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Any idea what these raptor teeth are, or if they're even are raptor teeth? Allegedly there from Lance formation, Wyoming. Definitely not in the best condition, but hey, any fossil is a good fossil.

A friend wanted to see if you guys could ID this vertebra he found from the hills of Wyoming. He sees a lot of Moose nearby. Thanks!

The Mysterious Origin of Nebraska's "Devil's Corkscrew" Fossils Mental Floss Feb 1, 2018 http://mentalfloss.com/article/527706/mysterious-origin-nebraskas-devils-corkscrew-fossils Some papers are: Martin, L.D. and Bennett, D.K., 1977. The burrows of the Miocene beaver Palaeocastor, western Nebraska, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 22(3), pp. 173-193. Meyer, R.C., 1999. Helical burrows as a palaeoclimate response: Daimonelix by Palaeocastor. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 147(3-4), pp. 291-298. Smith, R.M., 1987. Helical burrow casts of therapsid origin from the Beaufort Group (Permian) of South Africa. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 60, pp. 155-169. Doody, J.S., James, H., Colyvas, K., Mchenry, C.R. and Clulow, S., 2015. Deep nesting in a lizard, déjà vu devil's corkscrews: first helical reptile burrow and deepest vertebrate nest. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 116(1), pp. 13-26. https://www.academia.edu/20873080/Deep_nesting_in_a_lizard_déjà_vu_devils_corkscrews_first_helical_reptile_burrow_and_deepest_vertebrate_nest https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280559331_Deep_Nesting_in_a_Lizard_Deja_Vu_Devil's_Corkscrews_First_Helical_Reptile_Burrow_and_Deepest_Vertebrate_Nest https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simon_Clulow/publication/280940311_Deep_nesting_in_a_lizard_deja_vu_devil's_corkscrews_First_helical_reptile_burrow_and_deepest_vertebrate_nest/links/5a0ad68c0f7e9b0cc02355d0/Deep-nesting-in-a-lizard-deja-vu-devils-corkscrews-First-helical-reptile-burrow-and-deepest-vertebrate-nest.pdf Yours, Paul H.

Hello! I have been living in Wyoming for over 20 years. I collect a lot of fossils and mineral in the America West. Looking forward to sharing my experiences! Thank you in advance for your warm welcomes!

The Winter 2017 issue of Fossil News is a special focus on Kemmerer, WY — the Gateway to PaleoTourism, USA — the Fossil Basin area; the Fossil Butte Nat’l Monument; Dig-Your-Own quarries; and much more. There was so much great content that we added four additional pages to the issue! · In the Beginning: An Excerpt from Lance Grande’s The Lost World of Fossil Lake · A Photo Gallery of Specimens from the Extraordinary Collections at Fossil Butte · Kemmerer Area directories: Rock & Fossil Shops, Dig-Your-Own Quarries, and more · A Visit to the Westmoreland-Kemmerer Coal Mine · Discovering & Photographing Ostracods in Eocene Green River “Turritella Agate” · American Fossil: The “Education Quarry” · A Monitor Lizard from Green River The Find of a Lifetime · SVP to Sue to Block Reductions to Grand Staircase & Bears Ears National Monuments · and more! Get your copy or subscribe: tinyurl.com/fnsubscribe. From now until the end of the 2018 Tucson shows, mention that you saw this notice on Fossil Forum and get the trade rate of $44/year (instead of $50).

So I was going through a box of old items when I came upon these. I found these items on the surface in Wyoming...about 10 miles south of Shell, Wyoming to be exact. As I recall there we more than several around and what caught my eye was the disk shape and that each seemed to have this pinkish X or cross in the center. They are roughly the size of half dollars....maybe a little larger. At first I thought they might be epiphysis disks like these But I'm don't think so because of the strange X or Cross at the center of each of the ones I found. I suppose they might be some unique mineral deposits but have found nothing similar online. Any help in IDing these would be greatly appreciated.

