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Hi everyone! When I put some cave breccia into liquid of acid acetic and water and this one came out. It long and slim seems doesn’t fit to any mammals that I know. When I used hammer to break the cave sediment, it broken into 2 part. This cave contains a lot of fossil from Pleistocene but mostly found are tooth of mammals. This is the first time I tried acid to preparation if there bone or microfossils. so please tell me if you know something about this bone. Thank for reading!

I finally broke through today, and made some of my proudest finds ever... multiple times. I have some questions on a few ID's. When I compared these Ptychodus to the Ptychodus ID guide, they kind of reminded me of anonymus and mammilaris. I'm excited because everywhere else I've only ever found mortoni before. I did not find any mortoni here. In the same slab as a ptychodus, there's also a small tooth that's perhaps suggestive of Mosasaur - however, fish teeth from those like pachyrhizodus look deceptively mosasaurian to my inexperienced eye. Furthermore, it's small size could also indicate fish, but a mosasaur pterygoid tooth could be in the running this way still as well. One half is covered in matrix still, so I understand this complicates getting an ID Eagle Ford fm. Travis county, Texas Scale bar = 1 inch 1.) 2.) Ptychodus on the same slab 3.) Another Ptychodus (different slab) 4.) Fish tooth? Or chance of reptile? (scale bar= 1 inch)

found it at the Big Brook Preserve, NJ. Look like a piece of skin or shield from reptile?

On a couple of recent trips to the Whitby coast my daughter and I collected quite a few chunks of a large septarian nodule (or perhaps more than one nodule, though everything was collected in a small area) containing bones. Most of the pieces we found just contain ribs, but one piece contains a couple of larger bones. I’ve had a go at prepping the two best bits, is anyone able to suggest what the bones might have belonged to? Thanks for looking FullSizeRender.mov

Hey all, Feeling a little like the boy who cried Mosasaur. I am fairly confident what I have here is a Mosasaur but wanted to get another opinion. The species I believe to be Proghathodon rapax (Hay).

Hey all, Made two trips to Ramanessin Brook that I have yet to share. The first trip provided much of the same stuff I had already had but did yield me an amazing sawfish rostral tooth. The most recent trip (8/17/21) is where the majority of what I wanted to share was found. Sawfish rostral tooth Pycnodont Fish Angel Shark Hybodus Shark Bone Material Goblin Shark Mosasaur? Mosasaur

I found these two in the creek in my backyard in central western New Jersey. They appear to have symmetry and share common features. Does anyone know what I might be looking at? I’ve also found what appear to be osteoderms in great abundance in the same area. Any help or guidance in the right direction would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hello, I bought this snake vertebrae column from a conference building hosting a fossil and mineral show. This fossil didn't have a nametag telling the species and genus of the snake (most fossils at the show had a nametag). I forget where they said the snake verts were from (or if they said the location at all). I think they might have said Morocco. It's hard to scale because it's in a frame behind glass, but all the vertebrae are around 1 inch. I know it might be hard to identify without the head, so I may just be looking like an idiot expecting it's species to be identified. But if someone can identify the species of these verts, please tell me your thoughts. sorry if photo quality is bad. any help is appreciated

Hello once again! Here’s a find I’m particularly excited about, a new tooth! I found it while perusing gravel banks at Ramenessin. It’s tiny! 1 cm at the most. It does have striations, though they were difficult to capture with my camera. It’s also split in half. One carinae as well. I’m hoping this is of the marine reptile variety, guessing croc due to the size. I dabbled with the idea of pachyrhizodus as well, although I think the striations rule that out? Any insight is much appreciated, eager to ID this one!

I found both of these a couple days ago on my last trip to Big Brook in the same pan, and both have a very similar texture and appearance that leads me to believe they could have belonged to the same animal. I shared both via PM with @Trevor, who suggested the vertebra was likely Mosasaur (but that it might have a diagnostic ID), and that the bone was some type of marine reptile. Just thought I'd re-post here in case others might have any thoughts to add to that. Also, if either is worth taking in for a more diagnostic identification, where/to whom should I take them? I have heard there is a museum that most people take their big brook finds to, but I have never been there and forget which museum it is. @frankh8147

My husband purchased this landscaping rock in a pallet from a Bath/Bethlehem, PA area supplier about 20 years ago. Most of the supplier’s stones are from Pennsylvania. I’m guessing this is sandstone??? I’ve been staring at this rock for sometime and before I place it back, I wanted to get some opinions if anyone sees any type of tracks on this rock? I feel like my fingers fit in the specimen very nicely. Can’t tell if I’m seeing 3, 4 or 5 “toes” ? Maybe I’m just an imaginative newbie. Thanking anyone in advance who looks at these photos.

