Fossil Hunting At Home

[jpevahouse]

A year or two ago I bought two collections of fossil bone from a woman living in South Dakota adjacent the Bad Lands area. She crawled around in ravines and gullies carefully collecting bones and organizing them in specimen boxes.

I still go through the boxes examining and trying to idenitfy the numerous mixed small fossils. This one box is a good example of the care she spent finding and recovering the smallest pieces. These bones were presumably found in the same place at about the same time and represent a snapshot of what was eroding from the White River sediments at that particular location.

One of the most interesting fossils in this group is the lower jaw section and two teeth from Leptictis, a tiny carnivorous shrew like animal. There are some other bone fragments which may also be related.

Also included are a hoof core, oreodont molar, vertebrae and skull fragment, tortise shell fragment, two sections of very delicate bird bone, ankle bones, possilbe poebrotherium tail vertebrae and numerous bone fragments. The small plastic box contains teeth and jaw fragments from what looks like the rodent paleolagus.

Every time I go through the boxes I find something new and interesting.

Edited October 17, 2014 by jpevahouse

[Raggedy Man]

Nice turtle shell fragment. I found several while staying at the homestead in Nebraska back in July. Toadstool park was amazing even though it's been vandalized over the years. The Hudson-Ming bison kill was interesting and we even went to the museum in crawford and checked out the clash of the mammoths. Over all was amazing...The badlands are one of the best places to visit.

Best regards,

Paul

Edited October 17, 2014 by Raggedy Man

[RJB]

Neat stuff. I always wanted to hunt the white river but only got one chance a long time ago. Not enough time in ones life to do it all.

RB

[caldigger]

What is the approximate size of the darker tooth just above the two jaw portions with the empty sockets? I just found something that looks very similar, but my camera unfortunately can not take pictures of something that small. Mine is about 1/8" across.

[jpevahouse]

The tooth is tiny, approx 1/8 inch wide. Attached is a picture taken from the internet of a Leptictis mandible showing the teeth more clearly.

What is the approximate size of the darker tooth just above the two jaw portions with the empty sockets? I just found something that looks very similar, but my camera unfortunately can not take pictures of something that small. Mine is about 1/8" across.

[Plantguy]

Very nice little collection there!

I got a chuckle when I looked at your photo closer...had to go check my garage as I have a pile of similar Plio-Pleistocene vertebrate light-colored stuff sitting on a computer case....Got lots of large tortoise and some other fragments but no bird material. Excellent.

Thanks for the post!

Regards, Chris

[jpevahouse]

Two more groups, leptomeryx mandible, humerous, calcaneus, phalange (toe), ulna. Leptomeryx was a small deer of the Oligocene era sometimes called a "mouse deer" because of it's size. Notation on box says "Valentine Formation".

Assortment of toe bones, hoof cores, probably oreodont, mesohippus proximal phalanax. White River Formation, South Dakota

Edited October 18, 2014 by jpevahouse

[Triceratops]

Those are all really great fossils!:-)