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Found this in a big boulder along a creek in eastern Oklahoma. Is this a fossil, and if so...what is it? Thanks for your help!

Alright folks, just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of our fateful trip... but if your in a TLDR mood.... Fossils get real heavy, real fast, and we found a lot. I had a rare full weekend off work, so my son and I went back to hunt the lake Texoma shoreline for a 2 day exploration. We started off in the same beach we found last time (that I dubbed "Echinoid Beach"), but construction had changed everything and made it much harder to hunt. The worst part is that last time we left a small pile when moving everything back to the truck. I knew where it was, but when we arrived, I realized that its buried and probably gone forever. But we made the best of it and hunted what we could. We wound up finding a lot more echinoids and one huge partial mortoniceras ammonite, plus it has echinoids in the matrix with it, so I couldnt hack that off in the field to save weight (it was HEAVY). Oh, that little one on the bottom left... I have hopes its a nautilus! Will have to prep it out to see what all is there. We had originally planned to camp out overnight, but a strong north front had pushed in overnight before, so it was 20 mph winds and lows in the 20s. So, instead we went into the town of Durant and got a hotel room. The next morning the temps were again in the 20s, frost covering the truck, but at least the winds were mild (but not absent) so we decided to check out "ammonite beach" close to the spillway. I have seen a lot of reports and pics from there, so I had an idea of the details, but this was our first trip there. Let me just say.... be careful what you wish for! I had seen pics of giant ammonites. I wanted to find a giant, complete ammonite. I wasnt mentally prepared to recover a giant, complete ammonite! We started out hunt right at the boat ramp, following the shoreline all the way around. Actually found several small partials right away, so I had high hopes. We continued on. Lots of large gryphaea in areas, and isolated areas with lot of ammonite molds and partials, so we spent a lot of time examining everything, but not finding much beyond the oysters. Finally, (I think it was over an hour later) we got to the holy shrine of the ammonite. The sights were just as the legends fortold. Ammos everywhere! Molds and partials every step you took. Some of the partials were massive as well. We looked carefully, hoping for something missed by the throngs of previous searchers, with little luck. Mr. George and his sister had passed us waaaaay back towards the start, and they were ahead in the next cove, and working on something too. They obviously knew more than us, so me made out way that direction. We did find a couple of very nice partials (halves) from the cliffside as we went, so we stashed those and moved one. Then we got to the blocks. That is where George was hammering away to chisel a monster free of the rock. Wonderful fellow, and it turns out I follow him on Youtube (North Texas Fossil Dude). He showed us what and where and how, and we moved down the beach hunting for our own monster, and we found one. Buried in stone, only the top showing. Was it complete? Could we get it out? was it excessively buried under the big caprock above? We decided to give it a go. We hammered, and hammered, and hammered on the chisels. Our arms ached but we were making progress. We kept working until finally we could see a separation develop under the bottom edge. Carefully we pried and lifted and it came free! YAY!!!! We had out ammonite! But now we had to get it back to the truck. It a LOOOOONG walk with 75??? pounds of fossils each (I had all the partials and my son had the big boy) plus hammers, chisels, picks, camera, etc. My rough measurement looks like about 1-1/2 miles long the shoreline. It felt like about 3. George and his sister were kind enough to leave us a 3rd ammonite and a half dozen tiny echinoids they recovered from their spot. The ammo wasnt tiny either! It measures 11 1/2" across! We had originally planned to go creek scouting for our next trip, but we were absolutely spent getting everything back. I helped the local economy by having a great lunch in Dennison at burger shack a block off the highway called "Best Burger Barn". If you go, get the pretzel and cheese appetizer. Seriously the best pretzel I have every had.

One of the great things about hash plates is how much there is to see when you focus in close. I learned another great thing when I noticed a crack in this one from the marine, Viola formation of Pontotoc County Oklahoma. When I finally decided to bust it open it was like taking a whole new fossil hunt from the comfort of home. Most of it is the usual brachiopods and bryozoans but this caught my eye once I got a really close look. The scale is millimetres so this thing is tiny. I have no clue what it could be so help me out if you can.

