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Critters Encountered While Fossil Hunting


Xiphactinus

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Looking at some of the great shots people have posted of mantises (mantisi?), snakes, etc., I thought it would be fun to see some of the pix people have taken in the field. Here are a couple of mine....a busy dung beetle, a cicada my son caught and a killdeer nest made right in the middle of an inoceramus clam. All from W. Kansas.

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Guest N.AL.hunter

Love the killdeer nest picture, and I must admit to once watching a dung beetle for around 1/2 hours struggle with its dung ball.

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I like this thread! Keep it going, everyone!

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I saw this critter perched on a shrub last year. I had never seen anything like it. I could see that it was a moth in its form, but the warning colors were a bit intimidating.

It turns out that this is a "Polkadot waspmoth" which feeds (as a caterpiller) on Oleander, a decorative shrub with toxic sap. The warning colors apparently are backed up by a bad taste (from its Oleander diet) for predators. The electric blue-black may mimic the mud-dauber wasps which are common here in the South.

Mimicry is a fascinating evolutionary strategy, with sometimes spectacular examples in living forms (Snakekeeper could tell us about mimicry in his tri-color kingsnakes!). I imagine that mimicry was common in extinct taxa, though it is mostly not preserved. Any examples you can think of among fossil forms??

------Harry Pristis

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http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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You might be able to see mimicry in insects, where something like wing numbers could tell differences. I wonder if a monarch butterfly and a viceroy were both fossilized in the same formation, if they would be classified as different species. I can only tell them apart from the color patterns, and somewhat by size.

ashcraft, brent allen

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This little fellow (a Pica) is a little rabbit relative that inhabits the scree slopes in our Rockies. They are common in the areas I look for paleozoic shark teeth. When you approach they give a high pitched 'Peeeaaak' which means either:

"...leave those fossils alone. I found them first " :angry:

or:

"...did you know there's a Grizzly looking over your shoulder" :wacko:

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Lol. They say that the pica is the animal that Pokemon's creators fashioned Pikachu (the little electric mouse thing) after. The face is strangely similar, too...

I don't have any pictures, unfortunately, but I'll be more mindful in the future. I do, however, have a couple of good stories. Once, when investigating some exposures along a TN highway, I discovered a fawn hiding in the scrub grass on one end. Even when I was right next to it, the little thing didn't move a muscle. It just looked at me.

I pretended not to notice, even though it was really really hard to keep from petting it. I really love baby animals, lol. But I didn't want to scare it to death, and I didn't know where the mother was.

I've also found birds' nests and various insects, but again, I don't have any pictures.

By the way, I didn't think we had dung beetles in the states. I always figured they were in Africa only. I learned something new today. :)

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How hard do you guys think it would be to get anson or another moderator to make a section dedicated just to Reptilians??
Don't forget Cody that this forum is mostly about dead things! LOL :)

B

Although it would be cool ,I think maybe a wildlife sighting forum would be applicable here. It seems every time I am out in the sticks I take some cool in situ wildlife shots.

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Keeping in the same vein of critters AND tying it into fossil hunting - please find below a picture of a red ant hill taken at the Lost Creek reservoir in Jacksboro, TX. This is a famous Pennsylvanian site and I saw this red ant (NOT fire ant) hill and remembered somthing that I had read a long time ago about paleotologists in the badlands prospecting red ant hills for small mammal fossils. Sure enough when I looked closely there were small fuselinids. The ants basically excavated them and put them on top of their hill. On another trip I found a hill that was made up of almost all fuselinids. . .

Jacksboro-RedAntHill.jpg

btw - if you find one of these hills - you will NOT find fire ants. . . they are mortal enemies.

Roger

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Guest N.AL.hunter

At one of my favorite Cretaceous creek sites here in Bama, my wife and I heard a noise from on top of the bank so we got very still. Along came an armadillo. It climbed down into the creek and found a nice muddy spot to start rolling around in. We wish we had our camera with us.

The best snake I have ever seen while collecting was a really large (and I mean it had to be almost 7 feet long and a huge head) Bull Snake in Wyoming. It was early in the morn and this snake had figured out that if it lay next to an old tractor tire it would warm up quicker due to the black rubber of the tire. It was a beauty. No other Bull Snake I've seen was nearly as big as this guy.

And for those going to Point-A Dam, don't be surprised if you dig into a hole with a rather large, ##### off crawdad in it!

