The Growing Collection of Ziggycardon

[Misha]

2 hours ago, ziggycardon said:

Cladoides sp. tooth found in the Maple Mill Shale Formation, Kalona, Iowa, USA (Devonian, 383 - 359 mya)

Awesome new fossils!

 

I have been told that this material comes from an overlying formation which is actually Lower Carboniferous/Mississippian

Check out this topic here:

 

[FF7_Yuffie]

Great new fossils. Love those micro teeth. They're always some my favs.

[ziggycardon]

On 10-11-2020 at 4:32 PM, Misha said:

Awesome new fossils!

 

I have been told that this material comes from an overlying formation which is actually Lower Carboniferous/Mississippian

Check out this topic here:

 

Thank you, I'll check out the topic  

On 11-11-2020 at 1:24 PM, FF7_Yuffie said:

Great new fossils. Love those micro teeth. They're always some my favs.

Thank you, I really love micro's as well, sometimes even more than the macro teeth  

[ziggycardon]

Today marks a milestone for my fossil collection as I finally recieved my nr 1 bucketlist fossil!  
A Dutch Mosasaurus vertebrae (probably Mosasaurus hoffmanni as they are the most common here) found in the Nekami Quarry, 't Rooth, Bemelen, Eijsden-Margraten, Limburg, the Netherlands (Cretaceous, Maastrichtian, 68 mya).

The vertebrae was found in 1961 and comes from an old museum collection of a now closed museum (Natuurmuseum Enschede).
 

Ever since I started with fossils (and even before) I've always wanted a Mosasaur fossil from one of the Chalk deposits of Limburg as the first major discovery of a Mosasaur was done there. I live only a 35 minute drive away from the city of Maastricht where first Mosasaur fossil was found and Mosasaurs are just such a huge part of the geological history of my region that I always wanted one. And due to this the Maastrichtian type locality always interested my greatly.
But since pretty much all the quarries have closed or are off-limits they have become extremely rare to find. 
So I am very happy to finally been able to get my hands on one, definiatly one of my most prized fossils in my collection now  

 

The vert is quite big and I had to do some rearranging in my already very full Limburg Chalk display.
But I am very happy with how it looks now  

 

 

Besides the vert I also recieved a Trilobite model from CollectA which I plan to display next to the Cambropallas telesto which should arrive in the next weeks 

 

And I am currently waiting on some other fossils as well, because of this I had to do some rearranging as well in other displays.

 

I moved my Crato cricket, Lebanese schrimp and Burmese amber to my Mesozoïc display now and moved the riker with dinosaur eggshells to my dinosaur display across the room. 
The display that had the cricket, schrimp and amber will now become a Paleozoïc display where I display plan to display my favorite Paleozoïc fossils  

 

And I don't think I've posted my Cenozoïc display ever since I've added a couple of new fossils in it

[ziggycardon]

I recieved some new fossils today and I'll expect some more tomorrow as wel, so I am quite excited!  

The first couple of fossils I got from @Fitch1979, it's always a pleasure to do business with Dries  
Normally I buy yearly from him at Paleotime but since that wasn't an option due to COVID this year, I am glad I could get these from him, not to break tradition so to say  

 

The first fossil in the lot is a pos/neg from a Cambropallas telesto found in the Jbel Wawrmast Formation, Morocco (Cambrian, 520 - 505 mya)
A very nice specimen with only a little resto at the left genal spine. Been wanting one of these for quite some time now, so I am glad I finally managed to get one that isn't completely fake like most out there  

 

A pos/neg pair of trilobites found in the Fezouata Formation, Mecissi-Zagora Region, Draa Valley, Morocco (Ordovician, 479 - 472 mya) 
Not entirely sure which species though, after some searching the interwebs I thought they resembled either Colpocoryphe sp. or Euloma sp.
Whatever they are, they are very nice looking. Love the colouration and their "kissing" pose, not to mention they come from a very interesting location where Ordovician Anomalocarid where found. 

