Search the Community

Hey all, I realize I've been incommunicado quite a bit this year - it's been a bad one. Things got real bad at the office and both my wife and I resigned from our department and we've been working for a new nonprofit in Charleston. But, I AM alive and returning to active status here on TFF now that 1) the forum has been upgraded and is functioning and 2) I've had some breathing room and time to unwind after leaving a deeply toxic work environment. I've also made a conscious effort to get back into blogging more frequently and have written/posted quite a lot in 2023. My most recent post summarizes a bit of an interesting and ongoing debate in whaleontology: when exactly did baleen whales become gigantic? Anyone who has spent any time in the Pliocene of the Carolinas or Florida knows that baleen whale fossils that are only a few million years old are nowhere near as large as the gigantic skeletons of modern whales hanging in museums. So, what gives? I've written a blog post that goes into a fair amount of detail regarding competing ideas for the evolution of body size in baleen whales - shown above is skull width of archaeocetes, odontocetes (toothed whales) and mysticetes (baleen whales) through time. Read the whole thing here - please enjoy! And don't hesitate to ask questions, here or on the blog. https://coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2023/12/obscure-controversies-in-cenozoic.html

Summerville, South Carolina.

I’m going through my collection of unknowns, and came across this little guy. It is a small, ornate vertebra collected from the Pliocene Yorktown Formation at the Lee Creek Mine in North Carolina,, USA. Scale in the photos for size. Bird? Snake? Other? thanks

"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.

Found this in a bag of Miocene-Pliocene micro matrix from Aurora Fossil Museum in North Carolina. I apologize for the less than stellar image, but this object is only 2mm long and my microscope cam is at it's limit here. It is hollow. The larger end is circular. The smaller end is obstructed by what looks like a portion of a missing bit at that end. There are no holes in the basket-weave outer texture, so not bryzoan. The surface is somewhat dirty as I was afraid of losing it if I tried to clean it. I can't find any matches in my Miocene library. I don't have much on Pliocene or later. Might also be foram, mollusk, or worm. None of those have cancellated ornament on that shape shell/test. Does this look familiar to anybody?

Hello, I am having a big identification problem with this cardium discovered in the zanclean in the south of France. its structure makes me think of "lyrocardium" or perhaps "discors" but, despite numerous searches, I cannot find this species. The only recent one that comes close is "lyrocardium aeolicum" from Cape Verde, but it is still different. So I appeal to your knowledge. size 45mm Thanks in advance

Seeking corrections and identification on shark teeth from Aurora, NC, USA (Miocene-Pliocene). Scale in mm. Thanks for any help you can provide! Sphyrna sp. (Hammerhead)? Carcharhinus sp(p). ? Carcharias sp.? Not sure. (Some kind of Galeocerdo?) Not sure. Not sure. (Carcharhinus sp(p).?

I am finally going through my Florida shark teeth. Most of these are from the Peace River. Hoping to get confirmations and corrections on my tentative IDs. I have numbered the groupings of taxa. Scale is in mm. No. 1: Galeocerdo cuvier? No. 2: Negaprion brevirostris? No. 3: Negaprion brevirostris? No. 4: Charcarhinus spp.? No. 5: Odontaspis taurus? No. 6: Hemipristis serra? No. 7: Galeocerdo aduncus? G. cuvier?

Cow shark upper tooth. Hexanchus or Notorhynchus? Cow shark upper teeth baffle me Pliocene Yorktown Fm, Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, NC, USA. The foam square is 1 inch/2.54 cm Any thoughts or wisdom appreciated

I found this way back in the 1990's and just yesterday I finally finished up a most beautiful prep job. I found this in a box in my shed about 3 weeks ago. Besides fixing most of the things wrong with it, I also carved a stand for it from the concretion it was in. Made a 2.5 hour video of it too but not published yet. I have to say, even though this project took way longer than I had anticipated, it was a freakin blast to prep this out the way I did. This is the way it looked back in the 90's. and this is what it looks like now.

