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It is almost layered like a shark tooth. I found it on the sandbar on the Colorado river in south Texas. I’ve seen a lot of teeth but never saw any close to looking like this one. Any clues or ideas would be very much appreciated. Thanks

Hello, Thanks for the add to the group.I found what I thought, or think could be petrified wood in Lower South Texas close to the border on some property i own. When I researched what it could be, the closest match was Whale or Mastadon bone. I'm not sure what it could be so any help would be great thanks!

About 3 weeks ago I wrapped up my half year of North TX adventures with one final Kamp Ranch hunt and a beautiful pliosaur tooth to boot. Since then I've made my move five hours south to San Antonio and have endured the first two weeks of dental school. It's been an adjustment, but so far things have gone smoothly I'm happy to say. Although I hadn't done any hunting in that time span, I've been putting in some time towards researching sites in this new section of the state. I guess the symptoms of fossil withdrawal were starting to hit hard yesterday, so I picked a few promising spots from my list and headed out to investigate. Some of the decoration in my new apartment There's a lot of formations I want to explore, but my highest priority was locating the Corsicana in order to find some invertebrate rarities like Codiopsis stephensoni or Dakoticancer australis. The bcfas reports made by @Uncle Siphuncle were a big inspiration and also really useful for figuring out what index fossils to look for. I was working with limited information, so the first spot I visited was chosen more or less because it had a promising look to it. I had already made the short-sighted mistake of sleeping in before the expedition, so the Texas sun was out on full blast with the temps exceeding 100F. At the first exposure, I was introduced to hundreds of Exogyra costata littering the ground which was a good sign. This is a species common in the Maastrichtian, but at the time I wasn't sure if it was necessarily indicative of the Corsicana Fm. Interspersed between these massive shells were much smaller bivalves such as the delicate Plicatula mullicaensis. A lot of the invertebrates I was finding were familiar species, but this new flavor of preservation made every discovery very exciting. Eventually, I stumbled upon a huge rudist! I had never found one so complete. Rudist After stowing that and various other bivalves away, I continued creeping along the exposure when I did a double take at a shiny piece of something. Prior to my move, I had come to terms that I may never find marine reptile material here in South TX, yet sitting right in front of me was the glint of enamel... and not just any enamel. As I knelt closer it became clearer and clearer that this was indeed reptilian! I was so happy but also confused as to how such a thing could be possible. I hadn't even snagged my first shark tooth yet and now this! The cutting edge of a mosasaur tooth Labial and mesial views Lingual and distal views Occlusal view As I fished it from the ground I was in awe by its morphology. The tooth has a strong labiolingual compression that had me thinking "dinosaur" for a split second. On the flattened distal carina are very subtle, but visible serrations. The enamel is extremely thin. On the labial side near to the mesial carina, there is a third well-defined carina that reaches a good ways up the tooth. The crown has a very slight labiolingual curvature reserved to the top of the tooth. Around the circumference are some "concave grooves" running longitudinally. I know mosasaurs were extremely diverse in the Maastrichtian, so there are a ton of possibilities. I did a little bit of searching and think it could maybe be Thalassotian atrox? Hopefully an expert or two can chime in here @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Praefectus @Jared C @PaleoPastels. (Also mosasaur peeps: keep scrolling down for more mosasaur stuff.) Feel free to tag anyone I missed. By now I had finished this outcrop and already downed 1 of my 2 water bottles. There was another larger exposure in the same site that I wanted to visit while my final bottle could last. As I made my way up, I found similar tumbled bivalves as before. Top L to R: Exogyra costata and Plicatula mullicaensis; Bot L to R: Gyrodes sp. and Trigonia castrovillensis? After some closer searching, I found little speckled pebbles that turned out to finally be some irregular echinoids. I guess the other outcrop didn't expose the layer they were coming from. These little guys were just about everywhere and in super good condition. I thought I had collected a ton of species, but looking at them after cleaning I think I only found the two most common. Still super neat to have Maastrichtian age urchins nonetheless. Top: Hemiaster bexari; Bot: Proraster dalli H. bexari with amazing detail Further up, I found the unmistakable texture of crustacean. It was undeniably Dakoticancer australis, but it had definitely seen better days. The elements split the carapace in half, so I tried my best to wrap it carefully. At some point I'll get to gluing it together and cleaning off the extra matrix. Dakoticancer australis carapace Throughout this entire second part of the hunt, I began to wonder more and more about that mosasaur tooth. Was it a fluke? Did some previous hunter drop a Moroccan specimen? I just had never heard of a mosasaur tooth reported from the Corsicana. As I jumped over a gully, a faint shimmer caught my eye and I began to feel deja vu. I squatted down and tried to rediscover whatever it was before I almost fell on my back. There it was, the biggest mosasaur crown I had ever found! HUGE Mosasaur washed out in the gully! Occlusal and basal views Labial and lingual views Distal view I didn't see any detectable serrations but they could be worn off. The cross-section to this robust tooth is circular with many concave grooves running longitudinally. There is a labiolingual curvature. The tip is missing, but I think it is from feeding damage. I would describe the enamel as moderate in thickness. I think it is "faceted", but I am having trouble telling facets and prism faces apart. Honestly, I don't even have a guess for this tooth . I'm not sure of what mosasaurs are even known to occur in the WIS during this time period. I was waiting for my alarm to wake me up at any second. TWO mosasaur teeth and I had yet to even find a shark tooth. Well, that streak came to an end soon after when I spotted a little Squalicorax lindstromi, Carcharias sp., and aff. Cretalamna sp. cusp in quick succession. Squalicorax lindstromi, Carcharias sp., and aff. Cretalamna sp. Finally, my bottle ran dry. I made a quick and early exit, saving the rest of the place for a future hunt. Hopefully the other formations go this smoothly! Thanks for reading