Is this a faecal fossil? From Madagascar. It has a strange structure on it. Is that a bug mark?

Found this today at calvert cliffs. The only things I could think of that it could be were a juvenile porpoise or crocodile tooth. Anyone have any thoughts?

I found this while digging in my garden. Could someone help me and let me know if they can identify it. It looks like a three toed something possibly. This was the only green colored “rock” around. What do you think??

Just found this earlier today. Thought it was an enchodus until I noticed the conic root. I assume it's some type of aquatic reptile given the location and the similarity to mosasaur teeth I've found, but much more narrow than any mosasaur teeth I've found.

What is this fossil? It is a hard rock found in the bottom of a creek that happens to be very low around the Bismarck, North Dakota area. It looks like some sort of reptile skin. The size is about 1 1/2" x 3/4".

I am unable to identify these pieces from my grandad's collection. He is now unable to clearly see and so sadly couldn't identify it. It must be something, he was a zoologist and the shale meant enough to have a crack repaired. Parts look like bones to me. I'd love to get these identified so I can prep them, making them clearer so he can see them clearer again.

Hey all, Was looking through some older finds today (from Big Brook NJand was curious on if anyone could shed some light on these. The one tooth I originally thought to be of enchodus, but upon looking closer I am not 100% sold. I could see it being an enchodus worn down or something new entirely. In regards to the second, my thoughts originally were potentially bone fragment from potentially sea turtle? Any input helps!

I found some more Permian tracks in New Mexico and I think they’re probably related to a Temnospondyl amphibian. I have the first track I found from this place here, but I also found one with 4 tracks in the rock that I’m fairly certain are some of the best I’ve found in a while. : Here are those tracks. Now something cool I noticed on this one is there is a track I circled here: because it pokes out on the other side, like this right here: I’ll also give you guys a close up of the other two in this rock that was initially exposed: That’s pretty much it for the tracks, but I figured showing them would be neat because they are my first and probably only ones I’ll be able to collect for a while. I’m overall happy with the way the trip to Texas went.

An eight-million-year-old crocodile skull discovered in central Australia is now believed to be part of an extinct species new to scientists. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-57139281

