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Good afternoon, I found these here today in Travis county, Texas after a good storm rolled through. I commonly find sea urchin fossils, shark teeth, and oysters from this creek. Thanks

Hi friends, I'm trying to learn more about Green River fish. Interested to know if anyone sees anything wrong with this fossil (repair, restoration, coloring/painting, composite). The color seems slightly darker to me than the typical Green River fish that I've seen but it's not dark enough for the 18 inch layer fish that I've seen.... so that's part of why I'm curious/asking. Thank your for your insights.

Hello there fossil forum! This post will actually contain some of my finds from 2 trips to the same location, namely the island of Bornholm in Denmark. I went there this summer, and made quite an interesting discovery, which I will get back to, and then went on yet another trip, which I got home from less than a week ago. I doubt many of you know about it, unless you're Danish or have an interest in the geology of Denmark, but most of Denmark was underwater for pretty much all of the Mesozoic era. That is, of course, with the exception of Bornholm, which is a geologist's/paleontologist's/amateur fossil collector's dream. Denmark is not well known for any dinosaur fossils whatsoever, except from a few teeth found in the Robbedale Formation, and a bunch of foot-prints scattered along the west and south-coast of Bornholm. As recent as last year in April though, someone discovered the very first dinosaur bone in Denmark, at Hasle Beach, Bornholm. It's supposedly from a young sauropod, and is still being studied at this very moment. After I heard of the discovery, I desperately wanted to go to Bornholm. So I went there for 5 days in July, and 7 days in October, where the second time, I brought some of my friends from my heavy metal band along with me. On the first trip, the very first day at Hasle Beach, I searched for about 5 hours along the beach, with not a single fossil in sight. Just as I was about to leave the beach to get something to eat, I stumbled upon a very odd looking rock. Which obviously wasn't a rock, it was a bone: It measured about 6x5x6 (LxWxH) cm. I brought this into the museum located at the island, called "Naturbornholm", which is where a lot of the fossils found on the island are showcased. I had some of the people from the museum take a look at it, and they agreed on that this was definitely bone. What was very unlikely about this bone however, is that it looks like the end of a limb-bone, meaning it probably wasn't a plesiosaur, but something that was able to walk on land. In Denmark there's a law concerning fossils, saying that if the fossil could be valuable to science, it is obliged to deliver it to the Geological Institute of Copenhagen for research. The bone is currently being examined and studied. I still haven't received any new information regarding the bone. However they have said, that there's a good chance it's probably from either a crocodile, turtle or dinosaur. Whatever the species might be, it is most likely also a new species, as most of the bone material found at Hasle are plesiosaur bones. I went digging in the exact same area for the rest of the days, in hope of finding other bone-pieces. The picture below shows other pieces I found, which according to the museum, are bone fragments. Some of them are very worn though, and covered with conglomerate and iron. They are in no way as well preserved as the slightly worn bone piece I found on the first day: Other than those, I found another piece of bone, however it is very hard to tell what it is from. I'm considering trying to open up the lump of sandstone, however the black layer of bone material is fragile. The picture quality might be bad on this one, but I can assure you, it is not coal or mineral: So after the first trip to the island of Bornholm, I was invited over there by some of the people from the museum in the autumn holiday. I brought some of my bandmates with me as well, in an attempt to up the amount of fossils we'd find. And we did find a lot of stuff. On the first day we started out slow. The guitarist from my band was the first person to find a fossil. He found a small tooth, which might be from a type of bony fish. We're currently talking with one of the paleontologists of the Geological Institute, who wants to have a look at it in person. It measures about 5 mm, and was cracked in half when found, but afterwards repaired. The second day, we went out digging up on the more northern side of Hasle Beach, where the cliff is a bit taller. We didn't find much though. The other guys went back to the hut after a few hours, and I worked my way back to the spot where I had been digging during the summer. Shortly after, I found a small fragment of bone, most likely a rib-fragment. It's probably not from a plesiosaur though, as all the plesiosaur ribs found on the beach are usually very round, and not flat. The next day, we all went to the museum, showing a few of the fossils we had found to the people we knew there. Other than that we took a look at all the awesome finds exhibited at the museum. Including 2 of the dromaeosauroides bornholmensis teeth found in the Robbedale Formation (1 of them was a replica though). Most of the dinosaur fossils found, as showcased by the museum, are trace-fossils. Dinosaur-tracks and coprolites, with the exception of the dromaeosaur teeth. However those are from the early cretaceous period (140 million years ago), while the place where we were digging, Hasle Beach (The Hasle Formation), is about 170-180 million years old. Later I went digging again the same day. Some of the others didn't feel like digging, so I went out alone. I searched in about the same area where I had found the bones last year, and got really lucky once again. First I found a nice jet-black hybodont shark tooth, measuring about 9 mm in length. Then a piece of fossil wood/branch shortly after. 2 hours after the last find, I decided to go back to the cabin we had rented not far from the beach, and once again I was super lucky, and then stumbled upon a large bone-piece! A plesiosaur paddlebone, measuring about 4x4x1 cm! The fourth day, the other guys wanted to get back in the game after showing them the paddlebone. The next day we found a couple of odd pieces, mostly shells, but also another tooth, this time it was a chimaera tooth. On the fifth day, we went to a slightly different location, about 4 km further south of Hasle Beach, at a place called "The Pyrite Lake", where there's an abundance of plant-fossils, but there has also been found a couple of plesiosaur teeth there, as well as large dinosaur tracks. These tracks, as shown at the museum, are not negatives however, but a "positive". As in, when the creature made the track, the track was filled up with mud or another sediment later, basically making a 'positive' "sculpt" of the foot so to speak. At the Pyrite Lake, we found some huge chunks of fossil wood. Some a tad too heavy to carry around in a rucksack. We did however also spot a very interesting-looking rock, that shared a big resemblance to the dinosaur-tracks at the museum. We sent the coordinates of this rock to the people at the museum, and they're gonna send a paleontologist out to take a look at it at some point, to try and determine, if it is indeed a dinosaur track. So it's going to be interesting to see, if this truly was made by a prehistoric animal, or if this is just a very funny looking rock. On the sixth, and last day of digging, we found a lot of odd looking fossils by Hasle Beach again, which we could not identify. One may have been a bigger, but crushed, hybodont tooth, trapped within a lump of sandstone. And another could be a rib or just some plant-material. Either way, we left a lot of the fossils at the museum, for them to take a look at, if any of it should hold any interest to them, or to the people of the Geological Institute of Copenhagen.

