digit Posted April 1, 2023 Share Posted April 1, 2023 REMINDER: PLEASE carefully read ALL of the rules below. Make sure you include all the required information, IN THE REQUESTED FORMAT (below) when you submit your fossil! If you have a question about a possible entry, please send me a PM. Please pay special attention to Rule #5: Before and After Preparation Photos must be submitted for prepped specimens NOT found during the Month of the Contest. In addition to keeping the contest fair, this new qualification will encourage better documentation of our spectacular past finds. Entries will be taken until 11:59:00 PM EDT on APRIL 30, 2023 Any fossil submitted after that time, even if the topic is still open, will be deemed ineligible! Only entries posted with CLEAR photos and that meet the other guidelines will be placed into the Poll. Photos of the winning specimens may be posted to TFF's Facebook page. Please let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for sharing more of your fossils and research this month. Shortly after the end of the Month, separate Polls will be created for the Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month. In addition to the fun of a contest, we also want to learn more about the fossils. Tell us more about your fossil, and why you think it is worthy of the honor. To view the Winning Fossils from past contests visit the Find Of The Month Winner's Gallery. Now, go find your fossil, do your research, and make an entry! Best of success to all, and good hunting! *********************************** Rules for The Fossil Forum's Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month Contests Find a great Vertebrate Fossil or Invertebrate/Plant Fossil! Only fossils found personally by you are allowed. NO PURCHASED FOSSILS. Post your entry in the Find of the Month topic. Use a separate post for each entry. (Only two entries per member per contest category.) Your fossil must have been found during the Month of the Contest, or Significant Preparation * of your fossil must have been completed during the Month of the Contest. You must include the Date of Discovery (when found in the contest month); or the Date of Preparation Completion and Date of Discovery (if not found in the contest month). Before and After Preparation photos must be submitted for prepped specimens not found during the Month of the Contest. Please make sure you arrange for photos if someone else is preparing your fossil find and completes the prep requirements in the contest month. You must include the Common and/or Scientific Name. You must include the Geologic Age or Geologic Formation where the fossil was found. You must include the State, Province, or region where the fossil was found. You must include CLEAR, cropped, well-lit images (maximum 4 images). If you are proud enough of your fossil to submit it for FOTM, spend some time to take good photos to show off your fossil. Play fair and honest. No bought fossils. No false claims. * Significant Preparation = Substantial work to reveal and/or repair important diagnostic features, resulting in a dramatic change in the look of the fossil. The qualification of Significant Preparation is decided at the discretion of staff. Any doubts as to the eligibility of the entry will be discussed directly with the entrant. ******* Please use the following format for the required information: ******* • Date of Discovery (month, day, year) • Scientific and/or Common Name • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation • State, Province, or Region Found • Photos of Find (Please limit to 4 clear, cropped, and well-lit images.) (If prepped, before and after photos are required, please.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamlambo Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 A bit of a strange find, I found this bone in amongst the Miocene crabs the area is famous for. I thought it was a cetacean vertebra but some sharp eyed people (thanks Carl!) saw that it was a mosasaurus vertebra! It's probably eroded out from a Cretaceous formation further inland. A cool and unexpected find! Date of Discovery: April 2, 2023 Scientific and/or Common Name: mosasaur vertebra Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Possibly Conway formation ~80 million years old State, Province, or Region Found: Canterbury, New Zealand 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welsh Wizard Posted April 9, 2023 Share Posted April 9, 2023 (edited) Partial fossil fish found near Whitby when looking for ammonites. It was in a nodule that I split and managed to slightly damage the fossil in the process. It’s been glued back together and expertly prepared by a friend of mine Craig Chivers who also prepared Dracoraptor hanigani for me. Date of discovery: 13th January 2023 Preparation completed: 8th April 2023 Fish - species unknown currently but could be pachycormus sp. Update. Identified by Samuel Cooper as probably Pachycormus macropterus Found near Whitby, West Yorkshire, U.K. Lower Jurassic Toarcian circa 182 million years Edited April 9, 2023 by Welsh Wizard Added ID 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicnfossils Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 Figure I might as well enter my first good find of the year. So glad this long winter is over! Found April 11, 2023 Ceratopsian Horn unknown sp Late Cretaceous, 76.5-74.4 MYA Dinosaur