February 2014 Finds Of The Month

[JohnJ]

January was a blockbuster month! Who knows what we will see this month? Will it be a new species, a rare specimen, or spectacular preservation? Carefully read the rules below, make sure you include all the required information, and submit your fantastic finds!

Please remember that we recently introduced another qualification to the current rules. Make a note of Rule #5: Before and After Preparation photos must be submitted for Prepped specimens not found during the Month of the Contest. In addition to keeping the contest fair, this new qualification will encourage better documentation of our spectacular past finds. Best of luck to all and good hunting!

Entries will be taken through February 28th. Please let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for sharing more of your fossils and research this month.

To view the Winning Fossils from past contests visit the Find Of The Month Winner's Gallery.
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Rules for The Fossil Forum's Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month Contests

1. You find a great Vertebrate Fossil or Invertebrate/Plant Fossil! Only fossils found by you.

2. Post your entry in the Find of the Month topic. Use a separate post for each entry.

3. Your Fossil must have been found during the Month of the Contest, or significant Preparation of your Fossil must have been completed during the Month of the Contest.

4. You must include the Date of your Discovery or the Date of Preparation Completion.

5. Before and After Preparation photos must be submitted for Prepped specimens not found during the Month of the Contest.

6. You must include the common or scientific name.

7. You must include the Geologic Age or Geologic Formation where the Fossil was found.

8. Play fair and honest. No bought fossils. No false claims.

Shortly after the end of the Month, separate Polls will be created for the Vertebrate and Invertebrate/Plant Find of the Month.

In addition to the fun of a contest, we also want to learn more about the fossils. So, only entries posted with a CLEAR photo and that meet the other guidelines will be placed into the Poll.

Within a few days, we will know the two winning Finds of the Month! Now, go find your fossil, do your research, and make an entry!

[Ash]

No entries yet?

Dont add this one if it doesnt count (EDIT: Pretty sure this doesnt count, feel free to delete if it doesnt. Or else we could just horde potentials and split 1 each month till we get a win? Not the intention, just forgot about them), i technically collected the rock back in december, but i only split it last friday so didnt know i had it. (7/2/14).

Invertebrate entry (crab), no prep (yet).

Cretaceous (105 MYO).

Ilfracombe, Queensland Australia.

Species is: Torynomma quadrata

Edited February 11, 2014 by Ash

[JohnJ]

Troy, if very little, or none, of the crab was visible on the outside of the nodule, then splitting it would be considered significant prep or a new find (unless you have x-ray vision ) on Feb 7th. If any of the crab was visible, then you would need a photo of the nodule before splitting (or reassembled).

So, you have a valid entry, or you are one photo away from having a valid entry. When entering fossils found in previous months, it is always a good thing to take a photo before any type of prep if you think it has FOTM potential.

[Ash]

Well, there was no visible sign of crab so I guess all good! I'll stick the halves back together and take a pic just to be safe though.

[Auspex]

...I'll stick the halves back together and take a pic just to be safe though.

Aussie pragmatism, at its best!

[mikeymig]

Due to the slow start I will throw one in that I just finished prepping yesterday the 12th. I found it in January and put it aside because it looked so different. I posted it on Facebook and like I said there I don't usually prep horn corals but had to clean this one up. It took about 2 hours in prep and another 3-4 brushing it up with an old toothbrush. This was one tenacious coral when it was alive. It was knocked down several times but still grew by twisting and turning towards the sunlight.

We call him TWISTY!

Thanks
Mikey

Edited February 14, 2014 by mikeymig

[caldigger]

Humm, the month is half over and only two entries...this will make voting very easy. Come on kids, break through the ice and get digging!

[Ash]

I think I'll have to enter a couple to verse myself for Verterbrates?

Generators and a hair dryer, I know the guys and gals of this site are committed!

[Adron]

Somniosus microcephalus (upper tooth)

Location: Antwerp

Date: February the 15th

Pliocene age

size: 1 cm

greetings

Aaron

[dozer operator]

Okay so I figure ill give this a shot hopefully im following the rules correctly.

Date of vertebrate find February 16.

Date of preparation (none needed found as is )

common name, Great White shark or Carcharodon Carcharias (tooth).

Geological formation/time. It came from a pre-mix of 3 formations Bermont/caloossahatchee/or Fort Thompson. The age spans from Pleistocene to Pliocene.

