PaleoNoel Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Hi everyone, I haven't posted an ID in a while as I'm at college and don't have ready access to my fossils to take pics. However tonight, through sheer coincidence, I noticed a recognizable fossil online after looking at the new discovery of an albanerpetonid amphibian preserved in amber. After checking if these amphibians had been found in the Hell Creek I see an image come up of a jaw identified as belonging to scapherpeton (a true salamander) and recognized some features similar to a specimen of my own which I had never posted. I found this small jaw section in the Hell Creek fm. of North Dakota and while I don't remember a specific measurement I am confident that is was about 1 cm in length give or take a few mm. Here's the pic of the jaw I saw online, posted by the national museum of natural history on their google arts and culture page. Here's my small jaw: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 I lean more towards a lizard jaw. @jpc 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 (edited) DeMar Jr. 06 28 12 An Illustrated Guide to latest Cretaceous Vertebrate Microfossils of the Hell Creek Formation of northeastern Montana is extremely useful when trying to ID Hell Creek microfossils. Some figures from the guide: I think your jaw is lizard. Marco Sr. Edited November 10, 2020 by MarcoSr added lizard ID 4 "Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day." My family fossil website Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros My Extant Shark Jaw Collection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 I think it is indeed an amphibian, possibly Scapherpeton. I can't say why without looking at sources, but that is my gut feeling. We ID those as amphibian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 9 hours ago, jpc said: I think it is indeed an amphibian, possibly Scapherpeton. I can't say why without looking at sources, but that is my gut feeling. We ID those as amphibian. Based upon Jean-Pierre's salamander ID, I sent the pictures of this specimen to Dr. James Gardner, a salamander researcher who is studying amphibian specimens from my sons' Eocene/Oligocene ranch in Nebraska, and I asked if he had an opinion on an ID. Below is the response that I received back: "That jaw looks like a well-worn left dentary of the sirenid salamander Habrosaurus, which is well known from the Hell Creek Formation. See text-fig. 8 in the attached paper of mine. I am not surprised there has been chatter about whether that jaw is from a lizard or a salamander. When Habrosaurus was originally named in 1928 by Charles Gilmore, based on a dentary with intact teeth from the Lance Formation, he thought it was a lizard." Below is the text-fig. 8 from Gardner 2003 REVISION OF HABROSAURUS GILMORE (CAUDATA SIRENIDAE) AND RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SIRENID SALAMANDERS Marco Sr. 3 "Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day." My family fossil website Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros My Extant Shark Jaw Collection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoNoel Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 Thank you all for your help! @MarcoSr @jpc @Troodon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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