JohnJ Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 With the holiday season coming up soon, many of you will have more time in the field. May your travels be safe and your fossil hunts memorable. Take plenty of photos and let's see what you find. Carefully read the rules below, make sure you include all the required information, and submit your discovery! 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 Contests1. 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.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! The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welsh Wizard Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Hi I thought I'd try my hand again this month. This time, a Hildoceras lusitanicum found on the 25th October 2014 and prep finished on 9th November 2014. The ammonite measures 5.5 inches at it's widest point. Found at Saltwick Bay, Nr Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK Lower Jurassic, Upper Lias, Alum Shales Before After Regards Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 (edited) Hi guys, Here's my entry for this month. I have finally finished this crab. The arrival of my new tools last month (ME-9100 and Micro-Jack #6) enabled me to finish off the tricky bits: in behind the claws and the claws themselves. I could then smooth off the matrix and give the crab a thin coat of PVA dissolved in acetetone. Fossil crab Tumidocarcinus giganteus (Glaessner, 1960) Mount Brown Formation Miocene Found December 2013, Prep. finished 11th November 2014. Concretion is 17 cm across. For something a little different I have a time lapse of prep for this specimen in the next post. Edited November 11, 2014 by Doctor Mud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 (edited) Here is a time lapse of prep. of the Tumidocarcinus specimen in the previous post. I used chisels and engravers to start, then engravers. I then acquired air scribes to finish it off. An ME-9100 with a 2 inch stylus to get in behind those big claws and a Micro-Jack #6 for finer work. The matrix was smoothed off with a dremel, then a light coat of PVA dissolved in acetone was applied for protection and contrast. Enjoy! Edit: You may find it a little fast, but I had to speed it up to fit it within 2 MB. You can slow it down if watching with Windows Media Player by right clicking on the screen > selected Enhancements > play speed settings > slow Tumido_11_11_2014.wmv Edited November 12, 2014 by Doctor Mud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Very nice time lapse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Very nice time lapse. Thanks JPC. This is the first full crab I have prepped. Sometimes progress was slow, so it was nice to take a picture at the end of a session and see the progress that was made. I hope others find it useful or even just entertaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Pocock Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Very nice Hildoceras lusitanicum i love ammonites and continue to be fascinated by them. Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Pocock Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Nice crab i wouldn’t know where to start with a prep like that very good time lapse Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Thanks Mike. I have to credit our fellow members for helping me along the way and learning about the art if crab prep. I also practiced on one that was not so good and made sure I studied other prepped examples of this species. Then you have a rough "map" of where you expect bits to be. There are always going to be unknowns, like positions of legs and pincers so you just try and minimize the risk that you might blast into them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triceratops Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 Thats a great fossil crab Dr Mud! -Lyall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Thanks Triceratops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masonboro37 Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 Beautiful specimens already! Process of identification "mistakes create wisdom". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rejd Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 Nice specimens all. But we need more! I have some micro vert on shale that I need to go through that I collected earlier this month. Maybe I will find something good that I can add. stay tuned..... A fossil hunter needs sharp eyes and a keen search image, a mental template that subconsciously evaluates everything he sees in his search for telltale clues. -Richard E. Leakey http://prehistoricalberta.lefora.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Pocock Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Hoping to enter this month as long as I can finish the prep this Sunday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldigger Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 (edited) I hope some more entries are submitted or it's going to be a bit one sided with inverts. Come on guys the snows not that deep! Edited November 24, 2014 by caldigger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarleysGh0st Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Come on guys the snows not that deep! You obviously haven't been to Penn Dixie in the past week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Search4 Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 (edited) Happy Turkey Day guys! I'd like to submit my first and only Mastodon molar for consideration of VFOTM! Over the weekend I got together with some Fossil Forum members for a hunt near Peace river here in Florida. Most of the day was difficult hunting due to cloudiness and cold water. Around 4:30pm three of us, Scramblered, Plant Guy, and myself were the last remaining of our group still holding out for one last find before making our long drives home. After spending about 30-40 minutes digging out about half a yard of sand and gravel in 3ft of water I was getting pretty cold as my hole was now nearly 5ft deep. I uncovered about 5 or 6 rocks of limestone and few dugong rib bits when I was about to give up and call it a day. I decided to get one more good sift basket full of gravel for the sake of submerging myself in 60 degree water. Just then I smacked my shovel on another rock. I thought it felt like a brick or something roughly that size and weight. But as the solid dark mass on the edge of my shovel broke the water I instantly knew it was a Mastodon! The three of us could hardly believe what we were seeing as we took turns holding it . Here is the link to our trip report. Common Name: American Mastodon Species: Mammut Americanum Period: Miocene/ Pliocene Formation: Hawthorn Group, Peace River Formation Location: Desoto County, FL Edited November 25, 2014 by Search4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Hi Search4, I felt a chill reading your post - difficult since its been hot here in Queensland! That's an impressive hole - 5 ft. I couldn't see a picture of your treasure here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 What a beauty! I love the shot of you holding it in the river. Sometimes the memories of the days hunt are just as precious as the fossils we find. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcbshark Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Man Chris, I still can't believe you pulled that beauty out of the creek! Good luck in the voting! Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 I'm gonna give that nice mastodon tooth a run for its money. Here is the little Eocene primate jaw I collected in October, and prepped in November. At this point I can't further ID it, but it is a lower jaw with a fourth premolar, from the Washakie Fm of Sweetwater County, WY. Here it is in the field, in a big chunk of rock. Kind of a lousy picture. And as seen through the microscope after prepping. Let's see a few more verts over the Thanksgiving week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilized6s Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Primate? How can you tell from such a small frag with just one premolar? ~Charlie~ "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK ->Get your Mosasaur print ->How to spot a fake Trilobite ->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evgeny Kotelevsky Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 (edited) Category: Invertebrate Discovery Date: 10.11.2014 (Nov. 10) Preparation completed: 12.11.2014 (Nov.12) Name: Coscinopora quincuncialis Class: Hexactinellida Age: K2st (Upper Cretaceous, Santonian) Location: Saratov, Russian Federation Note: Complete skeleton of museum quality Edited November 28, 2014 by Evgeny Kotelevsky http://evgenykotelevsky.wordpress.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triceratops Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Nice mastodon tooth A well deserved find! -Lyall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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