[Jurassic Jim]

I will throw the following blastoid from earlier post into the invertebrate mix.

Found on FEB 1.
Pentremites with feeding arms (brachioles)
Mississippian Age
North Alabama

[Ash]

Vertebrate entry.

Found January, prepped the last 2 days (21st/22nd feb, 2014). Took about 10 hours, lost track of time.

No formation name

Diprotodon optatum lower jaw with pathology. The close up pic is damage to the bone caused by an infection/abscess. Painful stuff. The teeth are extremely worn from feeding wear, but this wasn't a large or old animal. It must have had a very tough life, likely living during a drought. Much can be told by this particular one. These are also the largest marsupial known. The damage from abscess goes to both sides. No scale on photo but if you look at the scalpel in front it has graduations to 6cm on it, so the handle of the scalpel is about 3" long for comparison.

Pleistocene

Australia.

Edit: added pic with better scale (12" rule)

Edited February 27, 2014 by Ash

[nala]

Lepidostrobus sp from the Carboniferous(Westphalian ),my first lepidodendron cones find the 23/02/2014 near Divion Northern France

[Ash]

Nice guys!

[nala]

Nice guys!

Thanks Ash!your crab is nice too.but your Diprotodon optatum lower jaw is Awesome!

in situ picture

Edited February 24, 2014 by nala

[RCFossils]

Here is my unusual crinoid from the Silurian aged Waldron Shale of Indiana. To my knowledge, it is the only known crinoid to have a stem with such variation of the columns. This crinoid is extremely rare. I am only aware of one other known example that preserves both the stem and calyx.

I collected this piece in November of 2012 and prep was completed in February of 2014.

[RCFossils]

Here is a picture of the specimen prior to being prepped

[nala]

Very impressive prep RCFossils ! you made a museum scale fossils with all these pieces,it's magic!

[Wrangellian]

Bizarre crinoid!

Looks like you had to add some matrix somehow?

[nala]

Bizarre crinoid!

Looks like you had to add some matrix somehow?

and the fossil became twice more big on the new matrix!Wow ! i said that it's magic!

[uncoat]

Here is my entry for vertebrate find of the month. I was considering waiting until i had a chance to visit a friend who has an air abrasion unit but I think i will just post it as is. If i remember correctly, it was found sometime in mid October. Prep was started in early December and finished February 4th.

I was not sure if this was going to be worth prepping and was not really considering entering it in FOTM when I started the prep. That's why the before pictures have some work already done.

This is a Fish skull from the Astoria Fm. 15-20 myo.

To my knowledge there have only been a handful of papers published on fish from this formation. None of which are about this species of fish. I have spent some time researching current fish to compare to this and other species i have found in the Astoria Fm. As far as i can tell this fish is from the Family: Scombridae and I would wager a guess that it is a type of Mackerel. It very closely resembles the current Pacific Mackerel Scomber australasicus though it is a bit larger then it. Maybe one of you fish guys will have a better idea.

Prep took 12+ hours and i purchased a new #2 Micro jack shortly after i started prep so that slowed things down considerably.. The Astoria Fm. is very hard sandstone. Much like the crab concretions some of you from the NW prep.

Edit: It measures 5 Inches long by 2 1/2 Inches wide.

Nick

Edited February 27, 2014 by uncoat

[mikeymig]

Holy makerel that's a nice skull!

Mikey

[old bones]

This is my entry for the Vertebrate Find of the Month. It was found in pebble matrix from the Peace River in Florida sent to me by John Sacha. Photos do not show it well, but it is translucent.

Paramobula fragilis - Tooth from an extinct devil ray

Miocene & Pliocene, Florida (Hawthorn formation)

Date found : 2/16/14

Edited March 1, 2014 by old bones

[Chesapeeker]

Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good...this is my 3.5" slant height C. megalodon tooth, collected 23 February 2014 from the Miocene Calvert Cliffs near Brownie's Beach (Bayfront Park) in Maryland. It was speculated in comments to my trip report that it may be an early transitional form from C. chubutensis based on the cusp-like (but not quite) flares on the crown. It was a thrill to find! (Sorry about the photo quality -- the pic of me holding the tooth was taken the day I found it. The others show it after a couple of days of drying time.)

Mark