Show Us Your Fossils Challenge Mode: Ordered By Geologic Time Period!

[Nimravis]

 

 

 

 

[Wrangellian]

6 hours ago, siteseer said:

I don't think Ralph was shooting for a prize.  He has lots of fossils too, giving many away.  He was probably just posting photos while he had the opportunity.

 

Fossils considered ugly to someone who has seen lots of them are often considered at least interesting to someone who hasn't seen them before.  I have met people who want only perfect, shiny fossils but I tell people that it's more fun to have an interesting collection, because sometimes. all that can be found of some groups are incomplete and/or "ugly" specimens.  It's better to have a piece of something rare than nothing at all.

It wasn't just Ralph doing that... In the beginning I thought it was supposed be one person, one specimen at a time, but a few were doing more than one at a time, so I went back to look at the intro post and it wasn't clear, so I wasn't going to say anything. Then that activity really picked up when it became a competition. I began to feel out of place as I wasn't competing. Like going for a stroll in the middle of a marathon. I don't want to ruin everyone's fun, just saying.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Wrangellian

[Nimravis]

3 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

It wasn't just Ralph doing that... In the beginning I thought it was supposed be one person, one specimen at a time, but a few were doing more than one at a time, so I went back to look at the intro post and it wasn't clear, so I wasn't going to say anything. Then that activity really picked up when it became a competition. I began to feel out of place as I wasn't competing. Like going for a stroll in the middle of a marathon.

I have not been participating in this, except to look. I did not know that there was a contest, which I am not concerned about or what the rules were. As Jess said, I have a lot of fossils and I just saw that I had some pieces that would fit in, just like the two I posted.

[Wrangellian]

16 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

I have not been participating in this, except to look. I did not know that there was a contest, which I am not concerned about or what the rules were. As Jess said, I have a lot of fossils and I just saw that I had some pieces that would fit in, just like the two I posted.

I know, the rules weren't clear, and maybe there weren't really any except that fossils had to be posted in geochronologic order - I maybe made assumptions on top of that... It became a contest later when a fossil prize was offered, and I can't complain about that except that the whole flow of this thing changed. But I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill.

[fossilsonwheels]

Devonian Chondrichthyes bits from the Genundewa Limestone of New York. There are some cool denticles and cartilage bits. Second picture is quite similar to some shark skull pieces I found in publications from other Devonian locations. 

[fossilsonwheels]

I also posted several in a row and have done that prior in this thread. It has absolutely nothing to do with points. It’s more about just wanting to post certain fossils from certain time periods. As the thread moved faster, that became harder to do so I saw a lull and posted a few. 

Im happy to step aside and let others post. I’ve put plenty on this thread. I’ve got a collection thread I’ve been thinking about doing that will keep me busy.

If the thread gets stuck on the Paleocene, feel free to tag me back in lol 

[FranzBernhard]

9 hours ago, siteseer said:

It's better to have a piece of something rare than nothing at all.

I don´t have anything rare as a prize. The rare things that I find in between all the rudists and snails go to the museum. As well as most of the not so ugly abundant things.

"Rare" in a certain sense are only the sites the fossils come from: Virtually no fossils and sites where known in that area until about three years ago. Now you can go out and collect regularly from a good amount of sites.

Franz Bernhard

[Paleorunner]

From the Estephanian Carboniferous, this humble little fragment of Cordaites. Villanueva del Rio - Seville - Spain.

[siteseer]

5 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

It wasn't just Ralph doing that... In the beginning I thought it was supposed be one person, one specimen at a time, but a few were doing more than one at a time, so I went back to look at the intro post and it wasn't clear, so I wasn't going to say anything. Then that activity really picked up when it became a competition. I began to feel out of place as I wasn't competing. Like going for a stroll in the middle of a marathon. I don't want to ruin everyone's fun, just saying.

 

I know I've posted 2 or 3 in a row here and there but there have also been times when I was writing a post and someone would post before I could finish.  I decided to post when I could.

 

I have a feeling that this thread will slow down and speed up from time to time whether there's a prize or not.  It might even fizzle out for a while maybe during the upcoming holidays or because some new thread gets hot.  I've seen popular threads come to a stop and not start again for months.

 

 

[siteseer]

3 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

I don´t have anything rare as a prize. The rare things that I find in between all the rudists and snails go to the museum. As well as most of the not so ugly abundant things.

"Rare" in a certain sense are only the sites the fossils come from: Virtually no fossils and sites where known in that area until about three years ago. Now you can go out and collect regularly from a good amount of sites.

Franz Bernhard

 

I was just speaking generally about fossil collecting.

[hemipristis]

Captorhinus aguti, Lower Permian, Richards Spur, Oklahama, USA

[Gramps]

1 hour ago, hemipristis said:

Captorhinus aguti, Lower Permian, Richards Spur, Oklahama, USA

Wow! Did you find, prep, and assemble those tiny pieces yourself? If so, I'd like to hear the story or see pictures of the process. I can't imagine doing that with my clumsy hands.

[Nimravis]

Another favorite of mine. Found by Paleontologist Jesse James Galloway in 1941.