I have been reading up on Moroccan mosasaurs and one point of confusion that I have run into is differentiating teeth from Prognathodon anceps and Prognathodon giganteus. There seems to be a great deal of overlap in their descriptions and occasional contradictions in the scientific literature. The first issue I’ve noticed is that there seems to be a great deal of confusion over what to even call the two species. Leiodon anceps (Owen, 1841-1845) was based on two tooth fragments and a section of jawbone. The genus was renamed Liodon by Agassiz (1846) because the name Leiodon was preoccupied by the pufferfish Leiodon Swainson, 1839. E.D. Cope (1869-1870) caused confusion by treating Liodon as synonymous with Tylosaurus. Further confusion was caused when the holotype material of Liodon was lost. This has resulted in authors suggesting that the Liodon is nomen dubium and all species under Liodon should be transferred to Prognathodon (Schulp et al. 2008). With regards to Moroccan specimens, Arambourg (1952) identifies prognathodontid teeth as ‘Mosasaurus’ cf. anceps. The smaller specimens identified by Arambourg have since been reclassified as teeth from Eremiasaurus heterodontus (Leblanc et al., 2012) and the larger teeth have been tentatively assigned to ‘Prognathodon anceps’. More recently, Bardet et al. 2015 suggested that the Moroccan ‘Prognathodon anceps’ may actually represent a unique species, separate from the poorly defined European M. (Leiodon) cf. anceps. Prognathodon giganteus Dollo, 1904 (holotype IRScNB R106 / formerly 3103) was defined based on an incomplete skull and postcranial skeleton from the upper Campanian of the Ciply area, southern Belgium. Note that early mosasaurs, Lacerta gigantea and Mosasaurus giganteus both share a similar specific epithet to Prognathodon giganteus but are actually both junior synonyms of Mosasaurus hoffmannii. For simplicity, I’m going to just refer to the two as Prognathodon anceps and Prognathodon giganteus. In a recent thread, @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon made an informative post about the two prognathodontids. I have copied it below for context. Begin Quote …This is certainly another pair of nice teeth, even if they both belong to the most common prognathodontid species found in Morocco! I'd call them both P. giganteus from my experience, although the morphology of the top-most/first tooth conforms more with Bardet et al. (2014)'s Prognathodon nov. sp., which seems to correspond most to P. anceps as defined here. However, this is where I get confused between these two prognathodontid species, as the teeth of both species seem very similar morphologically (see below images): Prognathodon (Mosasaurus) cf. anceps sensu Arambourg, figure 8 from Machalski et al., 2003. Campanian and Maastrichtian mosasaurid reptiles from central Poland (some beautiful images of M. hoffmanni teeth in this publication too, @Praefectus) (Leiodon) cf. anceps, plate XXXVIII from Arambourg, 1952. Les vertébrés fossiles des gisements de phosphates (Maroc - Algérie - Tunisie) Prognathodon giganteus, figure 40 from Lingham-Soliar & Nolf, 1989. The mosasaur Prognathodon (Reptilia, Mosasauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Belgium Amarabourg (ibid., p. 280-281) describes the teeth of Mosasaurus cf. anceps as follows: Or, translated (mine): Machalski et al. (ibid., p. 404-405) summarize this by stating In comparison, Lingham-Soliar & Nolf (ibid., p. 166-167) describe the teeth of Prognathodon giganteus as follows: Overall, reading over all the slight differences in termonology used, the descriptions and images given for the teeth of both P. giganteus and P. anceps seem rather similar. However, Arambourg's definition of 'Mosasaurus' cf. anceps dates to 1952, whereas Dollo defined his P. giganteus in 1904. This would seem to suggest that P. giganteus might be the senior synonym. As Arambourg based his definition on Owen's 1841 description of Leiodon anceps, this seniority may be misleading, however, with P. anceps actually being the senior. Another reason to may be given more credence to the naming of P. anceps is that, according to Wikipedia "Prognathodon giganteus, named by Dollo in 1904, is one of species with the most brief descriptions, apparently only intended to provide a name for the skeleton of the mosasaur for exhibition in the museum hall". To my knowledge, the two prognathodontid species haven't ever been synonymized, however. Quote from this thread: End Quote Below are some additional pictures and academic quotations relevant to the topic. This is the holotype skull of Prognathodon giganteus and a hypothetical sketch from Lingham-Soliar & Nolf, 1990. Compare to some Prognathodon anceps skull reconstructions originating from Morocco. As far as descriptions of teeth go, Bardet and Pereda Suberbiola, 2002 describe Prognathodon giganteus in Jordan (NOT Morocco) as: They include the following picture: Cappetta et al. 2014 described Prognathodon teeth from the Gantour basin as the following. Note that Prognathodon anceps is referred to as Prognathodon nov. sp. in this publication. Bardet et al. 2015’s review of mosasaurid teeth differentiated Prognathodon teeth by the following. E is Prognathodon giganteus. F is Prognathodon anceps. In my opinion, these teeth look like they come from the same mosasaur, but different parts of the jaw. To summarize: Character Prognathodon anceps Prognathodon giganteus Size Anterior teeth less stocky than lateral teeth (Arambourg, 1952) Teeth robust, large cones (Bardet et al. 2015) Large and robust in appearance (Bardet and Pereda Suberbiola, 2002) The teeth appear to be more or less uniform in size along most of the jaw ramus although this assessment is an inference based on an incomplete number of preserved teeth and tooth bases of the maxillae and dentaries. (Lingham-Soliar & Nolf, 1992) Recurve Anterior teeth recurve posteriorly. Lateral teeth recurve posteriorly and slightly medially (Arambourg, 1952; Machalski et al. 2002) Somewhat posteriorly recurved tips (Lingham-Soliar & Nolf, 1992) Cross-section Anterior teeth cross-section, almost circular at the neck, becomes somewhat oval and irregular towards the apex. Lateral teeth are compressed with an elliptical symmetrical cross-section (Arambourg, 1952; Machalski et al. 2002; Bardet et al. 2015) In horizontal cross-section the tooth is subcircular and bears a close resemblance to Williston's (1897) cross-section of a tooth of P. overtoni (Lingham-Soliar & Nolf, 1992, Bardet and Pereda Suberbiola, 2002) Carinae Possess anterior and posterior carinae (Arambourg, 1952; Machalski et al., 2003) They are bicarinate with subequal buccal and lingual surfaces (Lingham-Soliar & Nolf, 1992, Bardet and Pereda Suberbiola, 2002) Labial (buccal) and lingual surfaces Labial and lingual surfaces, both of which are strongly convex (Arambourg, 1952; Machalski et al. 2002) Subequal convex labial and lingual faces (Bardet and Pereda Suberbiola, 2002) Serrations (crenulations) They bear finely crenellated cutting edges that extend the full apicobasal height, both symphyseally and commissurally (Arambourg, 1952; Machalski et al., 2003) The carinae are strongly marked and pinched from the main shaft with less visible serrations (Bardet et al., 2015) Surface features Facetting is not well developed but is more clearly seen on the lingual surface. Enamel beading is present, but poorly developed (Machalski et al., 2002) Some teeth bear indistinct facets on the lingual surface (Bardet et al., 2015) Tooth surfaces are enameled and appear to be covered in very fine vertical striae. This may on the other hand be an artifact of preservation caused by cracking of the enamel. Russell (1970, p. 374) on the other hand describes the enamel in P. giganteus as smooth but he may have based his statement on Dollo's (1904, p. 213) brief comment to that effect. Kues et al. (1985) also mention fine anastomosing striae in teeth which, however, are questionably referred to Prognathodon. (Lingham-Soliar & Nolf, 1992) Anastomosing enamel especially prevalent on the blunt apical region (Bardet and Pereda Suberbiola, 2002) Pinched/unpinched carinae Their two carinae are strongly detached (Arambourg, 1952) Tooth crowns without pinched carinae (Cappetta et al. 2014) The carinae are strongly marked and pinched from the main shaft with less visible serrations (Bardet et al 2015) ***Note the contradiction Apex Higher sharper apex (Bardet et al., 2015) Blunt apex (Cappetta et al. 2014, Bardet et al 2015) Based on all this, I think the defining differences the researchers are pointing are: (1) P. anceps teeth are more laterally compressed than P. giganteus (2) P. anceps teeth have “pinched” carinae while P. giganteus have unpinched carinae (3) P. anceps teeth have a pointed apex while P. giganteus has a blunt apex (4) P. anceps teeth are less posteriorly recurved than P. giganteus teeth I’m not quite sure what to conclude. These features seem like they may fall within heterodonty or individual, ontogenetic, and sexual variation. Whether the two species can be differentiated based on cranial and postcranial elements is yet to be seen. I have not seen any attempts to synonymize the species. In my opinion, I don't think the two species are understood well enough to differentiate the them based solely on isolated teeth. I would like to hear what others have to say on the topic.