Park Formation Steveville Area, Newell County, Alberta Canada 20 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welsh Wizard Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 I’ve been quite lucky this month with a few good fossils found or prep completed. Found as a rounded pebble. A picture during prep and the completed ammonite. Found: circa 15 years ago - Prep completed 12th April 2023 Ammonite- Xipheroceras planicosta Jurassic Lower Lias Obtusum Zone Black Venn Charmouth, Near Lyme Regis Dorset UK Size of ammonite 50 mm 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted April 14, 2023 Share Posted April 14, 2023 16 hours ago, Welsh Wizard said: Found as a rounded pebble. A picture during prep and the completed ammonite. A picture before prep is required. (Rule # 5) 1 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welsh Wizard Posted April 14, 2023 Share Posted April 14, 2023 4 hours ago, Fossildude19 said: A picture before prep is required. (Rule # 5) There is one part way through prep. It was a pebble and I don’t have the original pictures to hand as it was years ago. Here is the other side. It looked like this. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cngodles Posted April 15, 2023 Share Posted April 15, 2023 Another common gastropod find. These disc-shaped gastropods have a depressed spire. The photo on the left is the top, the right is the base. The base is flat. The tops are often filled with material and I spent an hour or more with a scratch brush and hot water to clean the material out. The protoconch is paper-thin and can be destroyed if you are too rough. One of my favorite features is what I like to call "The Eye of Amphiscapha" that you can see if you shine a light from behind, as the fossilized protoconch is translucent. Scale bar = 5 mm. • Date of Discovery: April 12, 2023 • Scientific and/or Common Name: Amphiscapha sp. • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Late Pennsylvanian, Kasimovian, Conemaugh Group, Glenshaw Formation, Pine Creek limestone • State, Province, or Region Found: Armstrong County, Pennsylvania • Photos of Find: 1 13 Fossils of Parks Township - Research | Catalog | How-to Make High-Contrast Photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSCHNELLE Posted April 17, 2023 Share Posted April 17, 2023 • Date of Discovery (April 14, 2023) • Scientific and/or Common Name: Brachauchenius species (Pliosaurid/Pleisiosaur) • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Late Cretaceous, Late Cenomanian - Eagle Ford Shale - Upper Bouldin Flags Member • State, Province, or Region Found: Central Texas, USA • Photos of Find: 36 mm x 19 mm 1 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFOOLEY Posted April 17, 2023 Share Posted April 17, 2023 Invertebrate Acanthoceras amphibolum Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Paguate Mbr. of the Dakota Formation Sandoval County, NM Discovered: 04.08.23 10 "I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" ~Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared C Posted April 17, 2023 Share Posted April 17, 2023 16 hours ago, LSCHNELLE said: 3 “Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted April 17, 2023 Share Posted April 17, 2023 Quite the month so far! Don 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted April 17, 2023 Share Posted April 17, 2023 16 hours ago, LSCHNELLE said: • Date of Discovery (April 14, 2023) • Scientific and/or Common Name: Brachauchenius species (Pliosaurid/Pleisiosaur) • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Late Cretaceous, Late Cenomanian - Eagle Ford Shale - Upper Bouldin Flags Member • State, Province, or Region Found: Central Texas, USA • Photos of Find: 36 mm x 19 mm Amazing how you keep finding these pliosaur teeth! Boy, would I like to go on a fossil hunt with you some day, try my luck as well! 1 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSCHNELLE Posted April 18, 2023 Share Posted April 18, 2023 7 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said: Amazing how you keep finding these pliosaur teeth! Boy, would I like to go on a fossil hunt with you some day, try my luck as well! @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon- To answer your question - I think definitely part luck and part looking in a geologic formation that just happens to have a few pliosaur teeth remains. This fragile tooth could have been washed away into multiple fragments after the next creek flooding event. So, I had a small window in which to spot it. And, I was actually very surprised by the location of this find! My previous pliosaur tooth finds had been in a completely different area and in a different half-million year older part of the formation. But, I have found 300 to 400 Ptychodus teeth for every one of these. So, they are not all that common. