MarcoSr Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 I just found this 7mm by 3mm claw searching matrix that I collected years ago from an Eocene site in Virginia. The site was a near shore, marine environment. I found a good number of turtle and croc fossils at the site in addition to fish, shark and ray fossils. However, I also found close to 100 bird bones of different species and several terrestrial mammal specimens. Unfortunately the specimen is not in the greatest condition. I've found lots of crab claws at the site but it is definitely not crab. Out of the possibilities of reptile, bird and mammal the claw looks like it is from a bird to me based upon the curve. What do you think? Marco Sr. 2 "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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caterpillar Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Bird for me http://www.paleotheque.fr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Yeah, me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 For comparison: 9 http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Beautiful! Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Fantastic claw Marco. I agree that it is likely bird. Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted October 16, 2017 Author Share Posted October 16, 2017 6 hours ago, caterpillar said: Bird for me 6 hours ago, jpc said: Yeah, me too. 1 hour ago, sixgill pete said: Fantastic claw Marco. I agree that it is likely bird. Thank you for the id help. Marco Sr. 6 hours ago, GeschWhat said: Beautiful! It is my first fossil bird claw. It is very rare from the Eocene of Virginia. Marco Sr. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 23 minutes ago, MarcoSr said: It is my first fossil bird claw. It is very rare from the Eocene of Virginia. Congratulations on the wonderful find! 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted October 17, 2017 Author Share Posted October 17, 2017 2 hours ago, ynot said: Congratulations on the wonderful find! Tony Thank you. I have lots of matrix that I collected years ago. I just need more time to search it. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted October 25, 2017 Author Share Posted October 25, 2017 As an update to this post, I e-mailed the pictures of this specimen to Dr. Gerald Mayr, a world renowned bird expert, asking for id help. This is what he responded back. “This looks very much like an owl claw, but it would be too large for the tiny species I named after you. There were, however, larger owls in the early Eocene of North America, so that identification as an owl conforms with the known fossil record.” This is my second owl species from this Eocene site. Marco Sr. 5 "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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 WOW, congratulations on the new find. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcbshark Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 That’s a beautiful piece you found Marco still waiting to find one myself Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 5 hours ago, ynot said: WOW, congratulations on the new find. Tony I'm glad the claw is from a bird like an owl that I recognize versus some bird that I'd have to do an internet search just to figure out what it was. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 2 hours ago, jcbshark said: That’s a beautiful piece you found Marco still waiting to find one myself Jeff This claw got caught by the fine window screen (to catch micros) that I had under my 1/2" mesh size sift. Bird claws tend to be pretty small. Hopefully you will find one at some point in your cookie cutter matrix. Good luck. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 Spectacular micro claw, Marco! Unusual finds like this are what make picking through micro-matrix so much fun. So far I've not found any bird claws in the Cookiecutter Creek micro-matrix but I have found a single identifiable bird bone in this locality. It is a pedal phalanx from a bird in the family Procellariidae (shearwaters and petrals) and is likely from a large shearwater like Scopoli's Shearwater or Great Shearwater. The toe bone is missing a bit on the distal end but shows a nice curved articulation on the proximal end (scale bar = 5 mm). I would suspect that the micro-matrix from John @Sacha known as the Merritt Island micro-matrix (or do to Julianna's @old bones finds the "Fabulous Frog-toe" micro-matrix) would be a good place to look for bird claws. I can remember many of Julianna's beautifully photographed specimens that she's shared from this micro-matrix but I don't recall hearing about any bird claws yet (but might have forgotten). Cheers. -Ken 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old bones Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 Very exciting find, Marco Sr.! Congratulations. The tiny claws are intriguing ... I'll have to have a closer look at some of mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 Hi Marco Sr. I'm way too late to help here but I would've said definitely bird had I been the first to reply. It is