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  1. Today I took a spur of the moment trip up to the Canyon Lake area for some hunting in the lower Glen Rose. My first venture into the region took place last year and was only a limited success in that I scored a measly two micro echinoids. The plan for today was to try some new spots in hopes of striking the perfect layer of echinoid diversity. The first site was a complete bust, but the second immediately showed promise when I noticed the ground was littered with broken bits of thin echinoid test. Because I had arrived so close after the recent rains, the ground was still a sticky slop of Glen Rose mud. The combination of running along the slopes and frequent crouching set my calves on fire, but the scent of urchins kept me on the chase. Very quickly I was lucky to encounter some really nice crab claws from Pagurus banderensis. A couple had both pincers still preserved. Surprisingly common was also the tiny crushing dentition of Pycnodont fish. They aren't all that interesting to look at, but the simple fact that vertebrate material was present gave me daydreams of finding an elusive Glen Rose shark tooth. I tried to shake away such a hopeless goal, but it continued to sit in my mind. After a couple hours, I found an Amiid fish tooth and some star-shaped Isocrinus annulatus columns. For whatever reason, I could not find a single echinoid spine, let alone a complete test. I was searching the ground very closely, so my thinking was it may be more to do with the site than myself. As I was doing the usual close inspection, I snuck up on a black figure nestled securely in a pile of Glen Rose matrix. It took a moment to register that I wasn't looking at just another chunk of black bug. I safely stashed the two pieces of Polyacrodus. Sadly, the third fragment was nowhere to be seen despite my best efforts. After finding some more crab claws it was time to head out. On the trek to the car, I spotted a Trigonia whitneyi? clam, maybe from the upper Glen Rose. I'm not sure what species this is. I see Polyacrodus aff. parvidens is described form the Texas Albian up north. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be much info. I've seen some discussion on Polyacrodus brevicostata being a possibility as well. Top L to R: Trigonia whitneyi? and Pagurus banderensis Bottom L to R: Amiid tooth, Pycnodont teeth, Isocrinus annulatus It seems my streak of urchin unluckiness has continued, but I'll take a Polyacrodus any day of the week!
  2. Jared C

    Pycnodont tooth

    From the album: Texas Albian (Cretaceous)

    Pycnodont tooth Albian (Comanche Peak formation) Texas Vertebrate material is rare in the early Cretaceous marine formations of Texas, but especially so in the Comanche peak fm - I had never heard of vertebrate material in this formation prior
  3. deltav2

    pycnodont jaw

    From the album: Middle eocene fossils from Qatar

    Now with teeth Midra shale formation Qatar, Middle eocene age around 5mm in length
  4. deltav2

    Pycnodont teeth

    From the album: Middle eocene fossils from Qatar

    Found in midra shale formation, Qatar, Lutetian. One of the rarer teeth to find. The largest one is 5 mm in length
  5. deltav2

    Fish jaw

    From the album: Middle eocene fossils from Qatar

    Some kind of crusher fish jaw, presumably Pycnodont, collected from midra shale formation in Qatar, Middle eocene aged. Around 6mm in size. One tooth can be seen still embedded into the jaw. Might be the first specimen of this kind ever found here
  6. Hi everybody. Just finished up this little pycno yesterday. Cute little bugger. Less than 2 hours of prep for this little project. I used my new Zoic Velociraptor air scribe for this. A tool I've fallen in love with. Fixed up the crack that ran through the fish, squared up the rock with my tile saw and smoothed the egdes with my table belt sander and Waaaa Laaaa! I was not going to keep this at first and have decided to thin the rock in half and hang it onto one of my fish walls. Already have a spot for it. I also turned this small project into a video for youtube but it wont be out for a week or so. RB
  7. Mikrogeophagus

    Pycnodont, Atco

    From the album: Austin Chalk

    Pycnodont, Central TX Coniacian, Cretaceous Dec, 2022
  8. At last week's NJ fossil show, I purchased one fossil, a cretaceous fish with an unusual feature. It is a Coccodus from Lebanon, its length is 6.5 inch (16cm) and dates to 95mya. Coccodus is a pycnodont, an extinct group of fish which lived from the late Triassic to the late Eocene. A pycnodont primary characteristic is molariform teeth, rounded and blunt, suitable for crushing shellfish amongst other prey. This specimen appears to be split with the dorsal surface exposed. What caught my eye is that most of the dentition appears intact, with a bones forming a maxilla and “palate” vault-like structure rising above the plane of the specimen. It would be remarkable to reveal both upper and lower dentition within (course I’d probably ruin the fossil). Note the bizarre shapes of the teeth that are exposed.
  9. Mikrogeophagus

    Anomoeodus sp.

