despite the challenges, the fossils can make it all worth it. While the expansive white moonscape may be poorly suited to growing grass and raising cattle today, the former inhabitants of these lands show that it was once a more hospitable place, supporting a diverse ecosystem teeming with prey and predators, with lineages represented that would be familiar to us today. With that little preface out of the way let's jump into the action! Week 2, Day 1: We started the day with the 80 mile trip south towards the town of Lusk, Wyoming, which eventually led us onto the back roads of this massive ranch & finally to our destination. Our first designated hunting area was a large series of exposures, accessible through descending from the grass line into this depression. My first couple finds were the typical jaw sections, mostly small artiodactyl. But as the sun climbed higher in the sky, I crossed over a wash and saw what would be my find of the morning: A complete oreodont jaw with both sides preserved, plus the articulating ends. Following the jaw, I came across a spill of titanothere tooth fragments, so I collected everything I could find in hopes I could reassemble most of it at home. About a half hour passed with me not finding much until I spotted some bones eroding from the surface. Unfortunately it appeared that the elements had gotten to it before I did, so I kept some of the more interesting pieces and moved along.

I just got back from an amazing and very fruitful week of fossil collecting on the White River Formation in northeastern Colorado. The White River Formation is a very easy and fun rock unit to collect vertebrate fossils on. The White River Formation was deposited during the very latest Eocene and the early Oligocene, though the faunal diversity in the areas I was collecting on suggest it was laid down during the Orellan North American Land Mammal Age, which centers on around 33 million years ago during the Rupelian age of the Oligocene Epoch. I am very lucky to have a grand uncle Gary (no biological relationship to me, is a close family friend who we’ve called “uncle” since I was a toddler) who is a cattle rancher up in northeastern Colorado, and he happens to have a pretty good amount of White River exposure on his property, in addition to some of the neighboring ranches of which Gary knows the owners and helped me to secure permission to collect on a few of them. He really is a great guy and is a real life true American cowboy. He has an interest in natural history and was eager to hear all about the fossils and geology of the area, though has never had the formal education or done the research to learn much about what’s out there. This is the second fossil collecting trip I’ve made to the ranch, though the first one where I’ve stayed for more than one night. The place truly is an amazing trove of fossil treasures and I can’t wait to tell you all about my week! In this thread I’ll make one post for each day (so as to not hit the picture limit too soon). Once I have the fossils prepped I’ll give updates here as well. Day 1, Sunday: My first day at the ranch began, ironically, at my own house. I had packed up the Jeep the night before with my field bag, two coolers filled with seven day’s worth of food, a suitcase full of clothes, and other such supplies for my fossil safari. I left my home early in the morning, took I-76 east to Fort Morgan, and then headed north to the ranch, in total about a 2.5 hour drive. The rest of the morning and early afternoon I spent visiting with and going over logistics with Gary and his wife and settling in at the ranch house I would be staying at, a property that used to be the home of another rancher before Gary acquired the property in 2002. They still maintain the house and it has both electricity and running water, so it makes a fantastic guest house and a place to stay when they’re doing work over on that side of their land. In the evening after I had made myself a quick dinner I decided I wanted to head down to a very productive exposure I had collected on last September for the evening. There was a partial oreodont skeleton that I had discovered eroding out of the hill the last time I was up there, and I wanted to see if there were any more bones there that had eroded out and I could collect. I picked up a few more bones from the feet and ankles that had been exposed in the last eight months and decided to take a scenic route back to my vehicle. A photo of the area of exposure I was in Sunday evening. This piece of badland will become very important throughout the rest of the week... On my walk back I walked over a ridge that I had apparently never been over, becase on a flat wash I noticed a pile of bone fragments. I approached the pile assuming that it would be yet another exploded tortoise shell that are so common in the area. As I got closer however, I was delightfully surprised to see the distinctive black color of fossil enamel, and a bit of digging revealed an eroded Subhyracodon jaw section, along with several loose teeth that I presume had come from the same section of jaw. This find, along with an oreodont jaw section I found later on while walking back to the Jeep that night, would be but a foreshadow of the big finds I would make later in the week. Two photos of the Subhyracodon jaw section as it was found in the field. The jaw section and some teeth after I had cleaned them up a little bit at home this afternoon.

