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December 2020 - Finds of the Month Entries


digit

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REMINDER: PLEASE carefully read ALL of the rules below.

Make sure you include all the required information, IN THE REQUESTED FORMAT (below) when you submit your fossil! 

If you have a question about a possible entry, please send me a PM.


Please pay special attention to Rule #5: 

Before and After Preparation Photos must be submitted for prepped specimens NOT  found during the Month of the Contest.

In addition to keeping the contest fair, this new qualification will encourage better documentation of our spectacular past finds.


Entries will be taken until 11:59:00 PM EDT on DECEMBER 31, 2020

Any fossil submitted after that time, even if the topic is still open, will be deemed ineligible! 

 

Only entries posted with CLEAR photos and that meet the other guidelines will be placed into the Poll. 

Photos of the winning specimens may be posted to TFF's Facebook page.

 

Please let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for sharing more of your fossils and research this month.

 

Shortly after the end of the Month, separate Polls will be created for the Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month.

 

In addition to the fun of a contest, we also want to learn more about the fossils. 

Tell us more about your fossil, and why you think it is worthy of the honor. 


To view the Winning Fossils from past contests visit the Find Of The Month Winner's Gallery.

 

Now, go find your fossil, do your research, and make an entry!
Best of success to all, and good hunting!

 

***********************************


Rules for The Fossil Forum's Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month Contests

  1. Find a great Vertebrate Fossil or Invertebrate/Plant Fossil! Only fossils found personally by you are allowed. NO PURCHASED FOSSILS.
  2. Post your entry in the Find of the Month topic. Use a separate post for each entry. (Only two entries per member per contest category.)
  3. Your fossil must have been found during the Month of the Contest, or Significant Preparation * of your fossil must have been completed during the Month of the Contest.
  4. You must include the Date of Discovery (when found in the contest month); or the Date of Preparation Completion and Date of Discovery (if not found in the contest month).
  5. Before and After Preparation photos must be submitted for prepped specimens not found during the Month of the Contest. Please make sure you arrange for photos if someone else is preparing your fossil find and completes the prep requirements in the contest month.
  6. You must include the Common and/or Scientific Name.
  7. You must include the Geologic Age or Geologic Formation where the fossil was found.
  8. You must include the State, Province, or region where the fossil was found.
  9. You must include CLEAR, cropped, well-lit images (maximum 4 images). If you are proud enough of your fossil to submit it for FOTM, spend some time to take good photos to show off your fossil.
  10. Play fair and honest. No bought fossils. No false claims.

 

* Significant Preparation = Substantial work to reveal and/or repair important diagnostic features, resulting in a dramatic change in the look of the fossil. The qualification of Significant Preparation is decided at the discretion of staff. Any doubts as to the eligibility of the entry will be discussed directly with the entrant.

 

******* Please use the following format for the required information: *******

• Date of Discovery   (month, day , year) 

• Scientific and/or Common Name

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation

• State, Province, or Region Found

• Photos of Find

 

 

(Please limit to 4 clear, cropped, and well-lit images.)

(If prepped, before and after photos are required, please.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I guess somebody has to kick this off...  Had a little luck a few days ago.  Last November, I found a bucket of Pit 2 concretions (Fossil Rock) in my garage.  I had collected them a few years ago when Fossil Rock was still open, so probably around 2016.  This concretion was in the freeze/thaw for over a year and it finally opened.   Alethopteris sullivantii is one of my favorite Mazon Creek plants.

 

• Date of Discovery:   December 3rd, 2020

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Alethopteris sullivantii

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Francis Shale

• State, Province, or Region Found: Pit 2, Wilmington, Illinois

• Photos of Find

 

IMG_20201210_230046.thumb.jpg.5f8138d19d1367a8ef9069004bc685ab.jpg

IMG_20201210_230058.thumb.jpg.78e05b2df3af5882ab7a409ebf2a484c.jpg

IMG_20201210_230110.thumb.jpg.60f4e6f86a2ef7a268fae1d40242d7f6.jpg

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Nice! I miss Fossil Rock. I spent a great birthday there some years back with a bunch of TFF members digging myself a nice little hobbit hole. Came away with some really nice concretions including a nice spiny millipede. Persistence pays off--glad this one opened to display this lovely frond.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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10 hours ago, digit said:

Nice! I miss Fossil Rock. I spent a great birthday there some years back with a bunch of TFF members digging myself a nice little hobbit hole. Came away with some really nice concretions including a nice spiny millipede. Persistence pays off--glad this one opened to display this lovely frond.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

I believe I met you there.  Didn't you come out on a June day when it started pouring around noon?

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

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1 hour ago, stats said:

I believe I met you there.  Didn't you come out on a June day when it started pouring around noon?

Sounds about right. :)

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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So this was found second to last day on the isle behind a small crocodile vertebrae originally thought it was a a partial iguanodont vertebrae until I had done a little prep work on it.

 

• Date of Discovery   (December 10th 2020 (13:00)

• Scientific and/or Common Name Iguanodon indet, manus phalanx IV-1 (finger bone)

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation Wessex formation - 125 MYA

• State, Province, or Region Found Isle of Wight, 300m SE of Grange chine

• Photos of Find

 

Before prep (day of finds)

PSX_20201218_143815.thumb.jpg.1e6f0e2084a5367775d5c75cbe013b5e.jpg

 

After Prep

PSX_20201218_143055.thumb.jpg.6c12a07741c0ddd82e47a8538b160791.jpg

PSX_20201218_143032.thumb.jpg.e8d567b4b81d5de7f45fe6f7dff85a63.jpg

 

 

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Just now, Haravex said:

what do I do to fix this?

