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What is your favorite extinct creature and why?


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Hey everyone!

 

I want to know your favorite extinct animal and why. Theropods, ornithischians, artiodactyls, cetaceans, carnivores, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, gastropods!!! Megatherium, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Anzu Wyliei, Leedsichthys, Stegosaurus, Megalodon, Glyptodon, Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, Punk Rock! (just kidding) ANYWAYS, there are no limits here. Even if its coral. Get specific! 

 

Do you have a fossil from your favorite creature? If not, is it even possible to acquire one? Have any interesting discoveries been made about your creature as of late? 

 

Just looking to learn and start some interesting discussions. GO! ------:ammonite01: 

 

Cheers!

Lauren

"I am a part of all that I have met." - Lord Alfred Tennyson

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My favorite extinct creature is the ammonite Spathites puercoensis. The discovery of my first root beer colored calcitic fragment of this animal, "busted down a door" into the world of paleontology, igniting a passion for learning more about Late Cretaceous enviornments and all of its inhabitants. 

 

I still have that very first fragment...

 

spathites fragment.jpg

 

...man, that seems like forever ago...good times. :) 

 

 

"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    

 

point.thumb.jpg.e8c20b9cd1882c9813380ade830e1f32.jpg research.jpg.932a4c776c9696d3cf6133084c2d9a84.jpg  RPV.jpg.d17a6f3deca931bfdce34e2a5f29511d.jpg  SJB.jpg.f032e0b315b0e335acf103408a762803.jpg  butterfly.jpg.71c7cc456dfbbae76f15995f00b221ff.jpg  Htoad.jpg.3d40423ae4f226cfcc7e0aba3b331565.jpg  library.jpg.56c23fbd183a19af79384c4b8c431757.jpg  OIP.jpg.163d5efffd320f70f956e9a53f9cd7db.jpg

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Some possibly helpful older posts along these lines: LINK    :) 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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10 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

Some possibly helpful older posts along these lines: LINK    :) 

 

Thats not an answer to the question. :P

"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    

 

point.thumb.jpg.e8c20b9cd1882c9813380ade830e1f32.jpg research.jpg.932a4c776c9696d3cf6133084c2d9a84.jpg  RPV.jpg.d17a6f3deca931bfdce34e2a5f29511d.jpg  SJB.jpg.f032e0b315b0e335acf103408a762803.jpg  butterfly.jpg.71c7cc456dfbbae76f15995f00b221ff.jpg  Htoad.jpg.3d40423ae4f226cfcc7e0aba3b331565.jpg  library.jpg.56c23fbd183a19af79384c4b8c431757.jpg  OIP.jpg.163d5efffd320f70f956e9a53f9cd7db.jpg

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Liopleurodon: I don't own one. But I would love it. Very expensive. Does someone know a place I can buy one?

Denversaurus: I have a tooth.

Rapetosaurus: I would have one, but someone did a higher bid.

Leedsichtys: Don't own one. But if someone know where I can buy one, let me know.

 

 

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11 minutes ago, PFOOLEY said:

 

Thats not an answer to the question. :P

 

I love all fossils equally. :) 

 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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My favorite is often the last cool thing I collected.  Last summer's coolest find.. a pair of oreodonts, so oreos are high up for now.  But I also like crocs, cuz I collect a lot of croc pieces.  

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Parasaurolophus. It has been my favourite ever since I was a kid.

 

It's just a really pretty dinosaur. Also it has a trombone on it's head.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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first favorite would be mosquitos, second, ticks, 3rd, sophomores

 

Maybe I am dreaming........

Brent Ashcraft

ashcraft, brent allen

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My favorite fossil/Ammonite in my collection is Ochetoceras Zio. It's just so weird!!! It looks like an ammonite inside another ammonite. I even have one!!!

