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Oligocene micros from the M&M Ranch in Nebraska


MarcoSr

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What I said befor X 10 !!!!

WOW!!!

very nice selection of finds!

Tony

Tony

The micros from STH were always my favorite because of the colors and variety. However these Oligocene micros from Nebraska are a close second.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Great. The preservation of all of them are also amazing.

Don

I'm used to finding a lot of specimens in float (along rivers, streams, and the bay) in the VA/MD area. It doesn't take the water long to wear them down. I wish they all were preserved like these.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Tony

The micros from STH were always my favorite because of the colors and variety. However these Oligocene micros from Nebraska are a close second.

Marco Sr.

I would call it a tie on the colors. They both have great colors, but M&M ranch has uniqueness of species hands down.

Again -- very nice.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

Tony

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

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

 

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Hi,

Marvelous ! My keyboard is wet, The slaver flows of my mouth! I love these little parts of jaws...

Coco

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Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici
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Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici
Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici
Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici

Un Greg...

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Thank you for sharing these with us.

I somewhat understand marine lag deposits but

I'm having a hard time understanding how a terrestrial

Lagerstaten would form. Do you have any insight on the taphonomy

of the sites?.

Thanks

It's hard to remember why you drained the swamp when your surrounded by alligators.

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Thank you for sharing these with us.

I somewhat understand marine lag deposits but

I'm having a hard time understanding how a terrestrial

Lagerstaten would form. Do you have any insight on the taphonomy

of the sites?.

Thanks

I understand how marine deposits formed but also don't know much about how terrestrial deposits formed. Most of the areas on the ranch have sloped buttes where the matrix from the top has washed down the sides so everything looks pretty homogeneous. But there is one area on the ranch where the butte faces are almost perpendicular to the ground below. There you can see a myriad of different distinct layers. So something caused each of those layers to form. I've read several papers on the geology of the area but they were pretty wonky to me. We invited a good friend to come to the ranch with us in September who is a USGS emeritus and who has written extensively on the formations of the east coast from a geologic perspective. When we collect matrix together he always explains the mechanics of how the individual layer was formed in common terms that we can understand. Hopefully he can shed some light on the formation of the different layers of the Brule Formation that are visible in that one portion of the ranch.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Hi,

Marvelous ! My keyboard is wet, The slaver flows of my mouth! I love these little parts of jaws...

Coco

Coco

I also like the little jaws but it is frustrating that I don't have the expertise to id most of them. I find shark and ray specimens much easier to id but that may only be because I've spent so many years collecting them and the mammal and small reptile material is new to me.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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I would call it a tie on the colors. They both have great colors, but M&M ranch has uniqueness of species hands down.

Again -- very nice.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

Tony

Tony

I still prefer marine specimens over these terrestrial ones. At least I can id most of the marine stuff. But maybe the more I collect these terrestrial specimens the more I'll like them. In the past I've donated all my terrestrial specimens because they weren't my main interest.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Don

I'm used to finding a lot of specimens in float (along rivers, streams, and the bay) in the VA/MD area. It doesn't take the water long to wear them down. I wish they all were preserved like these.

Marco Sr.

Marco, I too, as you know collect from river and stream deposits at times here in N.C. and even occasionally along the beaches. And if you are not taking them directly from the exposure by digging, most are tumbled and worn. Then there are of course the lag deposits and reworked layers. That is one of the reasons I prefer quarry hunting but as you know on the easy coast there is so little terrestrial stuff as compared to marine. I think that is why I find your micro stuff from the ranch so intriguing.

On another note, the piles at Aurora for this years festival are some of the best in years. I have just started searching some matrix, have only gone through about 16 z cup of it and have been impressed by the finds so far Several catsharks already and a lot of teleost material. Not a lot of shell material, but more than recent stuff. Also a large amount of very small coprolites.

Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt
behind the trailer, my desert
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I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt

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On another note, the piles at Aurora for this years festival are some of the best in years. I have just started searching some matrix, have only gone through about 16 z cup of it and have been impressed by the finds so far Several catsharks already and a lot of teleost material. Not a lot of shell material, but more than recent stuff. Also a large amount of very small coprolites.

Don

I hope you post some pictures of the Aurora micros. It is good that the Aurora matrix is much better this year because it hasn't been very good for a while.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Love the reptile and amphibian material...just gorgeous!

Fantastic work my friend.

"I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"  ~Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) 

 

New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletins    

 

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Love the reptile and amphibian material...just gorgeous!

Fantastic work my friend.

Mike

I also really like the reptile and amphibian specimens. The ranch is one of only a very few sites where I can personally collect them.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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What an amazing assortment of tiny fossils and the colors are fantastic!