I went out hunting for the first time in a long while yesterday, and was rewarded with this small Mammoth tooth. It's my first one this size. I thought it was sized appropriately to be a juvenile, but due to apparent wear, I'm second-guessing and wondering if it could be a spit tooth instead. Measurements estimated in mm as follows... Length: 50.8mm Width: 38.1 Height: 50.8 @Harry Pristis @Shellseeker @JohnJ

Hello everyone! I have another odd shaped bone I believe. I found it right above gravel layer on a wash out bank. I’m sure it’s petrified by the weight, but curious what part of the body, or animal? Any input would help! thanks

Hello everyone! This will be my first, of several posts requesting identification help with various items from a single spot I stumbled upon. To keep it brief, I live on the far west/nw edge of San Antonio Texas. I’ve lived in this house nearly my whole life—almost 32 years, and inherited it in 2020. Last summer I decided to begin working on a small natural pool and disappearing waterfall for my 2 dogs. I picked a spot in the backyard and to my surprise I didn’t end up hitting any rocks until nearly 3 ft deep (a first for me— I’ve dug in many places around my lot and this area and have always hit virtually solid limestone before even 1 foot deep). About that same time I found several chunks of metal— maybe iron- ore nuggets, possibly meteorite bits or just deposits, im not sure, but finding these made me slow down digging and paying closer attention. As I was clearing rocks out I noticed that they just looked strange and we’re arranged oddly enough that I stopped digging with the pick axe altogether and started carefully clearing the dirt and widening the hole so I could figure out what I was seeing. I collected different pieces and cleaned them up with vinegar—some I cleaned up further and set aside. This particular piece cleaned up pretty well but I’m stumped about what it is, if anything at all besides a very solid, strange and pointed rock. I’ll confess that since last summer I’ve managed to expose a pretty wide area of this rock bed and I have a theory…a fairly strong suspicion that it’s the very weathered, maybe very old, badly broken fossilized remains of a large turtle or tortoise…based on the intact pieces I’ve collected and cleaned. I’ll include early and current pics of the bed and will post several of the key pieces for identification help a little later. For now, I’m just asking for help with this one piece— any and all input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and have a beautiful day!

Greetings, hillside find walking trails. Location: Far west San Antonio, TX Construction in the local area appears to have cracked this item. Other fossilized oysters and echinoids were found nearby.

With all this talk about carpals lately, I decided to take a second look at this un-ID'd carpal I found a while back. Of all the larger fauna I've looked at, it seems to best resemble the mammoth lunar, but it's not nearly as robust as my other mammoth carpals or several of the examples I've seen online. Maybe juvenile? Just checking to see if there are other possibilities I may be missing. Thanks! @Meganeura @Harry Pristis @JohnJ @Shellseeker

From time to time, I find these rocks in the river that look like they have many small shells and fragments embedded in them. Unfortunately, mostly what I know is Pleistocene, so it's hard for me to make anything out of them. This one I found a couple of weeks ago seemed particularly busy. Would love it if someone could tell me more. @JohnJ @Jared C

Found this on a recently bulldozed road in Duval county Texas. Sorry I only have one tape measure. Any thoughts?

I found this vertebra over the weekend and was excited to see it still had a spinous process attached. I believe it's one of the earlier thoracic vertebra on the spine, like a T1. It doesn't resemble the horse or bison verts I've found, and I'm wondering if it could be camelid. Since it's fairly round and convex on the anterior side, I considered reptile, but alligator would be all that I'd think would fit with size, and it's a poor visual match compared to the gator examples I've seen. Any ideas are always appreciated.

