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Showing results for tags 'tennessee geology'.
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These vertebrae have been a little problematical in their identification for me....they almost resemble something of a raptor character to me. From the Late Cretaceous Coon Creek formation in West Tennessee. Can anyone help please.
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As of 5/5/16, this large specimen of Late Cretaceous Amber Resin has received a new home in the McClung Museum at the University Of Tennessee (Knoxville). It is from my collection of West Tennessee Amber and is Campanian. This was my 4th-5th largest specimen from my collection.
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Historic Dinosaur Vertebra Newly Recovered
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
I'm extremely excited to announce that two days ago at 3:30 a newly discovered dinosaur vertebra was recovered from a Late Cretaceous Campanian formation in West Tennessee. This is only the 4th. dinosaurian vertebra to ever be found in Tennessee! It's also the first dinosaur vertebra I've ever found in my life. The specimen is from the tail section on the vertebrae column of a Hadrosaur. The neural canal and neural arch are still plainly visible. Specimen is missing the neural spine and also possible Chevron bone. This is a historic achievement for paleontology in Tennessee and here is the first look. As I'm sure by now, everyone on the Forum knows, my cell takes terrible pics, I hope to prep the specimen soon and show better shots of it. These photos were taken the day it was recovered and I have no others presently available. I will post more pics on this thread when the specimen is cleaned.- 27 replies
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Finally, Photos Of The First Dinosaur Bones To Be Found In Tennessee.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Anyone who has searched the internet for pictures of the 5 dinosaur bones that were recovered from the Cretaceous of West Tennessee knows what I'm talking about: there simply isn't ANY photos available to view the all the specimens, with the exception of a PDF file wrote in 1991 by Mr. Bryan from UT Knoxville. That said, the bones aren't to scale in the PDF and some PDF files of the paper don't even retain the pictures. An exhaustive internet search for the material only pulls up a few pictures of a bone or two plus one photo of a few associated fragments. Here I present to you as many photos of the material as I can. In this thread I also present the first photos of every single frag that is associated with the specimens, which isn't on public display. For at least 3 years now, I've tried hard to get photos of these specimens, I finally had to just go to Knoxville and do it myself. Now you all may have access to view photos of this online. A little background history about these bones; they were obtained by the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) from the Tennessee Division of Geology. The tag on the bones simply read "Cretaceous, West Tennessee." That is all! It is thought they were recovered sometime between the 40's-50's by the Division, and that the Geologist whom they came from didn't record the locality information on purpose because he had intent on returning to work the site. Until 2015 these were the only dinosaur bones to ever be found in Tennessee and publicly acknowledged. The find site is still an enduring mystery which I'm working on. My cell takes terrible photos, so I'm sorry about the picture quality, still I wanted to share these photos with you all. -
Monster Amber Specimens Have Been Found!
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
On the evening of september 16th. 2013, right @ dark, Amber fossil resin was discovered for the first time ever in Henderson county,TN. This discovery was made by myself. On the afternoon of september 20th. 2013, i discovered a specimen of Amber that my wildest dreams had never imagined! Hahhaaa....yea!!! It snatched away the previous state record sized specimen from the late (& great!) Professor Bruce Wade, like it wasn't even there! His record specimen was about a inch and a half in diameter, and it stood for 99 years until i came along on that fateful day! It is an honor for my name and accomplishments to even be mentioned in the same paragraph as mr. Wade's.....here's to you Bruce!!! The sept.20th. specimen has rough demensions of about 4in×3in×2in thick., and a lovely red color. It's exact weight is 149.2 grams, or 5.263 oz. Needless to say, i went straight awol crazy after finding that!.......so......the story doesn't end here! No sir!.....was struck down w/ the worst case of "Amber-Fever" the world has ever seen! (still haven't been able to shake it off) so there i was hunting in the middle of the pouring rain on the afternoon of nov. 22 nd. 2013 when the magic happened again. Found the largest Amber specimen i've ever seen in my life. It's about the size of a hamburger. (Robble-Robble! ). So, barely 2 months after breaking the state record, & before it could even be documented.....i broke my own record......here's to you Bruce Wade! Rest in peace Brother! These discoveries of mine i have for the most part been relatively secretive about. Since finding the wonderful objects, i have began to actively work with a prestigious University and two intellectuals that it is truely an honor to meet. I must for present remain somewhat secretive about sites/locations/time periods/ stratigraphy/lithology......ect., ect. Because revealing that information will jeopardize their work, and i could never do that. If i like it or not,it is the way it has to be until all has been finished. This experience has taught me that patience is truely a virtue, good science doesn't happen overnight,but painfully takes an untold amount of months....but, it just has to be that way. But when all is finally completed, Henderson county and the great state of Tennessee can take pride in their true-blue "native son", and the wonderful things that lie right in their back yard. Praise YAHVEH!
