Search the Community

Hello all, I found this in Scheveningen beach, Netherlands, I was doing inverse search in google and the closest thing that came up is a snake vertebra fossil, could this be one? , in some pics the color appears to be black because the fossil was wet, thanks for your help!

Here is (hopefully) one last post to help me identify some items I found while searching through the micro matrix from a Gainesville creek that Ken @digit was nice enough take us to. Some other items have been covered in previous posts:; http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/119097-gainesville-shark-teeth-question/&tab=comments#comment-1305867 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/114209-north-florida-fun/&tab=comments#comment-1264293 The matrix comes from a creek in Gainesville, Florida and most of the fossils are from the Miocene aged Hawthorn Formation although there is occasional younger material. The fossil fauna is dominated by shark and ray teeth but there are lots of other items including: bivalves, gastropods, crab claws, fish parts, etc. (i.e. marine). What I have below are several items that I am uncertain about and hopefully someone can confirm my suspicion or give me a better idea. Thanks in advance for all your help. Item #1 is what I assume is a fish scale. Is that correct and can it be ID'd any more specifically? Item #2 is are two very tiny beautiful ray tooth. They look different from most of the Dasyatis and Rhynchobatus that I found with a much wider root. That had me thinking Rhinobatus but I'm not really seeing the uvula that I should expect so I could be way off. Any thoughts? Item #3 are a group of fish vertebrae. The two bottom rows are two views of the same 6 vertebrae and I have no doubt they are fish. It is the one on the top that I am uncertain about as it has a totally different shape. But I'm not that familiar with all the different permutations of fish vertebrae, so it may just be a different one. It reminds me of a mammal atlas, but maybe fish atlas bones look like that too. Item #4 are some items that I really have no idea. They look like little sacs and some are broken so that one can see sediment on the interior. While there is variability, most of them have a distinctive teardrop shape. Item #5 I am guessing may be burrow casts, but I'm not sure. Do they look familiar to anyone? Item #6 also look like casts of something, I'm just not sure what. They are generally very straight sections of a smooth tube form. All of the mollusk remains I have found are internal casts so no shell material is generally preserved in this deposit. Item #7 are, I don't know. My Paleozoic brain wants to call them eroded horn corals but I obviously know that is not right. Don't have another option in mind. And lastly, item #8 are probably worm tubes, just looking to see if that is right. They also have a common shape of being U-shaped or looped. They are not attached to a shell or anything (except maybe some matrix) like I am used to seeing with worm tubes. So that is my collection of oddities. I'd appreciate any thoughts folk have. Thanks Mike

I had a scare last week that has made decide to stay away from the North Sulphur River feeder creeks for good. It all started when I decided to check out google maps to find a more remote access point since the river has become so picked over. I found a feeder creek that had a bridge that emptied into the NSR and decided to try it out. Well it took an hour just to get halfway all the while I was clomping though thick mud. I then turned a corner and came face to face with a 200 plus pound wild boar. I must have rustled it up from sleeping because it shot up once it saw me and started snorting. By this point I was stuck in the mud again, in the middle of the creek, but luckily it did not charge me. I franticly unstuck myself and backed away slowly and somehow climbed an almost vertical cliff wall. It is amazing what you can do if you have to. I observed the boar trying to climb out of the creek and luckily for me it was to the other side of the creek. I was amazed by how fast and how good at climbing it was even for its massive size. I walked the rest of the way to the river above the creek, looking back about every five seconds to make sure nothing was behind me. Once I made it to the river I made a decision to stay out of those feeder creeks for good. It wouldn't matter what I found in it because it wouldn't be worth going though that again so from now on ill just walk my way from one of the NSR access points. Not to mention all I found the entire two hours was a small broken shark tooth. However once I made it to the river I actually did find a couple of nice finds. I was excited to find my first ever mosasaur tooth in pictures 3 and 4. However it is a strange tan color and I really would have liked the nice shiny black that I see so much on here. I also found a piece of mosasaur jaw fragment in pictures 9 and 10 that might have actually housed the tooth I found earlier haha. In picture 5 I found a fully intact sawfish rostral tooth. And lastly in picture 22 I found a piece of Baculite that had some really nice preservation on it. The rest are items I'm not too sure about so please let me know if you see something in these pictures I wasn't able to identify. See below: Is picture 2 a shark or fish vert? Any idea what pictures 6, 7, and 8 are of? Picture 11 looks like it might be fish bones in coprolite or maybe matrix? Picture 12 is turtle maybe? Pictures 13 and 14 appear to be bone so maybe a part of mosasaur paddle? Pictures 15 and 16 are very similar to 13 and 14 however the fossilization is much newer so I am thinking Pliocene mammal? Picture 17 maybe fish jaw? Picture 18 and 19 also fish jaw? Picture 20 is not a fossil but maybe pyrite? And picture 21 is just a strange piece of mosasaur bone that has about 4 rounded cavities on it. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

It was a slow day at the North Sulphur River. With no rain I wasn't surprised the river was really picked over. I did find one medium sized shark or fish vert. I also found something that I have no idea what it is. Fossil, geological, or man made? Anyone have any idea what is in pictures 3, 4, and 5? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Looking for help on id for this vertebra from The Kem Kem beds. It is 1 inch x 1.2 inch x 1.2 inch. Feels exceptionally light at 13.8 grams sounds hollow you can hear sediment rattle inside. Unfortunately it appears fairly damaged on one side. Side 1: Bottom: side 2: top: Front end? back end?

