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The Mark of the Mosasaur: A 90-million-year-old bite mark raises questions about what seagoing lizards really ate By Brian Switek on April 27, 2017 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/laelaps/the-mark-of-the-mosasaur/ Gale, A., Kennedy, W., Martill, D. 2017. Mosasauroid predation on an ammonite – Pseudaspidoceras – from the Early Turonian of south-eastern Morocco. Acta Geologica Polonica. doi: 10.1515/agp-2017-0003 https://geojournals.pgi.gov.pl/agp/article/view/25689 Some other papers: Kauffman, E.G. and Kesling, R.V., 1960. An Upper Cretaceous ammonite bitten by a mosasaur. Contrib.Mus. Paleontol.Univ. Mich. 15:193-248 https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/48337/ID178.pdf;sequence=2 Kase, T., Johnston, P.A., Seilacher, A. and Boyce, J.B., 1998. Alleged mosasaur bite marks on Late Cretaceous ammonites are limpet (patellogastropod) home scars. Geology, 26(10), pp.947-950. http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/26/10/947.short Tsujita, C.J. and Westermann, G.E., 2001. Were limpets or mosasaurs responsible for the perforations in the ammonite Placenticeras?. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 169(3), pp.245-270. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018201002206 Klompmaker, A.A., Waljaard, N.A. and Fraaije, R.H., 2009. Ventral bite marks in Mesozoic ammonoids. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 280(1), pp.245-257. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018209002296 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adiel_Klompmaker/publication/229134933_Ventral_bite_marks_in_Mesozoic_ammonoids/links/0deec51cff63b6dcba000000.pdf Hewitt, R.A. and Westermann, G.E.G., 1990. Mosasaur tooth marks on the ammonite Placenticeras from the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 27(3), pp.469-472. http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/e90-042#.WRPHjlKZMk5 Yours, Paul H.

Greetings! I mentioned in another topic, that I will post some of my heteromorph findings and prepwork. The locality is in Hungary, and is an abandoned quarry that produced cement for the local factory. It is rich in fossils, but it was a big underwater slope, and because of this the fossils only found in shallow beds, between redeposited layers of "nothing" and always in condensed form, and the bigger pieces fossilized mainly in fragments. Another problem is, that the compressed marls contains only stone molds, sometimes with slick&slides on them, and the matrix and fossil is hard to distinguish There are some pieces that have the imprints of spines. Here is one that is a big question for me, because the spine is visible, (at least at 1 section that broke out with some luck) but it is only a thin imprint in the stone, and I really like to have some opinions, what to do with it... I began prepping, but if i only touch the stone with the vibrotool, I see nothing what I do onward, because the fine dust completely obscure the spine, so I could work as I imagine they should be, and I fear that I will destroy it (and the further ones) completely, and I am uncertain to try to fake them from the matrix (But it is already nearly the same) so this is one option. Another problem is that I need to remove a lot of matrix, and I have bitter expectations what will happen with the underlying spines... So there is a second option to do nothing with it, but I like more to have a good prepared spiny Crioceratites in my collection, so I will try anyway The first spine from the living chamber is currently "faked" because I do not found the spine imprint yet. The second spine is original (as the stone broke off of it) (the other fossil is an Orbitolina, but I am not shure) The sandy marls are soft and the stone molds that have a thin calcite shells are sometimes found in calcite concretions, the calcite coating is very thin and always damaged. So preparing the material is a challenge. Sometimes the spines are preserved, but always broke off. You will see on the pictures below, that the pieces are extremly fragile. Maybe there is a way to preserve, the spines or put them back while preparing? Here is a remains of a spiny one: Here is some finished or nearly finished pieces: From the softer sandy marls: Freshly found Crioceratites (nolani?): Gluing together the pieces: Restoring the missing part with magic sculpt, and coloring it with powdered stone to imitate the stone molds thin calcite coating. (the color was really hard to match, and I am not satisfied with it, but I done my best with it) The complete piece, prepared: Here is some pieces from the condensed marls: Freshly found Crioceratites (duvali?): Gluing together the pieces: Restoring the missing parts with magic sculpt, and stone chips from the matrix, and coloring it with powdered matrix There are acrylic lacquer applied, so the fossil is better distinguished from the matrix The complete prepwork: Here is another heteromorph, Anahamulina (acuaria?): After prepping out of stone: (need further work) With kind regards

"The "death drag" of a prehistoric "squid" - or ammonite - made 150-million-years-ago has been preserved as an incredible fossil. The animal's shell made the 8.5m-long mark as it drifted along the seafloor after its death." Article HERE. Enjoy.