 

And this little surprise was also in the package, a piece of Rovno Amber with a little inclusion (I guess mosquito), found in the Rivne Oblast, Ukraine (Late Eocene, 40 - 33 mya)

 

 

And beside all that cool stuff, I also recieved another package I recently ordered. 
Which contained a stunning juvenile Stegodon cf. trigonocephalus molar with very little wear found in Central Java, Indonesia (Pliocene/Pleistocene border, 2,6 - 1,6 mya)
Another cool and good looking addition for my Proboscidea display  

 

[ziggycardon]

As it was getting a bit darker, I found that the self where I had placed the Cambropallas was a little too dark. 
As a matter of fact, I've always found my 2 bottom rows in the showcase too dark, I always had to arrange stuff so they didn't fell in the shadows of the fossils from the selfs above and visa versa. 
But a few days ago I came across some spare lights (the ones which I use in the showcases) in some shelf, and so I've descided to install them and I am very happy with the result  
Finally some light in there.

 

 

And I know that 2 days ago I posted how I rearranged my Mesozoïc shelf in the showcase, well I did so again  
I wasn't really happy with the look of it. Because the shark is so large, the stand takes up a lot of space which makes it hard to create a nice display without having open spots.
And there was a riser that I wasn't using in my Proboscidea display (and probably wasn't going to use in some time) which I though might look good to safe some of the space. 
And it does indeed look good, I saved loads of space using this method and I can finally display items a little bit behind the shark now  

 

And here is the Proboscidea display with the added juvenile Stegodon molar, it really is a tiny one compared to the rest of them  
I find it an absolute stunning tooth, I am very happy I can also display it standing up like that.  
I am hoping to add maybe one or two more molars to this display in the coming 6 - 8 months. 

Well since 2020 is nearly coming to an end, it might be fun to share my plans for my collection for 2021 (and beyond). 
As of usual, these plans can change anytime, but as of now, these are the things I hope to expand upon.

The Proboscidea collection: as of today I currently have 5 different species which I hope to expand to at least to a total of 9 in the coming years. 

Paleozoïc fish collection: while I've always been interested in paleozoïc fishes, the idea of a display specifically for them is only quite recent, after noticing that I've added quite a few species in the past year and that I've still quite a lot on my wishlist. So yes, paleozoïc fishes are something I do intent to expand upon in the upcoming year.

I currently have 2 specimens on the way, a nice Osteolepis macrolepidotus and a Laccognathis panderi tooth.
Cenozoïc mammals: This is something I have already heavily expanded upon in the past few months and something I intent to keep expanding upon.

Especially Eocene & Miocene species are a huge drawn to me at the moment, although I plan on expanding with Pleistocene & Oligocene species as well. 
Mosasaur collection: Still a top priority for me as I am constantly on the look-out for species I don't yet own of specimens of locations besides Khouribga in Morocco.

I already planned to purchase my 10th species in march and I do hope to expand beyond that.

Especially material from Dutch/Belgium Limburg, North Sulphur River in Texas, Niobrara Formation in Kansas, Bakrit Oil Shales in Morocco, ...

Dinosaur collection: I had plans to expand on my dinosaur collection in 2021, but the prospect of a hard brexit might prevent that as the stores where I would usually buy them are from the UK. And the extra import charges and tax might turn out too expensive for the already expensive material. Luckily I managed to purchase 3 specimens from my wishlist (which I had planned on purchasing for my birthday in February) which should normally arrive tomorrow. 
Solnhofen collection: This is one which I wanted to expand in 2020 and while I did a little, COVID prevented this a little bit as I really wanted to get my material from local fairs as the fairs here in Europe usually offer some great Solnhofen material, mostly for better prices than on you find online. So maybe if 2021 is kinder I can expand this collection by the end of next year  

[ziggycardon]

And today I recieved my last fossils for this year!  

 

The first fossil is a Laccognathus panderi tooth found in the Lode Clay Quarry, Lode Formation, Gauja Regional Stage, Gauja River, Latvia (Devonian, 377 - 373,5 mya). 
A very cool tooth which is a lot bigger and more beautiful than I anticipated, I really love the color on this one. 
I liked the ones @Misha got a few weeks ago so much that I decided to find some myself and I am very glad I did.
A lovely addition to my Paleozoïc fish collection!  