Hunting 10 days ago, I found a fossils at different spot and now have the time to show these: I believe it to be a Tapir right side mandible with no teeth. As time permits , I may try to ID which tapir. Upper right is an antler stub, then a barnacle cluster and a number of shells that I have not IDed. I think the coral on the right is Solenastrea hyades, which did exist in the Pliocene_Pleistocene of Florida But the fossil I want to identify is this: What is it ?... echinoid ? I have a sand dollar that is something like that... maybe gastropod worn down to an inner slice ? In this case, your guess is definitely as good as mine, because mine is not very good.

Went hunting yesterday. Initially found very little. One very nice G. cuvier tooth. SO , I started moving checking out places that had produced in the past. One place had whale vert eroding out of the bank into the stream a couple of years back. So, I went there and Lo and Behold, a whale vert laying in the water directly below that bank. Hunting for fossils is sometimes easy. The bank is hard, almost rock like clay and there are hundreds of shells on the face of the bank. Small oysters and pecten's dominate. I noticed a very large oyster that seemed to have become calcified or silicified that had also fell out of the bank. I have taken some photos... The Whale Vert The Oyster Here is a pecten from the same location.... I always search the Internet for possible matches, For the Pecten I found a paper written by Richard Hulbert and Roger Portell who lead their respective departments (Vert, InVert) at the University of Florida. It had this Picture of Florida Pliocene Pecten's I did a side by side of the pecten I found. I am now thinking I have found Carolinapecten murdockensis druidwilsoni , but think I need someone like @MikeR to validate. Continuing, I searched the Internet " giant oyster Florida Pliocene" and found... this newspaper article, I wonder if this very large oyster I found is Qstrea Coxi from the Pliocene of Florida. Maybe @Boesse can tell me. So, if the Pecten and Qyster turn out to be Pliocene species, is it reasonable to think that the Whale vert might be from a Pliocene whale ? and any this was just the 2nd spot I tried...

I went hunting today. With travel, commitments, but mostly rain, today was only my 2nd fossil hunt this month. I am addicted, and feeling withdrawal symptoms, taking any opportunity. This is one of my favorite locations but it takes a 2 hour drive and a 2 hour kayak paddle to reach it. So I put in 8 hours of travel for 4 hours of hunting. All my low water locations have deep water and are getting deeper.. rain scheduled for most of the next week, Did not find much because I was digging locations I had previously dug but today were in 4-5 feet of fast moving water. Took some quick group shots to give member a sense of what I was finding. Usually only the best shark teeth make the photos, but this 1st photo is every shark tooth I found. I think there is an Aduncus symphyseal in there. What do you think? Here are the non_shark I need to take better photos, but not tonight.. Note what I believe to be a Llama cannon bone , missing both distal and proximal ends.. @Harry Pristis just offered a Llama foot bones sampler that I believe has one of these. I kept it because of the size... it seems small. Some additional photos. One reason I love this spot is the variety of fauna that is possible, both marine and mammal. Enough for tonight, going to sleep..

Fossils of 10 unknown species found by sewage plant Paleontologists sifted through thousands of 3 to 3.7 million year-old fossils in New Zealand, which also included great white shark teeth and the spine of an extinct sawshark. by Laura Baisas, Popular Science, August 28, 2023 Auckland wastewater pipe dig reveals 'fossil treasure trove EurekAlert, August 28, 2023 The open access paper is: Bruce W. Hayward, Thomas F. Stolberger, Nathan Collins , Alan G. Beu, and Wilma Blom, 2023, A diverse Late Pliocene fossil fauna and its paleoenvironment at Māngere, Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. Published online: 27 Aug 2023 Yours, Paul H.

