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North Carolina Super Crocs and Dinos!


fossil_lover_2277

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Made a second trip to North Carolina's Black Creek group last week, and was definitely rewarded! Lots of interesting finds, the best of which are shown below:

 

Deinosuchus rugosus (D. schwimmeri) teeth, osteoderms, skull fragments, and one MASSIVE coprolite. Also, the bottom right bone is either mosasaur or crocodillian/alligatoroid, I believe either from the hand or leg, hip maybe, but not sure on the exact ID..

 

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Dinosaur teeth! One's definitely hadrosaur, the other I have as the broken-off, enamel-less tip of an indeterminate therapod crown..you be the judge on whether that one's a tooth lol. I think it is, the break has the exact shape of a broken-off Carcharodontosaurus spp. crown tip I have.

 

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Having the enamel off the possible theropod tooth makes it suspect to being something else. Trying to think what a broken end section looks like on our local theropod teeth. It would be much more rare but a claw core is coming to mind for this one. Am assuming it clinks when you tap it on a tooth. That's the rough field test to rule out plants.  Could very well be a theropod tooth just throwing some ideas out there. 

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WOW! Deinosuchus was one of my favorite prehistoric animals growing up, mostly because it lived in Texas where I'm from and because of its appearance in the Prehistoric Park series that I must have rewatched dozens of times. Finding teeth from one was a bucket list experience I didn't even realize I had until now. I guess I'll have to make it up to North Carolina sometime! 

Edited by GPayton
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10 hours ago, Plax said:

Having the enamel off the possible theropod tooth makes it suspect to being something else. Trying to think what a broken end section looks like on our local theropod teeth. It would be much more rare but a claw core is coming to mind for this one. Am assuming it clinks when you tap it on a tooth. That's the rough field test to rule out plants.  Could very well be a theropod tooth just throwing some ideas out there. 

Definitely not plant, that was the first thing I thought to test. It’s definitely mineral of some sort. Pleistocene mammals could also be a source, I’ve found a couple of their remains here, mineralized deer antler and a rooted tooth fossil. I still need to email that guy @Troodon mentioned to me, he might provide some insight.

 

6 hours ago, GPayton said:

WOW! Deinosuchus was one of my favorite prehistoric animals growing up, mostly because it lived in Texas where I'm from and because of its appearance in the Prehistoric Park series that I must have rewatched dozens of times. Finding teeth from one was a bucket list experience I didn't even realize I had until now. I guess I'll have to make it up to North Carolina sometime! 

I got somewhat lucky finding the site I did. Don’t get me wrong, it took a lot of work and research too, but I’m not even sure of how many fossils are there outside of what I found. Definitely a case of “the more you fossil hunt, the luckier you get” in regards to your finds. Fossils in the Black Creek group are scarce outside of small local areas, from what I can tell.

Edited by fossil_lover_2277
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16 hours ago, Plax said:

Having the enamel off the possible theropod tooth makes it suspect to being something else. Trying to think what a broken end section looks like on our local theropod teeth. It would be much more rare but a claw core is coming to mind for this one. Am assuming it clinks when you tap it on a tooth. That's the rough field test to rule out plants.  Could very well be a theropod tooth just throwing some ideas out there. 

The preservation does looks more bone like than a theropod tooth without enamel.  I have a hard time seeing how the hard dentin could wear in that irregular fashion but nothing surprises me with fossils. The base is also odd for a theropod tooth.  Just an oddity.

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