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Hi folks, On our last cross country trip we stopped at a fossil site I had heard of to look for fossils. It is near Malvern, Arkansas and I am sure it is Clayton formation (Paleocene) based on a publication which specifically describes the site. It was a horrible day for collecting so we grabbed some samples and are now slowly taking the matrix apart at home. We are finding a lot of tiny stuff and a few sharks teeth which may be identifiable. Does anyone know what the shark fauna looks like from that site. I haven't found any good references for the Clayton specifically and the publication I do have is a faunal survey which compares rough numbers in different groups and deals very little with the specific species themselves. Thanks for any help you can offer. Kate

So this material is from the Clayton formation in Arkansas. It is Paleocene in age. We are finding a lot of these flat pieces which I at first thought might be crab shells but now I think they must be scales from armored fish. Sometimes they are very thin and small - these examples are larger ones. If I am correct does anyone know if we can tell which fish they are from? (tape measure in view is in mm) The lone piece is from the same matrix as the others. After cleaning it up I would have guessed it was just a larger piece of armor but while I was removing it both ends broke off and it has some internal structures too. Also it seems to have tunnels that run through it that make me think of passages for nerves or blood vessels (bone? - it sure doesn't seem like it because it seems to have a shell). Here are pictures of its external and internal structures. The tube-like piece connects with one of the holes in the outside shell. I have taken pieces of all 4 exposed internal surfaces. It is not quite symmetrical which makes me think it isn't a crab . . . The fourth pic where a lot of the white matrix is visible is the back. I have been reluctant to clean it up since it is a bit fragile. Note: pics 5 & 6 (with the tunnel-like structure) have a bit of rubber cement on the surfaces - I had to retake the pics and had already begun to glue them back together

Could the attached photo be a fossil. It was found underground by a trenching crew near Clayton, OK. Seen it on a desk as a paper weight, curiosity is killing me.