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These two claws were collected from tar seeps in Kern County, California by the late George Lee back in the 70's. I have seen bird claws identified to species before and would like to know if these two can be as well. A friend has a variety of fossils from there and asked me about these today. The larger claw is 31 mm from tip to most distant part of the back of it. The other is 27 mm. Thanks, Jess

Not entirely sure if these are claw cores or other bones, but figured I’d ask. 1) 2) Once again, thanks in advance! @Harry Pristis @Shellseeker

Found 2 more claw cores today - no clue what they are - help is appreciated! 1) - 15mm in length 2) 7mm in length:

Hello to all, I encountered this piece among a gravel bed at low tide on a beach along the West coast of South Africa, close to Cape Town. A location where fossilized shark teeth, marine mammal bones and vertebrae from the Miocene are found alongside Pleistocene fossils like horse teeth and mammoth tooth fragments. Unfortunately, this piece is not very well preserved owing to the relentless waters of the Cape. I'd be thrilled to know if anybody could assist with an ID, and if so, point to any diagnostic features. Scale bar is in cm. Thanks to anyone having a look.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I really appreciate this forum and the people willing to take the time and effort to answer everyone's questions and help people learn. I found these two fragments in gravel. Mostly Pleistocene era here with some Cretaceous shells also I think. FRAGMENT ONE: CLAW CORE? The photos I'd seen of claw cores made me think this could be one, but since it's not very well defined, I've been wondering if it's even animal related at all. The most similar example I could find was a turtle claw core documented by @Harry Pristis , as seen here: Am I way off base? The flat smooth side and holes made me think it was vascular tissue, but I've wondered if it might be reef or even some type of mineral instead. FRAGMENT TWO: SMALL HOOF CORE? This looks like a very small hoof fragment with a rounded top and very flat bottom. The exterior looks worn on the toe-tip area and broken off toward the top. I had trouble finding anything that looked similar online. It does seem very small compared to several other hoof core examples I've seen. The closest thing I could find that looked a little similar was this camel hoof core fragment documented by @worthy 55 As usual, any help would be appreciated, and thanks to anyone who takes a look. --Brandy

I dug in the Pits of Pungo out front of the Aurora Fossil Museum for a few hours. Heres the haul. The shark teeth Phosphate nodules Coral Sea life burrows. Posterior lemons and coppers These teeth are sooo small I don't even know why I picked them up Bryazoa...? My favorites Some of those famous Aurora makos ( isurus oxyrinchus I think) What I think are posterior isurus oxyrinchus's though the one in the middle one looks like it has a burlette? meg? I would appreciate any feedback on these Two nice Hemipritis Double cusped carcharhinus taurus? Alligator claw core? Bird? Sea urchin spines ray teeth Fish/shark verts and partials. I would appreciate if someone s=told me the difference two of them stuck together Bone frags whale verts and frags Shells Can someone help ID them? I can't seem to find any papers or websites I also spent all my birthday money on their little gift shop. Heres what I got from there. I would be happy for any IDs for them. (I like things labeled) Dont know where from St. Claire. PA fern. What is the age and formation of this locale? Morrocan trilobite pyrite amethyst this is definitely my longest post even though its just pictures mostly

As part of our recent tour through the Carolinas, Tammy and I stopped for a bit at the Aurora Fossil Museum (Aurora, NC) to walk through the museum itself as well as to have fun playing in the "sandbox" across the street. The local phosphate mine dumps fine gravel from the mining process in a big pile (two, actually) across from the museum so visitors can hunt for fossils in the fossil-rich gravel without having to deal with the liability issues of coming to the open-pit phosphate mine itself. I'm not quite sure if the fossiliferous gravel represents the Pungo River Marl (Lower Miocene), the Yorktown (Early Pliocene), or a mixture of these and other formations at the mine so the stratigraphy is muddled and likely impossible to determine from this off-site location. We were in luck in that the gravel piles were "turned" that morning exposing fresh material at the surface. It had also rained persistently for several days so the piles were a bit of a sticky mess. I think this made it all the more fun for the young fossil hunters we met on the piles. I was only interested in collecting some of the finer material to look through back home for micro-fossils and so we made use of our sifting screens to remove the larger shark teeth helping the kids to increase their finds. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/87495-epic-carolinas-roadtrip/&do=findComment&comment=950166 I've been busy since returning from this trip but I did manage to wash the sticky silt from the Lee Creek micro-matrix we collected from the piles and dry and store it for later perusal. I had to try a sample of this to gauge the fossil density and get an idea of what was hiding in there as this was a novel micro-matrix source for me (though it has been offered several times on this forum). I've been quite impressed with the density and diversity of mostly tiny shark teeth and other items I'm used to seeing in marine-based micro-matrix. There are some novel species that I'm not used to seeing in micro-matrix from South Florida. In particular, these nice little shark teeth with the cool side cusps were a welcome surprise. They are roughly 3 mm across the root and about 4 mm high. As these popped out of the first small sample that I picked through, I'm guessing these are quite common and well known by the folks familiar with this material. I'm hoping @powelli1 or @sixgill pete or @Al Dente might be able to provide an ID from the image below. Even more interesting that the shark teeth was what appears to be a claw core that also appeared in this small sampling of the micro-matrix. I don't know my claw cores very well--unless it is an enormous ground sloth core from Florida (still high in my Florida fossil bucket list). I don't even know enough to know if this would be from a bird, reptile, or mammal but I'm sure this forum will come to my aid and offer some clues to what I've found. In particular, @Auspex should be able to quickly made an avian/non-avian determination. As a size reference, this item is about 8.5 mm in overall length and around 4 mm at its widest width. Looking forward to another bit of forum-based education tailored to the items that have recently encountered. Cheers. -Ken

Hi All, Had a great trip to South Carolina for river diving last weekend. The water was cold, and we had to dry-suit it, but nonetheless, everyone made some incredible finds, and had a great time. I've got three items I'm looking for the forum's expertise and wisdom on. 1. The first six pics are of what I believe to be a Camel Metacarpal, or Metatarsal. It looks to be in very pristine condition, so much so, that when I first found it, I assumed it must be modern and almost didn't bring it up. After returning home and investigating, I learned that it may be Camel, and I was very happily surprised. This just confirms the advice given to me many years ago by a wise veteran: when on the bottom of the river, and your not sure what something is, bag it up. Once back on the boat, you can always throw it back if it's nothing of interest. 2, The next four pics are of four articulated verts in matrix. I have no idea what these are from, they look fishy to me. The matrix is fairly soft. I can remove it with nothing more than a dental pick, and smooth it with a scrubbing pad and water. I intend to remove more of the matrix, but I want to leave enough to keep the articulation stable. 3. The last item appears to be a claw core? ( or a tusk from the newly discovered (by me) very very tiny, miniature Mammoth?)

These two items were found together in the same area of a small creek (south Alabama) and were associated with Cretaceous shark teeth. The jaw bone is approximately 1-3/4" long and the teeth are 1/4" wide. The claw core is right at 3" long and 2" wide. Any thoughts comments would be greatly appreciated!