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Hunting the Late Cretaceous Aguja Formation at home!


Monica

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Hi all!

 

The Aguja Formation matrix that I ordered from PaleoTex arrived on June 12th, but I decided to wait until school ended before I began the process of searching it.  Well, school ended yesterday so I have begun the process today!  My 5 pounds of matrix are currently soaking in a solution of baking soda and water (because the matrix arrived "unwashed"), but while stirring up the squishy contents with my hand, I found the following 3 items that I'd like your input on.

 

Item #1: Could this be a ceratopsian spitter tooth??? @Troodon

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More to follow...

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Item #2: dinosaur tendon?

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Item #3: crocodile tooth - perhaps Goniopholis?

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T'riffic, Monica! 

Hadrosaur spitter is great and I love the tendon, too. :)

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Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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OMG!!!  I'm SO SO SO excited that I found a dinosaur tooth!!!  Thanks, Frank @Troodon!!!

 

As requested, here are a couple of extra photos of Item #3 (it was in two pieces when I found it - I'm going to wait for it to fully dry before I glue the pieces together)

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Item #4: Could this be another spitter tooth of some sort?

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More to follow...

 

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Item #5: I have no idea what this is - perhaps nothing...

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Item #6: I also have no idea what this is - perhaps also nothing...

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Thanks for the photos #3 is Crocodilian most likely an indet. Goniopholid.  4 looks like a Concretion.  5 & 6 unrecognizable fragments.

 

Its a fun matrix lots of shark and fish teeth a few millimeters wide and you do find some dino material but they are rare.   Enjoy but go slow and handle the matrix gently everything is pretty fragile.  Congrat on the dino tooth :dinothumb:

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Thanks for the nice comments, Adam @Tidgy's Dad!

 

And thanks for the identification help, Frank @Troodon!  I am BEYOND excited to have found a dino tooth and a crocodilian tooth!!!!!!!!!! :yay-smiley-1:

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1 hour ago, Monica said:

I am BEYOND excited to have found a dino tooth and a crocodilian tooth!!!!!!!!!! :yay-smiley-1:

Congrats Monica on the awesome finds! Very cool! :thumbsu:

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The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.  -Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy)

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I'm excited to see that you are finding such neat material right off the bat.  I've got to get me some of this matrix.  :thumbsu:

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8 hours ago, grandpa said:

I'm excited to see that you are finding such neat material right off the bat.  I've got to get me some of this matrix.  :thumbsu:

 

Hi Tom!

 

It was indeed a very exciting afternoon for me yesterday!  While the rest of the family was watching TV, I prepared my solution of water and baking soda (as recommended by PaleoTex) and as I was placing the chunks of matrix into it I immediately found a chunk of croc tooth.  I thought - wow, what luck!  A cute little croc tooth!  As I continued to empty the bag of matrix into the bucket containing the baking soda solution, I found an even bigger chunk of croc tooth.  I thought - even better!  Two croc teeth!  After I finished transferring the matrix into the bucket, I had a closer look at the two croc teeth and noticed that they fit together to make one large tooth - woohoo!!!  Today I'm going to attempt to glue the two pieces together - hopefully I don't mess it up! :fingerscrossed:  I am amazed at how beautiful the enamel is on this tooth - it's so smooth and shiny, and the colour and pattern are lovely - it's quite stunning (to me, at least!).

 

After I let the matrix soak for a bit, I stuck my hand in to see if the chunks were sufficiently broken down by the solution.  As I was stirring up the contents (it was quite squishy, and I must admit that I kind of enjoyed the squishiness - it was like a mud bath for my right hand :P), I occasionally looked at some of the larger chunks when I noticed a hard chunk that was more regularly-shaped than the other pieces.  After rinsing it off with some water, I thought that it resembled a dinosaur "spitter tooth," but I didn't want to get too excited for fear that I was wrong.  Well, I was too impatient to wait another minute to post photos of the item so I did so immediately, and lucky for me Frank quickly came along and answered my call for help and verified that what I had found was indeed a dinosaur tooth!!!  This is my first (and, currently, only) dinosaur tooth from somewhere other than Morocco, so this is SO exciting for me!!!  The rest of the mucky matrix that was broken down by the baking soda solution and sieved out of the solution is currently drying out on paper plates in the garage.  Once it's dry enough to search through I'll begin to look for smaller stuff - I'll add photos to this thread to show what I find.

 

Thanks for checking in!  And thanks again for passing on PaleoTex's contact information to me - without your help, I wouldn't be able to say that the very first North American dinosaur tooth to be added to my fossil collection was actually found by me!!! :SlapHands:

 

Monica

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Hi again, everyone!

 

The mucky matrix is still drying (I think it'll take a few days for it to dry fully) so I'm not yet ready to look through it for the tinier fossils, but I did find this larger piece yesterday - any ideas if it's anything?  @Troodon

 

Item #7:  The first two photos show two views of the specimen, and the third photo shows how the specimen fits on to a piece of matrix (it came off of the matrix while it was still wet yesterday, and it left a bit of its tip on the matrix, so I'm thinking of gluing it back on today).

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Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Monica

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Just now, Troodon said:

Sorry nothing jumps out dont think its a fossil

 

 

Okie dokie - thanks for looking!