Earlier this month I got the opportunity to return to one of my Permian fossil sites that I haven't visited since around April. The site is located in McClain County in central Oklahoma south of OKC. According to a geological map the majority of the area consists of the Wellington Formation, however the bottom of the exposed area is shown to be apart of the Stillwater Formation. According to scientific publications the only fossil producing layer is mentioned as belonging to the Wolfcamp (296.4 to 268 Ma) particularly the Gearyan strata. I've spent multiple trips earlier this year searching the layer mentioned as being the fossil producing layer but have only found plant impressions. Which I'll post some time in the future. Out of the entire outcrop though, I have only been able to find vertebrate remains in one particular spot. An area that appears to be below the known fossil producing layer. On this trip though, I only spent about 4 hours searching the site because I also had plans to visit family for dinner. Overall, I feel I had a pretty good half day trip. Below are some pictures of the vertebrate remains I surface collected on this trip. I must admit I haven't dedicated any real time to trying to identify the various species from the site yet and have only cleaned the material upon returning back home. But just looking through them while laying them out for pictures, there appears to be Eryops, Edaphosaurus, Diplocaulus, a small Captorhinid as well as an Xenacanthus shark. I've been collecting and cleaning the vertebrate remains from this particular site since March of this year but have focused the majority of my attention towards collecting, prepping and identifying fossils from a different site/formation here with in Oklahoma. All the following pictures are from my most recent fossil hunting trip. ⬆️ Overall view of the site. ⬆️ Quick separation of the bone fragments into various piles. ⬆️ Teeth, mostly Eryops megacephalus. ⬆️ Xenacanthus shark teeth. ⬆️ Jaw fragments, larger fragments appear to be Eryops megacephalus. ⬆️ Small jaw fragment with 2 or 3 teeth, possibly belonging to Diplocaulus. ⬆️ Large vertebrae fragments. ⬆️ Small sized vertebrae, the top row appear to be Diplocaulus. ⬆️ Edaphosaurus sail spine sections, a couple fragments might not be from an Edaphosaurus but were placed in the grouping during a quick sort of all the fragments. ⬆️ Various skull fragments, Eryops megacephalus, Diplocaulus and possibly Diadectes along the top row. Diadectes were one of the two species initially identified from the site along with a temnospondyl according to the research papers I read. I have had a difficult time finding clear close up images of the surface of a Diadectes skull. That is, at least from a legitimate scientifically described specimen that hasn't had the majority of the skull restored. ⬆️ These two pieces are the largest of the fragments that I suspect might belong to a Diadectes. ⬆️ Small limb bone fragments. ⬆️ Possible coprolites. ⬆️ Last but not least, concretions with bone fragments. At least one of the larger pieces has multiple vertebrae and portions of ribs. One small piece has what appears to be a section of jaw with 2 teeth still in place. One piece even has the exposed bases of a small Captorhinid jaw, showing atleast 3 rows of teeth. Interestingly, not all that far away in the next county over in Cleveland county near Norman there's a site that has produced the remains of Captorhinikos chozaensis and Captorhinikos parvus. Exactly what species this particular jaw fragment is from I have no idea. But I'm hoping when I do dedicate the time to identifying the species from this site, I will be able to find enough bone fragments from similar sized Captorhinid remains that I can get a general idea of what species inhabited the site. ⬇️ For these next pictures I used my loop and did the best I could at holding the specimen while also holding the loop still and then also holding my phone up to the loop and still managing to press the take a picture button on my phone. All while trying to hold still so the pictures did not come out blurry. The picture quality is poor but I hope in the future to invest in a digital microscope with a viewing screen. ⬆️ I suspect this might be the exterior of a jaw with two teeth still remaining in the jaw. The possible teeth are along the bottom of the fragmented red/white bone. ⬆️ Captorhinid fragment showing just the base of at least 3 rows of teeth. The broken teeth are the reddish and black donut shapes. ⬆️ This is the small concretion with the Captorhinid teeth. The teeth are located in the bottom goldish blurry blob. You can kinda make out one broken tooth in the top right corner of the goldish blur blob.

This bone is from Yunnan of China. Is it a vertebral bone of dinosaur or a marine reptile?

