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My Jurassic Park - The Judith River Formation (Montana)


Troodon

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The Judith River Formation is a late Cretaceous geological formation that was primarily deposited in North Central Montana 80 to 75 million years ago about the same time as the Two Medicine Formation, See Map - 

 

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Large meandering rivers flowing into the Intercontinental Cretaceous Seaway deposited the Formation. Much of the area was very flat, with swamps and bogs, much like today's southern Louisiana. Dinosaurs included Tyrannosaurs, the duck-bills hadrosaur Brachylophosaurus was the most common found, Ceratopsian included Avaceratops and smaller theropods like Troodon and Dromaeosaurs terrorized the land.

 

I have not collected the formation extensively but have had some great finds and have also acquired some nice specimens.

 

I have two very important specimens from this fauna a Troodon formosus maxilla and an undescribed Ceratopsian skull element.

 

Troodon formosus:

 

The maxilla was the first substantial skull element that has been found in North American of Troodon and I partnered with the Royal Ontario Museum to provide them the opportunity to study it. Posted a topic in July that described it in more detail.

 

 

 

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Edited 7/20/23

Judithian Ceratopsian:  (Furcatoceratops elucidans)

 

A fortuitous recent discovery that helped identify my specimen was a new undescribed species what they are calling a "Judithian Ceratopsian". A photo of that skull is attached as well as Scott Hartman rendition of the animal. Unlike other Ceratopsian it has a relatively small horns and is small in size.

 

 

 

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My skull element includes the horn and eye orbit. The ID most likely is the same but my horn points a bit sideways unlike the above specimen.

 

 

Furcatoceratops elucidans

 

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Tyrannosaur

No Tyrannosaurids have been described from this fauna.

A favorite Tyrannosaur tooth in my collection is one of the ugliest I have, but what character and what it must have gone through in its life. Most tyrannosaur teeth have a serrated carina on the distal and mesial surface and possibly one wear facet. A wear facet can occur on the either the lingual or labial surface of the crown (experts say not both) and is formed by repeated tooth-to-tooth contact. Well this tooth has three serration lines and two major wear facets and two minor ones. Where are the experts :)

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My biggest Tyrannosaur tooth and most likely a Daspletosaurus is 3 1/2" long and quite a beautiful tooth.

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Possibly one of the smallest Tyrannosaur tooth I have is this 9mm baby tooth. Its a Tyranno because under a scope the serrations are tyrannosaur and identical on both carina.

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Additional Tyranno teeth

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A very rare Hand and Foot Claw

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Other Theropods include undescribed Chirostenotes species. The pinch on the underside of the foot claw is a diagnostic to this taxon.

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A baby specimen identical to the one above but size

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Ornithominids

Most likely a Struthiomimus sp. these foot claws were found in association.

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A very unusual foot claw. The underside of the claw is very different that other ornithomimids.

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A Struthiomimus on right photo

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:wub::wub::wub:

Do you have dinosaurs from every formation in this world man?

Christ, you probably have more Tyrannosaur teeth than I have ammonites.

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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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Dromaeosaurids

Teeth

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Hand Claw

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Juvenile? Claws

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Troodon formosus

Teeth including rooted tooth

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Saurornitholestes sp.

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Nodosaurids

Teeth

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Dermal Armour

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Ornithomimid

Vertebra

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Infant Hand Claw

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Hadrosaur

Gryposaurus incurvimanus

Teeth are identifiable in this formation with the small denticles around the crown.

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Brachylophosaurus sp.

Foot unguals are identifiable to this species with the characteristic ventral ridge on the bottom surface.

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Indeterminate

Rooted teeth

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Monster ungual

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What I lack in my collection are ceratopsian teeth this is my only specimen

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:wub::wub::wub:

Do you have dinosaurs from every formation in this world man?

Christ, you probably have more Tyrannosaur teeth than I have ammonites.

No I missing a few formations :P but working hard to fill those voids.

I know I don't have to tell you but one cannot have to many Tyrannosaur teeth. :D

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Verrrrrry nice, more than that -- extremely wonderfully mind blowingly nice!!!! As are all the things You have shown!!!!!!!! :wub::wub::wub::envy::drool::drool::drool:

:popcorn:

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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Hey Troodon,

What a gem of a post, truly exquisite!!! Just to state the obvious .. I love how you're prefacing the post with a map, an illustration or two, followed by a sequence of beautiful photographs interspersed with information, notes and comments. And then there are the specimens themselves, absolutely wonderful and thank you for putting in the time to put this together like that.

Edited by isurus90064
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Thanks for the post! Always enjoy going through your posts and seeing your fossils. You have some very nice fossils that I'm sure museums wish to have. Keep up the posting and collecting!

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Thanks guys. Just trying to provide some background information and not just pictures. Thought it would be a bit more interesting if I added something about the locality and fossils so I'm glad its appreciated.

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I omitted a pretty nice specimen and extremely rare Tyrannosaur Pre-maxillary jaw section with three teeth, missing one. The teeth are associated and not placed in the jaw. There are 8 Pre-maxillary teeth in the skull, four in each side. In the side view one can see the curvature of the front of the jaw. Teeth appeared to be well used.