 

Another addition to my Paleozoïc fish collection is this Osteolepis macrolepidotus found in Old Red Sandstone, Orcadian Basin, Cruaday Hill Quarry, Orkney, Scotland, UK (Devonian, 385 mya).
I've been looking for a decent Osteolepis for some 2 - 3 years now, but I had never really found one that really spoke to me, until I found this one  
I really love the Old Red Sandstone fishes, one of my favorite fossil locations.

 

A manatee (Trichechus manatus) tooth found in Northern Florida, USA (Pleistocene)

 

A Hadrosauridae ungual (claw) found in the Judith River Formation, Hill County, Montana, USA (Cretaceous, 80 - 75 mya)
My first genuine dinosaur claw material, which will look nice alongside all the replica claws
It's also my first fossil from the Judith River Formation. 

 

An Ankylosauria tooth (I suspect Denversaurus schlessmani) found Hell Creek Formation, Carter County, Montana, USA (Cretaceous, 66 mya)
Probably one of my favorite dino teeth, really love the shape of this little one.

 

And here is another fossil to tick off from my wishlist, an undescribed Theropod indet. tooth found in Cherves de Cognac, France (Cretaceous, 140 mya) 
Ever since I started collecting fossils, I've wanted a European dinosaur tooth so I am glad to have bought this one. I've only heard of this location for the first time a couple of months ago and ever since I've been searching to get one. 
This location is often compared to the Wealden Group due to being of similar age and probably fauna. 
Not sure what the tooth could be, could be anything for now, but whatever it is, I am in love with it.  
I really like how chunky it is and also the serration while worn as still very visable.

 

[Misha]

26 minutes ago, ziggycardon said:

last fossils for this year

Really cool stuff!

Laccognathus is such an interesting fish, I am planning on getting at least one more of those teeth, the current ones I have around 1 cm and it would be really cool to have one that's a bit bigger.

Nice osteolepis too, I actually just purchased my first one of these guys recently as well, should be arriving this week

[ziggycardon]

54 minutes ago, Misha said:

Really cool stuff!

Laccognathus is such an interesting fish, I am planning on getting at least one more of those teeth, the current ones I have around 1 cm and it would be really cool to have one that's a bit bigger.

Nice osteolepis too, I actually just purchased my first one of these guys recently as well, should be arriving this week

yes they indeed are, lobe-finned fish have always been my favorite both in the fossil record as in current living species like lungfish and bichirs. 
Haha, what a coïncidence, I hope you'll like yours as much I do like mine. I am glad I am not the only one who's currently in a paleozoïc fish phase  

[FF7_Yuffie]

That French theropod tooth is really cool.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

On 1/25/2019 at 7:58 PM, ziggycardon said:

My newest additions to the collection! 

 

A unidentified cretaceous turtle bone from Oued Zem in Morocco (70 million years old)

I don't think this is a turtle bone. To me it looks rather like the radius of a Prognathodon sp. mosasaur, just like the one from the paddle I started prepping last summer:

 

 

Figure 2 from Lindgren, Kaddumi & Polcyn, 2013. Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin (genus in question is again Prognathodon)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ziggycardon]

On 11-12-2020 at 10:38 AM, FF7_Yuffie said:

That French theropod tooth is really cool.

Thank you, probably one of my favorite aqcuisitions from the past year  
I never really imagined I would ever get a decent European Theropod tooth, so I am happy I managed to get my hand on this one  

 

On 14-12-2020 at 10:22 PM, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

I don't think this is a turtle bone. To me it looks rather like the radius of a Prognathodon sp. mosasaur, just like the one from the paddle I started prepping last summer:

 

 

Figure 2 from Lindgren, Kaddumi & Polcyn, 2013. Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin (genus in question is again Prognathodon)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, you are absolutely right! 
After I recieved this block I went on to search which bone it could be, at first I though it might have been the hyoplastron but that wasn't a match, neither where any other turtle bones. It was then that I came to the same conclusion as you, that the bone is indeed a Mosasaur paddle bone and after a bit of googling I did indeed find a couple of matches for this bone.  

[ziggycardon]

A couple of days ago I received my first fossils of 2021. 
it may not be much as I had to take it a bit more easy due to overspending my fossil budget last month, but I am very happy with my aqcuisitions none the less!  

