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I'm a bit new to this, so this might be a stupid question but here we go. I found this on marine Eocene deposits in Catalonia, Spain. Could this part of a crab? Or maybe an echinoderm?

Being a Colorado native, I have taken multiple trips to the public-access Florissant Fossil Quarry located near Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant, Teller County, Colorado. This quarry provides fossil collectors fantastic access to the shale layers of the Florissant Formation, a late Eocene (Priabonian, ~34 million years old give or take) lagerstatte known for its diverse fauna of fossil insects, in addition to plants, gastropods, and very rarely vertebrates. Most fossils occur in very thinly laminated ashy grey shales. Other lithologies present include well-sorted tan course sandstones and well-sorted grey claystones. A lacustrine depositional environment is apparent, and though the Florissant Formation has previously been interpreted as the remains of a single large lake (the retroactively named Lake Florissant), it is now generally thought that deposition occurred across several smaller lakes, which of course shifted in their exact location throughout the period of deposition. This thread is for me to share some of my better quality (or more interesting) fossil insect finds from the Florissant Fossil Quarry, and to allow other people to share their Florissant insects. I intend on updating this thread as I make more collecting trips. Most insect fossils found at Florissant are of poor quality, however exceptionally beautiful specimens do crop up quite frequently. Regardless, identification even down to family level is usually very difficult, and some specimens I even have difficulty assigning to an order. Additional reading: https://bioone.org/journals/palaios/volume-27/issue-7/palo.2011.p11-084r/DEPOSITIONAL-SETTING-AND-FOSSIL-INSECT-PRESERVATION--A-STUDY-OF/10.2110/palo.2011.p11-084r.short Please note that at least for now picture quality is not ideal. I do not have the capacity to take good quality macro photographs, but I am doing the best that I can. The scale of the ruler is millimeters, magnification (when applicable) is noted. Order Diptera (True flies): Probably my best-preserved Florissant insect (and one of the first ones I ever found). Another fly. I'd like to be able to identify this one to family (and it almost certainly is identifiable to family) but I haven't been able to place it. This is a gorgeous fossil! Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. Another gorgeous fossil fly. Possibly a gnat (suborder Nematocera), but I'm not 100% on this identification. Partial fly of indeterminate family, most of the abdomen is apparently missing. Both wings are preserved, the thorax and head are also nicely detailed. This is an example of a march fly (Family Bibionidae), probably the most common insect at Florissant. Many specimens (such as this one) are preserved without their wings. The head and mouthparts are very nicely preserved here, I feel shameful that I could not manage a better photograph. Crane fly, (Family Tipulidae). The preservation quality is not fantastic, but the gross anatomy can be easily made out (both wings, the abdomen, thorax, head, eyes, and even the halteres and some of the legs are present). Order Hymenoptera (Bees, ants, wasps, and relatives): A nice solitary bee (clade Anthophila). The details are not as high-fidelty as some other Florissant insects, but a nice complete specimen. Order Hemiptera (True bugs): Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. A shield bug (superfamily Pentatamoidea). This is a really neat specimen because fossil Hemipterans aren't particularly common. Indeterminate Order: A large insect that I've never quite been able to place. Two wings are very faintly preserved which would normally be indicitave of a fly, but this specimen just doesn't look much like a fly otherwise. The antennae are interesting, it's a very large insect, and the tibia has an interesting flange. Unfortunately I can't seem to get a good look at the mouthparts (which has been very useful for me in the past for identification). Magnified 20X under a stereo microscope. At first I thought this might be an ant (family Formicidae) but under magnification the shape of the head is more suggestive of a fly. Very poor preservation, I'm not confident I'll ever get a solid answer here. Larvae: A nice plump fly larva, looks to me to be from a botfly (family Oestridae) or a relative. A very strange fossil. The segmentation and tagmosis definitely means this is an arthropod of some sort, and an insect larva is my current interpretation. Still, I've never seen anything quite like it. I've had a few people suggest to me this might be the abdomen of an earwig, but that's definitely not the case (earwig cerci do not look like this or articulate with the abdomen in this manner). Non-Insect Invertebrates: Just an example of one of the tiny gastropods that are common. It takes a keen eye to see them, but once you can recognize them you realize they're very plentiful. If you have some fossil insects from this locality in your collection, feel free to post them here too! Cheers!