I was wondering if anyone could help ID two strange parts of this partial Leptauchenia fossilised skeleton. I've been prepping the bones out of the matrix (which is only a 15%-20% skeleton), but the skull is incredibly complete with all teeth. I've put a photo showing the bones I've identified against a reconstruction by Sinclair in 1910, but there are two strange objects I can't ID. These are of a texture that look more like teeth (than bones) and even seems to have some enamel-type gloss. They are more "claw-shaped" however and the skull isn't missing any teeth which is why I'm confused. The high gloss, smooth finish is whats confusing me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Back when I visited Seth's fossil fish quarry near Kemmerer, I had the opportunity to explore the outback of SW Wyoming as my wife and I tried to find the blue petrified forest. I had found explicit directions as to how to reach my destination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwE5AINP5Ck Sep 16, 2012 - Uploaded by Samuel Martin This is a video documenting ACCURATE and HONEST directions to the "Blue Forest" in Sweetwater County ... Please watch this video as it is absolutely true!!! It is 2 minutes long and set to great music. Some of the instructions say odd things like "turn right at a trash can". Now who would expect to see a trash can IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. We hadn't seen anything along this path but sagebrush for 7 miles! But there it was.My wife was very hesitant to continue on past this as it narrowed and became rough. In fact a slight argument took place by this important landmark. For once I won, even though it was through compromise (she gave me 15 minutes to find our destination). We did make it and as the video shows, you are there when you see all of the holes dug. Our time was spent just surface collecting and time wise, we put a little over an hour attempting to find this blue wood. If one was to visit this site for the purpose of serious collection, BRING A SHOVEL/PICK and I am sure you could put our finds to shame. This first picture shows the shards of wood that litter the ground: A closer look at one of the pieces : This next piece has orange crystals along side the blue wood. Any one able to identify these crystals ? Here is a piece that I would love to clean up a bit. It appears to be a significant piece of a branch. Are there any suggestions on how to do this without harming the specimen? I did experiment with acid. It did little to the matrix but unfortunately turned the blue rock totally white. Now I need a chemist to explain that reaction!!

Splitting some dried limestone this past weekend and out popped the largest Knightia I’ve ever collected. The rock split down the middle but I’ll use some EC-9000 industrial sealant to link the two pieces back together. Should turn out nice. Thinking of framing this one up in a shadow box. Used a dental pick to carefully expose the fins that were buried in sedimentary rock.

When considering the permineralization/replacement processes and how they affect wood.And all of the organic material in and or around the wood.In clear to opalized voids in the tree sections what other organic material has been found,beside the wood itself?

Our giant summer road trip (18 states, 20 days, almost 7,000 miles) began at a road cut in St. Leon, Indiana, finding trilobites. I haven't unpacked those yet, so I'll start this trip report with Part 2, the Kemmerer Fish Dig. After the extended family left to head home (there were 11 of us for a few weeks), I took my family on an extended fossiling adventure. First stop was the south-western corner of Wyoming. Just outside of Kemmerer, we stopped at the American Fossil Quarry (http://www.fishdig.com/) for a full day of splitting fish. The quarry wasn't that far out of town, and the roads were actually quite decent. (In a minivan, this is always a concern of ours.) We even had cell-reception for most of the drive! At a fork in the road we turned left, down the driveway into American Fossil's quarry. (on the other side of the road was Fossil Safari at Warfield Fossil Quarry - the difference is that at American Fossil, you get to keep all that you find, and I think there are better services - a guy at our hotel had a giant plate with a tiny fish to bring back....I would have cut it down) The quarry itself was a small area, with some areas to the left and right staked out by the professionals. We were focused on the middle section, a few rows of rocks that had been pulled off the quarry wall. They were divided into an older section (left) and a newer section (right), with the difference being that the newer section the rocks were a bit more damp, and didn't split as well.

