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Hello TFF, Former lurker here, now fresh newbie. I've stumbled across a Psittacosaurus skeleton that seems too good to be true and I'd like to ask for your opinion(s). It looks real to me. No clear origin, sold from Taiwan, length 1.2 meters, weight 3.5kg (mistake, red flag or nothing?). I've asked for additional details (that I will or won't get), but meanwhile I can't decide if it's real and I'm paranoid or ... not So, what do you make of this specimen? Anything suspicious or noteworthy about it? Any input would help, thank you!

I found this last weekend, but had it put aside until now. It is from the miocene marine outcrops of the Dahan River. Now, this is tiny--we are talking 2mm in diameter. It's something, it stands out among the rock. But I am not sure if it is an extremely small sea urchin or not. I hope the pictures help. It was tricky to take a picture of because of its size. It's small, circular, with tiny ridges on each side.

I found this fossil hunting today. I am wondering if it is a small, fossil fish jaw. I can't think what else it could be. It is from the Dahan River, late Miocene. The place is marine, most of it is very fragmentary--small partial bits of shell. But I found this which looked curious. It is small, 1.3cm long. Hope the pictures are ok.

Hello, So after yesterdays unsuccessful hunt and cut short because of rain. Headed south today. Plan was to go looking for crabs, but luck let me down again-- river too dangerous. So went for shells and sea urchins instead. Beautiful place, but I didn't take photos because I left my phone in the car because we had to wade (lucky I did. I slipped and ended up hip deep) Lots of the rocks had various shell fossils. There was one big rock with about a dozen big , almost complete scallop fossils. I left it as is. Would have been nice to have one, but didnt feel right to destroy it to get one. Instead I collected from smaller rocks. Got a few scallops and a partial echinoid. I also found a small, almost complete one but I cant find it now. I hope its buried in my bag, but I fear I must have lost it. Other than on the big rock, most of the shells were partial. Shame I couldn't get a photo of the big rock with scallop fossils and some of the other rocks full of partial shells but with wading to get there, I wasn't gonna risk taking my phone. At the end of the day, I didn't collect a huge amount. Just a few little pieces for my shelf as little examples of what was there. I took back a nice sized scallop fossil (unfortunately not complete) a matrix with a few shells which split but which I have glued, a partial shell and a big partial sea urchin. Also a small bit of coral. Only bit I found there. Hope I find the smaller urchin hiding somewhere, but I fear it is gone. Hope one day can get to the crab place. Rain keeps foiling me by making the river too fast.

Finding info on where to find fossils is hard in Taiwan, so I haven't been able to really go. But I made a friend who said he would take me, and this Sunday he did. Plan was to go to a place where you can find shark and fish teeth and rare whale fossils---but it was inaccessible because of the typhoon over the weekend which flooded the area. So, went to Plan B--an area where you can find sea urchin fossils. Unfortunately, the vast majority are only partial pieces, and that is all I found. But some nice partial pieces with nice patterns and colors on them. Plus, I did find SOMETHING, so it stands to reason, if I keep going I'll eventually unearth a complete urchin. Then went to a different area where you can shell fossils--this was a difficult area to collect. Very, very hard rock and the way the fossil bed is, it's very difficult to find fossils and unearth them. But, I did find two nice shell fossils. Hopefully on my next trip, the shark tooth place will be accessible. But, for a first fossil hunt, I'm pleased to have found a few bits to take back. Bloody hot weather though. I was exhausted. And I don't envy the people who sat next to me on the train on the way back since I was covered in sweat and smelt of sea water because a rock I thought was secure, turned out to not be secure and I ended up sliding in over my waterproof boots. It was a fun day out. Hope I can go again soon. Here's a pic of what I found, and a few closer showing the color and patterns on some of the urchin shells.

Taiwan's largest museum devoted only to fossils is located at the southern part of the island, near the city of Tainan at the Zuojhen Fossil Park. Most travelers will start their journey in the capital city of Taipei, but Tainan is only a <2 hour bullet train ride away (the bullet train, or high speed rail, is a destination in of itself- a marvel of speed, comfort and efficiency) and a visit to the Zuojhen Fossil Park is highly recommended. For western audiences, fossil park may be a bit misleading. Its not a park as in playgrounds and grassy fields, more like an industrial park, or complex. In this case, the complex includes the museum, natural history education hall, and a local elementary school. The museum showcases fossils from the mid-Pleistocene Chiting Formation, which are abundant in the Cailiao River Basin. Students from the elementary school would find fossils, and bring them to their teachers. which became the nucleus for the collection and is why the elementary school is included in the complex. The new complex was opened in May of 2019. As of late 2019, admission to the museum is about $3.30. Entrance to the museum: Main entrance area with Formosan Sitka deer in the air: Overlooking courtyard to the elementary school where you may catch a unicycle(!) routine: The first building appears to house the rotating exhibits. At the time of visit, it seemed to be an exhibit on mammoths and Tyrannosaurs. and extinctions:

Hello, in your opinion, is this Machairodus skull real? He sells a lot of fossil mammal skulls and I find that a little weird. Thank you

Although I've been to Taiwan many times, it never occurred to me to visit their natural history museum until my last trip in late 2019. Most travelers will start in the capital city, Taipei, which is home to the National Taiwan Museum. Unfortunately, it was undergoing extensive remodeling so there wasn't much to see in terms of fossils at the main building. Across the street is the Land Bank Exhibition Hall (LBEH). Entrance to the LBEH is included in the price of admission to the National Taiwan Museum (around $1). The suggested walking path through the LBEH is essentially a walk through geologic time, beginning with Cambrian fossils: and some neat models:

A giant undersea sand worm’s fossilized lair by Eleanor Imster, EARTH, EarthSkyOrg, January 28, 2021 In 20-million-year-old rock off the coast of Taiwan, researchers have discovered what they think is the fossilized burrow of a giant, predatory sand worm. https://earthsky.org/earth/scientists-find-evidence-of-giant-predatory-sand-worms the open access paper is; Pan, YY., Nara, M., Löwemark, L. et al. The 20-million-year old lair of an ambush predatory worm preserved in northeast Taiwan. Sci Rep 11, 1174 (2021). https:// doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79311-0 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-79311-0 Yours, Paul H.

Hi, Are there any shark teeth described from localities in Taiwan? I found one for sale, a Carcharhinid from Yujing. However, I cannot find anything of the sort in the literature. I'd appreciate any information. Thank you, Bellamy Edit: "Fish fossils of Taiwan: a review and prospection" in Historical Biology notes Carcharhinus sp. from Taiwan. Any further information would be wonderful, especially if any of those have been described.

Anyone knows the name and age of this fossil? Overall size about 22X16 cmX5 Recently purchased in Taiwan