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3 hours ago, Monica said:

And thanks again for passing on PaleoTex's contact information to me

You're so welcome Monica.  It looks like you're off to an exciting great start.  The dino tooth alone would be worth the venture to me - I have none from nowhere; so that would be my first, period - How exciting!  I'm glad you are enjoying yourself and happy with the purchase.  It's time for me to take the plunge as well.

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2 hours ago, grandpa said:

You're so welcome Monica.  It looks like you're off to an exciting great start.  The dino tooth alone would be worth the venture to me - I have none from nowhere; so that would be my first, period - How exciting!  I'm glad you are enjoying yourself and happy with the purchase.  It's time for me to take the plunge as well.

 

The croc tooth by itself would've made it worth it for me, but the croc tooth plus the dinosaur tooth makes it outstanding!!!  Whatever else I find will be icing on the cake - I'm already incredibly satisfied with the matrix.  I hope you find some nice little goodies when you get yourself some Aguja matrix, too! :fingerscrossed:

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@Monica I got some Aguja matrix from Paleotex about 2 weeks ago but haven’t gone through it yet. Can I ask what ratio of baking soda to water you used? Can I also ask about your process of going through everything? I don’t have a sieve at home, would that be a problem? I’m sorry for all of the questions, I’m just ready to dive in and hopefully find a dino tooth myself! 

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1 hour ago, thelivingdead531 said:

@Monica I got some Aguja matrix from Paleotex about 2 weeks ago but haven’t gone through it yet. Can I ask what ratio of baking soda to water you used? Can I also ask about your process of going through everything? I don’t have a sieve at home, would that be a problem? I’m sorry for all of the questions, I’m just ready to dive in and hopefully find a dino tooth myself! 

 

Hey Candace! 

 

I have to admit that I didn't really know what to do with the matrix when I received it - I was so used to sorting through micromatrix that was already "washed" that I was at a loss as to how to search the large-ish chunks of Aguja matrix.  When I emailed PaleoTex they said that they mix 1 cup of baking soda with 1 gallon of water to break down the matrix so I did the same.  I put 1 cup of baking soda into a small bucket and then added about 1 gallon of water (they said that the baking soda won't harm the fossils so it doesn't have to be exact) and stirred it up with my hand.  When the baking soda was fully dissolved, I placed the matrix into the bucket a little at a time (it was at this point that I noticed the broken croc tooth in the bag of matrix).  The matrix bubbled up as it sat in the solution, and every so often I dipped my hand in so I could gently stir it to see if the bigger chunks had been sufficiently broken down (it was at this point that I felt the hadrosaur shed tooth - it felt like a hard rock amongst soft, squishy mud so it was pretty noticeable).  When it felt as though there were no more large pieces of matrix, I dumped the gross-looking mixture through a large kitchen sieve that I had placed over top of another bucket.  I had to stir the muck in the sieve to get out as much of the solution as I could, and when I was satisfied with the results I simply dumped the muck onto some paper plates and placed the plates in the garage to fully dry out (which I imagine will take a few days).

 

Re: the sieve - do you have a dollar store nearby?  I picked up a pretty large kitchen sieve at my local store for $4 CAD ($3 USD) and I think it did a pretty good job since what passed through it looked like a fine, dark brown "dust" suspended in water - some super tiny fossils probably passed through the sieve, but since I don't have a microscope here I wouldn't be able to see anything that tiny, anyway.  The muck is still drying so I can't say how I'll look through it just yet, but I imagine that I'll be able to break up the dried chunks of muck and search through that with the help of my handy loupe.

 

I hope that helps!  If you need any more help, or if I was at all unclear, then please feel free to ask again!

 

Best of luck to you - I hope you find a dino tooth, too!!! :fingerscrossed:

 

Monica

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Just now, Kane said:

@Monica -- Great tip about the sieve! Are they metal or plastic? 

 

I imagine that plastic would be gentler on fossils, but the dollar store I went to only had metal sieves.  The benefit of the metal one, though, is the holes are probably tinier (my memory of the plastic sieve that my housemate brought to our shared house in university was that the holes weren't super tiny, which is fine for pasta but probably not as good at catching tiny fossils), but I'm certainly no expert!  (Except at making pasta, because my mom is Italian :P)

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@Monica Thank you so much for the detailed explanation of your process! I, too, have only been used to sorting out washed matrix so far.  I'll have to stop by a dollar store this week to pick up a kitchen sieve. I cannot wait to start finding little goodies soon! I hope I can find some great stuff like you did!  

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8 minutes ago, thelivingdead531 said:

@Monica Thank you so much for the detailed explanation of your process! I, too, have only been used to sorting out washed matrix so far.  I'll have to stop by a dollar store this week to pick up a kitchen sieve. I cannot wait to start finding little goodies soon! I hope I can find some great stuff like you did!  

 

You're very welcome, Candace!  Make sure you do a show-and-tell with your finds, too - we all love seeing each other's fossil finds! :popcorn::fistbump:

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7 minutes ago, Monica said:

 

You're very welcome, Candace!  Make sure you do a show-and-tell with your finds, too - we all love seeing each other's fossil finds! :popcorn::fistbump:

Of course! I could never deprive these fine fossil enthusiasts of a good find. :dinosmile:

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