    From the album: Grayson/Del Rio Formation

    Anomoeodus sp., Denton Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Apr, 2023
  10. From the album: Austin Chalk

    Acrotemnus streckeri(?) Pharyngeal Teeth, DFW Coniacian, Cretaceous Mar, 2023
  11. Stick around, this one's a read but I'll try to make it fun. So, I have been to big brook last year, and While I enjoyed it, since I went in early feb, the ground was frozen which prevented me from finding much, as the brook was stingy that day. Nonetheless I decided to try my luck with Ramanessin as i heard good things about it. Because none of my family or friends could be bothered, I decided to take a day off work and drive 4 hours to the area and spend the night so I could get the most out of the location. what follows is the result of 2 days straight of fossil hunting. which I will try to tell the story of in order. Day 1 the scoop I arrive at the site a little past 12, choosing to waste no time, I make my way down to the brook and start to sift the gravel. as opposed to when I went to big brook in winter, Ramanessin was generous with her gifts. I found 4 teeth in the first scoop. I took this time to make my way up the stream cutting back and forth sifting every gravel pile I could find. my personal method is to put no more than 5 scoops into the sifter. that was the way to guarantee I got at least something out of it. it was during one of these sifts that I found the curious reptile tooth here. I will be doing a separate fossil id post later of the teeth and bones. but this was one that i knew was something special. I also found this really nice cross section of ammonite. the sutures were beginning to separate, any longer and they would have come undone. It was also this trip that I found these chunks of bone, now I know the brooks have this nasty habit of producing concretions and discoloring modern bones to Look like fossils, but i am 80 percent sure that I found some genuine articles here. Taking the ###### at some point in this day, I decided I needed to pee. so, to avoid being spotted I ducked into a small mouth of a tributary to do my business. while I was wrapping up, something caught my eye, something I couldn't believe. the outline of the Biggest, and likely one of the best lateral goblin shark teeth I have ever found. I was absolutely giddy. after picking it up and doing a little field prep washing it off in the water it was easily 1.8 in. and as the story usually goes as I am looking in this little alcove of gravel, I see the root of yet Another massive goblin tooth root, this time submerged in the dirt. I chanted to myself "please be whole" as I carefully brushed off the tooth to reveal a gloriously intact fossil. easily one of the best and most fortuitous pee breaks i have ever had! It was on my way back that I decided to put the trash bag I brought to good use and pick up the garbage I saw on the way. I'm not going to lie here, I have found it pretty shameful how many shards of glass and cans I would find in this place. But I took it upon myself to fill the shopping bag as best I could. I didn't want to be stuck out in the dark, so I hurried back to the car and dropped the trash in the nearest bin. Lodging back at the motel, I spent the evening cleaning off my newfound loot. I took this time to carefully superglue the ammonite chunk so that I wouldn't lose it. I took one of the plastic cups in the hotel room and cleaned my fossils with it. Day 2 lost sifter After breakfast, I returned to try my luck again, but when I opened the trunk of my car I was met with the absence of my sifter. I t was then that it dawned on me that when I came back to the car I had only my shovel and my trash bag in hand, tricking my brain into thinking i had everything! realizing it was probably lost, I went back to the brook to try my luck surface collecting. The region had received some rain overnight and into the afternoon, and although it wasn't flooding, the water was considerably higher than last time. i was almost discouraged until i noticed something bright blue on the opposite side of the brook... it was my sifter. right where i left it on the top of the overbank. I was so elated I was laughing at my turn of luck. "Hang On! I'm comin!" I yelled at the inanimate object. there was a fallen tree 4 meters from the sifter, so in my full wading gear, I straddled the trunk and shimmied over to the other side and retrieved it. mosasaur it was now that I decided to make my way upstream and sift past the areas that I had already hit. I noticed a few tracks of bootprints here and there. I was initially discouraged by the fact that whoever it was got further than I was hoping they did. but that all went away when as I was sifting through a pile of gravel, I noticed a sheen of blackish enamel. picking it up I realized this was likely yet Another reptile tooth, and the chances that I bagged a mosasaur had effectively doubled. (did I mention yet that this was my 1st time to Ramanessin?) check your spoils as I made my way upstream, I came across the ruins of some old concrete structure in the middle of the brook, either a dam or a bridge foundation of some sort. to my right I saw a large spoil pile. out of curiosity, I started to look at it trying to see if there was anything the previous person missed. and boy was there. I found another huge lateral goblin, and (Pictured separately) a massive sawfish rostral tooth. it was crazy to me thinking about missing not one, but Two easily trip maker sized teeth in your spoil pile. let this serve as a lesson to newbies, to double check spoil piles you see, just because you never know what the last guy missed! crow island I waded and sifted my way upstream past the concrete structure, tactically using my shovel as a sounding stick of sorts and pointing my toes in the direction of the current so as not to lose footing. I stopped just past a footbridge where there was a little island of gravel that had accumulated over the weeks. as I scanned the shore, I saw another trip maker: an absolutely huge Squalicorax prisodontus tooth. it is at this point that I notice that I want alone, there was a group of boys that went bicycling overhead. now, all through the day I was completely alone, talking to myself about the stuff i was finding and being a general silly guy. I'm sure that if anyone came up to me while I was like this, they'd think I was insane. I took this brief encounter as my sign to start heading back to the car. the wade back the wade back I made it a resolution to not sift bit surface collect only. the thing is, that in the hours between when I got there and now, it had stopped raining. and when the rain stopped the waters started to recede after an hour or two. So here I was, walking back to the car past effectively virgin shoreline, with only an hour of sunlight left. I was delaying myself left and right with tooth after tooth that I would find on the shorelines. some being decent sized in their own right! after I returned home, I spent the remaining hours of my sanity cleaning and sorting the finds of the day. this is the total finds for day 2. Aftermath below is the combined total of fossils. of the identifiable items I found approximately 234 goodies over those 2 days. my display case for Cretaceous NJ was looking a little sparse before, but now its looking a little fuller as I am writing this. if you notice any special things in the pictures I missed, please let me know, I love educating myself on these things.
  12. Mikrogeophagus

