Misc TX Goodies; Cretaceous, Pleistocene, and Holocene

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Check out the pyrite on the big Macraster. The pyrite provides killer contrast with the rest of the test.

A smaller species of Macraster comprises the association shown in another image. This cluster is the only of its species I've found. There are 25 Macs and one regular echinoid Goniophorus scotti in total.

The human skull was an interesting find. I turned it in to the county homicide detective a few days later and am still awaiting my copy of the lab report.

The nice points are an infrequent bonus.

[Gatorman]

AHHH your killin me.

[Guest Cris]

Awesome stuff.. Make sure and fill us in when you get a copy of the report about the skull... I bet that thing is oooold... The points just about kill me.... Great finds.. Thanks for sharing 'em..

[Harry Pristis]

Nice stuff, Dan. 

The first four images opened (verrry slowly -- one oversize image slows down all images), but the last three didn't (they have that "no pic" icon of an "x" in a frame).  I don't know what the problem is.

There were a couple of posts indicating that others had seen these last three images, yet the counters below the images indicate that there had been zero views.

I am still learning to use this software, and maybe it's my slow dial-up connection.  Anyone else having trouble opening all these images?

-----------Harry Pristis

[Gatorman]

Harry, I will be upgrading to a better software in the next couple weeks. Hopefully that will fix the image viewing problems, many times though refreshing the page will load the other images. 

[MOROPUS]

Very nice buffalo cranium! I think it`s an extint specie due to de size and length of the horns... but I can be wrong! :huh: Perhaps other guys on the chat may confirm this; very nice findings indeed!!!!!

[Bill]

The human skull was an interesting find. I turned it in to the county homicide detective a few days later and am still awaiting my copy of the lab report.

Dan, did you ever get the lab report?

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Native American, female, 39-58 at death based on closure of skull sutures, no forensic significance...so they never tested absolute age.

[Bill]

...so they never tested absolute age.

That's a shame, could have been pretty ancient. Did you get it back?

[Uncle Siphuncle]

No they won't be giving it back. One of my buddies in the DEA went to bat for me as well and they wouldn't give it to him either. They want to keep it on hand as a teaching aide as well as be able to hand it off to tribal council if requested, or so they say. Since there are no laws on the books against private collectors in TX retaining isolated remains of this sort, law enforcement has advised me to simply hang onto whatever I find. My judgment is good enough at this point to tell something old from something recent enough to help solve an open case, and in that situation I'd readily hand over what I found, or better yet let the law retrieve it themselves if too fresh for me to feel like handling.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

No they won't be giving it back. One of my buddies in the DEA went to bat for me as well and they wouldn't give it to him either. They want to keep it on hand as a teaching aide as well as be able to hand it off to tribal council if requested, or so they say. Since there are no laws on the books against private collectors in TX retaining isolated remains of this sort, law enforcement has advised me to simply hang onto whatever I find. My judgment is good enough at this point to tell something old from something recent enough to help solve an open case, and in that situation I'd readily hand over what I found, or better yet let the law retrieve it themselves if too fresh for me to feel like handling.

If it wasn't found on Gov. land, and even it was found on land where collecting is permitted, it should be yours until a tribe requests the piece. See if you can get an attorney to write a letter for you fairly cheap.

If that doesn't work, it is cheap to file an action in US District Court, and even cheaper to file one in Circuit Court. If you represent yourself, they might be able to out maneuver with unknown(to you) legalities, but you will have the judges ear. Perhaps even, a favorable judgement.

If "they" see that you are serious about recovery, they might relinquish the piece without a fight.

[Auspex]

If you've given up on getting it back, and you're feeling vengeful, just leak it to the council that one of their ancestors is being held without charges. Then call the newspaper.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Thanks for not giving me flack for being morbid or worse! Actually I calculated in the possibility of never seeing it again before handing it off. The tradeoff in my mind was having professional lab results at no charge. Finding your first human remains is sort of a freaky experience. I don't plan to pursue it mainly because I don't want to draw attention to my sites, hehehe. I figure as much as I collect and found this thing 3 years into my collecting efforts, perhaps I'll run into a better one some day. When I do it will recieve as much or more respect as my other finds.

[non-remanié]

I'm not superstitious in the least, but I don't know if I would feel right about keeping a human skull in my personal collection. Weren't we talking about collecting karma in another thread? That's gotta be worth even more negative karmic points than hoarding every broken sharks tooth or damaged echinoid you can fit in your garage. I am a horror film fanatic and definitely have a morbid side so that part of me thinks it would be pretty cool to find something like this, but I really don't know if I could keep it unless it was definitely quite ancient. I don't know why that really matters, but it seems others feel the same way since they were saying "too bad it looks like it could be pretty old". So where exactly is that boundary between recent and "fossil" that would make you guys feel alright with keeping it????