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Oldest Fossilized Skin Discovered, Clocks in at 300 Million Years Old Isaac Schultz, GIZMODO, January 11, 2024 The (open access ?) paper is: Paleozoic cave system preserves oldest-known evidence of amniote skin by Ethan D. Mooney, Tea Maho, R. Paul Philp, Joseph J. Bevitt, and Robert R. Reisz in Current Biology. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.008 Yours, Paul H.

Hello everyone! Firstly, I know that this is a topic about whether or not a fossil is real, but seeing as a), I'm not looking to purchase one and b), I'm mostly interested in how they could possibly form, I've put it in the general fossil discussion. If an administrator thinks this topic would be better for the 'is it real?' discussion, please feel free to move it. Anyways, a while ago the above Captorhinus fossil was posted to the 'is it real?' discussion board, which I thought was an obvious fake, as the matrix looked unnatural, the cervical ribs looked less like ribs and more like sea urchin spines, the skull was miraculously immaculately preserved and the knee joints were facing in the wrong direction for tetrapods. However, I was browsing the internet, when I came across the Wikipedia page for the Richard's Spur Quarry, and saw this image of Captorhinus aguti: Now, these specimens obviously look more real than the fake Captorhinus at the top; although I know Wikipedia isn't always a reliable source the information on it is usually not too far from the truth, and I'd be very surprised if they had fake fossils as images representing 'real' ones. However, I still have my doubts about these two skeleton's legitimacy; the skulls looks too well preserved and a bit like resin, and the knee joints are yet again facing the wrong direction. Are these fossils real, and if so, how did the skull preserve so immaculately while the legs were distorted? Is this something unique to Richard's Spur? Thank you for your help.

Hello, I am going to purchase this lot that is from Richard's Spur Quarry and I was wondering if anyone on here knows how to ID fossils better than me. I've been looking at pictures all day but can't seem to confidently ID anything. I know most of these are probably Captorhinus, but are there any in this lot that look like a different species or a synapsid such as Varanops? Been searching for synapsid fossils forever and I really hope one of these is from a synapsid. There's 3 claws, 3 vertebrate, and 4 jaw sections. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings if they all are Captorhinus, I think they're super cool too!

This fossil comes from Richards Spur and it is Permian. I think it's a coprolite with a bone bitten by the predator that the coprolite belongs to, but I'm not very sure. What do you think about it? Thank you.

Hi everyone! Inspired by @JamieLynn, I purchased some micromatrix from our favourite auction site a couple of months ago. It finally arrived last week, and after going through it once, I've found a few little goodies that I'd like help in identifying. I'll also tag @Bobby Rico because I know that he has searched through this stuff in the past, too. The fossils are from Richard's Spur in Oklahoma and they are Permian in age. Perhaps @jdp and @dinodigger can also have a look (especially at #1 and #5)? I appreciate any help you can give! Thanks in advance! Monica Item #1: I think this might be a tooth from Cacops sp. (amphibian) Item #2: I think this might be a piece of jaw from Captorhinus aguti (reptile) More to come...