    Acrotemnus streckeri Prearticular Tooth, Atco

    From the album: Austin Chalk

    Acrotemnus streckeri Prearticular Tooth, DFW Coniacian, Cretaceous Feb, 2023 Some of the largest pycnodont fish to exist. Grew up to at least 1 - 1.3 meters in length.
  13. The weather's finally warming up here in DFW, and with that, it's time to move on from the comforts of dry land and return to the ways of creek stomping. These past few months, I've been mostly hanging around cuts and construction sites within the Washita Group, and to be honest, I've gotten a little sick of it. During that period, I steadily accrued a sizable list of potential Eagle Ford and Atco locations within the metroplex, and I was itching for the opportunity to finally go and check them out. Yesterday, I circled a few spots on the map and hit the road. Well, the first couple of sites were more or less complete duds. Stop 1 was situated in the Turner Park Member of the Britton. Lots of cool stuff can be found here and it's one of the more prettier formations, but I'm still trying to figure it out. I only spent about 30 minutes there, and nothing really impressed me. Nevertheless, I was at least rewarded with my first ptychodus from DFW (yeah it took awhile). Stop 2 was a famous site within the Camp Wisdom Member of the Britton. There were some interesting cephalopod specimens to be had, but nothing worth taking home. I did not lose hope, though. I knew that my third site was the most promising of the bunch and I accordingly saved most of the day for it. Stop 1 in the Turner Park, and my first ptychodus from DFW (P. anonymous) The Atco lies just above the Arcadia Park Formation of the Eagle Ford Group in DFW. It's famous for being densely packed with a diverse array of vertebrate material dating to the Coniacian, mostly concentrated within a thin layer dubbed the "Fish Bed Conglomerate" just at the contact of the Eagle Ford and Austin groups. The key to finding this layer is to look for matrix that is highly concentrated in phosphatic pebbles and fossils. Down in Austin, I think it gets a bit overshadowed by the Eagle Ford. In DFW, however, I would say the Atco reigns supreme. After a decent drive and trek, I stepped into the creek and began my descent through the Austin Chalk in search of this coveted conglomerate. It was difficult to tell where exactly I was stratigraphically since the Arcadia Park seems to be a bit calcareous whereas the Austin Chalk can be a bit marly. Where the calcareous marl ends and marly chalk begins is tougher to differentiate in practice, especially for someone less experienced like me. I eventually reached a large gravel bar and decided to pause the walking and have a look for any clues. I didn't find anything out of the ordinary in my initial scan, and almost picked up my backpack to move on. However, I took a moment to take a closer look at what I had first subconsciously written off as concrete. In this chunk of rock, I saw hundreds of tiny rounded phosphatic pebbles. Once my eyes reached the edge of the block, I spotted the unmistakable serrated blade of a Squalicorax falcatus tooth. There was no doubt, this was Atco matrix! The material was noticeably greyer than I had expected. Down in Central TX, the Atco is about as white as the rest of the overlying chalk. With all of the odd bits and bobs intermingling with the grey rock, it really does look like something manmade. I pulled out the rock hammer and began searching the bar for more chunks of fish bed conglomerate. It's amazing the things your eyes can miss when you unknowingly tune things out. There were very obvious shark teeth encased in many of the rocks I had walked by earlier. I collected several larger pieces and sat down to begin extracting teeth. Found my nicest shark vert yet. Unfortunately, it was super fragile and lots of it broke apart in cleaning. My first oddball tooth from the Atco. It has the shape of Cretalamna appendiculata (in the strict sense), but the presence of labial striations pushes me towards a posterior tooth of Cretodus crassidens. It also notably has doubled cusplets on one side. That same tooth post extraction. It broke in half by the time it got home, so I'll be doing a bit of consolidating. Funky little guy. There were some very large slabs of Atco conglomerate washed out atop the gravel bar. I did some hammering to break them into more manageable chunks so I could rinse them in the flowing creek. As I split one of the large slabs in half, I let out an annoyed sigh as I saw a decent Cretalamna appendiculata tooth crumble from the point my hammer had hit the stone. I tried to push that misfortune out of my mind as I perused across the newly exposed surface for any other teeth. I quickly spotted some fine serrations poking out of a chip of matrix that had just come loose. It was a Squalicorax falcatus doing its best chameleon impression. Please don't break please don't break Voila! By far the largest Squalicorax in my ever-growing collection! Florida megs better watch out... My constant hunt for micros at home adequately prepared me to keep an eye out in the field. I was able to spot a couple of Ptychotrygon triangularis oral teeth throughout the day. I also managed to find a mediocre Scapanorhynchus raphiodon and my first decent Ptychodus whipplei! Managed not to lose it in the gravel. Ptychotrygon triangularis Lots of beat up Scapanorhynchus raphiodon that day Ptychodus whipplei. The bits and pieces I have from Austin look