Judith River Formation

Hill County, MT

2 1/2" (6.3cm) High

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Hi Troodon,

,

I've just joined this forum, awestruck as most I guess by your collection, just a couple of questions I hope you havent been asked already.

You seem to have the full deck of fossil specimens anyone could possibly wish for. Is there any particular items (just a single fossil rather than a whole skeleton) you'd really covet that's missing from your collection so far?

Secondly I live in UK so am mainly limited to items I can pick up on the web. What other sources do you have for picking up quality items short of digging them up? Is there a lot of trading done and fossil shows and conventions in the U.S?

Thirdly, please can I be written in to your will :)

Thanks

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Welcome to the forum. Thanks, glad your enjoying what I posted why I started the topics

I don't have a wish list but if I had to choose an item in an area that I most covet "claws" it has to be a T- Rex hand claw. Never have found one or had an opportunity to acquire one.

Most of my best pickups have come directly from diggers that I have collected with over the years. Short of that I've developed great relationships with dealers from all over the world. Most make it to the Tucson fossil show so I get to meet them in person. Some key ones do not have oneline sites and shows are the only way to see them. Online dealers like Indiana9fossils, FossilEra, Extinctions, Paleosearch, PaleoGallery and Natural Canvas are typical ones I look at for specimens. If you know your material very well eBay is really a great source. I don't get involved with trading.

I'll put you on the will list its quite long and at this point everyone gets a small bone. :)

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Welcome to the forum. Thanks, glad your enjoying what I posted why I started the topics

I don't have a wish list but if I had to choose an item in an area that I most covet "claws" it has to be a T- Rex hand claw. Never have found one or had an opportunity to acquire one.

Most of my best pickups have come directly from diggers that I have collected with over the years. Short of that I've developed great relationships with dealers from all over the world. Most make it to the Tucson fossil show so I get to meet them in person. Some key ones do not have oneline sites and shows are the only way to see them. Online dealers like Indiana9fossils, FossilEra, Extinctions, Paleosearch, PaleoGallery and Natural Canvas are typical ones I look at for specimens. If you know your material very well eBay is really a great source. I don't get involved with trading.

I'll put you on the will list its quite long and at this point everyone gets a small bone. :)

I've seen claws over the years sold as T. rex hand claws. Some sold by people I think we would both classify as reputable. Is it that you've seen claws sold as T. rex hand claws and you just didn't believe that's what they were or have you actually just not seen one for sale?

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Well I have missed out on a few opportunities just bad luck. For the longest time before Anzu w. (Chirostenotes) was understood and this is not very long ago their foot claws were thought to be T.rex hand claws. There is some similarity between the two.

Quite a few claws that I have seen being sold on the web or at shows were very suspicious or simply something else. IMO very few dealers can actually ID one better today than 5 years ago. Not a lot of them floating around so its hard to compare.

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Well I have missed out on a few opportunities just bad luck. For the longest time before Anzu w. (Chirostenotes) was understood and this is not very long ago their foot claws were thought to be T.rex hand claws. There is some similarity between the two.

Quite a few claws that I have seen being sold on the web or at shows were very suspicious or simply something else. IMO very few dealers can actually ID one better today than 5 years ago. Not a lot of them floating around so its hard to compare.

You don't see a lot of claws now sold as T. rex hand claws and I think it's for the exact reason you gave, they were and are actually Chirostenotes claws. I remember years ago there were a lot of T. rex hand claws for sale and I kept thinking to myself, where are all these hand claws coming from. After all, they are extremely rare! You don't even find them with T. rex skeletons so why are so many being found as isolated elements. Well, as we know now, they actually weren't T. rex hand claws. I'm glad I didn't buy one back then but I came awfully close. A real T. rex hand claw is going to be a rare find indeed.

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You kind of wonder if the T-Rexes were kind of embarassed by their little ickle hands so they wanted to hide them from posterity!

It seems to be one of those favourite Palaeontological guessing games , what did they actually use those withered limbs for?

I think arousing the lady Rexettes would have to be my favourite interpretation.

You're right though I haven't seen any hand claws on the market pretty much anywhere except one auction site, makes you wonder what happens to them all given they had as many upper limbs as lower?

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Ha ha like your theories.

I don't believe the arms preserve very well why you don't see carpals or hand claws around.

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  • 4 months later...

I accidentally, as usual, found additional information on one of my mystery foot claws on post #3. Thought I would pass the information on since you might have one in your collection and it's different.

The mystery claw

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In 2008 Nick Longrich published a paper about a new large bodied Ornithomimid that was found in the Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta that could not be assigned to Struthiomimus or Ornithomimus. It features much larger hand claws and a foot claw that where the flexor depression is unusually deep, see my white arrow.

Compare it to the photo of a Struthiomimus post-10935-0-76581400-1457964774_thumb.jpg

Although my claw was found in Montana the fauna is similar and hopefully one day a taxon will be assigned.

Ornith-LargeBod.pdf

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