The Trip That Nearly Didn't Start (Lengthy image-intensive trip report follows) Tammy and I had planned a fossil hunting trip to Wyoming for the third week of September to redeem our day of digging (splitting rock) at the Green River Formation quarry that @sseth had earlier so generously offered up as a prize on an auction to benefit TFF. We had our airfares, a rental car reserved, and a series of hotels booked across the state ready for a monumental fossil hunting trip. The one small problem was the not so small storm named Hurricane Irma that tore through the northern Caribbean and had its sights set on the Florida and being wider than the peninsula, no Floridian was going to miss the effects of this storm. Earlier in the week the forecast had the centerline of the cone of probability for the track of the storm hitting Miami and traveling up the eastern coast where Boca Raton sat squarely in the cross-hairs. I guess that if you are going to be in the path of some major destruction it is better to be the target early in the week rather that toward the end when the storm is at our doorstep. Thankfully (for us, but not so for those in the Lower Keys and Southwest Florida), the storm's turn to the north was delayed and though we were now on the stronger NE quadrant of the storm, the eye was significantly far away to the west that we escaped the strongest of winds. The storm unleashed squadrons of tornadoes and micro-bursts which had us ducking into our safe room for cover. During the storm unidirectional winds first blew from the east and then from the south as the storm passed us to the west but the tornadic winds were something else as the trees started whipping around in all directions quite violently. Luckily for us, the house survived with no structural damage. The newer more sturdy pool cage that replaced the original one that Wilma had crumpled and stuffed into the pool back in 2005 (shockingly) did not even lose a single screen panel. The damage on our property was limited to toppled trees and broken limbs and branches. We lost power even before the eye wall had made first landfall in the Florida Keys. As soon as it was safe to go outside, we started the portable generator and ran extension cords throughout the house to keep refrigerator, freezer and a box fan and a few lights powered. We've cooked on our outdoor grill and Coleman camp stove in previous power outages caused by the rash of hurricanes in 2004/05 and so we were well prepared and never at risk of starvation (we actually ate rather well). While Wilma had run over the house in late October, 2005 when the temperatures had cooled somewhat from the hot muggy Florida summer, we were not so lucky this time. Outdoor temps in the low 90's were soon matched by the 88 degrees inside which made sleeping difficult (even with a fan). We spent the days cutting up the downed foliage and stacking it into many piles along the street in back of the house as well as a towering mount in the cul-de-sac in front (which is still growing in size to this day and is due to be cleared by FEMA sometime in the next 2-3 weeks). Taking frequent breaks inside to lay down on the floor in front of the fan to avoid all-out heat exhaustion, both Tammy and I worked to clear the property as much as we could and monitor the progress of power restoration in our county. Over 70% of homes and businesses were left in the dark after Irma but Florida Power & Light had learned a few things after performing poorly in the 2004/05 hurricane seasons. They had staged a bunch of replacement parts and crews fresh from working in Houston were in the state working to get the grid back online. We couldn't leave on our trip unless we got power back and we watched the percentage of customers without power slowly but steadily decrease until one evening our power flickered and within a few minutes was restored for good. I had been waiting till the last possible minute to cancel my plans and try to get refunds for the reservations we'd made for this trip. I was tired of a week of hot sweaty yard work clearing debris and I was ready for some cooler Wyoming temps.

Just going through the last of the items I'm framing for my kids, and printing out labels. These were some fish they picked up at the fish dig in Wyoming. I'm pretty sure the first two are Knightias? 1) 2) (My son learned not to toss a baton *in* the house, *over* the fossil table...) 3) Same fish? And is this upside down? 4) baby version? (also...is it upside down?) 5) and then this one I thought used to be a Phareodos before it blew up. But @FossilDudeCO thought it was a large Priscacara

