PaleoNoel: Into the Microverse

[PaleoNoel]

Hey everybody! I wanted to make a thread sharing with you some of the smaller fossils in my collection, many of which I've photographed using my digital microscope. Some of these I've found in the field at microsites or channel deposits, while others I've found at home searching through matrix. I hope you enjoy!

Our journey begins in Wyoming's Lance formation:

A Pectinodon tooth my dad found in 2017.

A tooth that was identified by other forum members as potentially Avisaurus, also found in 2017.

A tooth I initially called Paronychodon, although the small & worn denticles may suggest otherwise. Found in 2020.

A tooth which was once the smallest in my collection at around 3 mm., potentially Acheroraptor but currently is indeterminate. Found in 2020.

Probably my smallest crocodilian osteoderm in good shape, found in 2019.

A tiny dermal denticle, potentially from Myledaphus. Found in 2020.

The smallest mammal tooth in my collection, an itty bitty multituberculate I found at home working on conglomerate matrix in 2019.

A nodosaur tooth (Denversaurus) found in 2020.

A collection of small fish mouth plates (cf. Cyclurus) from 2020.

A salamander premaxilla (cf. Scapherpeton) found in 2020.

A Thescelosaurus premax tooth from 2020.

A view of some of the Lance fm. anthill matrix I brought home to search, with a piece of fish mouth plate in the center

[Troodon]

Love the small items and enjoy working through matrix to find them.

I can confirm your suspected Myledaphus denticle appears to be one, looks like F.

Your Scapherpeton Premax is actually a Lizard jaw.  Not sure which one but here is a group from the Lance to compare against, "E" is a possibility

For future reference here is a Premax of a Scapherpeton

 

Your Paronychodon tooth is most likely the Premax of an Acheroraptor.  The serrations are the key and typical of what was described by Currie/Evans 2019 belonging to Saurornitholestes in Campanian deposits

 

Also question the call on the Avisaurus tooth, looks tooth bulbous of a crown to be one. 

 

[PaleoNoel]

On 12/28/2021 at 5:27 AM, Troodon said:

Love the small items and enjoy working through matrix to find them.

I can confirm your suspected Myledaphus denticle appears to be one, looks like F.

Your Scapherpeton Premax is actually a Lizard jaw.  Not sure which one but here is a group from the Lance to compare against, "E" is a possibility

For future reference here is a Premax of a Scapherpeton

 

Your Paronychodon tooth is most likely the Premax of an Acheroraptor.  The serrations are the key and typical of what was described by Currie/Evans 2019 belonging to Saurornitholestes in Campanian deposits

Also question the call on the Avisaurus tooth, looks tooth bulbous of a crown to be one. 

Thanks for your input! That's interesting, I had based the jaw section's ID on that pic of your salamander premaxilla because I thought they were similar. The Acheroraptor premax makes sense given the serrations. 

The ID on the Avisaurus tooth has been rather tentative since I found it back in 2017, it seemed like the closest match at the time but it may not be avian. I certainly have better tools to photograph the tooth now since I'm no longer using an iphone 6 camera.