Hi everyone, I'm hoping to be able to find out the identity of this tooth I found in the White River formation last summer. It has an odd triangular cross section and doesn't seem to match anything I've seen so far. I was wondering if it might be from the ancient peccary Perchoerus as I saw some similarities online when I was exploring that option. I would be interested in reading all of your opinions. The tooth is approx. 4 cm in length and 1 cm at its widest point. Photo from the field

Can anyone recommend a good reference with illustrations of the skeletal elements of the oreodont Merycoidodon? I especially need pics of individual cervical, thoracic, and caudal vertebrae as well as the bones of the manus. I have a volume called "Osteology for the Archaeologist" that has photos of most of the individual bones of mammoths and mastodons and am looking for something like that for the oreodont (either a book or journal article)

I have a few really nice fossils from the White River Formation of northeastern Colorado that I need to prep, and given I am a beginner at fossil prep I would really like to gain some advice and guidance from people with experience do I don’t accidentally damage the fossils. The first fossil is an Oreodont skull. The skull is mostly intact, and I was able to extract it from the field without using any glue or stabilizer or consolidant or anything like that, so this fossil is in its “natural state.” The zygomatic arch and upper tooth row are crumbling, but otherwise everything else that I can see is there appears to be stable. The other side of the skull appears to be still mostly encased in matrix, and is likely to be better preserved. What’s everyone’s opinion on whether or not I should apply penetrant stabilizer directly to the bone before prepping to help keep it intact? The second fossil is a jaw bone, tentatively identified by me as Subhyracodon but I will need to reveal the teeth to know for sure. There are several large cracks throughout the bone (as can be seen) but the entire bone is still in one piece due to application of PaleoBond penetrant stabilizer in the field. There is matrix in between the larger cracks, I imagine I will have to pull it apart one piece at a time, clean the pieces, and then glue them back together. I don’t have any specific questions at this point other than about the overall process. It would be great if those with experience could briefly go over how they would go about prepping these fossils would be great. Is there anything I should avoid, be careful of, or watch out for? Equipment I have includes an air scribe with compressor, dental picks/tools, and the full suite of PaleoBond glues and stabilizers, including the debonding solvent. Thanks in advance! *These fossils were collected legally on privately held land in Weld County, Colorado, with full landowner knowledge and permission.

Hello everyone, first of all I want to say how I love this forum and how many great people are here, I couldn't find a better community. Back on topic I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to fossil preparation, I only prepped some echinoderms, bivalve and some isolated Ictitherium teeth. But after reading and reading topic on this forum I decided to begin a bigger project. I bought an oreodont skull, as you can see from the photos it seems in really good conditions and the matrix seems really soft to work on. At the same time I see that there are many fracture on the skull (pretty normal for these fossils) and so I though that I should consolidate the skull before starting to prep it. Do you agree with me? How should I consolidate it? I read that a great way to consolidate such fossil is brushing them with a 1 to 50 paraloid solution. It this the correct strategy to use? Thank you to anyone who can help me on this task, I 'm so excited to start this project.

Hi! I was recently given a partial oreodont skull to prep & restore. The reconstruction went well, there was a very little excess rock to clean away & the pieces that I do have went together smoothly. BUT after it was assembled, certain areas of the skull began turning green. The skull fragments had been stored in a temperature & humidity controlled environment for a number of years before i began working on it. I'm wondering if a change in environments or being handled for the first time in a long time might have something to do with it? Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Much appreciated!!

For your viewing pleasure. Discovered by accident while disinfection testing in my lab: Guess I’ll start taking my UV flashlight into the field with me even in non-scorpion areas!