 

Triassic

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nimravis

[historianmichael]

54 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Another favorite of mine. Found by Paleontologist Jesse James Galloway in 1941.

 

Triassic

 

 

 

 

 

What is the story behind how you acquired this? You would think a specimen like this would be in a museum

[Nimravis]

41 minutes ago, historianmichael said:

 

What is the story behind how you acquired this? You would think a specimen like this would be in a museum

I bought it off of a dealer for $100 a number of year ago. The fossil is cool, but the Id info is very special. He was born in 1882 and died in 1962.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nimravis

[Nimravis]

Here is another favorite from the Jurassic of Germany. Both Halves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Nimravis

[TRout]

Cretaceous - Xiphactinus tooth from the Niobrara Chalk in Kansas

[rocket]

30 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Here is another favorite from the Jurassic of Germany. Both Halves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

nice, I think its Metahaploceras

[Notidanodon]

On 11/12/2022 at 8:48 PM, siteseer said:

 

Isistius is also known from the Paleocene of California (Lodo Formation) with I trituratus also known from the Early Eocene of Morocco.

 

 

also known from the eocene bracklesham, barton and london clay groups

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, rocket said:

 

 

nice, I think its Metahaploceras

Thank you- that was the label that was on it and I never did check to confirm.

 

[hemipristis]

16 hours ago, Gramps said:

Wow! Did you find, prep, and assemble those tiny pieces yourself? If so, I'd like to hear the story or see pictures of the process. I can't imagine doing that with my clumsy hands.

I wish!  I bought two of these off our favorite auction site. They are from the Wolfe Family collection.  I cannot imagine the precision, patience, and delicacy needed to reconstruct this!  
 
re clumsy hands. I hear ya. I dont have hands, I have paws, lol. I wear XXL gloves and am incapable of fine detailed work. But I can palm a basketball. Haven’t had a need for that ability, funny enough 

[hemipristis]

9 hours ago, rocket said:

 

 

nice, I think its Metahaploceras

gesundheit

[siteseer]

10 minutes ago, hemipristis said:

I wish!  I bought two of these off our favorite auction site. They are from the Wolfe Family collection.  I cannot imagine the precision, patience, and delicacy needed to reconstruct this!  
 
re clumsy hands. I hear ya. I dont have hands, I have paws, lol. I wear XXL gloves and am incapable of fine detailed work. But I can palm a basketball. Haven’t had a need for that ability, funny enough 

 

What's the size?  I never met George Wolf but heard of him years ago.  He is said to have had an incredible fossil collection including a lot of unusual specimens from Texas.

 

At some sites where Captorhinus is found, isolated bones are very common, especially those of that animal.  Local collectors assemble limbs and even skeletons.  The trick is sizing them all, knowing the proportions.  You'd have to confirm the ID with a paleontologist who knows that stuff. 

 

I traded for a sample of the various animals from a site in Oklahoma back in the late 80's-early 90's and picked up some from Texas too.  When I look at what others have, I see I missed a few genera. 

[siteseer]

10 hours ago, Nimravis said:

I bought it off of a dealer for $100 a number of year ago. The fossil is cool, but the Id info is very special. He was born in 1882 and died in 1962.

 

You could still find a few good footprints from the area back in the early-mid 90's.  A friend bought a killer specimen and sold it to a museum.  Even back then, you had to wait for some old collection pieces to come up for sale but sometimes a group would become available because a collector had a few of them.  I haven't seen one for sale in years.

 

That looks like a great one, Ralph.

 

Jess

[siteseer]

This tooth has been identified as Pleuraspidotherium, a genus once classifed within the extinct family Meniscotheriidae but now placed within the Pleuraspidotheriidae.  It's a group of hoofed herbivores that originated before there were even the earliest artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates like camels, deer, or antelope) or perissodactyls (odd-toed ungulates like horses, tapirs, rhinos).  Pleuraspidotherium might have looked like an odd rodent.  It was also squirrel-like in that it could climb, dig, and run but it had different teeth and wasn't related to rodents.

After the dinosaurs and many other Mesozoic groups died out at the end of the Cretaceous. there was a rather rapid burst in evolution (a radiation) among many groups including mammals but even the earliest representatives of groups we see today (rodents, rabbits, cats, dogs, deer, horses, etc.) did not appear during the Paleocene Epoch.  If we could travel back to that time, we would see some vaguely rodent-like, weasel-like and dog-like animals as well as odd hoofed forms we couldn't place.  Many of the mammals of the Early-Middle  Paleocene died out before the end of the epoch and many of those survivors didn't see the middle of the Eocene.  They were replaced by other odd groups and others that were the ancestors of mammals we take for granted today.

 

I see the tooth shifted a little before shot was taken so it's a little off-angle but you can still see the occlusal (biting) surface.  My baby niece (now a teenager and a skincare expert) said my fingers look very dry and that I should moisturize.

 

 

Pleuraspidotherium sp.
meniscotheriid mammal
Late Paleocene (Sparnacian)
Cernay-les-Reims, France
5/16 of an inch (just under 8mm) high

 

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by siteseer