Hi All, I'm very new to the world of fossils and already have a question... This fossil was found among the rocks on a beach in Anglesea, Wales (UK). From trying to research, my best guess is otodus obliquus (upper L8/L9) going off crown size. However, I can't find any info about finding these in the UK - all the ones I've seen similar are from Morocco. Is Anglesea a possible location for these sharks or is my ID way off? Thanks in advance!!

Hello all, from Monmouth county NJ and have been an avid waterman my whole life. Just recently have gotten into shark tooth hunting with my kids and we have done a good amount of exploring and have uncovered some really specials pieces of prehistory. Looking to grow our collection and knowledge as well. Look forward to being part of this group

This was an interesting find in the NJ Eocene/Miocene streams. Its been ID as an historic horse tooth, though it really looks pretty fossilized. Any other thoughts? Wonder how old it actually may be.

I'm new here, so firstly: Hello! I've been collecting a lot of fossils on the south coast of England this summer, but identifying these 3 has so far eluded me. These were all collected loose on the beach. Hopefully the photos are good enough to give a fair representation.

Found in Andalusia from what I’ve been told the Eocene epoch, I’ve looked online and I can’t find anything. I’m new to doing this so any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Hello, I'm from Austria (Europe). And this is my first time here on the forum. When I was 10 years old, in addition to the dozens of bones, I also found a cave bear canine tooth (tip with end of enamel: almost 4cm with root 6cm) in the dragons cave near Mixnitz in Styria. I never made such a great find again: that was the end of my short excavation career. In the last years I've only bought small things: trilobites, amonites and this week I stumbled upon the fish. I bought the petrified fish as a gift for a special occasion. Indicated from the dealer: fossilized fish (Pricacara liops), Green River, Wyoiming, USA, Tertiary, Eocene, approximately 42 million years. Size Fossil: 40.5 cm (I measured the body axis, not the matrix). Matrix (rock slab): 45,5 cm (length, upper longer edge) x 28,5 cm (average) At first Priscacara liops seems wrong to me because it is smaller. In't it? Priscacara serrata grows to about 37 cm tall?! And unfortunately I don't know exactly how big the Priscacara hypacanthus will get. BTW: In my opinion the body shape doesn't fit either. Question 1: Which fish is this actually? Question 2: It seems to me that the beige matrix (plate) was helped with paint. Please see the photos with the arrows. In one place, paint or a piece of rock seems to have chipped off (as long as it was just beautified), that's not so tragic for me. Question 3: Is the fish a real fossil, in your opinion? So that you can get an idea, I have put up unedited photos (except for the arrows + text). I also photographed the back of the matrix (stone slab) and also the edge; also a few detailed shots. Thank you in advance. Greetings, Rod

Hi all, I have some teeth I'd like some input on. Sorry for the photos, working on improving my current photo setup. First, these teeth from the Demopolis formation of Mississippi (Late Campanian). I'm guessing Serratolamna for some of them but they are a bit different than the typical ones from here. They're quite variable teeth. Tooth 1: Tooth 2: Tooth 3: Tooth 4: These teeth are from the Moodys Branch Formation of Hinds County, Mississippi (Eocene, Bartonian). Tooth 5: Hypotodus verticalis? Tooth 6: Brachycarcharias lerichei? Tooth 7, 8: Abdounia enniskilleni? Thanks for taking a look. I appreciate any thoughts.