Hi, I am having trouble identifying what appears to be a plant fossil. I found it recently at Ft. Gibson Dam in Oklahoma. The most tell-tale markings are in the lower right hand corner of the attached photo. Any I.D. will be much appreciated. Also does anyone know the formation? Pitkin Ls, from the Mississippian is at the dam, but my ROCKD app had the formation as Atoka, which is Pennsylvanian. Thanks to PetrolPete for guiding me to this site.

Hello! I live in Sulphur, Oklahoma and I am new to fossil hunting/collecting. I do this with my wife, and we are in the vicinity of some decent locations. Were mainly after inverts. looking to expand access for noobs (like myself) in my area and beyond.

I’m an exotic animal veterinarian with a strong background on anatomy/pathology/physiology/zoology. I’m a taxonomy nerd (though somewhat rusty). My interests are in... well everything I guess. I’ve collected from Cambrian through Eocene, and stromatolites through synapsids. Permian reptilian radiation fascinated me, and I’d really like to learn how to key out forams, and Permian fossil insect wings.

Hey all. I recently got back from a trip to the Wellington formation in Oklahoma, and I ended up with approximately 40 teeth. (Most of which were Xenacanthus teeth) I ended up with quite a few bits and pieces I couldn’t identify. To avoid overly cluttering one thread, I will post others later. These three are shown next to cm measurement, and are from the Wellington formation near Waurika Oklahoma. I will provide more photos as needed, it has been overcast and dark so the lighting has been more difficult. Thank you for your time!

Earlier this month I got the opportunity to return to one of my Permian fossil sites that I haven't visited since around April. The site is located in McClain County in central Oklahoma south of OKC. According to a geological map the majority of the area consists of the Wellington Formation, however the bottom of the exposed area is shown to be apart of the Stillwater Formation. According to scientific publications the only fossil producing layer is mentioned as belonging to the Wolfcamp (296.4 to 268 Ma) particularly the Gearyan strata. I've spent multiple trips earlier this year searching the layer mentioned as being the fossil producing layer but have only found plant impressions. Which I'll post some time in the future. Out of the entire outcrop though, I have only been able to find vertebrate remains in one particular spot. An area that appears to be below the known fossil producing layer. On this trip though, I only spent about 4 hours searching the site because I also had plans to visit family for dinner. Overall, I feel I had a pretty good half day trip. Below are some pictures of the vertebrate remains I surface collected on this trip. I must admit I haven't dedicated any real time to trying to identify the various species from the site yet and have only cleaned the material upon returning back home. But just looking through them while laying them out for pictures, there appears to be Eryops, Edaphosaurus, Diplocaulus, a small Captorhinid as well as an Xenacanthus shark. I've been collecting and cleaning the vertebrate remains from this particular site since March of this year but have focused the majority of my attention towards collecting, prepping and identifying fossils from a different site/formation here with in Oklahoma. All the following pictures are from my most recent fossil hunting trip. ⬆️ Overall view of the site. ⬆️ Quick separation of the bone fragments into various piles. ⬆️ Teeth, mostly Eryops megacephalus. ⬆️ Xenacanthus shark teeth. ⬆️ Jaw fragments, larger fragments appear to be Eryops megacephalus. ⬆️ Small jaw fragment with 2 or 3 teeth, possibly belonging to Diplocaulus. ⬆️ Large vertebrae fragments. ⬆️ Small sized vertebrae, the top row appear to be Diplocaulus. ⬆️ Edaphosaurus sail spine sections, a couple fragments might not be from an Edaphosaurus but were placed in the grouping during a quick sort of all the fragments. ⬆️ Various skull fragments, Eryops megacephalus, Diplocaulus and possibly Diadectes along the top row. Diadectes were one of the two species initially identified from the site along with a temnospondyl according to the research papers I read. I have had a difficult time finding clear close up images of the surface of a Diadectes skull. That is, at least from a legitimate scientifically described specimen that hasn't had the majority of the skull restored. ⬆️ These two pieces are the largest of the fragments that I suspect might belong to a Diadectes. ⬆️ Small limb bone fragments. ⬆️ Possible coprolites. ⬆️ Last but not least, concretions with bone fragments. At least one of the larger pieces has multiple vertebrae and portions of ribs. One small piece has what appears to be a section of jaw with 2 teeth still in place. One piece even has the exposed bases of a small Captorhinid jaw, showing atleast 3 rows of teeth. Interestingly, not all that far away in the next county over in Cleveland county near Norman there's a site that has produced the remains of Captorhinikos chozaensis and Captorhinikos parvus. Exactly what species this particular jaw fragment is from I have no idea. But I'm hoping when I do dedicate the time to identifying the species from this site, I will be able to find enough bone fragments from similar sized Captorhinid remains that I can get a general idea of what species inhabited the site. ⬇️ For these next pictures I used my loop and did the best I could at holding the specimen while also holding the loop still and then also holding my phone up to the loop and still managing to press the take a picture button on my phone. All while trying to hold still so the pictures did not come out blurry. The picture quality is poor but I hope in the future to invest in a digital microscope with a viewing screen. ⬆️ I suspect this might be the exterior of a jaw with two teeth still remaining in the jaw. The possible teeth are along the bottom of the fragmented red/white bone. ⬆️ Captorhinid fragment showing just the base of at least 3 rows of teeth. The broken teeth are the reddish and black donut shapes. ⬆️ This is the small concretion with the Captorhinid teeth. The teeth are located in the bottom goldish blurry blob. You can kinda make out one broken tooth in the top right corner of the goldish blur blob.