This fossil was found last week by a worker of the quarry. I haven’t seen this kind of fossil before and is definitely an uncommon one around here. The fossil is not in a really good condition. I’ll post two pictures hoping I can find some help from you guys. The largest teeth are almost 1 inch long. Thanks a lot!

Hello again. I found this strange bone on the beach in abu dhabi ruwais. I am not sure if it is a fossil, it is ver porous. It is about 1.5cm thick The beach was man made, so I am not sure exactly where this might of came from.

Hello! Could it be scale? Western Ukraine, Lviv region. Thanks in advance!

Someone online is selling this as a 'raptor claw'. Does anyone have any idea what it might really be? I suspect it's a piece of Kem Kem fish skull. The seller insists that it's a raptor claw.

Hello, I was looking at one of my fossils, a Mioplosus I found in Wyoming to be exact, and I noticed some weird bumps in the rock under the jaw. I was like, "Is that a spine? It cant be." Now, the mouth of the Mioplosus was mangled, so you cant make out the jawline. After seeing what looked like a spinal chord under the mouth, I had a theory, "What if the mangled mouth is actually another fish the Mioplosus was eating when it died?" After gently scraping away some of the rock around the bumps I thought were a spinal chord, I confirmed my theory to be correct. There was another fish in the fossil. This Mioplosus was eating another fish, a Diplomystus, to be exact. What do you guys think? Two fish in one? Pictures are attached. Jared

I'd love some thoughts on some of these recent finds from Sharktooth Hill. Thanks in advance! These ones, I think, are porcupinefish mouth plate pieces, but I have no experience with them. These seem like fish teeth. Parrotfish or related??? The two views are the same pieces, with interesting "toothy" parts on both surfaces. I can see the bottom pic maybe showing palatine teeth??? And finally this has me totally stumped. While collecting we saved it saying, "that's gotta be something" still still don't have a clue. Bottom pic is side view.

Hi Folks! This is a tough one. A friend of mine saw my recent Green River Formation acquisitions and it made him curious about his own fish fossil. I told him that I would try to get an ID for it. He has very little info on it - he got it at a flea market in Massachusetts for $2. The seller was from Morocco and he was also selling other Moroccan minerals and fossils. So, I think the fish is from Morocco. This is the only photo he has of it at the moment. Does anyone have any idea what this fish is? Thanks!

Hi all, This specimen was found in a black shale layer that lays directly and uncomfortably upon the Duquesne Limestone, which is Late Pennsylvanian age. It was found in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Both the shale and limestone are filled with vertebrate fossils, especially the scales, teeth and spines of paleoniscoid fish. As far as I know there is no species list from the shale but Elonichthys has been reported. I know skull roofs can be very diagnostic so any rough estimates of genus would be very helpful! I apologize for the picture quality, my phone is a brick.