Hello everyone, Recently just purchased this Auriculatus tooth from the Qsar-el-sagha Formation in Egypt. Whilst making a label for it I have learnt that there is a lot of debate on what genus it belongs to. The two options being Charcharocles and Otodus. It is my understanding that American Paleontologists believe it is from the Charcharocles genus as it has serrations (Otodus not having serrations). In juxtaposition eastern European Paleontologists believe that serrations vs non-serrations is not enough evidence for it to be consider a species of Charcharocles and believe it is a species of Otodus. Case and Cappetta (1990), the review of the Eocene fauna in the Fayum Depression of Egypt (where this tooth comes from) calls it a Charcharocles however several people have told me it does indeed belong to the genus Otodus. Was wondering if anyone here has followed this issue more closely and could inform me if there was now an “accepted” genus. Thanks in advance, Josh

About a year ago I made a post where I made a post on the forum where I shared some of my more interesting fossil insects I had found at the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado. For those uninitiated, the Florissant Formation is an Eocene (Priabonian Stage, ~34 Ma) lägerstatte notable for exceptional preservation of plant and arthropod fossils. My original post can be found here: One of the fossils I showed off in that post was of an insect larva which I had interpreted as a fly (order Diptera) larva, speculating that it may be a botfly larva because it possessed setae which resembled those of a botfly. I had never been super confident in this interpretation, and over the last year I’ve showed the fossil to several knowledgeable friends, paleontologists, and entomologists. What has emerged is a different consensus that I am much more confident with (and is far more intriguing than what I had originally thought!): this fossil is in fact the dorsal view of a caddisfly larva (order Trichoptera). There are several anatomical characteristics present which I had failed to notice initially. To start, I was viewing the fossil backwards. I had interpreted that anterior end as the posterior end and vice versa. Once I had this corrected, it became clear that the insect’s head and thorax are both clearly definable and both eyes are visible on the head. Additionally, small portions of the legs are visible sticking out from the thorax as well. I originally did not see any legs which had informed my original interpretation, but in this fossil most of the legs are tucked underneath the body and not visible. Here’s the fossil. The anterior end faces to the left. Here’s a picture of a modern caddisfly larva sans its protective casing. It is oriented in the same fashion as the fossil, for comparison: Caddisflies are closely related to butterflies and moths (order Lepidoptera) but they have larvae which live in bodies of water. Many caddisfly species’ larvae build little casings out of silk and pebbles/debris to protect themselves, but this is not universal. The larva seen here is not within a casing, so it either died in a rare instance in which it was not in its case or it is of a species which does not build cases. Adult caddisflies have been reported from Florissant, as have fossils of isolated larval casings, but I was unable to find a description of a body fossil of a caddisfly larva. Not to say one doesn’t exist, they just seem to be obscure. So there you have it: a really interesting and unique find from this fossil locality. Just needed another half dozen or so sets of eyes to figure out what was actually going on there!

Hello! Over the past half year I have been collecting shark teeth on the Belgian north sea coast from dredged sand. I have gathered the ones that are complete and identifiable to figure out specifics but the mackerel sharks prove difficult. Luckily I have a page with multiple species from the specific beaches and deposits I visited. (Onderkaak = lower jaw, Bovenkaak = upper jaw). However, this does not include all of the possible species. Many are from the ypresian, the vast majority are eocene of course. This should narrow it down immensely already. My resources are limited though. I have front-back views of my teeth collected and have given them numbers for easy differentiation. I’ve also tried to sort similar ones together. I think most of them could be striatolamia macrota but there are subtle root shape and tooth size differences that I have 0 experience with. I hope more knowledgeable shark enthusiasts here can help with this. I also added some quick side views to showcase that no. 1 and 11 do have a curve to them whereas most of the others are either perfectly flat or pointing slightly up (when lying down with the flatter side underneath). With eocene shark teeth ID, my biggest issue is always not knowing if tooth differences are merely related to placement in the mouth, or if they are actually differences between species. I will provide closeup sideviews of specific teeth if necessary for ID.

My girlfriend and I found this ray tooth plate the other day at the bridge, was wondering if anyone could get a positive ID on it? Below are 3 pictures one with a ruler for scale and 2 nice pictures of it on top of some petrified wood I found in town.

