Made it to the river last Friday - I think I found a talon

[FossilFreak]

I haven't posted in a while, but have had some pretty good hunts over the last couple of years.

 

This year has been busy with work. I made it down to the river for some fossil hunting for my first time in 2021 last Friday.  I had a really nice day. The weather was beautiful. I had great visiblity. 

 

I'm hoping to go again tomorrow. 

 

I took some photos of some of the days finds. 

 

First photo:

- One of the things I was most excited about is a potential talon of a bird of prey. It is broken, but you can see it in the photos below. I am pretty excited about this. I actually bought a couple of fossil eagle claws several years ago. I don't buy many fossils and I really never buy anything that I think I have a chance to come accross in my hunts, so this was totally unexpected.

- I also found more shark teeth than usual. A lot of them are in poor condition, but there were a couple that were nice.

- I found several gator teeth and a couple osteoderm pieces. These are pretty common from my experience with the area. I do like the one with the root though. None of them are very big.

- I found a number of fish spines, scales, mouth plates. Those are all pretty common.

- I found three items that i'm not sure of. My guess is that they are turtle beaks, but i'm not sure that's right. If anyone has an ID on that, it would be much appreciated. I don't think I have found these before, but I'm probably just forgetting b/c I found 3 in one day.

 

 

Second photo:

- I found the typical bone fragments and tried not to keep as much broken stuff as I usually do. The cannon bone and the bone above and to the left were found within a few feet of each other just laying on top. I love finding any bones that are complete, and I think a lot of times that happens to be bones in the tow and ankle because they are smaller. I'm not sure the species of what's below, but I would guess horse and deer. I find some smaller bones too which I think are too things like rodents and birds (when hollow), but I'm not 100% sure. I also think I found a fossil twig.

 

The item labeled "Unk 2?" is something that is very common. I always thought these were from turtles, but I'm really not sure.

 

- When I do find bone fragments and they include the connector pieces sometimes I keep them. The one in the second photo seemed like it had a similar shape to the end of the horse cannon, but it is much larger.

- I always like finding mammal teeth (several photos). I found a number of mammel teeth, but most were in very poor condition. I think that one of them was from a camel, but i'm not sure.

- I think i found the deer hoof claw core, which I was happy to find. I was very happy to see the giant beaver tooth. I think that's the best one I have ever found. The other side doesn't look as good as this side.

- I think I found a peice of a rodent jaw. Not my best. I have seen them with teeth and the incisor in the past.

- I always love finding canines. This is one of the smallest I have found. I'm guessing racoon, but I really have no idea. Sorry, I don't think the photo is very good on that one.

- I also really like turtle shell especially if the patterns on it are nice. I picked up probably way to much, but here are a few of the nicer pieces.

- I think that I found a peice of a crab claw, not too pretty, but not something I see a lot of. I have found several peices of what I think are crab shells, I will have to post some somtime.

 

 

Photo 3 

- I think this is a piece of a turtle shell, but it's not very similar to what I usually find.

- some additional foot bones (I think)

- I am not sure about these other two. I think maybe one is part of an alligator osteoderm and another is part of an alligator skull, but I really don't know. If anyone has any ideas on that, I'd love to hear it.

 

 

Photo 4:

- Partial mastadon tooth. Finding a complete one is on my list of things I would really love to find. I find peices fairly regularly, but this is probably bigger than most.

- The top photo on the right, is something I see all the time. I'm not 100% sure what it is, but I think it's some type of fish.

- The other photo is a bunch of random stuff, I'm not sure if any of them are interesting, there are some more photos of some of these on the next photo.

 

 

Photo 5 

This photo has a bunch of stuff that I thought was interesting, but I really don't know what they are. Some of them maybe nothing, but if anything looks interesting let me know. If I had to guess:

- Unk 3 - maybe just a bone fragment, shape made it seem like a claw core, but not sure

- Unk 4 - I was thinking that this might be a part of cannine with the enamel worn down, but I think it's probably just a phosphate pellet

- Unk 5 - I thought maybe a tip of a mastadon tooth, but this seems wrong. Not sure.

- Unk 6 - not sure... Outer layer seems to be enamel, so i'm thinking some kindof mammel tooth?

- Unk 7 - part of an herbivore mammel (horse maybe) tooth that just wore and broke in a weird way?

- Unk 8 - maybe just a weird shaped phosphate pellet

- Unk 9 - maybe just a broken bit of a tooth. the shape repminds me of a type of sawfish, but I think that would be more flat and less round.

- Unk 10 - not sure, just broken bone peice maybe

- Unk 11 - not sure maybe a trace fossil

 

[Harry Pristis]

You've tried to do too much with all these images, I think.  The images seem to be good, but most are too small.  In the future, don't place your titles overlaying your fossil.  Many images don't have a scale for size.