like they were crapped off a cliff by a coyote as some Texas fossilers like to say. After getting a nice sunburn, I decided to get up and explore more of the area to perhaps find a source for this matrix. I spotted a little tributary that seemed promising and had a gander. Some outcrops have a beauty that only fossil hunters can truly appreciate... You who are reading this, I know your mouth is watering A little ways farther, the source is found. As I walked up the small feeder creek, I periodically inspected the pieces of fish bed conglomerate that were scattered in the way of the flowing water. One ball of matrix had an unsuspecting appearance, but something about it wouldn't let me leave it alone. There was what initially seemed to be some part of a bivalve erupting from it, but the color and texture gave off enamel vibes. After hammering off some chalk, I still couldn't figure it out. I eventually extracted the entire thing. It was extremely smooth and came to an edge at the top. The surface was mostly bluish gray and semi translucent. It took a second for the cogs in my brain to start working and realize I'd seen something very similar before. @Jared C and I have been recently discussing Hadrodus, and, of course, one of his best discoveries is a large fragment of Hadrodus hewletti of which shares many visual characteristics with the object in my hand. I was excited to realize I was holding the tooth to a gargantuan pycnodont fish. Just after extraction Occlusal view and side pics For scale. Stay tuned for the identity of this monster After this discovery, my stomach growled, signaling it was about time to head back. This was only my first excursion in the Atco of North Texas, and it had already proven to be one to remember. For sure, this will be a site to return to. As I walked along the banks towards my exit, my eyes were still honed in on the ground as is the curse set upon every fossil hunter. I usually don't find anything on my return walks, but I was delighted to see the sheen of black enamel poking out of some Atco chalk just several feet above the fish bed conglomerate. I popped it out and quickly identified it as Ptychodus, though the species I was unsure of. At the moment, I think it is P. atcoensis as it seems to be a good match with a specimen in Hamm's paper on the Atco. It's got radiating ridges and a marginal area similar to some P. anonymous. That paper mentions Meyer (1974) suggested that the taxon could be transitional between P. mortoni and P. anonymous and I certainly understand that reasoning. It's a little beat up, but that's a rare species and a special one. In situ Radiating ridges and concentric ridges in the marginal area as expected for P. atcoensis Once I got home, I began researching more on my fish tooth to try and pin an ID. My initial idea was that it could be a Hadrodus incisor like what Jared had in his collection based on size and coloration alone. Jared was quick to point out that the morphology differed greatly between my tooth and most incisors. This was a valid hole in the argument and I went back to the drawing board. The tooth was most certainly pycnodont in origin, but the world of pycnodonts is much deeper than most people realize. When examining the edge of the tooth I noticed a characteristic I couldn't come up with a name for until I saw it in one of the papers on Hadrodus Jared had shared. "Papilla-like tubercles" were the things lining the edge, and thankfully the author of the paper offhandedly brought up another genus of pycnodont that shared this trait: Acrotemnus. After some searching, I found a recently published paper by Shimada on a newly discovered specimen of Acrotemnus streckeri from Big Bend in the Ernst Member of the Boquillas Formation. And wouldn't ya know it, Hamm stated that the Ernst Member can be correlated with the Atco Formation (though I should mention a discrepancy in that Shimada places the Ernst Member in the Turonian and not the Coniacian which Hamm asserts the Atco + Ernst to be). The Acrotemnus paper had some high quality images of the dentition of the specimen, and I found the most similarity in size and morphology with the prearticular teeth of their fish. The Shimada paper mentioned that most pycnodonts are small, only reaching about 25 cm in size. To people who are unfamiliar with pycnodonts, these teeth may not look all that crazy, being measured only as 1-2 centimeters . However, scaling the body with the size of the dentition shows that Acrotemnus streckeri reached lengths of at least 1 - 1.3 meters, making it some of the largest pycnodonts to exist at the time! This definitely shattered my preconceived notions about pycnodont fish. Already, the Atco has proven to be one of the most interesting formations in North Texas. This site is a bit of a laborious drive for me, but I'm certain many future adventures will be had and many more fascinating discoveries with it. Thanks for reading!
  14. A couple of questions concerning these fish. Are all nursallia teeth characterized by the eight or so bumps on one side of the tooth? Did pycnodonts regularly shed their teeth? Most of the teeth I have found are hollowed out basally, which makes me think that they were shed, I have a few that look like they have remnants of jaw fragments attached, which makes me think that these teeth belonged in the mouth of a fish that had died. How do you tell the difference between pycnodontid and lepidotid teeth? Thanks!
  15. Mikrogeophagus

