Fossil Contributions to Paleontology - The Gallery

[PFOOLEY]

MPF-2017-200

 

Spathites puercoensis aptychus

 

Specimen donated to the NMMNH in August 2017

 

 

 

EDIT: Published April 24th, 2019

 

https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/6935

[Geo Traveler]

Giant White Shark and Dolphin bitten vertebra

C. megalodon (pick which definition of "C" you are comfortable with) and Cetacea

Mid-Miocene Calvert Formation - Plum Point Marl Member, bed 12

Calvert County, Maryland

Donated to Calvert Marine Museum

 

 

First associated Meg tooth with bitten bone I have found, it belonged in the museum, not my basement 🙂

 

 

[Gideon]

Egertonodus basanus. Shark Skull.

Weald Clay, Hauterivian, Early Cretaceous.

From Cooden Beach, East Sussex, UK

Donated to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)

 

 

Hopefully will be useful for the research of fossil shark guru Dr John Maisey. Donation facilitated by the affable Carl Mehling. A pleasure to deal with this most knowledgable gent.

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/82252-hybodus-shark-skull-wealden-uk/&tab=comments#comment-872489

 

 

[JBMugu]

Suspected Shark Tooth Hill Coprolite

Round Mountain Silt Formation (Miocene)

Bakersfield, CA

Donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (2018)

[FossilDAWG]

I posted this tooth a couple of months ago in the ID forum but no firm conclusions were agreed on.  The tooth has been identified by Dr. Lynn Harrell Jr. of the Alabama Geological Survey as a replacement tooth from a large mosasaur such as Mosasaurus.  Such teeth start out as a hollow enamel cap (like this one) and fill in with dentine as they develop.  As the tooth was hollow it is filled with sediment and somewhat flattened, giving an unusual appearance for a mosasaur tooth.  The "serrations" are closer to crenulations, seen on some large mosasaurs.  It is possibly the youngest documented mosasaur specimen from Alabama, so it has been donated to the Alabama Geological Survey collections.

 

Don

[Northern Sharks]

New species of crinoid Pararchaeocrinus kiddi.

From upper part of the Bobcaygeon formation

Near Brechin, Ontario.

The specimen will soon be on it's way to the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology.

 

Found October 21, 2017 and identified/named by S.Cole, D.Wright, W. Ausich & J. Koniecki (proper accreditation will be updated once manuscript is released).

 

 

I believe the first reported occurrence of the genus in the area and a new species name in my honour.

[Carl]

Mammuthus sp. tooth plate fragment

Pleistocene

Big Brook, NJ

Found 8 June 2018

Now AMNH FM 145749 in the American Museum of Natural History's Division of Paleontology

Probably the first record for Big Brook, NJ and one of only about a dozen records of mammoths for the state of NJ

[Carl]

Cretodus crassidens tooth (with bonus fish vertebra)

Upper Cretaceous (Upper Santonian) Tombigbee Sand Member, Eutaw Formation

Catoma Creek, Montgomery, Montgomery Co., Alabama

Found 2 May 2018, prep completed 9 May 2018

Now AMNH FF 22019 In the American Museum of Natural history's Division of Paleontology

[FranzBernhard]

Turritella gradata/ T. aquitanica

"Florianer Schichten" of the Styrian Basin, Austria (Miocene - Badenian)

Höllerkogel hill, St. Josef, Styria, Austria

Natural History Museum of Vienna, Austria

 

A few weeks ago, M. Harzhauser asked for a high-resolution photo of this gastropod. I thought, it could be better studied in person, so I donated it.

This is my first fossil donation to a museum and the only T. g/a I have found so far.

Its the left one, there is also an extraordinary abundant T. partschi in the same specimen (the right one).

Hight of both gastros is about 22 mm, specimen collected in June 2017.

Attached is also the email correspondence.

Franz Bernhard

[sseth]

In the past few months I have donated several specimens to the Fossil Butte National Monument. 

Among them were an undescribed bird skull, a seed pod, and what may be the first eel found in the formation. 

 

I can't publish pics of the eel yet as per my agreement.  It is currently being studied at the University of Chicago.

[Dave pom Allen]

On 5/22/2015 at 12:02 AM, Dave (POM) Allen said:

heres a link to one of the many fossils that i have donated over the years. all from Taranaki, New Zealand, Tangahoe, formation, Pliocene age

http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1059746

also this seabird that is at TePapa and is in the process of being named after me

UPDATE: Here's the paper of this fossil named after me Ardenna davealleni if anybody is interested.

A new species of Pliocene shearwater(Aves: Procellariidae) from New Zealand

Ardenna davealleni Tennyson & Mannering, 2018.pdf

[Paleoworld-101]

Large tyrannosaur tooth, either from Gorgosaurus or Daspletosaurus. Campanian in age (about 75 Ma), Dinosaur Park Formation.

I found this loose on the ground a couple of days ago while on a guided walk through Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada (a world heritage site). It is one of the best teeth they have seen for a long time. I handed it over to the park and they will probably display it either in their visitor centre or on their tours. They have my details recorded as well. The site is incredible by the way, never have I seen so many dinosaur bones lying everywhere in the field like that! 