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Keeping in the same vein of critters AND tying it into fossil hunting - please find below a picture of a red ant hill taken at the Lost Creek reservoir in Jacksboro, TX. This is a famous Pennsylvanian site and I saw this red ant (NOT fire ant) hill and remembered somthing that I had read a long time ago about paleotologists in the badlands prospecting red ant hills for small mammal fossils. Sure enough when I looked closely there were small fuselinids. The ants basically excavated them and put them on top of their hill. On another trip I found a hill that was made up of almost all fuselinids. . .

Roger

I have some "ant hill" fossils. My favorites are Oligocene bird eggshell fragments from the White River Badlands; rather than simply piling up the material they excavate, the ants scavenge the area for loose stuff and add it to the mound.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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when i was 4 almost 5 i ran over a rattler with my bike it popped my back tire my dad killed it and it was over 8 feet. When i was 7 i caught a 6 1/2 footer with my sneaker i took it off waved it in front of him and he stuck his fangs right in it and then i grabbed him and brought him home almost lost my grip a few times it was a lot stronger than me. Tehn when i was 11 i caught a 6 1/2 footer with a single rock to the head :P i had no choice he was after me so i had to do him in :P. Also ran into one while crawling into a gopher tortoise hole that was scarier then falling 30 feet out of a tree top i got outa that hole fast :P

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WOW! I sure am glad the only thing we have to worry about up here is 15 or 20 tons of cliff unexpectedly falling on us as we collect fossils!!!

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They grow em big in Texas!post-417-1210892709_thumb.jpg The knife is 4 1/2 in. Seen while fossil hunting out west.

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when i was 4 almost 5 i ran over a rattler with my bike it popped my back tire my dad killed it and it was over 8 feet. When i was 7 i caught a 6 1/2 footer with my sneaker i took it off waved it in front of him and he stuck his fangs right in it and then i grabbed him and brought him home almost lost my grip a few times it was a lot stronger than me. Tehn when i was 11 i caught a 6 1/2 footer with a single rock to the head :P i had no choice he was after me so i had to do him in :P. Also ran into one while crawling into a gopher tortoise hole that was scarier then falling 30 feet out of a tree top i got outa that hole fast :P

Your two up on me Anson. While fossil hunting near Mountain Creek Lake (Dallas) my best friend & I caught a 5 1/2 ft Western Diamondback. My friend got in the backseat of my '47 Chevy (this was in the early 60's) holding it as we figured out what to do with it. We decided to take it to the Dallas Zoo. As we were driving to there, Bobby started yelling it was moving & he didn't know if he could hold it. Then slience for a moment. Bobby says guess what --- you have rattlesnake s*** in your floorboard! I don't think too many people can claim that dubious distinction. :rolleyes:

-----"Your Texas Connection!"------

Fossils: Windows to the past

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In TX I've encountered water mocassins, rattlesnakes, wild hogs, deer, skunks, nutria, porcupines, armadillos, alligator gar, alligators, scorpions, tarantulas, black widows, and sundry other vermin during my field escapades. Sort of keeps things interesting.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Saw a T-Rex attack this child! LOL Just kidding, my friend is a reptile cage distributor and the manufacturer of the cages makes these awesome T-Rex sculptures out of high density polyethelyne.

They are very detailed up close.post-417-1210898105_thumb.jpg

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Here's one of our friends I encountered on a recent trip. She even showed me her namesake pose!

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The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Here's one of our friends I encountered on a recent trip. She even showed me her namesake pose!
Cottonmouths, and just about any snake in the water, scare me a little. I'm afraid I'd never see them until they've bitten me, lol.

I'm not observant enough when I'm wading through streams. :(

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Here's one of our friends I encountered on a recent trip. She even showed me her namesake pose!

Nice Agkistrodon there. I need to collect a couple of Agkistrodons for the Plano Living Materials Center in Plano Tx. Did you see more than one? And could you post the locality where seen. I completely understand if you do not wan't to disclose locality info.

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B

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Cottonmouths, and just about any snake in the water, scare me a little. I'm afraid I'd never see them until they've bitten me, lol.

I'm not observant enough when I'm wading through streams. :(

You've got to surprise them to draw a strike, which is pretty hard to do; they're plenty observant for the both of you. Most are very shy; all they require is our absence.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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You've got to surprise them to draw a strike, which is pretty hard to do; they're plenty observant for the both of you. Most are very shy; all they require is our absence.
From what I have seen in the wild is that cottonmouths usually don't retreat very readily as do the regular banded and diamondback water snakes. A cottonmouth if presented with an option to flee most likely will not and display the mouth scare tactic. Watersnakes "nerodia rhombifera" and the other sub species will usually slide from the bank to the water and dissapear. I love those stories of people who have been out at the lake and fall into a water moccasin nest! I'd love to see them build that nest LOL
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