WestonBarter Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Hello everyone! My name is Weston and while I studied Geology at Whitman College, I never continued by degree. I am now getting a nursing degree and was stationed in Jordan, Montana for rural clinical. A contact of mine let me dig on land and I found all these fossils. Here is a link to my google drive photos. Please help me ID everything and anything you can. I am wondering if the things that look like eggs are actually eggs, as well as what the perfect sphere is. I am also wondering what dinosaur the bones most likely belonged to. I am confident there are coprolites right? I am emailing the Museum of the Rockies and Montana State University to get some help with ID, but I'm curious what you think! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ygoAl7xSULYAMcD-F4i4MzZC31YqL3J0?usp=sharing Link to post Share on other sites
FB003 Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Recommend posting pictures here without requiring downloading from an unknown 3rd party. Many eggs turn out to be interestingly shaped rocks. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Ludwigia Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 @WestonBarter Please post your finds directly and go easy on us at first by just posting a very few of them to begin with. Then we can concentrate better without being overwhelmed by the masses. And please give us a more precise location. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Troodon Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Welcome, I've collected around Jordan and it's definitely rural as rural you can get, enjoyed eating at the Hell Creek Bar, . Like the others have said best to post your photos, links expire over time and easier for everyone to see it versus a 3rd party 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
WestonBarter Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 I everyone, my apologies for the link and mass of photos. Here are a few: they were all found in the hell creek formation, in a little gully on a steep cliff on property near the marina of Hell Creek Park. I am confident about the coprolites and bones, but don't know what bone the dinosaur may belong too. Also, I found the egg looking things in the same vicinity as the coprolites and bone. Any help is appreciated! 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Troodon Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 This is an ilium of a Champsosaurus Additional views of 3rd item needed. First and last item look geologic 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Pixpaleosky Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 1 hour ago, WestonBarter said: Hi, this look like pisoliths, a type of concretion 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Troodon Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Still need additional photos to confirm but the more I think about it leaning to a ceratopsian quadratojugal. Link to post Share on other sites
WestonBarter Posted April 24, 2022 Author Share Posted April 24, 2022 Thanks for your insights everyone. Here are more photos of the presumed ceratopsians. These were all found in the same slope within a few meters of one another. I am also wondering what this sphere is, and how that could be formed geologically. It was literally right next to all these ceratopsian bones. Link to post Share on other sites
WestonBarter Posted April 24, 2022 Author Share Posted April 24, 2022 Are these teeth in the last photo? Link to post Share on other sites
jpc Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 1 minute ago, WestonBarter said: Are these teeth in the last photo? no. I do not see any distinguishing characters in the series of bones you posted above them. Except maybe the divot in the first one. I call those chunkosaurs. @Troodon might have some insight. The ball is a sandstone concretion. They are very common down here in the Lance Fm (equivalent to the Hell Creek). They form by chemistry, so I'm told. Basically something in there causes the sandstone around it to be more solidly consolidated than the rock around it. When the softer rock erodes from around it, these things plop out and sit there until someone finds them. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
Troodon Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 No teeth, do not see enamel. Which photos are those that I asked for? Agree with jpc on the sphere 1 Link to post Share on other sites
WestonBarter Posted April 24, 2022 Author Share Posted April 24, 2022 Is my imagination that these are eggs completely wrong lol? @TroodonThese last few below here are of the different angles you requested. Link to post Share on other sites
Troodon Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 I'll stay with that call on that bone, open to other suggestions. Eggs are extremely rare in the HC in fact only a few Dino ones have been found. One key feature that is not present in your examples is an very thin eggshell. They look very solid with a fairly homogenous structure. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
WestonBarter Posted April 24, 2022 Author Share Posted April 24, 2022 Ok thanks for the ID, I have a lot of smaller bits, but I don't think they will offer anything specific. Regarding the egg like rocks, I am probably seeing what I want to see, but this one was found at the same spot, just separated from the conglomerate chunk. I see a "shell" layer there. I also included a couple more photos of the interesting surface pattern on another sample. Any idea what process made that pattern? Link to post Share on other sites
jpc Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 These last two pix are of ironstone concretions. In the HC and Lance Fm's they often exfoliate by losing small concoidal flakes. That is what happened to these. So, basically they are eroding, and when they do the freeze/thaw causes little bits of the outer layer to spall off leaving these kinda honeycombed patterns. Cool finds... but not eggs. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
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