Well I haven't had much time to go fossil hunting since we made an offer on our home. We are moving in on Saturday. I'm so excited. Two weeks ago my wife allowed me to take an excursion for fish fossils in Wyoming with her cousin Luke. Little did the twelve year old boy know what he was getting into. This would be his first fossil hunting experience but he also experienced the following: first off roading experience, first taste of beef jerky, first time to Wyoming, and first time to a Sonic drive through. Being in the middle of Wyoming I diligently followed Google Maps which led us off roading. I have done some crazy stuff in my lifetime (i.e. sky diving) and have been really worried. This was one of those times. The off roading experience started us off on a dirt road with deep tracks from tires with chains for getting through snow. At one point I had to keep my left wheel in the middle of the road and my right wheel was off road with the right side of the vehicle slamming into rocks and sage brush. Thankfully we made it out. The quarry was amazing. Here are a bunch of pictures going back to our trip to my parents cabin in Island Park near Yellowstone and the new home. Heading out for date night at a nearby ski resort in Utah. Here we are at the Sundance ski resort for an outdoor play. My wife insisted we take a selfie. You can tell that I'm not a big fan of selfies. This is Bear World located in Rexburg, Idaho. We stopped here on our way up to Island Park. Bear World is a zoo for wild animals native to North America. Cute little fawn. American Bison. This Black Bear decided he didn't want to move so we had to wait for a few minutes. Big Grizzly Bear waking up after an afternoon nap. This is my brother Spencer holding my daughter Clara. He has a little son and I can tell he really wants a daughter. The Caldera pots of Yellowstone. The sulfuric smell was horrible but the sight was interesting and pleasantly warm. This may look like an inviting hot tub but is dangerously hot. Having our picture taken near the falls. Old Faithful My dad and I went to his secret spot near the cabin for some fishing on Saturday morning. I ended up catching thirty rainbow trout but only kept three. My father caught a bunch but only kept a few. We had enough fish to feed our families for lunch (keep in mind not everybody had trout as there were hamburgers). Clara loves the great outdoors. My mother really enjoyed spending time with her only granddaughter. My four young nephews really adored her as well. I had to share this one. A few weeks ago I came home to see my young daughter smiling up at me. That made up for the long day I had at work. This is where I decided it was time to turn the Subaru back. That hill was rather steep with loose gravel and even with X-mode and Incline mode set I couldn't make it up and the other side of the hill didn't look promising. Almost ran down into this deep crevice. It's a good thing I was going really slow. As you can see there are no roads up here. Luke is being a good sport, but he was a bit nervous about the whole ordeal as was I. Thankfully we made it out. We ended taking another dirt road and coming to this sign. Definitely turning back this time. Bad road! This was the "bad road." Doesn't look to rough but over the bend it could "evolve" into something nasty. Despite the rough start Luke is still looking forward to getting at those fossil fish. Almost there! That sign notes that off roading is illegal. I'll keep that in mind for next time as I was unaware. I notified Luke that he couldn't keep anything over 100k. And we are here! Within the hour discovered this massive Mioplosus that shattered upon extraction. I had no clue it was in the limestone. The stuff is so brittle it just popped right out in pieces. I left it out in the open for the brave preparer who would try his hand at this heart breaker. I keep forgetting to take pictures of fossil extractions on site. Managed to snap this photo while heading out. The car definitely needs a good washing inside and out. The serenity of Wyoming. A heard of Antelope running up the gorge. Here is Luke's amused face. The preservation on this Knightia oceana pair isn't great but what's interesting is that they are inverted against each other. Another pair. The bottom fish is well preserved. Close up. Another K. oceana. This is a K. oceana but looks like a miniature Piranha. Excellent preservation. Another K. oceana. A K. oceana and what I believe is a Diplomystus bottom right that needs some preparation. This will be the location for a new fossil preparation bench. The space looks small on camera but is surprisingly large at 7ft wide by 3 ft deep. Lots of fossil fish. More fish. One of the plates had seven K. oceana but I had to cut that one down (too big). I'm not sure what species the fish is bottom right but it's about the size of a dinner plate. Here is a decent Mipolosus that should prep out well. @Ptychodus04 this is the specimen I told you about. What would you recommend for this fish in terms of exposing it. Any other feedback from TFF members is welcome. The big plate sized fish. K. oceana K. oceana A plate of K. oceana. This is a beautiful Priscacara. @sseth father helped me to extract it and he said that this was one of four found that day. Unfortunately it was already split from the first hammer hit but I do have the other half. @Ptychodus04 recently you worked on a GRF fish that needed to be glued back together. Mind if I send you this project? I'll pay you or add some new features to the website. I'm a bit worried about messing this one up. The spikes look really neat and I do have the complete half that goes with it. Should turn out to be a rather neat looking fossil. This Diplomystus was a trip maker. It's not that large but has fine detail. I applied an air scribe from the rock quarry to the back portion as the tail was covered in limestone sediment. This one is currently on display at my office at work. All of my coworkers are green with envy. Measuring out the work bench. Picked up a large shelf for storing fossils on in the garage. Here is the backyard. The neighborhood is built against a mountain so the backyard is a hill with terraces. I'll plant a garden and trees on the terraces. I can't wait to move in this Saturday. View of Utah Lake from the backyard. Right next to the lake is the city of Lehi. These sunflowers grow well in the desert region of Utah and require very little water. @SailingAlongToo here are some pictures for you. I ordered these fine paintings from the Annapolis Marine Art Gallery in Annapolis. They weren't cheap but should look really nice. This painting is the HMS Surprise the British frigate featured in Master and Commander. This is Beyond the Mark and one of the most famous paintings by Willard Bond. The painting depicts the abstractness of a regatta race. Mr. Bond frequented Maryland to witness these ships racing each other. He is considered to be one of the greatest ship painters of our modern day. This is one of my favorites and depicts a sail boat returning home from a day in the bay. In the background is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge linking the western shore to the eastern shore. At one point in time the bay bridge was the largest man made bridge in the USA. To this day it's one of the older bridges in the country and was built in 1952. I have fond memories of this area from my Calvert Cliff days. I also spent countless weekends in Annapolis. If you ever get a chance to visit the east coast the Chesapeake Bay is a must see. Neat picture of Lone Peak mountain right outside my wife's parents home. It was overcast that day and the clouds sat right on top of the mountain. Close up of the Mioplosus. Another shot of the backyard from the top. I'm in love.

Hey all! Getting to work cataloging our finds from a very productive trip to Wyoming. Me and our friends can't quite figure this one out, our closest guess is Colodon. We aren't entirely sure though, and there's not too much reference material for Colodon. Collected on a ranch north of Lance Creek Wyoming in the White River formation.