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Showing results for tags 'tortoise'.
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I'm putting out an open call for any collectors who have any reasonably complete tortoise or turtle material from the Peace River (or its tributaries) or even possibly Bone Valley material from the quarries in the area. I'm working with Jason Bourque in the fossil prep lab on the campus of UF here in Gainesville (presently working on an 18 Ma gator skull from the Thomas Farm site). Jason is reassembling some turtle specimens that had been collected in Florida that have been languishing in the collection for decades. He's presently reassembling a giant tortoise plastron collected in the 1980s.
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I’m excited to finally be able to do a fossil prep post here on TFF. In addition to the Fossils on Wheels stuff, I am also a Supervisor at the Gateway Science Museum here in Chico. I’ve mentioned that the Gateway has some pretty special fossils right now that will become part of a fossil exhibit in the fall. Some of the fossils are getting quite a bit of attention from media outlets from around the world. These fossils come from the Miocene Merton Formation of Central California. Most of the prep work is being done by faculty, staff members and students of the Geology department at
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With a week of collecting under my belt I felt ready and excited to take on the next, this time exclusively on the White River formation. All factors being considered, the White River is probably the most difficult formation to hunt among those I've been lucky enough to explore thus far. For one, the terrain is often very rough, with all sorts of ridges, rises, washes and gullies to hike through. Another issue to account for is the reflection of light off of the white sediments, meaning that ample sunscreen is a necessity if you don't want to burn to a crisp. That harsh sunlight can lead to te
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Found the most complete vertebrae today. Caramel brown with intact neural canal. Same location I recovered a Hesperotestudo crassiscutata carapace in January. Inland Venice, Florida. Mostly Pleistocene material here. I don't think it is a gator. Your assistance is appreciated. -Regards,
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Found some bones sticking out of the creek bank in Central TX. Area has confirmed Mastodon remains. Tusks and a tooth all found within 1/4 mile of this site. Bones are 12 feet below the top of the bank. I did a little digging around today to get a feel for what it could be. It appears it could be a large pelvis bone (4-5 feet wide). I also found a small bone that appears to be from the foot/toes etc. Not really sure how I should proceed. Is there any educational value in this type of bones? Who would one contact to ask? I am sure Mastodon bones are fairly common.
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Adventures in the White River Badlands of Colorado
Opabinia Blues posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
I just got back from an amazing and very fruitful week of fossil collecting on the White River Formation in northeastern Colorado. The White River Formation is a very easy and fun rock unit to collect vertebrate fossils on. The White River Formation was deposited during the very latest Eocene and the early Oligocene, though the faunal diversity in the areas I was collecting on suggest it was laid down during the Orellan North American Land Mammal Age, which centers on around 33 million years ago during the Rupelian age of the Oligocene Epoch. I am very lucky to have a grand uncle- 24 replies
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Got back out to the Peace River yesterday, returning to the spot that gave me a nice bison tooth on my previous visit. It was 67* F on arrival and breezy. A bit unusual for Florida at this time of year! The water was warmer than the air temp. It was also a little deeper, more cloudy and running a little faster due to rain the previous night. I paddled up stream, portaged over a small area of rapids and was digging by 8:30am. Started off in the last dig spot but was turning up nothing but small shark teeth. It was enough to keep me encouraged but not enough to keep me from feeling the c
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These two pieces came out of a dump truck with older Pleistocene material in Venice, FL. Found 5 Lightning Whelk shells in this load. Large piece of shiny osteoderm has other bones in the matrix. I have not found this type of piece before. ID welcomed. - Michael
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Found this fossil inland, Venice, FL. Early Pleistocene material. I believe this is perhaps tortoise shell showing spinal attachment point to vertebrae. Piece. Measures 17cm x 13cm x 5cm thick. All photos taken at 1x. I look forward to reading your remarks. - Michael
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Found this huge chunk of tortoise shell yesterday while scouting a new gravel bar on the Brazos River near Houston. I've found many fragments before, but never anything this large. What got me even more excited was how it seems that it's a mostly complete bone (except for some wear on one of the flat edges that would have been an area where the bone joined another piece of the shell). I tentatively identified it as a peripheral from the edge of the shell from a Hesperotestudo sp., since they seem to be the only species of giant tortoise that lived in Texas during the Pleistocene. Can anyone wi
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Hello everyone, hope someone can help ID this claw for me to at least genus. This came from Burnet County, TX cave on the river. It is well fossilized and solid, from an older layer in the cave where I have found two turtle species - Apalone and an unidentified leg hole fragment of turtle/tortoise the material is Late Pleistocene. I am figuring this claw probably belongs to my unidentified turtle shell piece but the shell fragment is pretty beat up.