Hello all, this is my first post, and is an ID task. I found this on Braklesham beach, which has a few offshore Eocene clay deposits rich in shark teeth and Ray pallets, as well as turtle carapace. I'm not sure what this is, but it is very similar in size (1.5cm) and shape to squid beaks I have dissected in biology, and was wondering if it might be the beak of a cephalopod. I'm sorry for the poor photos, I'll try get some better ones with my camera. All the best, Tsav.

Hello! I just completed my second trip out to Point A Dam in River Falls, AL and found a couple of interesting things that I cannot seem to ID. Due to traveling, I only took a few pictures and had to use a coin for scale before moving to my next destination, so I apologize for the lack of quantity and quality of my photos. When I get time, I can take more images of the samples below upon request. Thank you! 1: I’m leaning toward Angel shark (?) 2: Legitimately do not have a clue… Maybe stingray related as it is long and cylindrical but it has confounded me. It does have a hole through the center that was difficult to image, presumably for soft tissue. 3: Once again, I don’t have a clue. The bottom of these pieces are smooth and concave below the central “peak.” 4: Miscellaneous pieces. Very well could be nothing but figured I may as well post them.

Took my brother out this Sunday to do some fossil hunting in Monmouth County, NJ. Rainy day, but it didnt stop us from spending a good 5 hours in the water. We started out at Big Brook, and spent most of our time there. Everything from the Belemnite down were my finds, which included a Crow Shark tooth (Squalicorax), a few Gobblin Shark teeth (Scapanorhynchus), several Enchodus teeth, a small section of Ratfish jaw (Ischyodus), couple crustacean claw pieces, a Mosasaur tooth fragment and an unidentified jaw fragment (brown piece, bottom right). Coin is 21mm. The items left and right of the coin were found in a different area in Monmouth, with deposits from the Eocene and Miocene. This was my first time here and I had a great hunt despite being there for only about an hour. Definitely need to go back and spend more time here. Big thanks to another collector for helping me with ID's. I believe the large teeth are Sand Shark (Carcharias). The teeth L & R of the coin are Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo) and the smaller tooth to the left Lemon Shark (Negaprion). Unsure of the small tooth to the right. The Sand Shark tooth to the left is my largest tooth find to date, despite missing the root, measuring in at almost 3cm. Gives me hope there is are complete examples that size in the same area. Thanks for looking, and feedback good/bad is always welcome!

Not too often I find myself back on the ID section lately, so I guess it's a good thing I've found something that stands out now In matrix, I found a crab claw at Whiskey Bridge (Eocene, Bartonian) in Texas. I did a brief search on the crabs of the area, but can't find anything I'm happy with that in particular shares the same rugosity as my specimen. Any thoughts welcome

Dear FossilForum members, I'm an aspirant fossil hunter and thought I'd reach out to you to possibly help identify this recent find (7 images attached, approx. 21cm x 7,5cm x 2cm), found in an Eocene layer (UK, Hampshire Coast)...flat, curved and ‘channels' running down the center of (concave) back (image 02)...could it be a rib? Any (comparative) insight you may provide would be much appreciated. Regards & thanks

Below are 10 crocodile teeth from the Ypresian age of the Moroccan Phosphates, none of which have been identified. I've numbered them to make it easier to keep track of them as they all look rather similar. Thanks in advance for any proposed IDs Othniel

Found this tooth in the vertebrate layer on my second Whisky Bridge (Lutetian, Eocene) hunt like 6 or so months ago. I just assumed it was a fish tooth, so I didn't put too much research into it at the time. Found it again while packing today and now I'm wondering what it is. I can't find any similar Eocene fish teeth in my Googling. Now that I have some marine croc teeth under my belt, I'm starting to wonder if this could be one even though I've never heard of croc material from the site. The tooth is about 9.5 mm tall and 1.5 mm in diameter on the base. It has deep striations that are densest and most uniform on the lingual side. The striations persist on the labial side, but are less dense and deep. It has a sigmoidal curvature labiolingually and two prominent cutting edges. Feel free to tag anyone who knows a thing or two about the site! @jkfoam @Jared C @erose @JohnJ Thanks!