 

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

I donated all of these fossils to the GeoCenter Møns Klint (island of Møn, eastern Denmark) on 10/07/18. All fossils are from the Lower Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous; ~70Ma) chalk cliffs of Møns Klint, and were collected in August 2016. The specimens were donated due to their rarity at MK; some of them might soon go on display.

 

Series of 40 articulated Isselicrinus buchii (isocrinid crinoid) columnals

 

Very small partial tooth crown of a squatinid shark

 

Demipyramid (single mouth plate) of a small cidarid sea urchin

 

2 partial arms of an ophiuroid

[Johan]

Pycnodonte vesicularis (Lamarck, 1806)
Jagüel Formation - Maastrichtian - Upper Cretaceous
Bajada de Jagüel, Patagonia, Argentina
Free University Brussels (VUB, Belgium)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

During my PhD research, I sampled a K-Pg boundary section in Argentina, named 'Bajada de Jagüel', to do a micropaleontological and geochemical study. As I am also a fossil hunter, I picked up a few of the fossils I encountered during the sampling, mostly bivalves, to keep as a little 'souvenir', so to say, for my personal collection. Years later, during my postdoctoral research, I came into contact with a PhD student from the Free University of Brussels named Niels de Winter, who was working on reconstructing seasonality changes in the Late Cretaceous based on fossil bivalves. After some nice discussions on the topic, I suggested to donate my specimens of Pycnodonte vesicularis, in an attempt to reconstruct the seasonality in Argentina during the Maastrichtian. As the 7 specimens that I donated from my personal fossil collection had to be analyzed for stable oxygen and carbon isotopes and for trace elements, so they were cut into slabs to create cross sections. Hence, my specimens are not stored nicely in some showcase, but have been 'destroyed' in the name of science. ;). After a nice exploratory study, we managed to get our work published in the Open Access journal Climate of the Past this summer: https://www.clim-past.net/14/725/2018/

 

The Bajada de Jagüel section, in the Patagonian desertof Argentina. Nice fieldwork area, right?

 

[JohnJ]

On ‎4‎/‎27‎/‎2014 at 11:56 AM, JohnJ said:

Welcome to a very special gallery topic! It will be exclusively dedicated to fossil specimens our members have contributed to the science of Paleontology! Their fascinating stories will be found elsewhere within this new forum. However, the posts in this Pinned topic will serve as a visual reference for those fossils our members have donated to further research in science-based museums and universities. So, let's get started.

Please follow the format and guidelines below when posting in this topic:

Common or Scientific Name.
Geologic Formation or Geologic Age.
Region the fossil was found.
Museum or University that received the fossil.
A short note explaining the reason for the fossil contribution. Please include a link to the topic about your fossil (if available).
(attach your fossil photos here)

Please use the linked topics to continue any discussion or congratulations.

Your fossil donation to the science of paleontology will be recognized by The Fossil Forum with this icon under your avatar:

Thank you for sharing your fossil contributions.

 

Format reminder 

 

[frankh8147]

Common or Scientific Name - Ceratodus lungfish
Geologic Formation or Geologic Age - Late Cretaceous
Region the fossil was found -Monmouth County, NJ
Donated to New Jersey State museum

One of two Late Cretaceous lungfish fossils found from Eastern USA. Together, these specimens warranted another study on the Late Cretaceous lungfish' of Eastern USA.

 

 

 

[gobbler716]

 A new palaeodictyopteran (Palaeodictyopterida: Palaeodictyoptera) taxon is described based on a nearly complete hind wing found in the Pottsville Formation (Upper Carboniferous) of Bibb County, Alabama.  Archaemegaptilus blakelyi Beckemeyer & Engel, new species, is the sixth insect genus and species described from the Pottsville of Alabama and the second palaeodictyopteran from those deposits.  It is the third valid species assigned to the family Archaemegaptilidae.  Previously known species are A. kiefferi Meunier, from the Commentry of France and A. schloesseri Brauckmann et al., from the Hagen-Vorhalle of Germany.

 

I am the Blakeley for which this specimen is named.  My journey began with sending photos of my new find to Ms. Kimberley Hall,  then director of The Cahaba Environmental Center associated with The  Living River Retreat on the Cahaba River in Central Alabama; a Presbyterian camp and education center.  Kim was amazed with the detail of the specimen and submitted it to Dr. Dana Ehret, paleontology department at The University of Alabama.  Dr. Ehret was immediately impressed and contacted Ms. Hall.  He communicated to me thru Kim that he wanted the specimen for further research. after a few exchanges, I deeded the specimen over to UA, as I felt a duty to have this find studied and shared with students.  Had no idea it would be a new species!

This honor has been bestowed upon me for finding the specimen, but I share this honor with Ms. Hall and Dr. Ehret as they were the ones who set the wheels in motion.  If not for them, the specimen would be just another rock in my personal collection.

 

https://journals.ku.edu/paleoent/issue/view/1110  There is a better photo in the published report.