Hello, I'm new here and this is my first post. I found the fossil at work today laying in the gravel. I'm not sure if it came in on a dump truck load of gravel or was unearthed 4 years ago during the construction of the impoundment ponds. Regardless it was found in northeastern Oklahoma approximately 45 miles directly south of Tulsa. The only thing I can tell you about it other than what the pictures show is the smell. It had the smell of oil shale after I rinsed the dirt from it. I tried to meet the requirements for photos but I have no ruler that measures in MM nor do I have a printer to print the printable one mentioned in another post. I did however have a Tritan digital caliper that I took measurements with and a laboratory balance that it was weighed with. All measurements are taken at the longest, widest and thickest points. Length: 63.38mm Width:. 27.74mm Thickness: 17.52mm Weight:. 46.3571g

Hello, Just purchased some Permian matrix bags from Richards Spur, OK and the Texas Red Beds. I have a few items I'm wondering if anyone can help me ID. I do have some guesses for a few of them. Using a dime for scale. Red Beds Going to guess Eryops skull fragment on this one. I think these might be fragments of Orthacanthus spines. Partial vert? This one is so small I really can't capture any distinct detail in the photo. Most small teeth fragments in this matrix were the broken tips of Orthacanthus teeth. However this is much rounder (although I can make out at least one edge), has no serration as far as I can tell, and under a very bright light I can see extremely fine vertical ridges (striae?) down the length of the tooth. It is also colored differently. Not hoping for much on this guy but my best guess would be some sort of amphibian. This one I'm fairly confident is an Archeria "jaw"; I understand they would have had some kind of palate plate to help grasp/swallow prey? More info on that would be awesome. It definitely matches what I've seen on Google. Richards Spur, OK Am very interested in this one in particular. Some kind of rooted tooth, it has this strange acorn shape to it. Not seen anything like it elsewhere. Thanks for having a look and my apologies for the poor photos; all I've got is a magnifying glass. I think I need to buy a book so I can try and identify this stuff on my own!

Traveling from Minnesota to Texas next week Take I35-W down and roughly following the Mississippi back up. Any recommendations for fossil or paleo related Museums to visit or fossil hunting trips/locales along this loop? I am mostly interested in vertebrate fossil hunting but would really be up for any good suggestions.