actually a very nice specimen as bird claw cores of any age are easily broken I have processed Late Pleistocene tar pit matrix for a friend and found a number of similar claws but much larger - apparently from hawks and eagles. The tip is often broken off. Jess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 14 hours ago, siteseer said: Hi Marco Sr. I'm way too late to help here but I would've said definitely bird had I been the first to reply. It is actually a very nice specimen as bird claw cores of any age are easily broken I have processed Late Pleistocene tar pit matrix for a friend and found a number of similar claws but much larger - apparently from hawks and eagles. The tip is often broken off. Jess Jess Wow, that sounds really interesting to process tar pit matrix. I process and search matrix for a number of researchers and museums. It is a great way for me to relax. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 22 hours ago, old bones said: Very exciting find, Marco Sr.! Congratulations. The tiny claws are intriguing ... I'll have to have a closer look at some of mine Julianna I still have a lot of trouble with the claws that I have figuring out what they are from. I wish there was a good publication that showed a good number of claws from reptiles, birds, and mammals to help with the id of them. Amphibians don't have claws with the exception of the African clawed frogs. The only thing that I've seen with a lot of value is the below JPEG (from Bone Clones at the following link: https://boneclones.com/product/set-of-31-claws-in-riker-box-KO-100-SET-31 ). Marco Sr. 3 "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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 22 hours ago, digit said: Spectacular micro claw, Marco! Unusual finds like this are what make picking through micro-matrix so much fun. So far I've not found any bird claws in the Cookiecutter Creek micro-matrix but I have found a single identifiable bird bone in this locality. It is a pedal phalanx from a bird in the family Procellariidae (shearwaters and petrals) and is likely from a large shearwater like Scopoli's Shearwater or Great Shearwater. The toe bone is missing a bit on the distal end but shows a nice curved articulation on the proximal end (scale bar = 5 mm). I would suspect that the micro-matrix from John @Sacha known as the Merritt Island micro-matrix (or do to Julianna's @old bones finds the "Fabulous Frog-toe" micro-matrix) would be a good place to look for bird claws. I can remember many of Julianna's beautifully photographed specimens that she's shared from this micro-matrix but I don't recall hearing about any bird claws yet (but might have forgotten). Cheers. -Ken Ken I've looked through a good amount of John's Merritt Island matrix and found a number of claws but all look to be mammal. How did you get the id for your pedal phalanx? A lot of times a pedal phalanx isn't diagnostic enough to even get an id to a family. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 I was able to have David Steadman from FLMNH (UF) identify this one. I certainly would not have been able to make such an ID on my own (barely even realizing that it is avian). Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted November 2, 2017 Author Share Posted November 2, 2017 12 hours ago, digit said: I was able to have David Steadman from FLMNH (UF) identify this one. I certainly would not have been able to make such an ID on my own (barely even realizing that it is avian). Cheers. -Ken Ken It is really great when a researcher takes the time to id a specimen for a fossil collector. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyssunder Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 It's a bird claw. Congrats! reference: LouchartKonsoBirds2014.pdf 1 " We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. " Thomas Mann My Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted November 3, 2017 Author Share Posted November 3, 2017 16 hours ago, abyssunder said: It's a bird claw. Congrats! reference: LouchartKonsoBirds2014.pdf Thank you for the PDF reference. That eagle claw from the PDF does look similar to my owl claw but it is much bigger. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 On 11/1/2017 at 5:27 AM, MarcoSr said: Jess Wow, that sounds really interesting to process tar pit matrix. I process and search matrix for a number of researchers and museums. It is a great way for me to relax. Marco Sr. Hi Marco Sr., Yeah, I've gone through hundreds of pounds of it by now over the past 15 years or so. I've found all kinds of stuff but usually small bird and mammal bones. Some of the bones are beautifully preserved. I learned about carefully going through matrix from the late Father Floyd Jenkins, a Jesuit priest who taught at Loyola Marymount. Back in the 90's I spent a few afternoons with him in his lab. He was going through a quantity of Early Miocene badlands matrix looking for "insectivore" and other oddball vertebrate remains at the time, doing it for a researcher. Jess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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