Hello everyone! I had the opportunity over the last weekend to visit a spot in a campsite along the James River that had an outcropping of Pliocene Yorktown Formation fossils, as well as some "visitors" from the Cambrian Swift Run Formation of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. This was my first hunting trip that was outside of North Carolina, which was really exciting for me! While it was miserably hot and humid, and I had a stomach affliction for the duration of the trip, I made the best of it and found some really cool fossils, and met a lot of interesting folks. In all, over 70 people from various organizations were there. I have quite a few pictures to share, so hang in there with me! These are a few photos of the area on the river. The area we were in was brackish, and the camp beach there was recently worked on, which limited some of the fossils in the immediate entrance area. However, further down either side there were a lot more fossil piles. It was neat being able to look up and see all of the shells exposed on the cliffside. These huge chunks of material containing tons of Chesapecten scallops and other fossils were found in several areas. They were more plentiful before the beach replenishment from my understanding Fortunately there was not anything dangerous encountered over the weekend, but plenty of little critters were out and about. (Especially ants!) The hunt went from Friday evening to Sunday morning. On my way out on Sunday, I was given a lift back to my vehicle by a kind family from the Richmond Gem and Mineral Society, who were also nice enough to lead me to a well-known tulip poplar tree on the site. This massive tree is over 400 years old, and it takes about 8 fully grown adults hand-in-hand to fully encircle the base of the trunk. Now, on to the goodies I picked up. The majority of the fossils I picked up were varying sizes and species of Chesapecten scallops. I looked really hard for an intact echinoid or an Ecphora murex, but unfortunately I didn't get that lucky! As for the Chesapecten species names, and that of several other fossils as well, I am still in the process of learning them, so my detailed information will be lacking. I'll stick with my best finds, but this is a little group of mostly Chesapectens I had laid out while organizing my finds. Here are a few Chesapecten I had that had some variable colors, including my largest three specimens. They measure just over 15.25 cm (6 inches) wide. They have been brushed with water to show the color better. These are some random fossils I found including two coral fragments, several gastropods, some partial tube clams and some loose bivalves. This is the largest venus clam I found in the hunt, around 7.6 cm (3 inches) wide. These typically held together better than a lot of other aragonite-based shells. I found a few intact bivalves in a section of the cliff that had slid down to ground level, but most of them were so fragile due to their aging aragonite that they broke apart upon handling; some even had the physical consistency of the sand surrounding them! These are some ones I found that stayed intact to some degree, and one that had mostly broken away. While they're not the prettiest specimens, I realized they could be used as a cool visual example of how steinkerns form. I'll have to find a way to stablize them a little better so I can get them in a display box. While most of the bivalves were very brittle, some had undergone a mineral change and had their aragonite replaced with calcite. They give off a faint greenish-yellow glow in UV light, which made for a fun late night activity! One man even found a cluster of calcite crystals from the formation! Here are two intact calcite clams, and two loose calcite shells I found. This was a rather sizable Crucibulum limpet I found, also referred to as a "cup-and-saucer snail". It's a little over 3.3 cm (1.3 inches) at it's widest. This was the widest barnacle I found during the hunt, and it's over 5 cm (2 inches) wide. Here are a few barnacle clusters I found that had some nice pinkish coloration preserved on them. Here are a few intact oysters I found. The smaller one had quite the barnacle attached to it! Someone at the hunt suggested that this particular bone fragment was possibly avian. There were a lot of whale bone fragments around the site, and there have been some pretty sizable speciments found there, including whale vertebrae and whole dugong ribs. This ray tooth fragment was the only fish fossil I found myself during the whole hunt. One young woman found a 2 inch mako tooth, while another woman found a fairly sizable megalodon tooth. Jumping back to my Chesapecten, This is a medium specimen that had some very large barnacles on it (perhaps Balanus concavus?) They're probably the longest ones I found, measuring around 5 cm (2 inches). Here is a cluster of some very small Chesapecten. This is a fairly colorful specimen with some equally colorful barnacles attached to the exterior surface. Here is one of my largest specimens of Chesapecten (15.25 cm / 6 inches) next to my smallest specimen (1.525 cm / 0.060 inches). These are some pathological Chesapecten I found, although I'm not 100% sure about the third one, it might just be damage. Now on to my top favorites, this is a cluster of small to medium Chesapecten I found. There are some tusk shells on the interior side, and there is a Discinisca lugubris brachiopod on the right side exterior. This large Chesapecten has a calcite-replaced clam valve right on the rim of the shell. I had found this one on Friday and I didn't learn about the presence of the calcite replaced shells until Saturday, so it went unnoticed until I was washing it at home. I was too busy admiring the huge scallops everywhere! While I didn't find any intact echinoids there, I did find this oyster shell that has a small fragment of what appears to be from a regular echinoid on it, but I'm still not 100% sure. I also found this Chesapecten that appears to have a sand dollar fragment attached to it. Given the age and formation this might be a Mellita aclinensis fragment. A whale tooth fragment I found on Friday. A boy found a whole one there just before I arrived, and it was over 5 cm (2 inches) long. Now, we're down to my absolute favorite finds of the weekend. Here is a whole Chesapecten jeffersonius with both valves in fairly pristine condition. There is only a very minimal amount of hard buildup on the valves. I also found this specimen, but unfortunately it had a hole through one valve. Still really cool though! These are cobbles that contain Skolithos trace fossils from the Swift Run Formation, which is an Early Cambrian rock formation in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. They would break off during the upheaval of the mountains and eventually get carried in water currents all the way to where they were found in the current age. These are the oldest fossils I've found myself to date. And last but not least, here is a fairly pristine Chesapecten jeffersonius(?) valve I found with some good color. However, the most interesting part of this one is that there appears to be something in the resilifer of the shell, almost like shiny red nacre. This is the only one I picked up over the weekend with this feature. I wondered if it could be a preserved ligament, but I was a little unsure; I figured this would be the best place to possibly get some insight on it for the moment. The exterior was brushed with water to show color better. That's all for now! I've got a family trip to the southern NC coast planned soon, so I might try to swing by Holden Beach and nab another batch of Cretaceous fossils while it's still producing a lot. I'm also hoping I can find some local Triassic material before the holidays, I've got a few promising leads on some spots, including one right down the road. -Tony