 

Having said that, I can tell you in image #2 the cannon bone is from a camelid, not a horse.  In image #3, they are bones from a 'gator skull.  In image #4 they are almost certainly pharyngeal grinding mills from bonefish.

 

 

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Posted May 19

 

Here is my advice for producing better images:

Do you have editing software that came with your camera or with your scanner? Use the image-editing software (or download shareware from the Internet).

You can be as creative as you want to be with the editing software, but the following basic things will improve anyone's images:

GROUP IMAGES of more than a few fossils are not effective. The more individual fossils in an image, the greater the amount of table-top is in the image. Viewers cannot see the details of a fossil that might take up less than five percent of the total image. Photograph a single fossil (or two or three, if they're tiny), and post that image.
 

DON'T OBSCURE details of the fossil by pinching it between your fingers. If you want to use fingers to provide scale, support the fossil from below ... that is, on top of your fingers. To improve the focus, rest your hand with the fossil on a stable surface like a table or desk.

 

SCALE is important.  Provide measurements of your fossil in millimeters and inches for the widest audience.  Don't use a coin for scale; there are many foreign subscribers who don't know your coin's size.

 

LIGHT IT UP. Use as much ambient light as possible to reduce shadows...two light sources are a minimum. Eliminate yellowed images caused by tungsten filament bulbs by switching to the new compact flourescent bulbs. CFLs come in a "daylight" (6500K) version that you can use in any (non-dimming) fixture and produce very little heat. Some LEDs produce a near-daylight effect.

 

ELIMINATE SHADOWS by elevating the fossil on a glass or colorless plastic stage a couple of inches above the background. Illuminate the fossil AND THE BACKGROUND in this configuration. There are numerous things around the house to use for this purpose, from scrap window-glass to disposable plastic food/drink containers.

BRIGHTEN AND CONTRAST. BRIGHTEN the image until the fossil appears slightly washed, then adjust the CONTRAST until the fossil is bright and sharp and is a good color-match. Practice this until you get a feel for it.

CROP, CROP, CROP. Again, use the image-editing software to crop the image to only what is pertinent. Leave only a narrow margin around the fossil. The more of your kitchen counter-top in the image, the smaller the fossil image will be.

REDUCE THE FILE SIZE. The images directly from a camera may be too large for posting directly to a forum, or you may be severely limited in the number of images you can post. You can constrain the proportions of your image to produce exactly the size that works best (I routinely use 700 Kb - 1.0 Mb for my images now). I save in JPEG format.

•  

 

[Bone Daddy]

Nice finds. I'd be happy with that haul. 

 

That possible talon is very similar to something I found a while back and I never could positively ID it.

 

Those "turtle beaks" are weird. I don't think that's what they are, but I'd be curious to see what they turn out to be.

 

 

[FossilFreak]

2 hours ago, Harry Pristis said:

You've tried to do too much with all these images, I think.  The images seem to be good, but most are too small.  In the future, don't place your titles overlaying your fossil.  Many images don't have a scale for size.

 

Having said that, I can tell you in image #2 the cannon bone is from a camelid, not a horse.  In image #3, they are bones from a 'gator skull.  In image #4 they are almost certainly pharyngeal grinding mills from bonefish.

 

Thanks for the IDs and tips.

Edited May 30, 2021 by FossilFreak

[FossilFreak]

1 hour ago, Bone Daddy said:

Nice finds. I'd be happy with that haul. 

 

That possible talon is very similar to something I found a while back and I never could positively ID it.

 

Those "turtle beaks" are weird. I don't think that's what they are, but I'd be curious to see what they turn out to be.

 

 

Very cool. I would love to see yours.

[PaleoNoel]

Your potential talon is definitely one, I found a complete specimen a few years ago on the Peace. Congrats!

And for your unknown #6, the largest piece appears to be a piece of giant beaver incisor. I also think #7 is a piece of mammoth tooth plate where the dentine has dissolved away leaving only the enamel.

[RuMert]

I liked the photos- they give a nice presentation of the finds and conveniently grouped

[FossilFreak]

On 5/30/2021 at 10:25 PM, PaleoNoel said:

Your potential talon is definitely one, I found a complete specimen a few years ago on the Peace. Congrats!

And for your unknown #6, the largest piece appears to be a piece of giant beaver incisor. I also think #7 is a piece of mammoth tooth plate where the dentine has dissolved away leaving only the enamel.

Thanks, for some reason, I cannot access your photo.

 

Thanks for the ids. Beaver incisor definitely looks right. the mammoth tooth might be right too, but I would have though it would be thicker.