More Unknown Bones

[Rustdee]

Hello everyone,

I have recently had another hunting trip in southeastern North Carolina and have found some interesting bones/fragments. I am hoping something here can help provide an id to exactly what formation these bones are coming from. A few weeks ago I posted a thread in which I displayed some reptilian vertebrae and some unknown bones. For some reason I cannot paste the link here. However, I believe some of the vertebrae in that thread to be crocodile.

The bones pictured here and in my previous thread were all found in the same place. Geologic Survey maps as well as other members have informed me that the material is most likely Peedee or Waccamaw with the lower possibility of Canepatch or Castle Hayne. I have found upper Cretaceous echinoids as well as more modern keyhole sand dollar fossils side by side in this same location. Finally, a lot of the bones are preserved in a light gray limestone. I have not seen the echinoids in that limestone yet.

I would appreciate any info in narrowing down what down period these bones are from and possibly identifying what kind of animal these belonged to. If you need more pictures or if I could provide more info I would be happy to do so.

Thank you all

Edited July 30, 2014 by Rustdee

[Harry Pristis]

There is lots of potential help here on TFF, Rustdee; but, you've go to do your part. Your images are too dark, for one thing. Here's what I suggest:

Do you have editing software that came with your camera or with your scanner? Use the image-editing software (or download shareware from the Internet).

You can be as creative as you want to be with the editing software, but the following basic things will improve anyone's images:

GROUP IMAGES of more than a few fossils are not effective. The more individual fossils in an image, the greater the amount of table-top is in the image. Viewers cannot see the details of a fossil that might take up less than five percent of the total image. Photograph a single fossil (or two or three, if they're tiny), and post that image.

LIGHT IT UP. Use as much ambient light as possible to reduce shadows...two light sources are a minimum. Eliminate yellowed images caused by tungsten filament bulbs by switching to the new compact flourescent bulbs. CFLs come in a "daylight" (6500K) version that you can use in any (non-dimming) fixture and produce very little heat.

BRIGHTEN AND CONTRAST. BRIGHTEN the image until the fossil appears slightly washed, then adjust the CONTRAST until the fossil is bright and sharp and is a good color-match. Practice this until you get a feel for it.

CROP, CROP, CROP. Again, use the image-editing software to crop the image to only what is pertinent. Leave only a narrow margin around the fossil. The more of your kitchen counter-top in the image, the smaller the fossil image will be.

REDUCE THE FILE SIZE. The images directly from a camera usually are too large for posting directly to a forum. You can constrain the proportions of your image to produce exactly the size that works best (I routinely use 700 Kb - 2.0 Mb for my images now). Save in JPEG format.

[old bones]

I took the liberty of lightening a few of your photos to aid in ID. Some them are a bit too out of focus to work with tho.

[jpevahouse]

Looks like possibly turtle ...

[Rustdee]

Thank you all. I apologize for the bad lighting. I retook some pictures in better lighting and enhanced the size of each picture. I hope this provides better detail for an id. I also took some more pictures of a vertebra that I am fairly clueless about. Unfortunately a large chunk is missing.