Found this recently when grubbing around my San Diego Formation (Pliocene) riverbed that is full of marine fossils. Most bones I have found are from baleen whales, or 'other' marine mammals. This bone fossil seems somewhat different than other whale (or other cetacean?) bones I have found. It is smaller.. which doesn't mean much, but the ratio of inner to outer cortex maybe also seems different. I do not know exactly what distinguishing qualities are that would allow one to differentiate from something like a bird, or dolphin. I previously found a manatee rib, but was only sure of this because a curator at the Nat helped ID that. Two images are of the embedded bone, the next two are of a presumably baleen whale bone that was also found that day.

Hey all, a couple weeks ago I passed through Green Mill Run while traveling and had some time to go collecting. I've identified most things from the day but some bivalves I'm not sure of. As I understand it, most of these reworked Pliocene fossils come from the Yorktown Formation. Any help is appreciated. @MikeR #1. These bivalves are very common there but I can't seem to find a match in my references. #2. This Astarte? is quite different from the Astarte undulata that I found multiples of. #3. A small Phacoides maybe?? #4. Chesapecten jeffersonius I believe?

Just wanted to give my fellow fossil hunters a heads up. Was at Green Mill Run the other day and looks like new residents have called it home — snapping turtles. Saw two of them and of course they blend well into the creek. Could've lost my finger when I picked up something almost front of it . Any way, beautiful creatures, but very careful as they can be hard to spot in the water

When the Aurora Fossil Museum delayed their annual fossil festival my wife and I decided to try our luck at the nearby Green Mill Run. Unfortunately the rain that caused the festival to be delayed made a muddy mess of the stream, but we decided to give it a try. Lots of small teeth, bone and belemnites with a grand total of +800 teeth Piece of turtle shell and the largest piece of 3 croc scutes croc tooth? Also had a bigger one thats busted up unknown dermal scute? and a decent cetacean vert The next day we drove down to Folly Beach in SC. Despite the Memorial Day crowds we managed about 50 small teeth plus a bunch of modern shells a stingray barb Puffer mouth plates 2 of 3 pictured and the heartbreaker of the day which was sticking out of the sand just perfectly to get the adrenaline pumping

Graveyard of Extinct Elephants From 5 Million Years Ago Found in Florida by Brandon Gird, Pensacola News Journal, May 26, 2023 Extinct elephant fossils discovered in Levy County https://www.wcjb.com/2023/05/27/extinct-elephant-fossils-discovered-levy-county/ Yours, Paul H.