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You & 48,000 Other People Will Have A Chance To View A Selection Of My Material!
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in Members' News & Diversions
The reality of this is just now sinking in, or I would have posted it sooner. On feb 11th-14th 2016 at the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention in Nashville, myself and some of my material will be in the Tennessee Division of Geology's exhibit section. My cretaceous bones (dinosaurian and marine reptile) are the primary specimens that have been requested to be displayed, other material of mine there may consist of cretaceous teeth, paleobotanicals, amber, cretaceous insects, minerals, ect. After a recent meeting with the State Geologist, he informed me that every year the Tn. Div. of Geology showcases an exhibit at the NWTF Convention, and I was welcome to be there and show material he had inspected. Man, I don't even remember how many milliseconds it took to respond to the proposition, but wasn't too long at any rate. Now, the thing is, this is a Turkey Hunter's convention, so obviously there won't be a ton of straight-up fossil lover's present, but I'm sure most will be the outdoorish-type, and will also enjoy minerals, fossils, ect. As I previously stated, this is just now sinking in good.... Best I remember through quick conversation, he said it would be attended by 40,000 people and would be a great chance to get publicity for my collection. Now, that passed through my mind the other day and I thought to myself, "That number can't be right." So I googled it, the NWTF site that talks about the convention say over 48,000 attend it!!! It also said exhibition space is sold out. Now I'm setting hear thinking, where in the heck am I gonna sleep Feb 11th-14th???? Really, cause if 50 thousand people are gonna be there, I couldn't afford a motel room if one was even available, and one won't be. All of Nashville together has nothing like that kind of accommodations. At any rate, it is a true honor to be asked to do this by the state, as far as I'm aware, I'm the only amateur in the state the offer has been given too. Other offers were passed my way that day, even hour presentations where I would do the same as that day...bring the material and talk about it, palaeoecology,lithology, stratigraphy, ect. This will be directed toward gov. employees and officials in the Tennessee Tower. Oh, I certainly agreed to that too. A date hasn't been set for that yet, but if your close to Nashville in February, come on down and meet Tennessee's Pride! I just know some of you fellow TFF members will be in the mix, and I look forward to personally meeting you.
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Herb & Tennessees Pride Recover Verts & Inverts.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
It truly was a pleasure banging some Coon Creek formation with Herb. This is one funny guy! He had me laughing most of the day...but when he got serious, the bones started coming out! I took him to 2 different localities yesterday; the first was what one would imagine as the "classic" Coon Creek formation layers....more shells than a man could shake a stick at! Outstanding recoveries in invertebrate paleontology were made, including the first Ammonite shell I've ever actually seen recovered first hand. It was only a partial, but boy oh boy what a stunning gem...it still displayed the original outer surface glow and was a purple color! Whoa! Also recovered was a shell I've never seen in literature yet, Herb likewise was wondering about it's identity... I have high hopes for that specimen. Herb I hope will post the invertebrates on this topic when the material is ready for display, as, I kept nothing, I wanted him to enjoy a great visit and leave out loaded. Our second stop was the good'ol Sawmill site in Decatur co. Tn. This is the site I posted the topic: "Exact Location Of Dinosaur Bones, Crystals, Marine Reptiles, And More". Specimens recovered from the site included Mosasaur bones, disarticulated Crab parts (pinchers, segments, at least one caprice, ect.), ghost shrimp, gastropod molds, ect. One noteworthy specimen Herb took back to Kentucky was a nucleated concretion that displayed a ghost shrimp burrow with a gastropod mold right beside it...very cool. Here I will load all the photos on the fossil recoveries which aren't many, Herb, add us some photos as they become available man. -
12/1/15 A Meeting At The Tennessee Division Of Geology With The State Geologist In Nashville.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in Member Collections
