Iguanodonfossil Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Hello all, I have a lot of unique dinosaur fossils from the Isle Of Wight (since I have a job on the island, and have been visiting there since I was of a young age) dinosaur remains are fairly abundant, however most of the time the larger more defined pieces are lost at sea or "beach rolled" (however I must admit you can get some really nice beach rolled pieces that show stunningly beautiful cell structures!). This jaw fragment if my memory serves me correctly was lying in a box in a locals garage (I believe the local passed away) the box was then given to a small museum on the island and they sorted through the fossils in there and found this. I must make clear that no fossils are passed onto private collectors if they are of any scientific value/worth, the paleontologists that run the museum are very passionate but they do understand that they cannot keep everything, and the money goes towards the upkeep of the museum and the more precious fossils that it houses. (This jaw is highly fragile and had to be treated carefully because it was starting to fall apart we all agree that it's a shame that no teeth where found within it. However if you look at the photographs you can see clearly an "impression" caused by one of the teeth before it came apart from the jaw itself that's how it was confidently ID'd as being iguanodon in origin.) Hope this is of some interest to some! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izak_ Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) Woah! Lovely specimen! I could only dream of finding a pummelled peace of... dinosaur. Even coprolite... But this is amazing And yes, to me, this is very interesting Izak By the way, that is w great picture. What did you take it with? o.O Wait.. did you take the picture? Sorry if that is a dumb question :I Edited February 23, 2015 by izak_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 It all began in 1822 with one Iguanadon tooth and Dr. Gideon Mantell...the very idea of an enormous herbivorous reptile was a scientific thunderclap heard 'round the world! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Nice piece of jaw! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down under fossil hunter Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Really awesome piece, thanks for sharing. p.s. I would like to find a box of IOW dino fossils in a box in a garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sseth Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Incredible piece. _____________________________________ Seth www.fossilshack.com www.americanfossil.com www.fishdig.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paleoworld-101 Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Awesome piece! I too am a big fan of IOW fossils and would love to see some of the other pieces from your collection if you have pictures handy. "In Africa, one can't help becoming caught up in the spine-chilling excitement of the hunt. Perhaps, it has something to do with a memory of a time gone by, when we were the prey, and our nights were filled with darkness..." -Eternal Enemies: Lions And Hyenas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Are you sure this is Iguanadon? Looks like tooth sockets to me. Iguana don has tooth grooves, I think, where a whole row of teeth would fit. I think it is croc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iguanodonfossil Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 (edited) Are you sure this is Iguanadon? Looks like tooth sockets to me. Iguana don has tooth grooves, I think, where a whole row of teeth would fit. I think it is croc. 110% not crocodile, you need to look at the photograph and into the *groove (I mis-named it as sockets my bad). There is a very clear tooth impression made by a tooth from the animal, it's clearly got the distinct serrations and flat surface from an Iguanadon and not the conical teeth from a crocodile that inhabited the island. If the tooth impression was not there it would be harder to ID, and it would be just be pretty much "Jawbone". This was also inspected by a few palentologists which would rarely get something like a crocodile V dino ID wrong. Edited March 7, 2015 by Iguanodonfossil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iguanodonfossil Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 (edited) * Also forgot to add that this is not the full jawbone. It's been worn and eroded on each side and only half of the *grooves remain intact, if this was a full iguanodon jawbone the museum would have kept it. Also on the Isle Of Wight most material is broken and beach rolled so it's lucky that even this portion remained partly intact. All crocs on the island that have been discovered all have conical teeth, or very small non-serrated button like teeth but those are tiny. Because I study the crocs from the island I would have preferred this to be croc in some ways! Croc material is rarer to find intact than the bulky dinosaur stuff! So when it comes to the Isle Of Wight it's a little topsy turvy! I should have taken more photos of this from above so people can see the impression properly (because I'll admit it's not clear and at a warped side view). It's seen many professionals and non have said "maybe crocodile" it's either igunodon or another ornithopod (but as Iguanodons are so stupidly common we have gone with that). If it's crocodile it's a new spieces! Which trust me would be welcome news as I love my crocs more! Haha. Sorry for the waffle! * Also I should have really called them grooves, crocodiles are more my thing so misnamed as sockets (force of habit my bad!). The other half of the fossil has been beach eroded away, so the side that's viewable in the photo is the side that has remained preserved it's been eroded at an angle if that makes sense. Edited March 7, 2015 by Iguanodonfossil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 You sound like you have done your homework, so forgive me.... But in the first photo, in the right socket/groove, I see a little bit of serration. Is that the actual tooth in the socket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 In the first photo, in the right socket/groove, I see a little bit of serration. Is that the actual tooth in the socket? I believe it to be the impression of the serrations of a tooth as such -http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/PSM_V24_D366_Tooth_of_iguanodon.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iguanodonfossil Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 You sound like you have done your homework, so forgive me.... But in the first photo, in the right socket/groove, I see a little bit of serration. Is that the actual tooth in the socket? Honestly I have no problem in being corrected at all ,sometimes I don't explain things as well as I should so it's my bad . It's a fossil impression of the tooth embedded into the fossil showing serrations and other details. If this did have a tooth in place, the museum would have kept it and I would be a bit guilty having a fossil like it in my personal collection, because it's too rare to come across a fossil like that over here. I will take a photo of the fossil from above so you will see that the grooves don't go deep into the jaw like the sockets on a croc jaw, and to get a clearer view of the tooth impression itself. Unfortunately I'm at uni and this fossil is at home, but I'll update this post with the photos at around Easter so you can see it. I also have various croc teeth from the same formation ranging from stupidly large to small and I'll show how it doesn't fit into the jaw or work, the photos that I have taken are slightly deceptive/warped and I apologise. (It also doesn't help that on the other side there is significant erosion of the bone) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archaeopteris Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Fabulous specimen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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