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huntlyfossils Posted April 18, 2023 Share Posted April 18, 2023 (edited) • Date of Discovery (April 18, 2023) • Scientific and/or Common Name: Kronosaurus queenslandicus • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Early Cretaceous, Toolebuc Formation • State, Province, or Region Found: NW Queensland This has been donated to the local Museum due to it's rarity they are going to restore this tooth ,it was very fragile and found broken in matrix. Edited April 18, 2023 by Huntlyfossils 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted April 18, 2023 Share Posted April 18, 2023 1 hour ago, Huntlyfossils said: • Date of Discovery (April 18, 2023) • Scientific and/or Common Name: Kronosaurus queenslandicus • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Early Cretaceous, Toolebuc Formation • State, Province, or Region Found: NW Queensland This has been donated to the local Museum due to it's rarity they are going to restore this tooth ,it was very fragile and found broken in matrix. No way! A second pliosaur tooth find this month? And, moreover, a Kronosaurus queenslandicus! Wow! I'm awestruck! 1 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facehugger Posted April 21, 2023 Share Posted April 21, 2023 (edited) Alright. I'll shoot my shot, as they say. It's been a while. Very proud of this ech. H77 x W65.5 x H48.5 mm April 6, 2023 Holaster simplex Lower Cretaceous, Weno Limestone Tarrant County, TX Edited April 21, 2023 by facehugger 1 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSCHNELLE Posted April 21, 2023 Share Posted April 21, 2023 (edited) @facehugger That is a beautiful echinoid fossil! Well preserved and nice prep! Edited April 21, 2023 by LSCHNELLE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facehugger Posted April 21, 2023 Share Posted April 21, 2023 I'll shoot one more time. A little damaged, but who doesn't love an underdog? L60 x W58.5 x H34.5 mm April 5, 2023 Macraster sp. (possibly aquilerae) Lower Cretaceous, Fort Worth Limestone Tarrant County, TX 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nautiloid Posted April 22, 2023 Share Posted April 22, 2023 I think this find is definitely worthy of entry into FOTM! This is a well preserved, articulated example of the extremely rare trilobite species Hypodicranotus striatulus. A handful of these bugs have been collected from the Walcott-Rust Quarry, but as far as I know, this is the first complete specimen to come from a New York locality outside of the WRQ/Trenton Falls region. Because it was collected in shale, it is a little bit compressed, but it still exhibits outstanding detail! This trilobite was originally collected as a ventral specimen on February 19. I had it flipped and prepped dorsally, and the prep was completed on April 19. Date of discovery: February 19,2023 Date of finished prep: April 19, 2023 Scientific and/or common name: Hypodicranotus striatulus Geologic age/formation: Middle Ordovician, Trenton Group State, province, or region found: Mohawk River Valley, New York State Photo before prep: Photos post-prep: 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KompsFossilsNMinerals Posted April 22, 2023 Share Posted April 22, 2023 Incredibly rare bug!! Jon did a spectacular job with the prep! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared C Posted April 22, 2023 Share Posted April 22, 2023 This month has some great momentum, and I sense more coming, so lets just lay it on! I had no idea Texas could produce teeth with complex coloration like this. I love the blues and the swirls. This specimen looks exotic. Date of Discovery (April 1, 2023) • Scientific and/or Common Name: Galeocerdo eaglesomi • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Eocene (Uppermost Lutetian), Crockett fm • State, Province, or Region Found: Whiskey Bridge, Texas 1 15 “Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSCHNELLE Posted April 22, 2023 Share Posted April 22, 2023 @Jared C Beautiful tooth! Nice prep job! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieLynn Posted April 23, 2023 Share Posted April 23, 2023 Well this is quite the month. I will add my newly prepped Echinoid that I found a few months ago. It's pretty scrappy, but it's a fairly uncommon find, so I am okay with it being scrappy! • Date of Discovery Found October 2022 - Prepped finished April 21 2023 • Scientific and/or Common Name - Echinoid Codiopsis stephensoni • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation - Cretaceous Corsicana Formation • State, Province, or Region Found - Texas Before Prep After 1 8 www.fossil-quest.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cngodles Posted April 24, 2023 Share Posted April 24, 2023 (edited) I never find coiled cephalopods this large. I'm tentatively calling this a Mahoningoceras, a genus reported only from the Pottsville formation of Ohio and known only from four specimens (3 Ohio, 1 Missouri). I still have a lot of research to do, but the open umbilicus, the rate of expansion, the camera shape, and the sutures suggest this rarely published genus. The body chamber is missing; it is reported to be one-quarter of a whorl larger in this genus. If I am correct about the ID, this will be a new report from two formations younger in time. • Date of Discovery: April 22, 2023 • Scientific and/or Common Name: Mahoningoceras sp. • Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Late Pennsylvanian, Kasimovian, Conemaugh Group, Glenshaw Formation, Cambridge Limestone • State, Province, or Region Found: Brooke County, West Virginia • Photos of Find: Coated in paraloid to protect it: Supporting Plate: (Not part of the contest). Edited April 24, 2023 by cngodles Correcting limestone 4 6 Fossils of Parks Township - Research | Catalog | How-to Make High-Contrast Photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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