I scored some nice Eocene fish plates from the Green River formation in Lincoln County Wyoming. Can anyone help me ID these three fish? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Fish story for the ages: High schooler unearths rare fossil by University of Chicago, September 30, 2019 https://news.uchicago.edu/story/fish-story-ages-high-schooler-unearths-rare-fossil https://phys.org/news/2019-09-fish-story-ages-high-schooler.html Yours, Paul H.

Hello, On the internet I found and bought this fossil fish scale from the Kem Kem formation. Unfortunately, I do not know which fish she comes from, as she looks different than any other fish scales from Kem Kem that I know. A box on the sheet is 5x5mm, the scale is ca. 1,7cm long. I hope you can help me with that. Thank you in advance, Jesco

Here's a few Xiphactinus fossils in my collection that I collected at the North Sulphur River Texas. My arm for scale lol.

I'm not knowledgeable much about fish this was collected in January from goulmima only now got to prepping it fully any ideas? It's 9.8cm long the skull looks to be crushed deformed.

Good day, I'd like some help to identify this fossil fish. It is nearly 11 inches long. From what I've searched it looks similar to Neoproscinetes, but I'm no master of fossil fishes. I'd like to know its species name and if it is indeed a real fossil fish.

Hi I'm looking at this Fish Fossil from the web. Anyone know what species is it? It is around 7 inches long and the following are the location details: Period: Cretaceous - Early Cenomanian Formation: Santana Formation Location: Regiao de Ceara, Araripe Basin, Brazil

Fish scale, vertebrae, squilla scale, some kind of plants Location: Pohang, south Korea Formation: Duho formation Age: middle miocene

I have started to collect a few things from a older lady and wanted to share. The large piece of petrified wood is 8” across and 3” thick. The fish I have been wondering if they were the same kind? Love the bug/ mosquito or not sure what to call it. these were found 50+ years ago.

L.S., Since animal fossils are definitely not my strongsuit, I would like to call upon the incredible collective knowledge here at TFF and ask your help with the identification of the fish remains shown below. This specimen comes from the Westphalian D (Pennsylvanian, Carboniferous) of the Piesberg quarry near Wallenhorst, Germany. The shape of the scales reminds me of images of rhizodont (?) fish scales, but this could very well be a superficial resemblance only... Penny for your thoughts? Kind regards, Tim

Here’s some fossils I’m working on from 18 mile creek in Hamburg,NY. They’re in pretty dense hard silica shale. Any ideas on identifying them?

I bought this along with several other pieces boxed together at a garage sale. The whole piece is 7 inches by nearly 4 inches. The starfish is close to 5 inches longest tip to longest tip. I'm not an expert in any area but it was easy enough for me to distinguish the real ammonites and small trilobites etc. from the few that were enhanced or clearly replicas. I'm a little unsure on this piece, though my gut tells me it is not a genuine fossil. When looking at the photos, it appears the starfish was carved, filled in with a reddish matrix, and then perhaps the figure was pressed into the matrix while it was still wet? Am I right or is this real - or perhaps partly real with enhancements? There is also a small crinoid looking object next to the starfish - photos also included. My guess is the small crinoid may be genuine. Thank you for your input.

Hey everybody! I realized I never made a thread for my internship at the Field Museum in Chicago this summer. I interned as a fossil preparator under Akiko Shinya in the McDonald’s Fossil Preparation Laboratory (that’s the “fish bowl” lab on the second floor right next to Evolving Planet with the big window). There were some amazing things being prepared in the lab - an Antarctic Lystrosaurus, lots of Dicynodonts, Green River fish (some massive Phareodus), Sauropod femurs and ribs, a massive slab containing several sturgeon and paddlefish - but I’m not sure if I am allowed to post pictures of them, so for the sake of confidentiality I won’t just in case. This is the lab, and I always sat in the red chair, right up next to the window. One of my favorite parts of this internship was seeing all the little kids so excited about what we were doing in there and interacting with them. I was preparing a Priscacara serrata (specimen PF 16961) from the Green River formation of Wyoming, Eocene (~52 mya). All I used was a pin vise and an Amscope stereoscope. This fish also seemed to have slightly “exploded” from the pressure of fossilization as well, it’s jaw was crooked and head smashed, thought most fins seemed surprisingly well intact. The prep took 199.5 hours to complete, from May to August. I finished the prep on the final day of my internship, staying late after the museum had closed to the public and all the others in the lab had gone home. But it was far worth it, because "your name will forever be associated with this specimen." -Akiko Shinya I took a picture at the end of every day and I made a time lapse with it to see the growth! The link is at the bottom of the post. (I kept that floating scale in front of its mouth because I thought it was kind of funny that it looked like the fish was trying to eat it!) You can watch the time lapse Here