An Acrodus lateralis tooth found in the Muschelchalk, Keuper, Crailsheim, Germany (Triassic, 243 - 238 mya)

A Venustodus sp. tooth found in Muldraugh Formation, Hardin County, Kentucky, USA (Carboniferous, 340 mya), both my first carboniferous tooth as well as my first Eugeneodontid fossil. 
A bunch of 31 shark teeth of various sizes from the Lede Formation, Oosterzele, Belgium (Eocene, 44 mya) which includes species like Striatolamia macrota, Brachycarcharias lerichei, Hypotodus verticalis, Odontaspis winkleri & Physogaleus secundus. 
And a bunch of 20 tiny shark teeth from the Tielt Formation, Egem, Belgium (Eocene, early Ypresian) which mainly are Physogaleus secundus with the odd Abdounia sp.

[ziggycardon]

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've posted here last.

So far 2021 has been a slow year for fossils for me, although I did manage to get some nice new pieces  

These are my latest aqcuisitions which I got past month for my birthday and I am currently still expecting a package.

 

My first heteromorph ammonite (Aegocrioceras sp.) found in Haste, Hannover, Germany (Cretaceous, 133 - 129 mya)

 

 

An Eremiasaurus heterodontus tooth found in Khouribga, Morocco (Cretaceous, 70 mya)

 

A Mosasaur vert listed as Clidastes (although I am not entirely sure about the ID yet) found in the Gober Chalk Formation, Gober, Texas, USA (Cretaceous, 80 mya) 
While I am not convinced by the ID, I find this to be the most beautifull looking vertebra from my collection, I really love this piece!

 

A piece of European Hippo tusk (Hippopotamus antiquus) found in Rhine Gravel Deposits, Darmstadt, Germany (Pleistocene, 120 000 years old) 

 

 

A rare early fern (Rhacophyton condrusorum) found in Liegé, Belgium (Devonian, 372 - 359 mya)

 

A rare Graptolite (Rhabdinopora flabelliformis) found in the Ardennes, Belgium (Ordovician, 484 - 478 mya)

[Misha]

4 hours ago, ziggycardon said:

A rare early fern (Rhacophyton condrusorum) found in Liegé, Belgium (Devonian, 372 - 359 mya)

That's a really cool fossil!

I have recently started learning a bit about different devonian plants, especially the stuff in the Gilboa fossil forest near here in New York.

Its all really quite fascinating, I usually don't have much of an interest in plants but these ones are so different from anything we see today 

[ziggycardon]

58 minutes ago, Misha said:

That's a really cool fossil!

I have recently started learning a bit about different devonian plants, especially the stuff in the Gilboa fossil forest near here in New York.

Its all really quite fascinating, I usually don't have much of an interest in plants but these ones are so different from anything we see today 

Thank you, for non collectors this piece really doesn't like like much, both my mom and girlfriend where like "you gave 50 euros and that ugly branch" but I am very happy I decided to get because Devonian plants are so difficult to come by and like you say they are quite fascinating. 
A local museum was selling some of their excess stuff recently and this piece (and the graptolite) were among the pieces they sold and the piece really caught my attention because it was found in a location not very far away from where I live and because I knew Devonian plants are extremely rare in Belgium.

 

When it comes to fossils I am not really a plant guy, I like seeing them and if I see one that really interests me I'd probably buy it, but I wouldn't really consider myself an avid collector of fossil plants but I am really glad I got this one though. Truly a niece piece of local natural history  

btw, I hadn't heard of Gilboa fossil forest before, I just had to google it. But it looks like a very cool location, love the preservation on those fossils.

[Misha]

44 minutes ago, ziggycardon said:

A local museum was selling some of their excess stuff recently and this piece (and the graptolite) were among the pieces they sold and the piece really caught my attention because it was found in a location not very far away from where I live and because I knew Devonian plants are extremely rare in Belgium.

 

That's quite lucky! I wish we had museums with too many Devonian plants in their collections here

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

I'd say it's quite rare for museums to sell off excess material anyway... Haven't heard of it before, in any case. Except for when the Amerikamuseum in Cuijk, the Netherlands, had to close down. But that was a private museum...