Here are a few bits from a trip to the Orella member a while back. Now part of the collection at my Uni. I suspect Stylemys nebrascensis oreodont-left dentition p4-m2

I picked this up recently from an internet auction house. The seller had no idea about it, since he knew absolutely nothing about fossils. I was hoping that someone might be able to guide me to at least the genus, when not the species and maybe also an idea about where it may have been found. The jaw partial is 5cm.long.

I've been meaning to make this post for a while, finally getting around to it. Back in July I made a trip to John Day for my first ever fossil hunt. Before I get to our finds, of course when in the area you have to spend some time enjoying the scenery of the gorgeous painted hills also on the list was the visitor center, unfortunately I didn't get many pictures there but here are a few highlights: Continued...

I haven’t been getting out and about much now a days. The heat and Covid has been keeping me indoors for the most part. The weather is slowly changing to fall and I decided to hit up my white river spot. It’s been a couple months since I’ve been, but boy, the spot just keeps on giving. Right out the gate, I was harassed by a rattlesnake...apparently they do exist. After giving that little bugger plenty of breathing room, I began a several hour hike around my super secret, private property, land owner permission having spot! it wasn’t long before I found a large ancient alluvial deposit. Bones were strewn about, and here I found numerous oreodont jaw pieces of varying sizes. After scooping up all the low hanging fruit, I made my way up the hills that would have deposited said fruit. Here I found a tortoise that I left there in situ because those things are impossible to put back together. After dismissing the idea of another jigsaw puzzle turtle, I crossed a valley and made my way back to a spot that had produced some nice large bones in recent hunts. It wasn’t long before the find of the day caught my eye. An oreodont upper jaw(in pieces but good condition and all there) laying upon the scry. As I carefully dusted away the bits of sand and collected the jaw, I noticed that the whole lower jaw was buried just beneath it! Two for the price of one! And the lower jaw was fairly solid only being broken in half! Lucky me! I did also find three large bones that will have to be reassembled-but they aren’t as cool as my jaw. Sorry the pics are out of order, but you guys get the idea. Sorry if this reads like a 2 year old wrote it, I’m exhausted and it’s late. Happy Hunting y’all!

I’m thinking about adding this little guy to the vert fossil of the month(even though it probably won’t win this month with the competition). I would like to get a positive id and as much info as possible. I’m still learning my way around the white river formation. So far I freakin love it! Anyway, here’s my little guy-I still have more to put together, but the pieces are a little small and complicated.

While I was prepping my first oreodont (his name is Charles ) I noticed something, there seems to be some puncture like fractures. There is a killer out there? My poor Charles has been killed? What do you think based on your experience?

Hi there, guys. So, I got these from an internet auction. It's the first time I put my hands on this kind of piece. It doesn't "feel" fake or nothing, but I just want to be sure, so I thought I'd better get an expert opinion. What do you think? It's supposed to be Merycoidodon culbertsoni, from the Oligocene of South Dakota Badlands.

For those who know my love of the White River, there will be no surprise here. I was trying to reorganize my collection a bit and had a large portion laid out on the floor. In this photo, I counted roughly 37 Oreodont skulls, I'm wondering if I have a problem. Adding a few additional ones I know of on my prep bench and at other properties, I'm fairly sure I'm north of 50. What fossils do you all collect too many of? If there is such a thing.

Hello everyone,I've recently acquired this piece of unprepped oreodont jaw section and want to do some prep work on it However I've realized that the jaw looks quite fragmented and is afraid that it might break apart into thousands of fragments. I had only prepped a knightia before and I am kinda confused what I should do now.

Trying to confirm id of two jaw fragments. From an old family collection. Label: Oligocene - White River, Nebraska, Sioux County, USA Both noted as Poebrotherium (tiny extinct camel) First three photos are the first fragment. Based on the large canine tooth and size of the other teeth, I'm thinking it might actually be an oreodont? Last four are the second fragment. Smaller teeth and wider jaw. Maybe labeled correctly as poebrotherium?

Turtle collected by My Friend Zolt. At the white River Badlands at the M&M Ranch Nebraska. This Turtle is missing the Front part and was associated with a Flattend Oreodont Skull. About a foot apart.