 

20170127_190442.thumb.jpg.8ac957c290e2490d66399eb33103b530.jpg

 

20170127_190006.thumb.jpg.395ffd575e9fa2c346851873248c44f0.jpg

 

 

 

But my favorite prehistoric creature has to be the whole entire Dinosauria clade!!! 

 

"Without fossils, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the earth" - Georges Cuvier

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Two. 

 

One is the Permian shark 'Helicoprion'. I've only found two circular tooth swirls over decades. Be neat to one day find a swirl of teeth with some skull elements.

 

The other is our local dino 'Trooden'...I find the teeth now and then in various formations but Be a 'eureka' to find a jaw section with a couple of teeth. I've likely found other Troodon elements (bones) but couldnt distinguish them from other raptors. 

 

Anyways, favourite extinct critters are the enigmatic ones that provided a taste of discovery and I have an outside chance of one day finding more of.

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It's gotten to the point where one can't start a new topic without it actually having been brought up before, hasn't it? Maybe a slight variation on an old topic

 

Everyone's fav's seem to be the big things with big teeth - dino's and sharks... I like the obscure stuff from the dawn of life, but it's hard to pick a single favorite. Ediacarans like Dickinsonia, Tribrachidium, Spriggina, etc. and the critters from the Burgess Shale. But I'm learning that these things are very popular also and they are hard to acquire specimens of them not just because they're rare but because I'm competing with any number of well-off collectors who are also into them. CanadWest's last line above say it well, but in my case these types of things are mostly inaccessible.

 

From my local marine Cretaceous hunting grounds, probably my favorite things to find are crinoids (Uintacrinus) and heteromorph ammonites. Also you mentioned coral - I do like finding these little guys:

 

 

 

 

Tz112 shr60pc.jpg

Tz530 Glyptox(9) shr60pc.jpg

 

Tz440,592Platycyathus shr.jpg

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Tim - in your link i see no threads that duplicate this? ;) And you still havent answered the post :P

 

Hmm...Mines Megalania prisca. Why? Well, in part because i find them (very rarely! About 1 bit every 4 years), and another because they think the first Aboriginals in Australia probably ran into them! So they existed within human occupation of this country is another cool thing. I mean, who doesnt like massive lizards? Another thing is they *may* have been the biggest venomous reptile.

 

Here's mine. The middle one is 4" wide.

 

32948479005_bb90d5e87b_z.jpg

 

32907475616_afc44fc303_z.jpg

 

32824124321_f3a187d852_z.jpg

 

 

 

Megalania1-738x591.jpg

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" - Saint Augustine

"Those who can not see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else."

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2 hours ago, Ash said:

Tim - in your link i see no threads that duplicate this? ;) And you still havent answered the post :P

 

Hmm...Mines Megalania prisca. Why? Well, in part because i find them (very rarely! About 1 bit every 4 years), and another because they think the first Aboriginals in Australia probably ran into them! So they existed within human occupation of this country is another cool thing. I mean, who doesnt like massive lizards? Another thing is they *may* have been the biggest venomous reptile.

 

Here's mine. The middle one is 4" wide.

 

32948479005_bb90d5e87b_z.jpg

 

32907475616_afc44fc303_z.jpg

 

32824124321_f3a187d852_z.jpg

 

 

 

Megalania1-738x591.jpg

Oh my goodness!  Thanks so much for sharing these!  They are fantastic!  My 7 year old son just went bonkers!  Megalania is one of his favorites!  :drool::envy:

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2 hours ago, aplomado said:

Ash- WOW!  What finds!

 

I will say my favorite extinct creature is another Aussie native, the Tasmanian Tiger:

38785F1C00000578-3793848-image-a-33_1474

 

Nice choice! I have one of those too :)

IMG_2711.PNG

IMG_2710.PNG

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" - Saint Augustine

"Those who can not see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else."

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13 hours ago, Ash said:

Tim - in your link i see no threads that duplicate this? ;) And you still havent answered the post :P

 

I have no favorites. :P

But if you really push for an answer, ... I'd have to say dead ones. ;) 

 

And this one is kinda close.... 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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20 hours ago, Canadawest said:

 One is the Permian shark 'Helicoprion'.

