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My Jurassic Park: Morrison Fm Sauropods


Troodon

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Sauropods from the Morrison Formation of North America are a fantastic assemblage of Dinosaurs. They come in different sizes and although they may look the same, head and teeth configurations are different. A good overall comparison is Scott Hartmans skeletal drawing thunder lizard.

http://pre02.deviantart.net/b47c/th/pre/i/2015/111/6/2/thunder_lizard_size_comparison_by_scotthartman-d6909lc.jpg

Comparison of three of the more common teeth shows how different they are.

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The first item in my collection that I would like to share is a Mandible from a Juvenile (Baby) Diplodocus. The section of the Jaw covering the teeth had separated so we can get a good look at the teeth. Sauropods being a herbivore have replacement teeth and boy this species has it in spades, 5 rows. The Attachment PDF shows how the replacement teeth fit in the Jaw, pretty neat I think. Wish I had some replacement teeth :D

Sauro0001.pdf

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Other teeth from this family

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One of the largest sauropods in the Morrison is a Brachiosaurus and here is a tooth from one.

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Edited by Troodon
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Apatosaurus teeth in a Premaxillary jaw section

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Camarasaurus teeth that were found adjacent to an exploded skull 11 in all were found. I'm fortunate to have 3 associated that are beautiful

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A Jaw section from a Camarasaurus of unerrupted teeth. Front and Back

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Additional Camarasaurus teeth.

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Enough on Teeth lets move on to feet

Here is what I believe to be a complete hand of a Brachiosaurus, it only had one small claw. About 27" (69cm) High.

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A Partial foot of a Barosaurus but not positive. Hard to ID feet I'm not an expert.

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I find that Claws are the most difficult to ID, nothing diagnostic about them. I think dealers that put names on isolated ones are smoking, my opinion

.

This one was found in an Apatosaurus quarry.

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Baby claw sold to me as Camarasaurus

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Love Vertebrae so here are three to enjoy

This one weighs a ton

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Nice associated assemblage

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Complete Diplodocus Caudal.

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Very cool association of Allosaurus and Camarasaurus

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AND no presentation of Sauropod material would be complete without Gizzard Stones (Gastrolith). These were found at a sauropod quarry. Largest 2 1/4" across

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Edited by Troodon
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Nice!!

You must have a significant space for keeping the collection. Some of those pieces are big!

How big are the gastroliths?

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Wow, just wow :) I'm not a dino guy but you have some stunning pieces :fistbump: Thanks for sharing the pics and knowledge!

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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Nice!!

You must have a significant space for keeping the collection. Some of those pieces are big!

How big are the gastroliths?

Sorry forgot, Not big largest is around 2 1/4"

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Nice stuff. I am intrigued by the caudal labeled as from Como Bluff. As far as i know, there is no one collecting commercially at Como Bluff, except maybe at the Bone Cabin Quarry, which is technically not Como Bluff. Half the reason i mention this is because last weekend at the Denver show, one of the few outfits selling Morrison bones had a lot of stuff mislabeled.... Not so much the bones, but their provenance. They had not only wrong counties for some of their quarries, or wrong states, but also at least a few bones from a county in WY that does not exist.. Maybe they had help from Walt Longmire, who lives in a county that does not exist.

Edited by jpc
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I acquired that item and that's the information provided. He obtained it from an old collection that was being parted. Could easily be Bone Cabin Quarry.

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Sauropod teeth are a rare sight in collections, especially ones as fine as yours.

Looking forward to meeting my fellow Singaporean collectors! Do PM me if you are a Singaporean, or an overseas fossil-collector coming here for a holiday!

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I acquired that item and that's the information provided. He obtained it from an old collection that was being parted. Could easily be Bone Cabin Quarry.

Wasn't doubting you...just curious.

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Makes me wonder if the gastroliths I have are from sauropods. Both are similar to your two smaller ones. I don't recall what provenance one had (beyond not much), but the other (I think) was labeled as Morrison Fm., Moab, UT. Do you know what other dinos would have left gastroliths?

jpc, is it possible that the "county that doesn't exist" was a historical county that was dropped or renamed? I have a small piece of meteorite from Seneca Falls, NY, labeled as "Cayuga Cty". Well, Seneca Falls is in Seneca Cty today, but when the meteorite was found in the 1800s it was in Cayuga Cty. Then the map got redrawn. Could something similar be the case for the fossils you mentioned?

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Makes me wonder if the gastroliths I have are from sauropods. Both are similar to your two smaller ones. I don't recall what provenance one had (beyond not much), but the other (I think) was labeled as Morrison Fm., Moab, UT. Do you know what other dinos would have left gastroliths?

The only locality I remember is that they are from Wyoming. I recall reading that gastroliths have been found in other non sauropod herbivores which makes sense.

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This from UCMP-Berkeley:

Extinct animals that have been found with definite gastroliths in their bodies include plant-eating dinosaurs like sauropods, primitive ceratopsians, and ostrich-mimics, marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and (rarely) ichthyosaurs, and crocodilians. These animals mostly fit into two categories: plant-eaters (herbivorous dinosaurs and many birds) and animals that swim (all the rest).

LINK

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"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!

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jpc, is it possible that the "county that doesn't exist" was a historical county that was dropped or renamed? I have a small piece of meteorite from Seneca Falls, NY, labeled as "Cayuga Cty". Well, Seneca Falls is in Seneca Cty today, but when the meteorite was found in the 1800s it was in Cayuga Cty. Then the map got redrawn. Could something similar be the case for the fossils you mentioned?

Possible, but unlikely. I say that only because I cannot remember what county they used, so I can't look it up. They also had some labeled from WY,but using CO and/or Utah counties. Bad record keeping. I was unimpressed. And this from an outfit that gets good reports here on TFF. Anyway, WY, has notl ost or changed spellings of counties as far as I know. Heck we have only been here about 120 years,and someof the counties have been added imn the lifetimes of old timers.

I will add that a lot of ealrier finds of Cretaeous dinosaurs in WY are from Converse County. Back at the turn of the century, the richest Lance Fm beds were in Converse County, but the county has since been split, so those same fossils are from what is actually now Niobrara County. We do end up doing a bit of history research in this prehistoric game of ours.

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I hate to pick out just one thing because everything is amazing but your Brachiosaurus tooth is beyond rare. A fully rooted Diplodocid tooth is not too shabby either! I hate to keep repeating myself but your collection is truly amazing!

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  • 4 months later...

A couple of recent pickups at the Tucson show.

Camarasaurus baby tooth, smallest one I've ever seen and received the same comment from all those that have seen it.

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A Diplodocus caudal vert.

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Possible predation marks

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A Camarasaurus hand digit.

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Your collection of dino stuff is truly amazing!!!

Nice to look at, thanks for providing the opportunity.

Can hardly wait for the next installment!!

Tony

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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