 

Common or Scientific Name - Archaemegaptilus blakelyi Beckemeyer & Engel
Geologic Formation or Geologic Age - Pottsville Formation, Upper Carboniferous
Region the fossil was found - Bibb County, Alabama
Donated to - The University of Alabama

 

[michele 1937]

Sending publication of the Encrinus I donated for the study.

 

Common or Scientific Name - Encrinus aculeatus

Geologic Formation or Geologic Age - medio Triassico
Region the fossil was found - Val Brembana - Bergamo - Italia
Donated to Università di Milano 

 

Michele

2018 Hagdorn etal_Encrinus_aculeatus (1).pdf

[michele 1937]

Sending publication of the Crustacea I donated for the study.

 

Common or Scientific Name - (Crustacea) Potamon potamios

Geologic Formation or Geologic Age - Pleistocene
Region the fossil was found - Turchia
Donated to Museo Scienze Naturali di Milano 

 

Michele

Crostaceo.pdf

[michele 1937]

Sending publication of the Crustacea I donated for the study.

 

Common or Scientific Name - (Crustacea) Palaemon monsdamarum

Geologic Formation or Geologic Age - Miocene (Messiniano)
Region the fossil was found - Mondaino - Emilia Romagna - Italia
Donated to Museo Scienze Naturali di Milano 

 

Michele

Gamberetto Mondaino_.pdf

[Dewbunny]

Multiple crab specimens 

Ocala Formation, Brooksville, FL 

Late Eocene 

 

This is the biggest c. brooksi they've ever seen.

 

 

[masonboro37]

Centcorystes libbyae n. sp. NCSM 12530.

Palaeocorystoid crab carapace

Maastrichtian of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Peedee Formation, Rocky Point, North Carolina

 

 

I have posted previously about the new species of Masstrichtian, Palaeocorystoid, North Carolina, USA- crab carapace. I wanted to share on this link too.  I found the carapace on October 12, 2012 at the Martin Marietta,  Rocky Point Quarry, North Carolina. I donated it the the Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh, North Carolina in late 2018.  The adventure began and the lil' carapce made it's travels. The article has been recently published and I want to again thank the authors! I posted this in my previous post, but have to send thank you again to  Barry W. M. van Bakel, George E.  Phillips, Don N. Clements, Torrey Nyborg, Alex Osso and Fransisco J. Vega. Thank you to Trish Weaver and the North Carolina Fossil Club. Thank you to Doug Pope, Manager at  Rocky Point Quarry, NC.  

 

I posted a link to the article published by ELSEVIER previously, try this one too if you want to. LINK

All the best everyone,

 

Libby

[kg1]

Otodus Chubentensis   

Miocene -Astoria Formation, Moolack Beach

Lincoln County, Oregon USA

Found 2/10/2017

Donated to  Mace Brown Museum College of Charleston

CCNHM 1686

 

Thought I'd throw in this one I donated in 2017.  3" tooth

 

[Dinoguy89]

I donated this piece of fossilised wood to the local Lyme Regis museum. One of the great things about this is that not only will it go on display but it will get handled by younger fossil hunters. The Lyme Regis museum takes students out on school trips. During these fossil walks they teach the students about the local history and of course Mary Anning, the famous fossil hunter who discovered one of the the first ichthyosaur skeletons. Once they return they then get to handle fossils that the local hunters have found and also specimens that's been donated. I know it's not the most interesting of finds but it's nice to know it's going somewhere where it will get seen and passed around.

 

 

 

Scientific Name - Petrified wood

Geologic Formation or Geologic Age - Lower Jurassic, 195 million years old. 

Region the fossil was found - Lyme Regis, found beneath Black Ven

Museum or University that received the fossil - Donated to the Lyme Regis Museum 

 

 

 

[DE&i]

The “Scunthorpe Pliosaur”

 

The material consists of   

The premaxilla

A single ratchet tooth

The atlas/axis complex

10 cervical vertebrae

4 pectoral vertebrae

14 dorsal vertebrae, 2 of them with complete neural arches and

spines.

A humerus with a tooth attached

14 ribs and 9 rib fragments

An isolated neural spine

 

Taxonomic diagnosis is at an early stage. The cross-sectional shape of Pliosaur teeth is an important character, but although the only complete tooth found is circular in section leading to the premature inference that this may be an undescribed species, comparison with teeth of the known taxon Pliosaurus carpenteri (Sassoon et al 2012) also has ratchet teeth which are circular in section although more anterior teeth are trihedral or subtrihedral. Detailed study especially of the premaxilla and atlas/axis is needed to establish taxonomic identity. The best identification for now is Pliosaurus sp.

 

Rose Nicholson collections manager of North Lincolnshire Museum had offered a public repository for the specimen (to which the specimen now resides), something which is essential for research and publication.  There are already plans to set up a temporary display at the museum, and discussion on how best to display it in the longer term are under way.

 

Pliosaur sp

Kimmeridge Clay

Lincolnshire, UK

Age: 150-160 million years.

 

Photo: From the left : Rose Nicholson collections manager at North Lincolnshire Museum , Richard Forrest one of the UKs leading Plesiosaur experts and "Scunthorpe Pliosaur" bone finder extraordinaire Darren Withers.