There I was pulling up to this building Tuesday morning, about to have a meeting with the State Geologist Ronald Zurawski. Traveling there, all I used to go off of was the address, so you can imagine my surprise when I find out I'm parking in Beside the Tennessee Supreme Court, and this huge building is the place that I have a meeting in...then I find out it's on the 12 floor or course. There I am pulling up with a wooden crate full of material, and 2 extra large specimens. I know I had 100 pd. Anyway... After two breaks, I made it through the front door where the security guard helped me place it on the desk. There I meet Ron for the first time, what a outstanding person. I was impressed with his charisma. A wheelchair being there, it was used for a makeshift transport to the top. Ended up using a dolly to bring the material back down and to the car. There on the 12 th floor in the only empty office I saw, I began submitting a large part of my collection for viewing. The meeting began with Ron and Vince Antonacci, the Geologist for West Tennessee, by about the 3rd bone to come out of the box, they were already leaving the room and calling others to come view this material. Many were available, some weren't. Rounding it up, I spent the next 6 hours there. Talking, answering questions, and asking questions of my own. I stood the entire time. I met more Geologists than I've ever seen under one roof that day. At the end of the day when the material had been viewed very closely, I still had at least 3 specimens that defy identification. No one has ever saw anything like them before and they have certainly become very problematic to me. At some point, one of them returned with 2 publications in hand. One was a classic publication by Ernest Russell that I tried to buy on the spot, I was later given a free copy autographed by the State Geologist. The other was an actual 1926 edition of Bruce Wade's report on the Coon Creek....I could hardly believe my eyes! Met a lot of wonderful people, and was even taken to the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation's office for an introduction,but he wasn't in.( He answers to the Governor.) I did however meet the Deputy Commissioner. (!) I'm even now preparing to write some things with Vince, the Geologist in charge of West Tennessee, which is a truly wonderful opportunity, I feel so blessed. HalleluYAH. I presented bones, teeth, a few minerals, Large Amber specimens, Amber with inclusions, other paleobotanical, and unidentified material. The topics were varied and fascinating, but what really won the day in the Division of Geology was the Cretaceous bone material. Thinking back on it now, I'm not sure the meeting could have actually went any better! Feeling blessed.
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This specimen was put in my hand by my 5 year old Sunday! Talk about making Daddy proud....her Native American and Fossil finds are truly incredible....she has actually recovered a dinosaur bone!! I kid you not. This latest fossil to be dropped in my hand doesn't surprise me....lots of times when we hunt, I come home with second best material. That child has already found more agates than I've found in my entire life...about every time we visit Sardis park, she'll come home with an agate. I was pretty sure I had her Sunday..with what appears to be a burrow replaced by hematite, then she just tore me up with this incredible find...sprinkles are for winners, thank goodness she shares her sprinkles with me! Does anyone know what it may be?
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The title pretty much sums it up. I've reviewed every publication I can access, still having much trouble with what first appeared to me to be an easy I.D. As you can see, the material has typical striated lines on its outer surface. On each striated line, there are "dots" from one end of the line to the other. Horizontally, the dots match up with the dots on the left and right of the striated lines beside. It would seem identifiable to me based on that type morphology, but I just can't find an example with such morphology. Please help with this tough I.D. and thank you all in advance for viewing the specimen.
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This is a topic I've been meaning to create in the I.D. section for some time now. Hopefully it will be an easier way for interested members to access information regarding my paleobotanical materials. I likewise encourage anyone with Cretaceous Tennessee specimens to post in this topic, to create a better understanding of botanical fossils/palaeoecology/palaeoclimatology, ect. from the cretaceous of Tennessee. I intend to add new materials to this topic for years to come,to ensure a way for researchers to view specimens easily, a benifical concept considering my materials are scattered throughout the TFF in numerous posts in such a way as to be impossible to track for most members and guests of the Forum. Of course a section compiled of all my unknowns will beneficial to myself also. Unless specifically listed with the botanical, all material I post will be Campanian or later. These specimens are recovered material from many diverse sites I collect from. Thank you for viewing my materials and helping with identifications...an untrained person like myself certainly needs all the help I can get!