 

I'll go along with that as well. I dream of finding one someday, but I'm not holding my breath. I also wish that a couple of our present-day politicians were extinct, although I wouldn't necessarily want to have them in my collection.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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3 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

 

I have no favorites. :P

But if you really push for an answer, ... I'd have to say dead ones. ;) 

 

And this one is kinda close.... 

 

Hey! That one is not kinda close! That's some kind of goofy MySpace survey from 2011...

 

People get new specimens all the time, and their collections change as do their favorite kinds of fossils. I figure they also spend a good bit of time researching the fossils they really care about and might know something interesting that I don't. 

 

Since this post involves subjective questions it's probably not a big deal to have a duplicate anyway.  

"I am a part of all that I have met." - Lord Alfred Tennyson

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4 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

 

I have no favorites. :P

But if you really push for an answer, ... I'd have to say dead ones. ;) 

 

And this one is kinda close.... 

The comparison is a little insulting lol

"I am a part of all that I have met." - Lord Alfred Tennyson

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I'm actually sort of in the same boat as Tim. Everything fossiliferous fascinates me. I have so many favorites that I can't count them any more, sort of like JP my current favorite is the coolest thing I recently found. Then that gets put on the shelf until the next one comes along. Where I live the most accessible fossils are Jurassic ammonites, so generally speaking, they have inevitably become my "favorites" and as I learn more and more about them and their incredible diversity over the years I just can't get enough of them. I learn about species with really interesting form and sculpture which are rare or not available in my area, so I've taken to trading or buying in order to expand the collection. I just acquired these 2 recently and like them very much.

 

A1204c.2.thumb.jpg.9f74d10a4f97ccd30207610971637f10.jpg

Cadoceras sublaeve

 

A1209b.2.thumb.jpg.2172d0a0c3dc8fa3b7483b93b26c4e5e.jpg

Euaspidoceras douvillae

 

You may also find, or at least so it goes with me, that after you've gotten past the pure fascination in the fossils themselves, you start asking yourself a lot of questions about stratigraphy, taphonomy, orogenesis, diagenesis, etc., etc., first maybe to find out what the experts think about how those fossils you're finding got where they are and you start trying to fit everything into a big picture for yourself. Sounds like you've reached this stage? This leads you off onto all kinds of interesting tangents. Like right now I'm studying what is "known" about the various extinction events and trying to extrapolate that onto our present day situation. 'Nuff said for now.

 

 

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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I have two favorites. Sharks and trilobites. I won't even get into why I like sharks. I have babbled about it enough in the past. Trilos to me are just very fascinating.  There is a great diversity of them. The way they look.  And where I live they are plentiful. (Relatively speaking.) I also find it fascinating that they are believed to be the first life forms to have developed eyes. They are just so darn cute! I think it would be great to have some swimming around in a fish tank. (With a small shark or two!):D

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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I have always had a sweet spot for eurypterids. Though my favorite specific fossil is probably a  DICRANURUS MONSTROSUS trilobite. Definitely on my list of fossils that I would like to have....

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Ever since i was 3 my favourites have always been the large carnivorous theropods. I have more of an interest in predators, and the large predatory dinosaurs were i think the pinnacle of terrestrial carnivory. When i am standing at the base of a large skeleton in a museum and try to imagine that thing actually moving around and hunting, it never ceases to amaze me. I still can't believe animals like that actually existed. Within the Theropoda i love the Allosauroids the most: basically giant land sharks running around and tearing into other huge dinosaurs with their knife-like teeth and claws. I'm still waiting for the day that a huge Carcharodontosaurid like Mapusaurus or Carcharodontosaurus itself turns up in Australia! 

 

giganotosaurus_1.jpg.1fd5435019336d95e4b86c7060e4893b.jpg

"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

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