I found this and quite a few other things in a nodule layer of Pennsylvanian in Catoosa, OK. This is my first post here so I'll just try 1 for now. Thanks

I got these material from one seller. The information that I have is these all come from Oklahoma, USA. I have separate and glue some. I put them in 2 group that which have spike and which doesn’t have. It very pleasure that you could help me to ID them! Thanks! First group Second group

Buried in Stone: Shores of area lakes, rivers ideal for digging up fossils By Brian D. King, Tahlequah Daily, Oklahoma Yours, Paul H.

I found this broken nodule in an outcrop of Pennsylvanian shale in Northeast Oklahoma. I’m wondering if the fossil could be the upper part of a skull? Other common fossils from this site include fragmentary fish remains (e.g., teeth, spines, dermal denticles, and coprolites from sharks and other fishes), as well as invertebrate remains from ammonites, gastropods, bivalves, brachiopods, corals, and conularia. If this is a skull, would you guess it to be from a fish, amphibian, or reptile? I don’t see any traces of teeth in the nodule, but I can provide closer views of areas that might be of interest. I’ve done as much prep work as I dare with a brush and needle (my skills and tools are rudimentary). I look forward to any thoughts you may have. Best wishes .

Greetings, After using this forum as a source of information for the last few years I have finally decided to create an account and return the favor. In the future when time permits and my new member status has passed. I plan to upload pictures of already identified fossils to my personal gallery in an effort to help others in their quest for answers. My main interests are vertebrate fossils, with a focus on amphibians, reptiles, fish, and early mammals. The Permian period is by far my favorite time period but I also love the Triassic. If I'm not out collecting and locating Permian fossil sites then I enjoy spending my time researching scientific papers and learning as much as I can about ancient wildlife. I'm not a gamer and I rarely watch tv or movies unless it's a documentary or lecture regarding something I'm interested in.

From MD, visiting OKC for another week. Had a great day at Lake Texoma last weekend and looking to spend a few more days around Thanksgiving hunting with a local or with local wisdom. Could us a little help getting a little more off the beaten path where less broken fossils are more likely. I guess you'd call me an experienced newbie. Elementary science teacher by day, love to hunt fossils by the days I'm not teaching. Would love to find some more ammonites, do a nice trilobite hunt, or whatever is within a "reasonable" drive for a day or two trip. Any favorite spots or formations with close to spots you'd be willing to share would be grateful. If you want to join and feel like you are budding movie star, I'd be happy to include you in the next video lesson about the Earth and Fossils, targeted towards 4-10 year olds. If you'd prefer just to pm, I would be grateful for that, too! pm please.

Found in western Oklahoma, was on a well site so could have come from a quarry in northwest Oklahoma. It is very very light. Any identification help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone ! I need some help in ID these Permian fossil that I found in Permian matrix from Comanche country , Oklahoma Any rare find ? haha Thank in Advance Guns Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4 Number 5

Large bivalves found in Permian rock layers in southern Oklahoma is all my limited education knows. Lol can anyone elaborate on what these little guys are? Thanks for your help love learning and sharing here.

I believe this is a ball joint of some creature? Found in oklahoma. Seems to be fossilized as it is very hard and stone like. It is lighter than it looks porous as I would expect bone to be. Is this reallllly old or just old? IDK

Possible dinosaur egg? What are your thoughts?

Hey y'all! Need help with some Permian material. 1. Thought it was Xenacanth shark, but it looks odd to me (~ 3 mm): 2. Think it's a fish spine (~ 3 mm): 3. No idea; a tooth of some kind (~ 1 mm):

I wonder if anyone may be able to help determine whether this is a bone, and whether it might be from a fish or a tetrapod? It was found in the Middle Pennsylvanian Wewoka Formation of northeastern Oklahoma. It may take me 3-4 postings to upload all 7 images. Best wishes.