    Pycnodont Tooth Plate?

    Hey everyone! This came from the same Ozan spot as my previous post. I found this little specimen on a gravel bar. I think it's a fossil, but it could be man-made... I'm really not sure. My best guess is a pycnodont tooth plate which would be a first for me. I have hesitations because the teeth are "holey" as opposed to little black bulbs. Maybe this is from weathering? Here are some pictures: Thanks for reading!
  16. klattrocks

    Mystery Fossil Lumpkin, Georgia

    I have a real mystery fossil I found in 2004 from Lumpkin, Georgia. The formaton is the Upper Cretaceous Ripley FM. US 27 was being 4 laned and quite a bit of new material was exposed in the road cuts. I think I was within a quarter mile of either side of the well known Frog Bottom Creek Upper Cretaceous fossil site. I found Exogyra costata, Flemingostrea subspatulata, Pycnodonte mutabilis, casts and molds of gastropods and pelecypods,worm burrows, etc. The oysters have well preserved shells, and the rest of the shells are mainly impressions and casts. Originally I just glanced at the mystery fossil and thought it was a impression of a pecten and set it aside. I'm now organizing my fossil collections and upon closer inspection I realized it wasnt a shell impression. Any guesses on what this is? I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime of collecting.
  17. Thomas.Dodson

    Pycnodont Type Tooth or Coniasaurus?