please can you help me identify this microfossil

About a year ago while researching early filter feeding whales of the Miocene-Pilocene eras (23-2.5 Million Years ago), I came across an interesting fossil record of the small whale genus Cetotherium from after the Pilocene. Note: By small, I mean small by plankton eating whale standards (4.5 meters (14.7 feet) in length). The record was of fossils of a Cetotherium sp. (of the family Cetotheriidae) from Pleistocene formations in Baku, Azerbaijan dating to the Calabrian, Pleistocene (1.8-0.8 Million Years ago). http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=collectionSearch&taxon_no=36692&max_interval=Quaternary&country=Azerbaijan&is_real_user=1&basic=yes&type=view&match_subgenera=1 https://studylib.net/doc/7652725/the-finding-of--a-new-marine-mammal-in-the-ashperon-stage... I currently know of only know of one confirmed member of the family Cetotheriidae that lived during the Pleistocene, Herpetocetus (grew up to 4.5 meters (14.7 feet) in length). Image credit: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zoj.12108 It's also worth mentioning that the discovery of the late Pliocene to at least early Pleistocene Herpetocetus species was accomplished by the forum member @Boesse in 2013. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236077474_Pleistocene_survival_of_an_archaic_dwarf_baleen_whale_Mysticeti_Cetotheriidae I'm wondering if this record of Cetotherium sp. In Pleistocene Azerbaijan is correct, what would it's implications be in the study of Pleistocene Aquatic Mammalian life of Central Asia (especially since the largest body of water around Baku (The Caspian Sea) has been landlocked since the Late Miocene 5.5 Million years ago and any possible whale species to have arrived and lived there until the early Pleistocene would have arrived at least right before 5.5 Million years ago)? How accurate this paper about the Pleistocene Cetotherium of the Caspian Sea is? Also, again if it is, then while the rest of the Cetotheriidae died out by the early Pliocene (3.6 Million Years ago) (the Pygmy Right Whales placement in the family is still debated), what were the external ecological conditions that allowed the supposed Pleistocene Cetotherium sp. and other members of it's family like the Herpetocetus sp. from the Falor Formation of Pleistocene California, US, to survive into the early Pleistocene?

I know that I went hunting yesterday. My neck and back muscles are screaming at me. We go to places we have visited before... In this case, some sort of coral reef or shell bed that was laid down , most likely in the Pliocene. Steve, who worked in the Phosphate mines said that there were 3 layers of shell beds in Bone Valley mines where he worked. Land mammal remains between the shell layers. In some locations, the Peace River has brought those layers close to the surface. I call this location wonderland. When ever I go there ... I wonder.. I wonder what layer I am finding.. Pliocene ? Miocene, whatever the 1st layer is... I wonder what process created what I see.... I went back in TFF to find that I have not revisited this location in more than 2 years. Back to the yesterday, A Barnacle.... This is solid rock... or blended silica with sand , mud , shell ..I wonder if the Barnacle "shell" filled with sand or mud and the silica transformed the whole thing to rock, sand mud , everything.. and I always wonder about the process details... Shells..... ..I wonder if we can identify the shells because that might tells us if there were Pliocene or Miocene.... I wonder about the process details... This is not hard fossilized rock like the barnacle... This is like mud rock,, that would break or crumble pretty easily So the shells existed on the bottom of the ocean, the ocean receded, Peace River brings in fresh water, somehow it is making mud-rock (which is common in many forms)... the shell sticks to the mud rock, then the silicification comes along changing the shells ,not the mud-rock., and the whole thing gets worn down until I pick it up.... Shell # 1 2nd Shell ..The rock weighs 40-50 pounds... a heavy item on the trip back in my kayak..Is this whole bivalve there ? Was this one transformed to Silica.... I wonder ... I also find botryoidal chalcedony, some bigger... some smaller. I think this formed in a "cave" in a echinoid sand dollar... Finally for those who appreciate more traditional Florida fossils, I found some of these also. Really like this tooth, it exihibits serrations with feeding damage and those CUSPS !!!... I wonder if if cusps on Megs is only true of Pliocene Megs. I am sad to say that it looks like the chipped the root on recovery. I guess what it comes down to is I am a wondering kind of guy....Enjoy