Hello! I'm a new member and I was hoping I could get some second opinions on some Kem Kem fossils I'm thinking about purchasing. I've only collected American species, and have been recently interested in bones out of the Kem Kem beds. I've stayed away thus far because of the stories of composite fossils and Frankenstein pieces, but I've come across a couple that I thought were interesting and fairly priced. Was hoping I could get some other thoughts before moving on any of them (wanna make sure they aren't composites or areas of fill look weird). I've attached pictures of three specimens I'm looking at. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 1) Spinosaurus Vertebra 2) Spinosaurus Rib I think this one is what it is, prep work doesn't look the best, but just wanted confirmation I guess. 3) Carcharadontosaurus vertebra (transverse processes) I was wondering if I could get help on confirming the id on this one, not really sure what carcharadontosaur vertebrae are supposed to be like. Centrum is missing, not sure if that's important for the id.

I went out to brave the Texas summer heat and was well rewarded. Post Oak Creek is so heavily picked, especially in the summer, that I didn't expect much. I even went there with the Dallas Paleontological Society last month and saw a ton of footprints then and not many good teeth. The first three hours I found almost nothing, as I expected the surface was all picked over, however I found one gravel bar that people must not have gotten to because I started finding a few decent cretodus, squalicorax, goblin shark teeth, and a couple of nice ptychodus. Finally I found two huge teeth about a foot apart from each other. The first one is by far my largest ever complete tooth that was as large as two quarters. Then the next one with the nice cusplets is larger than a quarter which would still have been my largest find if I hadn't of found the first one. There are also two pictures, front and back, of some worn chunkosaur bones and two micro teeth. Also another cool find was a ptychodus in the secondary matrix. See if you can spot it? I always like to look in the secondary matrix sticking out of the river banks as I usually find a small tooth or two but this time I found a good one. The last two pictures are of a worn vertebrae. Not sure what from though. Mosasaur?

Hello. I was wondering if someone could identify this vertebrae. It originates from the Kem Kem Basin of Morocco. I don't have much else information on it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Found at a land site in Sarasota we have to go back tomorrow to excavate the rest there is so much more bone in the ground!! Could somebody please tell me what this is I'm leaning towards mammoth or Mastodon maybe a juvenile

I bought this fossil not long ago. It’s supposedly a genuine caudal vertebrae from a dryosaurus. It was found at bone cabin quarry. I believe it is real, but I wanted a little assurance.

I am going through some items that have been in my family for a few years--and I have no idea what this partial vertebral column is from. I also don't know where it was found. Any ideas on this? It's 34 cm in length and 10 cm across. Each vertebrae is approximately 7.6 x 10 cm Thanks!

I just took my friends out for a fossil trip their first time yesterday; where we could all get together and do something cool and introduce them to the fun pastime and interesting research I dabble in for my birthday. I should’ve known he’d have beginners luck but I was not expecting this find when he plucked it out from the water. They all had a blast and it was a beautiful day. Any and all input into trying to discern what creature it could’ve came from? The more the merrier! A couple other angles

So I sorta impulse purchased these 4 little vertebrae from a rock shop (they were cheap, and looked like nice teaching specimens). They are from Utah, but have no further provenance than that. I am fully aware that complete identification of them is impossible without locality, but it would be great to even just get them down to a family. And heck if someone might have an idea on what formation they could have come from I'm all ears.

Founded at a land site in Sarasota. I think it's alligator, what kind of vertebrae are these

Was purchased as an Elasmosaurus vertabrae from Morocco 5.91" x 6.19" I found one similar online but the one I acquired seems to be a little more on the flat side. One of the processes has been repaired and seems to be stabilized. If it is indeed from an Elasmosaur, could it just be from a different section of the spine and is why it has a flatter profile? If so, what section could it be from? I'm just trying to get all the information on it that I can. The last three pics will be of the one I found online. Thank you in advance!

Hello everyone. I recently bought this heavy piece of Mosasaur spine in matrix. During transport the top of one of the vertebra got smashed to little pieces and dust (not the sellers fault, it coulnd't be packed better). The fossil now shows the inside of the vert (wich is also beautiful to my opinion). Where the piece broke off the fosfat stone is quite soft though. Should I stabilise/fixate it and how can I do this? Thanx for tips! Jerry

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,

Vertebrae from inland Venice, Florida. Land find. 57mm wide x 75mm high. Side A to Side B measures 52mm. Pleistocene material found in this site. I found a glyptodont osteoderm in this area last week. ID assistance appreciated. I am also looking for a "handy guide" on vertebrae identification. If you can point the way that would help me with several other Vert I have recently found. -Regards Michael

Because of a recent post by @GPayton I went through a pile of unidentified bones and found three vertebrae that I think might be alligator or crocodile. These are from the Brazos River in Texas. Please confirm that these are crocodilian if possible…. @Harry Pristis @fossilus @Shellseeker here’s #1

I'm trying to help someone ID some vertebrae they found recently. They were found in east London, around 4 meters underground in black sticky soil. My first thought was that they looked similar to dolphin vertebrae, and my knowledge of stuff like that isn't great, so any help would be much appreciated! (Actually, I've just realised they're probably from a bison or something similar - I haven't a clue when it comes to mammal verts. The black preservation seems odd though.)