 

Upload them directly to the Forum and you should be fine.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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5 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

Upload them directly to the Forum and you should be fine.

ok I deleted them and re-uploaded them hopefully that worked

 

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18 minutes ago, Haravex said:

ok I deleted them and re-uploaded them hopefully that worked

 

I see them. Very nice find!

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Guess it's time to spice the inverts some after my 3rd trip to Perry Georgia for those wonderful sand dollars:

 

• Date of Discovery: December 18th, 2020

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Periarchus pileussinensis sand dollar

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation Late Eocene Tivola Limestone (~34 MYO)

• State, Province, or Region Found: Perry, GA

 

Last but certainly not least, photos! :meg:

 

20201221_195908.thumb.jpg.04956eba43d15d357921d7380874cba0.jpg20201221_200013.thumb.jpg.f8a6d10b568ad62c9e859530cabec875.jpg

 

Cont.

 

  • I found this Informative 10

Every single fossil you see is a miracle set in stone, and should be treated as such.

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20201221_200313.thumb.jpg.138f6fa8ce351e775170aa043c395951.jpg

 

 

Managed to get another photo today.

20201221_200516.thumb.jpg.90236fc01289e3602b8f6cbf14c88e1f.jpg

  • I found this Informative 5

Every single fossil you see is a miracle set in stone, and should be treated as such.

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21 hours ago, MeargleSchmeargl said:

Guess it's time to spice the inverts some after my 3rd trip to Perry Georgia for those wonderful sand dollars:

 

• Date of Discovery: December 18th, 2020

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Periarchus pileussinensis sand dollar

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation Late Eocene Tivola Limestone (~34 MYO)

• State, Province, or Region Found: Perry, GA

 

Last but certainly not least, photos! :meg:

 

20201221_195908.thumb.jpg.04956eba43d15d357921d7380874cba0.jpg20201221_200013.thumb.jpg.f8a6d10b568ad62c9e859530cabec875.jpg

 

Cont.

 

 

Wow! That is beautiful. Thanks for sharing it. 

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I have not had anything in a while but this is one of my better Petalodus.

Found 12-20-2020, put back together 12-22-2020

Petalodus Sp.

Pennsylvaian - Upper Carboniferous

Brown County, Texas

Fossil 12-22-20b.jpg

Fossil 12-22-20c.jpg

Fossil 12-22-20p.jpg

Fossil 12-22-20i.jpg

Fossil 12-22-20j.jpg

Fossil 12-22-20l.jpg

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Found a wonderful Plesiosaur vertebrae. These are quite rare for the area and I’m ecstatic to have found it!

Found 12/23/2020

Plesiosaur Vertebrae

Eagle Ford Formation 

Denton County Texas

 

 

8BDA57E9-BF1B-48BF-9823-FE009B80A0A6.png

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6ECA18FF-85FA-444E-9EFA-9FB7AA0B5873.png

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My first time! Thank you oyo for help with the definition.

 

Date of Discovery: December 5, 2020

Scientific and/or Common Name: Culicia parasitica (coral) + Celleporaria (briozoan)

Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Paleogene

State, Province, or Region Found: West Russia, Kaliningrad area, Svetlogorsk

 

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1_4.thumb.jpg.d860e280c714a9a54b6feaaf8303660a.jpg

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So glad to see some more entries for this month! I will go ahead and toss mine into the mix as well.

 

This specimen revealed itself last week while I was splitting black shale I had collected earlier this year, and it is one of my nicest and largest (about 2.5 cm in length) examples of the genus from this site. 
 

Date of collection/prep: October 18th, 2020/December 17th, 2020

NameListracanthus hystrix shark dermal denticle

Geologic age: Unnamed black shale member of the Pennsylvanian Bond Formation

Location Found: Vermilion County, Illinois


9A4D9497-AACD-4C35-89F1-4A64C902E3B2.thumb.jpeg.aa584464e3f9d02af377157200ecfe7c.jpeg

 

CC68D25A-3322-44C7-A363-1B8ACEE186E9.thumb.jpeg.6de40761c52de66ff1f062c9d32387e8.jpeg

 

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Here is an additional entry in the vertebrate section. 

 

Date of collection/prep: 28 November 2020 / 12 to 24 December , 2020

Name: Ornithischian jaw, Nanosaurus (based on John Foster's "Jurassic West", second edition).

Geologic age: Morrison Formation, Late Jurassic

Location Found: Natrona County, Wyoming at a locality I call JPC 1291

 

I found this on a late season field trip in November which is featured here: 

 

 

I have since put in about 12 hours prepping this little dinosaur dentary (lower jaw bone).  I am pretty chuffed about this one (as they say across the pond), as it is my first dinosaur jaw from the Morrison Fm.  Here is the photo pre-prep.  When the rock split, it busted off the tips of most teeth.  Many pieces stayed with the other half of the block so I was able to  re-attach a bunch of them, but even then, many wee bits are missing.  The tooth tips proved to be incredibly delicate and I lost some denticles.  (Insert sad emoji).   

IMG_0548.thumb.JPG.9de3c12162dbff957dbd5273ec8641e9.JPG

 

Above is the external view of the jaw.  Below is the same after prep. 

IMG_0591.thumb.JPG.275bafd2d2107b04b8740f84dfadec10.JPG 

The gray areas are where I had to use putty to join the base and the top of the teeth, as the middle was missing; lost upon discovery.  Below is the lingual side (inside of the mouth).  The teeth are beautiful in this view. 

 IMG_0590.thumb.JPG.e1ae4b29884650e07376c4aff6237782.JPG

For those about to ask, this was done with a No. 3 Microjack, a pinvise with a very fine sharp silicone carbide point, and the air abrasive with sodium bicarb at 5 to 10 psi.  All under the microscope, of course.  MOst of the root of the right-most tooth is putty, as that was completely missing. 

 

 

 

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