I've amassed a decent collection of rocks, minerals, crystals, and petrified wood, and even a few fossils in my 57 years in Northern California. Some I've found, others acquired at garage and estate sales and the local flea market. At one garage sale there was a milk crate full of various stones, geodes, cut agate, and such. They all looked good at a glance so I bought the whole crate. At home I went through it and every piece was a really nice specimen. At the bottom of the crate was a small rock. It wasn't anything obvious like the rest, so I looked at it under a light turning it all around in my hand until the light hit it just right and I couldn't believe what I saw. It looked like the 1st picture with the cast shadows. I noticed all the features of a pit viper: the head- the nostril, heat sensing pit, eye socket, eye guard, and the bigger pit under the eye which must've been the void from the venom gland. I know what a rattlesnake looks like, as I've seen many. But I wasn't positive at first as the other side was mostly flat, as in the 2nd pic. What wasn't flattened was symmetrical with the right side, specifically across the top between the eye guards. I noticed a scaling pattern across the top and color changes, as well as on the bottom view looking up of the right side, as shown in the 3rd and 4th pic. The 4th pic shows the scales along the mouth and color changes as well, and a couple horizontal marks under the chin. The 5th picture shows the medial line and the head features on both sides. The left side is flat but its features are in alignment with the right side The 6th and 7th pics are of the bottom and I think the 2 curved lines are its fangs folded back in the mouth. All of this tells me that I have a real fossil of a pit viper head. Any opinions and/or expert knowledge greatly appreciated, thanks!

Hi, I found this reptile vertebra awhile ago at Yaverland on the isle of Wight, any idea what kind of reptile it is from?

I just thought I would share a few pictures of this amazing snake I was able to acquire from a good friend who is letting go of a few pieces of his collection. He is getting up in age and I was honored enough to be the recipient of a few incredible pieces. This snake was found in 1988 in a cave on private property in Oregon. It is Pleistocene in age and is believed to be a species of racer (colubridae). Enjoy Seth

Hi, after a work related break in Wexford recently I found this item washed up on the beach. After lightly cleaning it and viewing it under a jewellers loupe, I realised that it appeared to have inscriptions on it. I thought I may be just willing oil t to be the case, but upon further investigation they are definitely man made carvings. It seems to be a fish/catfish possibly to the front, and inscriptions of what I can make out to be, a person, stick like figure, fish, a PI symbol as well as others. It is very intriguing and though I'd share in the hope other do too. Thanks.