November 2013 Finds Of The Month

[JohnJ]

What surprises will be discovered this month? Let's see your best finds!

Please remember that we recently introduced another qualification to the current rules. Make a note of 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. Best of luck to all and good hunting!

Entries will be taken through November 30th. Please let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for sharing more of your fossils and research this month.

To view the Winning Fossils from past contests visit the Find Of The Month Winner's Gallery.
____________________________________________________________________________________


Rules for The Fossil Forum's Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month Contests

1. You find a great Vertebrate Fossil or Invertebrate/Plant Fossil! Only fossils found by you.

2. Post your entry in the Find of the Month topic. Use a separate post for each entry.

3. 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.

4. You must include the Date of your Discovery or the Date of Preparation Completion.

5. Before and After Preparation photos must be submitted for Prepped specimens not found during the Month of the Contest.

6. You must include the common or scientific name.

7. You must include the Geologic Age or Geologic Formation where the Fossil was found.

8. Play fair and honest. No bought fossils. No false claims.

Shortly after the end of the Month, separate Polls will be created for the Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month. The maximum entries allowed by the Polling software will be selected for each contest by the staff.

In addition to the fun of a contest, we also want to learn more about the fossils. So, only entries posted with a CLEAR photo and that meet the other guidelines will be placed into the Poll.

Within a few days, we will know the two winning Finds of the Month! Now, go find your fossil, do your research, and make an entry!

[Evgeny Kotelevsky]

Category: Invertebrate

Discovery Date: 1.11.2013

Preparation Completion Date: 1.11.2013

Name: Foliscyphia disciplana

Class: Hexactinellida

Age: K₂st (Upper Cretaceous, Santonian)

Location: Saratov, Russian Federation

Note: Complete sponge skeleton of museum quality. This is a 3D model - please, open!!!

[jcbshark]

Vertebrate Pleistocene Mammoth tooth found on 11/2/13

[MarcoSr]

Vertebrate Pleistocene Mammoth tooth found on 11/2/13

Jeff

That is one really sweet tooth. You should definitely do very well in the voting.

Marco Sr.

[sixgill pete]

Vertebrate Pleistocene Mammoth tooth found on 11/2/13

Definitely one sweet tooth. Congrats and good luck.

[jcbshark]

Thank you both,here's to hoping.I put it in here on Chris's (plantguy)suggestion. As soon as I found it he said I should enter it.But there are PLENTY of good hunters on here!

Edited November 9, 2013 by jcbshark

[FossilDudeCO]

That will be a tough one to beat! good luck to you jcb!

[Fossil Foilist]

Squalus sp. (Shark Dorsal Fin Spine)

Rocky Point, NC

Peedee Formation

Cretaceous

11/10/2013

​A well known paleontologist identified it for me.

-Skylar

[JackSnakes]

Found 6th Nov. Black Ven, Charmouth East Beach, Dorset, UK

Early Jurassic

Dapedium politum

Prepped by Chris Moore of Forge Fossils, Charmouth.

Edited November 13, 2013 by JackSnakes

[Al Dente]

Squalus sp. (Shark Dorsal Fin Spine)

Rocky Point, NC

Peedee Formation

Cretaceous

11/10/2013

​A well known paleontologist identified it for me.

-Skylar

Skylar

This is an interesting find. I'm having trouble making out some of the details from the photos, is there a posterior groove in this fossil? Is it hollow? What is its shape in cross section? Sorry for all the questions.

[Fossil Foilist]

Skylar

This is an interesting find. I'm having trouble making out some of the details from the photos, is there a posterior groove in this fossil? Is it hollow? What is its shape in cross section? Sorry for all the questions.

Maybe these pics will help, It does have a groove and it does not look hollow. Hard to describe the shape of the cross section, I will have this specimen saturday in raleigh, I presume you will be there?

[Al Dente]

Maybe these pics will help, It does have a groove and it does not look hollow. Hard to describe the shape of the cross section, I will have this specimen saturday in raleigh, I presume you will be there?

Thanks for posting the additional photos and answering my questions. That is a nice find. I think several people will be interested in seeing it Saturday. I'll be there all day.

[cowsharks]

Found 6th Nov. Black Ven, Charmouth East Beach, Dorset, UK

Early Jurassic

Dapedium politum

Prepped by Chris Moore of Forge Fossils, Charmouth.

Cool, now that I know I'm looking at a fossil fish. Here's a link for others in case they're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dapedium

[John Hamilton]

Vertebrate Pleistocene Mammoth tooth found on 11/2/13

Jeff,

Awesome tooth! Do you think you could squeeze one of those into the next flat rate box of matrix you send me?

[sixgill pete]

Squalus sp. (Shark Dorsal Fin Spine)

Rocky Point, NC

Peedee Formation

Cretaceous

11/10/2013

​A well known paleontologist identified it for me.

-Skylar

Awesome find Skylar. This has to be an extremely rare Cretaceous find, maybe a first for the PeeDee.

[jcbshark]

Jeff,

Awesome tooth! Do you think you could squeeze one of those into the next flat rate box of matrix you send me?

Thank you John but to be honest if you find one of those in the matrix I sent it would probably be accidental lol.I am still at the point I have to go look at it to believe I didn't dream it.My wife is all ''how much is it worth" and I say nothing cause it's not for sale!

[MarcoSr]

Squalus sp. (Shark Dorsal Fin Spine)

Rocky Point, NC

Peedee Formation

Cretaceous

11/10/2013

​A well known paleontologist identified it for me.