Thank you. Other than the micros from STH, these micros have the nicest variety of colors of any that I find in matrix.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've been on vacation, so this is the first I've seen of this - wow!!! Incredible microfossils! I, too, love the reptile and amphibian fossils. So, how did you separate the ants from the anthills in the field?

Stephen

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Wow! Beautiful AND plentiful, Marco. Great pics, like always. Thanks for sharing these.

i need to find time to micro hunt this year.

~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

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Magnificent. Great photos.

Exquisite photos!! Remarkable......

Thank you for a most excellent show, but no size scale for context.

Still awesome none the less.

Bone2stone

Edited by bone2stone
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Exquisite photos!! Remarkable......

Thank you for a most excellent show, but no size scale for context.

Still awesome none the less.

Bone2stone

Thank you. If you mouse over the pictures, the picture file name will appear. The picture file names include a specimen size and my opinion on an id.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Wow! Beautiful AND plentiful, Marco. Great pics, like always. Thanks for sharing these.

i need to find time to micro hunt this year.

Charlie

Thank you. I actually find the diversity of the micro specimens more interesting than the macro specimens. Plus they don't take up anywhere near the same storage/display room :hearty-laugh: .

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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I've been on vacation, so this is the first I've seen of this - wow!!! Incredible microfossils! I, too, love the reptile and amphibian fossils. So, how did you separate the ants from the anthills in the field?

Thank you. It was an extremely slow and painstaking process to remove the ants. For most of the ant hills I tried to trowel the ant hill matrix in spots where there weren't any ants. However once the ants felt the vibration from what I was doing they swarmed the ant hill. I would dump the matrix close to the bottom of the ant hill. I would wait for most of the ants to leave and head back to the ant hill. Then I would trowel the matrix again and dump the matrix into my small sift. I used a long blade of grass to get the ant to climb on and then would release the ant on the ground. Turned a ten minute gathering of matrix per ant hill into an hour and a half. I also tried putting the matrix on tarp figuring the ants would leave and return to their nearby ant hill. Hours latter they were still in the matrix. I guess they stayed with their home. So again I was dumping matrix in my sift and using a piece of grass to remove the ants. I received a number of suggestions in this post that will help me the next time. But whatever I do, I won't intentionally hurt any of the ants. I'm attacking their home and they are definitely justified in defending it. On a really positive note, when I searched the matrix I didn't find a single live or dead ant.

Marco Sr.

Edited by MarcoSr

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

I recently sent an e-mail to Dr. William W. Korth seeking id help for the mammal specimens in this post. The following is what he replied.

Dr. Korth first stated: "but the two humeri you labelled as "Humerus 1 and 2" are actually frog humeri." I edited my post accordingly. Hopefully as I see more and more of these Nebraska specimens I'll get better at the ids. Hopefully!!!!!

Dr. Korth included the following caveat with his ids: "Please remember that these IDs are preliminary and I would have to see them first-hand to give you anything more certain."

Dr. Korth was only able to identify the mammal jaws and one mammal tooth where I included the occlusal views stating: "Unfortunately, you photographed all of the "insectivore-like" animals (hedgehogs, shrews, possums, etc.; the ones with the high "spiky" teeth) from a side-view and they cannot be identified unless there is a view of the occlusal surface of the teeth."

I didn't take occlusal pictures of those jaws because they were very thin and I would have had to use clay to do so. Trying to mount a fragile micro jaw in clay to get an occlusal picture without damaging it can be difficult. However, if you want an id, you need to do it.

For those interested in the further id of the mammal jaws and one mammal tooth see below (the numbers correspond to the numbers in my picture file names):

#15,20,26,29,35,38,39,41,42,44,46 all belong to a rodent called Paradjidaumo; from an extinct family (Eomyidae)

#16 appears to be a small beaver called Agnotocastor, but I cannot be certain because I cannot see the chewing surface of the teeth

There are a number of specimens that belong to the family Cricetidae (field mice):#18-Scottimus; #25, 32-Leidymys; #33,34,47,48-Eumys

#33,34,47,48 belong to a tiny pocket-mouse called Heliscomys

#30, 45 belong to a member of a rodent family that is extinct except for a single modern species (Aplodontidae) you have Prosciurus

#16 belongs to another family of extinct rodents (Ischyromyidae), yours is Ischyromys

It is truly appreciated when a world renowned researcher like Dr. William W. Korth takes the time to id specimens for an amateur in a TFF post.

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 1

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Marco, I've used an artist's kneaded eraser with very good success in positioning tiny, fragile invertebrates for macro photos. It's also great for removing fibers and lint with a light tapping and kneading. ;)

  • I found this Informative 1

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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