[ziggycardon]

39 minutes ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

I'd say it's quite rare for museums to sell off excess material anyway... Haven't heard of it before, in any case. Except for when the Amerikamuseum in Cuijk, the Netherlands, had to close down. But that was a private museum...

The Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel is selling some of their excess stuff, it's where I got these two from and where I bought by Diplodocus bone a few month back.  

 

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

2 hours ago, ziggycardon said:

The Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel is selling some of their excess stuff, it's where I got these two from and where I bought by Diplodocus bone a few month back.

 

Actually, come to think of that, I knew that! For some reason, though, I mainly associate them with the Pleistocene faunal remains you can buy from the stash in their backyard!

 

As to the Diplodocus fibula, I always thought that came from the Aathal Sauriermuseum. Likely it originally did, as they've had extensive excavations in the Morrison Formation, found a lot of diplodocid material (including a new species), occasionally sell their surplus dinosaur bones, and have close ties with the Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel (in fact, the new Diplodocus there comes from this Swiss museum).

[ziggycardon]

34 minutes ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

 

Actually, come to think of that, I knew that! For some reason, though, I mainly associate them with the Pleistocene faunal remains you can buy from the stash in their backyard!

 

As to the Diplodocus fibula, I always thought that came from the Aathal Sauriermuseum. Likely it originally did, as they've had extensive excavations in the Morrison Formation, found a lot of diplodocid material (including a new species), occasionally sell their surplus dinosaur bones, and have close ties with the Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel (in fact, the new Diplodocus there comes from this Swiss museum).

Indeed, they work closely with the Aathal Sauriermuseum if I remember correclty. I also guess that the arrival of the Diplodocus skeleton is the reason why they sold the fibula, no need to have that laying around anymore  

[JohnJ]

10 hours ago, ziggycardon said:

A Mosasaur vert listed as Clidastes (although I am not entirely sure about the ID yet) found in the Gober Chalk Formation, Gober, Texas, USA (Cretaceous, 80 mya) 
While I am not convinced by the ID, I find this to be the most beautifull looking vertebra from my collection, I really love this piece!

 

This piece looks different from mosasaur vertebrae in texture, color, and proportions for Texas.  Typically, the neural canal would be full of hard matrix and not as large.  There also seems to be cancellous bone exposed that looks more mammal-like.

[ziggycardon]

30 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

 

This piece looks different from mosasaur vertebrae in texture, color, and proportions for Texas.  Typically, the neural canal would be full of hard matrix and not as large.  There also seems to be cancellous bone exposed that looks more mammal-like.

Yeah I am not convinced on the ID either, the shape isn't in line with most mosasaur verts I've seen.

The shape reminds me of tail vertebrae of certain animals but I can't really put my finger on it. 
Intrigueing vert though, I'll probably open up an ID topic for in the coming days  

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

4 minutes ago, ziggycardon said:

Yeah I am not convinced on the ID either, the shape isn't in line with most mosasaur verts I've seen.

The shape reminds me of tail vertebrae of certain animals but I can't really put my finger on it. 
Intrigueing vert though, I'll probably open up an ID topic for in the coming days  

Yeah, I too have seen the vertebra for sale. Wasn't too convinced then either, or else I'd have bought it. Quite telling, I think, that no photographs of the axial views were included in the sale... Now I haven't seen too many matrix-free mosasaur vertebrae - at least not with the neural arches and spinous processes intact - but when seeing the actual views, I also very much doubted it being a mosasaur vertebra: it looks nothing like the cervical or dorsals I have in my collection, not like the caudals I've seen. With the wide neutral canal and high position of those flaring processes, it indeed looks most mammalian...

[ziggycardon]

I just recieved a package with some amazing fossils which I got from @Fitch1979, with who it is always a pleasure of doing business  
The main item in the package was the Tethysaurus nopcsai found in Goulmina, Morocco (Cretaceous, Turonian, 93 - 89 mya)
Which is another item I can cross of my fossil wishlist as it was an fossil I've wanted for many years  

 

And there was also a cool box with some 20 fossils from the Kem Kem beds including fossils from Crocodiles, Spinosaurids, Onchopristis and fish

Tomorrow I am expecting another cool fossil for my Proboscidean collection!