After splitting some clay shales this morning I wondered how these two fossils would have come together. Thank you for looking

I'd very much like to buy some unprepared ammonites and prepare them myself. Does anyone know who I could talk to about this?

This morning I was moving some of my fossil crab concretions around and tryin to orginize a bit and ran into this Beauty! It had collected a bunch of dust. I had to wash it off even! Now, finally, its in the house. Just wish these pics could do the color on this thing some justice, but im not good at photography. Its got some wonderful purples that you can not see. My son found this many years ago and it took me many hours of prep with lots and lots of sanding and then a coating of some kind of 2 part system, but it came out purty good. RB

Hello everyone! I need a little help on a few fossils from Big Brook. I'm trying to find out the genus of this ammonite and echinoid. I'm particularly curious about the echinoid, as I haven't heard of them being there. The last appears to be a tooth with some socket attached (under a loop, the root part looked reptilian so im leaning towards plesiosaur not not sure). Thanks in advance! -Frank

Hi All Avid Fossil Walker , love what you can fiind, Please find Enclosed my First Prepping Attempts, On my Finds..... Love Any Feedback , good or Bad.. Its all a Learning Curve for me Cheers Bob Before and After Photos another before and after another pair last Ones my fav

https://youtu.be/5A0RvC18LHE Well hello everyone. It's been a while as we have been pretty busy. We took Easter Break and did our annual tour for crystals and Ammonites. Found a couple of nice ones but no big ones so far. Enjoy the video!!

Part-timer here, always like to look at your beautifully preserved specimens! I collected a number of concretions and recently have had some time to hone my prepping skills....Some of the ammonites I am working with have an awesome mother-of-pearl look to their shell which tends to fade, dry and flake over time. What will preserve them? Is there something that I can do to them before air abrasion to avoid fracturing them? Here's a couple of pics.....my technique has been smash the concretion with a big hammer then look for specimens to work with, is there a better way?

I took a long 8 - 10 mile hike at NSR. The weather was beautiful and wildlife abundant. I saw hogs, deer, beaver, hawks, ducks and geese among others. I picked up a nice variety of fossils. I really like the Xiphactinus jaw with replacement tooth showing. I sat down to take a break and found 4 shark teeth in one area. The little fossilized turtle scute is also cool.

12 hr NSR hunt on a beautiful day. I found a nice variety of fossils & artifacts. My buddy made friends with a couple of copperheads.

As a long term fossil and amber collector / fancier I'm looking forward to reviewing the photos on here and hopefully uploading my collection photos as well. Here's one to start with. Nigel

Hi guys, A friend of mine from work has recently found a field in the small village of Bugbrooke which is currently littered with ammonites eroding out of the surface- as he knows I'm studying Palaeontology next year for my masters he has decided to give a few to me to both prep and also try and identify. After a little inspection I was thinking that the ammonites he has provided me is most Lilkly Dactylioceras and Hildoceras. This would make sense as the local geology is Jurassic mudstones often capped by ironstone on top. Of course this is conjecture and ammonites are not my specialty.

Well decided to work on a couple of bits last night for an hour, the bone is from Kettleness and is one I have been thinking about having a go at so finally decided to get it done. The ammonite was picked up from Port Mulgrave it had a nice ridge showing but as I removed the extra matrix of it a Hildo appeared. It is looking crushed so not sure how the middle will be, but if it is ok I may prep the other side to expose both ammonites.

We took a trip to Morocco last month and wanted to grab some fossils to bring back for ourselves and for gifts. We basically had no clue what we were doing and on top of that ran out of time in Southeast Morocco to hit up some stores, and were only able to stop at one random store somewhere outside of Alnif. Mainly just curious if anything is fake. I don't think we really got the greatest specimens. They had some nicer looking ones, but we really didn't feel like spending much money. Any thoughts would be great. Also have a trip report that I put online if anyone was interested, mainly just pics of our travels around Morocco lcmorocco.wordpress.com

Hello! A year ago I collected some really nice pyritised ammonite fossils from Lyme Regis (UK), washed them when I got home and put them in a tin to try and keep them from oxidising. I've just opened it and some of them are growing some rather weird clear fibers and I cannot find any information about what on earth it might be and what I can do about it (if anything). It looks like a weird sort of thin plastic thread mould but they're definitely coming out of the fossils. I've attached a couple of pictures to illustrate. Any thoughts or advice? Thanks! Astrid