-Skylar

Skylar

This is an interesting find. I'm having trouble making out some of the details from the photos, is there a posterior groove in this fossil? Is it hollow? What is its shape in cross section? Sorry for all the questions.

Skylar

Very nice and interesting specimen. I have a very large number of shark dorsal fin spines especially from the Eocene of Virginia. I had always thought that they were Squalus. However they do not compare well to your specimen. Mine all have a prominent grove in the spine itself and have a very different cross section. So I understand why Al Dente asked the questions that he did. There are multiple shark genera that have dorsal fin spines and maybe mine are from something other than Squalus. Could you PM me contact information for your paleontologist so I could send some pictures? Or could you forward some pictures?

Marco Sr.

[mikeymig]

I found this very large Eldredgeops cephalon (2.1") on 11/13 in Livingston County NY. I know it's just the cephalon but I posted a photo of it on my Facebook page and a ton of people liked it so I thought I would enter it in this months contest. The little Eldredgeops used for scale is just under an inch long and thats the normal size for most Eldredgeops from NY. The little bug is NOT part of contest. I have a real big Eldredgeops in my collection that's 2" long and it fits on this cephalon. If complete this guy would have been close to 4" long.

Thanks
Mikey

Edited November 20, 2013 by mikeymig

[JohnJ]

I found this very large Eldredgeops cephalon (2.1") on 11/13 in Livingston County NY. I know it's just the cephalon but I posted a photo of it on my Facebook page and a ton of people liked it so I thought I would enter it in this months contest. The little Eldredgeops used for scale is just under an inch long and thats the normal size for most Eldredgeops from NY. The little bug is NOT part of contest. I have a real big Eldredgeops in my collection that's 2" long and it fits on this cephalon. If complete this guy would have been close to 4" long.

Thanks

Mikey

Mikey, could you also post a photo of the cephalon by itself? Thanks.

[caldigger]

Wow, there are some great entries so far, and the month is not over yet! It will be a good contest this month.

[JohnJ]

I finally got some prep time in recently and I was going to post my entry, but i saw the new rule #5. My before pix are all terribly out of focus. I do have a during prep photo.... would that count? Otherwise, I'll just sit back and enjoy the competition.

JP, the purpose of the rule is to establish that significant preparation has taken place within the month of the contest. If your pre-prep and during prep photos convey a significant difference to your finished photos, then your entry would be valid. Send me a PM of the photos if you still have any questions.

[matt cable]

I found this plate July 9th of 2011, but it needed serious repair. I'm sure many of you know Scott V. and he performed his magic building half of the base matrix. He completed the prep for me this month and returned it November 1, 2013. The unprepped pic is flipped. You can see one of the rollers to the left and the negative of the Bella. This location also produces color patterns as described in this NatGeo article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130327-trilobite-spots-marine-paleontology-science/

Name: Bellacartwrightia whiteleyi and Eldredgeops rana

Age: Devonian Wanakah Mb., New York

[alsatites]

The result of a trip to Balingen (SW Germany) - end of the preparation: mid-Nov 2013.

On a construction site in Balingen in a huge block of approximately 4-5 square meters, largely covered by smaller blocks and soil, a part of the outer coil of an Arietites was visible.
When I uncovered this specimen , in addition , another , much larger ammonite was immediately visible. I also uncovered this , and the fracture surface of a third , smaller specimen appeared. All three were together in a confined space of just one square meter.
The smaller of them was inclined to the layer and therefore broken. However, I grabbed the broken pieces. The inner coils were virtually entirely of calcite, so I assumed that the quality of the other pieces could be good.
I was able to remove a smaller part with the Ammonites from the large block , but it was to heavy. I had to divide the remaining piece for transportation .
Two young men (they just passed fortunately) helped me to carry the big chunk to the car.
The preparation takes time because the rock is very hard.. Some fragments of the smallest ammonite were probably lost on the battlefield in the heat of battle, so I had to supplement a small piece of the outer coil ( 6 cm ) .

In fact, the two large ammonites are largely calcited with a nice shell ( except the center ).
The items shown belong together, even if they are not yet glued to improve the handling .
I will them join together when the right place for the piece has been found.

I assume they are Arietites bucklandi, Lias (Lower Sinemurian, Bucklandi Zone).


This part was visible at first


Broken small arietites after gluing, before preparation


humpback of the largest ammonite, 65 cm diameter


3 Arietites bucklandi on 1 square meter, diameters 65, 40 and 26 cm
(Lower Sinemurian, Bucklandi Zone).


Peter (Alsatites)

[piranha]

I found this plate July 9th of 2011, but it needed serious repair. I'm sure many of you know Scott V. and he performed his magic building half of the base matrix. He completed the prep for me this month and returned it November 1, 2013. The unprepped pic is flipped. You can see one of the rollers to the left and the negative of the Bella. This location also produces color patterns as described in this NatGeo article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130327-trilobite-spots-marine-paleontology-science/

Name: Bellacartwrightia whiteleyi and Eldredgeops rana

Age: Devonian Wanakah Mb., New York

Amazing rescue and repair on these fantastic trilobites! Kudos to you and the preparator for a great masterpiece!

[frenchtrilobite]

Hello !

Here is my little find for this month :

Neseuretus tristani
Higher Llanvirnian, Middle Ordovician

South of Rennes, FRANCE.

210mm x 54mm !!

Before preparation :

After preparation :

Found the 16/11/2013 and finished to be prepared the 23/11/2013.