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First Record Of Shells In The Coffee Sand Formation Of Tennessee.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in Fossil ID
Shells being recovered in other states in the Coffee Sand, Tennessee is the exception. Leaching of the sediments at a later time is thought to have been the general factor. Strangely as it seems, here iron has wholly replaced some unknown shells. My phone camera not being that good, it's difficult to determine in the pics, but very detailed surfaces of the outside of the shells can be saw w/ the naked eye. Also present on the specimen of sandstone appear to be perhaps some type of trackway(?). These shells truely are the first shells discovered in the Coffee Sand of Tennessee that I am aware of. The specimen weighs about 80 pd., so it was a hard recovery, but it's significance excellent. I hope some can I.D. these Campanian Cretaceous shells.
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These are bad photos I know, I'm just looking for a general classification....Dinosaur or Marine Reptile. It sure is looking Dinosaurish to me. It displays a flat surface area on each face. In the photos, the top surface is flat , and is what I take to be the neurospine canal. The vert is longer than wide. Recovered today. Looks like a Hadrosauridae vert to me. If this doesn't look Dinosaurian to you, please share with me your thoughts on what Marine Reptile you think it may be.
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Report From Tennessee Concerning Bruce Wade's Amber & A new Page In History Just This Week.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
This Monday morning about 10:00, The alarms went down in The Tennessee River Museum,external frame, retaining clips, and glass plate removed to the exhibit which housed Mr. Wade's famously historic Specimen of Amber. That day had been prearranged & was preparatory for a Meeting in Nashville the next day. I was actually allowed to remove the specimen out of the display, privately inspect, take measurements of, and photograph it. What an amazing feeling it was to actually roll it around in my hand and closely view it in detail...I will always remember it. For those who may not know, that piece of Amber was the first recorded specimen in North America (!) To contain an Insect inclusion. As Scientific material, it is over 100 years old...in the Paleobotanical world, it's a Grand Slam. And in my mind, it's historical record achievement combined with it's contribution to science and continuous documented history......well, it surely must be such a unique thing that a monetary value must can't be placed on it...it's like the Liberty Bell man.I would argue it to be an iconic piece of American History at any rate. Here I present to you the best photos I could (sorry about image quality) of the specimen. My eyewitness testimony may perhaps be credible enough to resolve a few issues regarding what the inclusion(s) appears like..to the naked eye at least. Some recordings speak of a "whole" inscect, others say only a wing is contained in it, while it is also recorded to have disarticulated remains in the form of a wing and ,two body sections ( best I remember). I did notice 3 different inclusions in the piece. One of the Two key holders to the cases in the Museum told me he couldn't remember the specimen ever coming out of the case!And it had been so long he couldn't remember how many years it had been on display.this first pic is a historic photograph for Tennessee,if nothing more, but may be elevated to a higher status in the future. It is Gwynneth Marie Welch, my daughter, holding Bruce Wade's specimen in her right hand, and in her left hand lays a specimen of from our recoveries which contains two "whole" insects from the Cretaceous, a first for Tennessee. My expertise in insects being minimal, I can only relate one looks like a nat and the other a mosquito. Other inclusions occurring in the specimen, bubbles, ect. Perhaps they may turn out new to science...a dream come true. At any rate, enjoy these photos of Wade's specimen, they aren't the best perhaps, but there really isn't that many pictures floating around on the internet to view the specimen either. I have another post to make about similar connected events that will also be made today
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These are pics sent to me by my cousin who was running a dozer and uncovered this fossil. There are Silurian and Devonian limestones in his area. I have also read that first Sea Cucumbers made their appearance in the Devonian. So I told him my best "guess" was "the fossilized endoskeleton remains of a probable Devonian time period Sea Cucumber"... I'm very unsure because those periods aren't my main study. Did I say wrong?
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Now, i've recovered some hard stuff to i.d., but this one has to be in my top 5! Honestly i can't tell if it's botanical or other. It came from a Campanian Cretaceous formation, marine origin. I'm thinking a near shore environment, because lots of the sandstone in the outcrop shows sure signs of wave action...ripples, ect. I've emailed several experts who wouldn't even speculate. Also, the specimen was taken to professor Butterfield @ Freed-Hardeman. After an up close inspection, he was just as baffled as i. Had just never seen anything like it. Has anyone ever seen this stuff?
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While hunting a Cretaceous formation w/ my daughter, she came upon this, which i haven't been able to identify. It may be of more recent origin, but i thought not, because on the reverse side,small amounts of Mica is stuck to it so good that it can't be scratched off,& Mica is very concentrated in these old layers. Combined w/ the fact that these "bones" have no smell, & that i've just never saw something like this, it has me wondering. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks, TP.