    I found this tooth (2.75 mm length) while sorting micro-matrix from Post Oak Creek in Texas (Turonian). I had originally hoped this might be a posterior Coniasaurus tooth based on the more conical tooth type and root but have since found in publications that some Pycnodont tooth forms closely overlap posterior Coniasaurus teeth in general morphology. My guess would now be some kind of less common type of Pycnodont tooth form (the flat types are common in the samples) but I wanted to see what others thought.
  18. A.C.

    Pycnodont Teeth

    From the album: A.C.'s Cretaceous New Jersey

    Anomaeodus phasolus (Hay) Ramanessin Brook
  19. steviefossils

    Drum plate

    Edit: I've re-uploaded photos since Don made me aware that they were not showing up. I am able to view the photos from my laptop (a chrome book) and my cell (google pixel). Hopefully re-uploading will have resolved the problem. Hi all, Took a trip to NJ searching a cretaceous stream recently. Have to give a shout out and "thank you" to my new friend Tyler, whom upon stumbling upon me bumbling about in the stream, showed me the "good spot" where I can find better finds. Together, we found plenty of goblin teeth, crow teeth, shrimp parts, and myself, some nice pycnodont (Anomaeodus phaseolus) crushers. I'm sharing my best find of the day, a partial pycnodont plate. Also sharing some weird looking mineral I found just in case anyone has any input. I.D. reference: http://www.njfossils.net/drum.html - Steve
  20. oilshale

    Gyrodus circularis Agassiz, 1844

    The genus Gyrodus is a characteristic faunal element of Late Jurassic marine environments and includes the largest known pycnodont (G. circularis, Upper Jurassic of southern Germany). Most pycnodonts are small to medium sized fishes with a standard body length of some 25 cm or less. Only a few large forms with a standard body length of more than 50 cm are known. Gyrodus circularis is the largest pycnodont with a standard body length up to 200 cm (KRIWET & SCHMITZ 2005). References: L. Agassiz (1843) Recherches Sur Les Poissons Fossiles. Tome I (livr. 18). Imprimerie de Petitpierre, Neuchatel xxxii-188. Kriwet, J. (2005) A comprehensive study of the skull and dentition of pycnodont fishes. Zitteliana, 2005, A45, pp. 135-188. Kriwet, J. and Schmitz, L. (2005) New insight into the distribution and palaeobiology of the pycnodont fish Gyrodus. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 50 (1): 49–56.
  21. Is this a lateral anomoeodus tooth? I have found a number of the medial teeth likely because the shape is more distinct but this would be my first lateral tooth. 3/8 inches. Thank you
  22. butchndad

    Great day in big brook

    Great day in big brook from 7am to 12 noon. Whole bunch of shark teeth including the biggest one I’ve found yet; 1.25 inch goblin plus a lot of John Snow teeth. A couple of pycnodont and a couple of cow nosed rays. One small enchodus and a couple of TBDs. Did also find one tick when I got home so be aware
  23. The Jersey Devil

    Several NJ Cretaceous Non-Shark pathologies

    Hello TFF, I got a couple items from the Late Cretaceous of NJ that seem to be pathological. The first one, an Anomoeodus phaseolus tooth, seems to be very wrinkly and so I deemed it a patho. That is more of a verification as I haven’t seen a pathological one before. The second is an Ischyrhiza mira rostral blade that has a third carina on one of its faces and a slight flattening (flattening better seen in person). This is also a verification as I just didn’t expect to see a patho rostral. The third one is a bit strange. It is definitely a fish tooth. There are prominent growth cracks on the surface & no striations, which supports Xiphactinus. However, the base doesn’t look exactly elliptical (Xiphactinus) or bulging like in Enchodus. But it does look more like X-fish than Enchodus; it just seems as if one side of the base got flattened out, leading me to think that it could be a pathological Xiphactinus. The base also seems to be somewhat hollow (other than the matrix infill). @non-remanié Thanks guys! Anomoeodus phaseolus:
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