November 2017 Finds of the Month

[Malcolmt]

8 hours ago, Northern Sharks said:

The person I'm sending it to is the one working with Crinus' collection, and another specimen from Kevin B. Once the work is done, the whole kit, kat & kaboodle will end up in the UMMP. I never asked the ROM because I thought it better to keep the whole "family" together.

 

Glad to see you are doing the right thing with it.Your a good man!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ash]

Great prep on a great crinoid!

[-Andy-]

On 11/17/2017 at 4:17 AM, Jesuslover340 said:

Rather serendipitously, this Pallimnarchus croc jaw was found while we were taking a break from fossil hunting and went fishing instead on a property we already searched (and had permission to go on). Silly us. There are no breaks from fossil hunting!

Posting this a few days later after the initial discovery because we ( @Ash and I) wanted to clean and stabilize it. Had to scrub off a lot of algae. Then we took it to the museum just the other day; found out it is likely the most complete and best preserved jaw of Pallimnarchus pollens found to date! We'll be taking it back to get it CT scanned, but that's our update for now

 

Date of discovery: November 12th, 2017

Scientific or Common name: Pallimnarchus pollens jaw

Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Plio-Pleistocene

State, Province, or Region found: Australia

Photos:

 

Holyyyy snarge. I think you've won fossil of the year already.

[frankh8147]

@Jesuslover340 Sounds like a big win for both you AND your museum!! Big scientific value and also a great showpiece..you guys really come up with some amazing stuff out there!

[minnbuckeye]

 

Date of discovery: November 5th, 2017
Scientific or Common name:  Uperocrinus pyriformis
Geologic Age or Geologic Formation:  Mississippian, Burlington limestone
State and County found: Des Moines County, Iowa

I spent a day in SE Iowa specifically looking at their crinoidal rock. Burlington Limestone in fact is almost 100% crinoid remnants. Neat rock to look at. However, finding more than  part of a crinoid is difficult. In the many visits to SE Iowa, I have found many nice crinoid calyxs, unique in itself,  but never complete crinoids. This specimen is made up of many columnals (the stem), a nice calyx, and a magnificent anal chimney, something I had never seen before. Hope you enjoy. 
 
Here are the comments from a crinoid expert that I had contacted for information on my find:

Ausich, William
 Nov 16 (5 days ago)

 Mike,

The specimen that you have is not unique, but it is certainly rare. Uperocrinus pyriformis, which is the correct name now. Pre-1925, it was variously called Actinocrinus (Batocrinus) pyriformis, Batocrinus pyriformis, Lobocrinus pyriformis, Batocrinus (Lobocrinus) pyriformis, and Actinocrinus (Uperocrinus).

 

Quickly, I do not find a picture of a specimen that is as nice as yours, so perhaps a specimen preserved as is yours is a bit rarer than I initially thought. As you suggested, if you do want to donate it to a museum, the closest two to you are probably the geology museum at the University of Iowa (Iowa City) and the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago).

As currently understood, Uperocrinus and Actinocrinites are very different (see the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. An easy, quick way to tell the difference between members of these two families is that in the Batocrinidae the first primibrachial is quadrangular, whereas in the Actinocrinitidae it is hexagaonal (the first primibrachial is the first fixed arm plate above the radial plate -- if that makes sense).

I hope this helps

Cheers, Bill

 

Now for my find:

 

[minnbuckeye]

And a few more pics:

 

[Ash]

What a beautiful specimen!

[minnbuckeye]

@Ash , Thanks for the comment. It pails however to the jaw you have entered. Wish my fishin holes held such prizes!!!! Good luck with the vote.

 

 Mike

[Shamalama]

11 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

And a few more pics:

 

 

That is a sweet looking differential case. 

[minnbuckeye]

Just now, Shamalama said:

 

That is a sweet looking differential case. 

Now I am never going to look at this crinoid without thinking that. Shame on you Shamalama. LOL

[JBMugu]

On 11/14/2017 at 6:43 PM, JBMugu said:

After 2 years of digging for shark teeth hoping to find a big Meg, I finally found one. It is over 5 inches long and in very good condition. I am posting photos of the tooth still in the layer/matrix in which it fossilized and after I cleaned it.

 

Date of discovery: Nov 10, 2017

Scientific or Common name: Carcharocles megalodon (a.k.a. Megalodon or Meg).

Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Miocene Age, Round Mountain Silt Formation

State, Province, or Region found: Ernst Quarries, Bakersfield, California, USA.

 

 

 

Final size was 5.6" measured with calipers.

[garyc]

I am entering this proboscidian femur; identified most likely as mammoth. I found it November 18, 2017 on the Brazos River in SE Texas in pleistocene gravels. It's 30 inches long and 17 inches wide. It weighed 52 pounds when I got it home. Even if I don't win fossil of the month, can a get a little credit for just getting it back to my car??

[Shamalama]

That's a biiiiiig bone!

[JBMugu]

I give you a lot of credit for getting that back to the car!

[caldigger]

All that comes to mind is the famous line from Jaws..." We're gonna need a bigger boat!"

 

Hoowee honey, we might need to start building an extension onto the house.

 

I can just see someone passing right by that thinking it is a trunk from a downed tree. You deserve mucho credit!

[RJB]

Im scrolling down to check out all the fossils and run into a really cool fossils and think to myself, "i'll vote for that one".  Then scroll down some more and run into another great fossil and think to myself, "no, I will vote for this one".  Then again and again!!!  How is one to choose from all these most beautiful finds?

 

RB