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Cretaceous Amber In Tennessee: An Open Report.
Tennessees Pride posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Today i have decided on an open policy regarding the Amber which is to be found here in Tennessee. I don't mean i'm about to just outright say where it's at, but intend on sharing with the world a report on what it is associated with, and a general area it is to be found. The motive behind this report is to publicly establish several special features about the outcrops i've discovered this Amber in. 1) That the Tennessee Amber site (s) are no doubt Lagerstatte quality 2) that the site (s) have a tremendous amount of associated botanicals just not found at other American sites as concentrated. 3) That the concentrations of Amber here are more than at other American sites. And 4) that this site (s) deserve to be appreciated and studied for what they are. A thought has ran through my mind today as i happened to glance over at a nice sample of material here in the corner of my house collecting dust. That sample was collected 7months and 1 day ago today. I have decided to use it as the basis of this small report. I have prepared an experiment to show step by step from opening up and revisiting this neglected stuff, to it's end and present what is there. This will take a few days to complete, so todays posts will be added to as progress is made. Within a week, i should be posting an end to this topic. Hope you all enjoy. Now lets start with the sample. It was wrapped up in plastic wrap after collection on Oct.19th, 2013. After a few wraps, i placed the paper in it and finished covering the specimen up. It's weight that day on my fruit scales was 8.25 pounds. Today i pulled it out and weighed again....8.25 pounds. (I love that plastic wrap, you won't catch me hunting without a roll on me somewhere.) For todays objective, i weighed it again, opened it up, and gently broke apart the matrix (very small lignitic debris). As this was going on i photographed some of the Amber insitu, to show exactly what i'm dealing with here. Tried my best not to look for Amber,cause i knew i'd be there all day picking it out if i ever started. What seemed more important today was not to destroy any lignitic objects which might be valuable in aiding to identify the source (there may or may not be some in there that could do that.) But i do already have good botanics with Amber in the stems, ect. I even have specimens from other locations of leaves connected to stems,and Amber in those!!!! So here we go, let's start the pictures up.... -
From the album: Most of my collection
Collected from a Late Cretaceous Coon Creek formation several yr. ago. Maastrichtian. This specimen is yet to be worked out of the matrix, and is missing it's tail....tragic...sombody had Lobster for dinner. The first couple of segments of the tail are still there. A rare find indeed. -
From the album: Most of my collection
Collected from a Late Cretaceous Coon Creek formation in 2013. Maastrichtian. -
From the album: Most of my collection
Collected from a Late Cretaceous Coon Creek formation in 2013. Maastrichtian. -
From the album: Most of my collection
This has to be one of the strangest paleobotanicals i've ever laid eyes on. The material has been replaced by siderite or some other iron type stuff=iron wood! It has been looked at by one Paleobotanist and one Geologist,neither had saw something like this before, and i was told there was a possibility it could be a new species of some type! It's still unidentified. The preservation is nothing short of remarkable....this specimen is so incredibly life like, that one would almost expect it to start moving in your hand! All the internal parts can still be viewed, even veins! Strange....you almost expect a heart to start beating in it! was collected in 2013 from a Late Cretaceous Campanian formation. The outside surface has many holes in a regular pattern which lead to internal parts. -
From the album: Most of my collection
On Dec.26th 2013, this paleobotanical was collected from a Late Cretaceous Campanian formation around Sardis, TN. It has been looked at by several and is still unidentified. It's not listed in any of prof. Berry's works that i know of and i have been told it may be a new species. Possible Pinus or Araucaria species. -
From the album: Most of my collection
On Dec.26th, 2013, this paleobotanical was collected from a Late Cretaceous Campanian formation around Sardis, TN. The specimen has been looked at by several and is still unidentified. It's not listed in any of prof.Berry's works that i know of, and i have been told it may be a new species. Possible Pinus or Araucaria species. -
From the album: Most of my collection
On Dec.26th 2013, this botanical was collected from a Late Cretaceous Campanian formation around Sardis, TN. It has been looked at by several and is still unidentified. I have been told it may possibly be a new species. Possible Pinus or Araucaria species. It's not listed in any of prof. Berry's works that i know of.