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I found this partially covered in sand and very shallow water at the edge of a sandbar in the Brazos River near Brookshire, Texas. I cleaned it up with vinegar and a toothbrush when I got home. The fossils in the river near me are supposed to mostly be Pleistocene, but I've also heard that there may be some Cretaceous period marine fossils. I tagged this as a possible turtle piece because that's what it resembled to me, but I couldn't really find anything like it when I searched the internet and this site. I have more pictures, including pictures from before I cleaned it, if t
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Tortoise shell peices found on and/or in the ground.
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I found the piece of shell shown below, which seems big to me, and was wondering what kind of type/size turtle it might be from. Would it be comparable, for example, to something like a modern giant land tortoise, which could be as much as 4 feet long - or something smaller or bigger than that. Not a test - just wondering how you might guesstimate the size and type of the turtle. Thanks. .
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Hello, I live in between Venice and North Port, FL, close to the Myakka. I have been finding tortoise fossils/clasts in my neighborhood. Most are in moist clay within a foot from surface. This location is SW of the Peace River Formation. I find deer antler, Meg teeth, and manatee ribs fully fossilized here also. This is Pleistocene area. I have not found fully fossilized tortoise. Mine are not totally solidified. I find many scutes/ spurs along with the clasts that are hardened. Looking for advice. Photos of one sample attached. Regards, Michael
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Hello, I live in between Venice and North Port, FL, close to the Myakka. I have been finding tortoise fossils/clasts in my neighborhood. Most are in moist clay within a foot from surface. This location is SW of the Peace River Formation. I find deer antler, Meg teeth, and manatee ribs fully fossilized here also. This is Pleistocene area. I have not found fully fossilized tortoise. Mine are not totally solidified. I find many scutes/ spurs along with the clasts that are hardened. Looking for advice. Photos of one sample attached. Regards, Michael
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My Stylemys nebrascensis tortoise from the Oligocene Brule Formation of Nebraska
MarcoSr posted a topic in Member Collections
I found this tortoise on my sons’ M&M Ranch in Nebraska. It is a Stylemys nebrascensis tortoise from the Oligocene Brule Formation. It is a monster, 23"x17.5"x8" around 150 pounds in weight. It has minimal restoration. I actually found this tortoise in May 2016. You can check out the below TFF post to see it being dug out. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/65393-oligocene-tortoise-from-the-mm-ranch-in-crawford-nebraska/& Because of the size, our normal prepper wouldn’t originally prep this tortoise. So my sons brought it back to Virgini- 24 replies
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I'm trying to determine how long it takes for something like this to happen to a tortoise egg. Years, decades, hundreds of years? I found this Gopher Tortoise egg in the South Georgia/North Florida area. It is about the size of a ping pong ball, heavy and solid. It had been washed up in the rain and was found in soil that consists of a lot of sand, peat and clay. The egg appears "fossilized" or "petrified" for lack of a better term. The shell is firm and porcelain-like with a lot of scratches. I candled the egg to show where the air sack appears to remain after st
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Hello again. After I discovered a big fossilized bone on a hill close the Shipwerck beach in Ruwais, I decided to go searching in the same area for more fossils. I found all of these on relatively the same layer of the hill. I assume they are from the miocene. The first one looks like a crocodile scute. The second one looks like a shell from a tortoise. The third one I am not sure of. I would appreciate confirmation and a possible id. I know UAE fossils can be a bit tricky.
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Hi I found this on the beach at lake mcconaughy in Nebraska which means it could be Pleistocene or Miocene but most likely from the Ash Hollow formation. I’m pretty clueless when it comes to bones and could use some help figuring out what this is. Thanks! P.s. I did the flame test and it’s fully mineralized.
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One last piece for today as I clean up my finds from my trip to Myrtle Beach. I have a few pieces like this and I think they are tortoise. Just wanted to confirm. Thoughts?
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Hi gang, been awhile...I was puzzling over these two items below again. Found several years ago here in Florida. One a possible osteoderm? and the other an ungual? Mio/Pliocene? or Pleistocene? in age. First specimen I thought was some type of tortoise armor, has a concentric wafer shape and is about 3 cm across and about 1cm thick. Under closer inspection there appears to be an odd fracturing going along the outside and also some minor cracking which appears to be forming a hexagonal outline/pattern....Just a coincidence? Do any glyptothere osteoderms show an internal hexagonal p
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I’m getting a tortoise vibe from this bone. Can anyone confirm? If so which phone is this? Thanks!I’m getting a tortoise vibe from this bone. Can anyone confirm? If so which phone is this? Thanks!
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So I've lurked on the forum for some time and decided to post my project. This is a stylemys tortoise that I've had since high school. It was really never worth recovering, being incomplete and completely disarticulated due to weathering. It was also somewhat crushed with only the plastron being in decent shape. Despite the challenge, I've decided to push onward, because it's got sentimental value at this point. The plastron was pretty easy to assemble: I have about 75% of the carapace (comprising the vertebral and costal scutes) but I only have about 50% of t