Found this a while back and had it in my unidentified pile. I assumed it was a small mammal rib and probably un-identifiable, but I took a second look recently, and there's something about the shape that doesn't quite look mammal to me. It also seems older than many of my finds because the entire in-fill at the broken end appears fully mineralized. I figured it was worth asking about. @Harry Pristis @Shellseeker @JohnJ @Meganeura @GPayton @garyc

When I first decided to picked this piece up I thought it was just an interesting looking chunk of petrified wood, but when I grabbed it, it felt and looked weirdly light and fragile. I pulled it out of the bag for cleanup today and noticed what looked like faint schreger lines. Pictures in the daylight made the lines look clearer, though it's hard for me to make out exactly how they run.

I found this piece a while back and picked it up due to its strange shape even though I couldn't identify it. I've mostly focused on learning how to ID Pleistocene fauna since that's mostly what I find. But now I'm trying to learn more about other things I may be overlooking. In several views, this looks like petrified wood to me. But the back view makes it look like it could just be weirdly shaped chert. One way or another, I haven't found anything quite like it. Hoping someone can help. @JohnJ Pic 1: Front Pic 2: Front view from the bottom Pic 3: Front view from the top Pic 4: Top Pic 5: Back Pic 6: Bottom with Inclusions Pic 7: Side view with close-up of Inclusions Pic 8: Opposite side view

I had some spare time this week and have been going back through unidentified finds and sorting the ones where I think an ID may be possible. Based on what I've learned, I think this may be a cranium section with ear bone visible. But I can't figure out what animal it could be. Any ideas are appreciated.

My husband found this really large vertebra today in a south Texas gravel bar. Looks a lot larger than the one bison thoracic vertebra I have, and the extra dorsal processes fused together are confusing to me. I thought maybe it could be a sacral vertebra that has broken off from the others, but I don't see the large foramen that I would expect it to have. Also it looks smaller than some of the measurements for mammoth that @JohnJ has posted for reference before in a post by @fossilus. I also don't think it resembles the possible sloth in the post above. Mastodon? Small mammoth? Large bison? Excited, but stumped. I've had a hard time finding good references about the differences between large mammal vertebra in the past. Any ideas? @digit @garyc @Harry Pristis @Lorne Ledger @Shellseeker

I found this clearing trees on our property in a coastal town in south Texas. It is rather heavy. At first we thought possible alligator egg as we have a lot of gators in this area…. we are also 3 miles from a river. Any help would be most appreciated.

I scrubbed as hard as I dared to try to remove the light brown particulate on this to make the articular surfaces clearer, but not much luck. I'll give it a shot as is. Not sure exactly what I found. I actually passed it up twice thinking it was chert until I got a closer look and saw osteoporosity along one edge. My best guess is epiphysis, but I'm not sure what from.

I found this molar in a south Texas gravel bar. Pretty sure it's equus since there's no isolated protocone (although there is a tiny pebble stuck right in the join, haha). I just noticed that it's a bit smaller than all my other equus teeth, and the pattern seems simpler. I looked through "Fossil Vertebrates of Florida" and couldn't quite make a match with either equus or pre equus examples. MSCH from root to parastyle: ~65mm APL length of crown enamel: 24 mm TRW width of crown from mesostyle to posterior protocone: 25mm. First pics are the tooth, then a couple of comparison pictures with an equus.

I was super excited to find this over the weekend because I'm pretty confident this is my first fairly complete mammoth tooth (although an earlier misidentification tonight is keeping me humble haha). But it's a lot smaller than I expected. Juvenile? Baby? Or can an adult Columbian mammoth have teeth this small? Please excuse the moss. Haven't had a chance to clean this one up yet.

Had some productive hunting and found this in a gravel bar. I'm hoping I've found my first gomphothere or mastodon tooth! Or at least a part of one. I've looked at several threads about differentiating them, but I still had a hard time identifying this for certain. Am I headed in the right direction or could it be something else? It does look smaller than I would have expected. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I should know this one, but I've looked for a while now and it's not coming to me. South Texas, pleistocene. Hope someone can help. Thanks!

Most of what I find in southeast Texas is mio-pleistocene, and fresh water based. But at times older cretaceous stuff washes down. Since it's rare here, I'm completely clueless as to differences between oysters, corals, rudists and things but would like to learn more. I found this a while back and it seems to have very distinct patterns on the outside and inside. From searches, I thought maybe a broken piece of rudist, but I wouldn't know one if it bit me. It just doesn't look like normal rock to me. Any guidance would be appreciated. @JohnJ

Found in South Texas. I still have a hard time distinguishing between more rounded proboscidean bones, even after looking at the University of Michigan's excellent mastodon examples. I think this one best resembles a patella, but I'm unsure

These teeth were collected on a private ranch in Uvalde county. I have tried finding resources about shark teeth in Uvalde county but have turned up blank. What formation have these come from? What species are they?