Let's see your latest mailbox score - 2018!

[Ludwigia]

Picked this one up recently on our favorite auction site for a song. A Discohelix sinistra gastropod from the Pliensbachian in Normandy. Something I'd been hoping to find myself someday, but until then at least I've got a decent sample now. Note the tube worm in the inner whorls and the bivalve at the mouth aperture.

 

 

[Bobby Rico]

Wow @taj that is a very nice constellation purchase. I would love to have one in my collection.

[LordTrilobite]

6 hours ago, LiamL said:

3 small articulated Ichthyosaur vertebrae from Lyme Regis!

 

Does anyone know if this is a juvenile or maybe the tail end of an adult?

Nice! that's a really cool piece!

[GeschWhat]

On 1/10/2018 at 7:54 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

it seems people in the US like to post me coprolites, that's the third parcel recently containing poop and one of them wasn't even a TFF member. 

Lucky you! Poop is the best 

[Bobby Rico]

2 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Picked this one up recently on our favorite auction site for a song. A Discohelix sinistra gastropod from the Pliensbachian in Normandy. Something I'd been hoping to find myself someday, but until then at least I've got a decent sample now. Note the tube worm in the inner whorls and the bivalve at the mouth aperture.

 

 

That is a beauty @Ludwigia nice I addition to your collection.

[Max-fossils]

@taj that is a wicked piece! 

 

@Ludwigia that one is really cool! I think this is the first time I hear of this genus. Not sure I can see where that bivalve is though... 

13 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

the bivalve at the mouth aperture

 

[Ludwigia]

3 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

Not sure I can see where that bivalve is though... 

 

It's the pinkish thing on the right in the 2nd photo.

[LordTrilobite]

I bought a few more cool Kem Kem, Morocco fossils. As usual the bones were being sold as unidentified vertebrae bones.

 

This one I immediately recognised as a Pterosaur cervical vertebra. Very likely from an Azhdarchid. It's a little rough looking but it seems there's some nice preserved bone under the matrix. It seems to be have been repaired in the middle. I'm hoping both sides belong to the same specimen and that it's not a composite. But the early signs are promising that it is indeed just a repaired single specimen, as I've started cleaning it a bit already.

 

 

And then there's this interesting bone. I couldn't really place it at first, but with it's interesting shape and asymmetry I figured it must have been a skull bone of some sort. After some research I'm thinking this is a larcimal  and prefrontal bone of a Theropod dinosaur. I looked around to compare it to a bunch of different theropods. Now what's interesting, is that it doesn't look like any of the known skulls from the Kem Kem beds. It vaguely resembles the lacrimal of Spinosaurus. But on the Spinosaurus skull the lacrimal is much fatter in lateral view, while my specimen is really quite slender. Spino skull with bone names is shown below. But here comes the interesting part, it seems to match very closely to the lacrimal bones of both Baryonyx from England and Suchomimus from Niger. Neither of which are present in Morocco. What is present in Kem Kem, is Sigilmassasaurus. Though no skull has so far been found, vertebrae studies have shown it might be more closely related to Baryonyx than to Spinosaurus. So I suppose we won't know for a while, but I'm thinking this could be a Spinosaurid lacrimal and prefrontal that might be more closely related to Baryonyx and Suchomimus than to Spinosaur. Or I'm wrong and it might just be from a slender Spinosaurus skull, as the bone is pretty small. So I shouldn't jump to too many conclusions. But I do think it's a pretty nifty bone.

 

Spinosaurus skull with bone names

 

Suchomimus skull

 

 

[Max-fossils]

@LordTrilobite cool fossils! That second bone really seems like it could be something interesting and perhaps somewhat new to science 

 

@Ludwigia I figured that it must be that, but I'm not seeing any feature that I think is strikingly bivalve, which is why I got confused... Then again the second photo is a little blurry, so I might be missing out on a detail. 

[Ludwigia]

9 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

 

@Ludwigia I figured that it must be that, but I'm not seeing any feature that I think is strikingly bivalve, which is why I got confused... Then again the second photo is a little blurry, so I might be missing out on a detail. 

You're right. The bivalve itself has only very fine sculptural details which don't show up properly in the photo since the focus depth is somewhat deeper.

[Max-fossils]

4 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

You're right. The bivalve itself has only very fine sculptural details which don't show up properly in the photo since the focus depth is somewhat deeper.

Ah okay.

[caldigger]

On 1/10/2018 at 5:54 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

And to top it all off, two coprolites from the Oligocene White River :

it seems people in the US like to post me coprolites, that's the third parcel recently containing poop and one of them wasn't even a TFF member. 

Not that I'm complaining ! 

 

Hopefully the one from the non member was a fossil.  Whew, this package stinks!

[zekky]

Did not receive this tooth in the mail, but I did acquire this Othnielia tooth. This tooth has a history, but yes, it is 100% Othnielia since it came from an Othnielia skull.

 

[Troodon]

On 1/20/2018 at 9:01 AM, LordTrilobite said:

I bought a few more cool Kem Kem, Morocco fossils. As usual the bones were being sold as unidentified vertebrae bones.

 

This one I immediately recognised as a Pterosaur cervical vertebra. Very likely from an Azhdarchid. It's a little rough looking but it seems there's some nice preserved bone under the matrix. It seems to be have been repaired in the middle. I'm hoping both sides belong to the same specimen and that it's not a composite. But the early signs are promising that it is indeed just a repaired single specimen, as I've started cleaning it a bit already.

 

And then there's this interesting bone. I couldn't really place it at first, but with it's interesting shape and asymmetry I figured it must have been a skull bone of some sort. After some research I'm thinking this is a larcimal  and prefrontal bone of a Theropod dinosaur. I looked around to compare it to a bunch of different theropods. Now what's interesting, is that it doesn't look like any of the known skulls from the Kem Kem beds. It vaguely resembles the lacrimal of Spinosaurus. But on the Spinosaurus skull the lacrimal is much fatter in lateral view, while my specimen is really quite slender. Spino skull with bone names is shown below. But here comes the interesting part, it seems to match very closely to the lacrimal bones of both Baryonyx from England and Suchomimus from Niger. Neither of which are present in Morocco. What is present in Kem Kem, is Sigilmassasaurus. Though no skull has so far been found, vertebrae studies have shown it might be more closely related to Baryonyx than to Spinosaurus. So I suppose we won't know for a while, but I'm thinking this could be a Spinosaurid lacrimal and prefrontal that might be more closely related to Baryonyx and Suchomimus than to Spinosaur. Or I'm wrong and it might just be from a slender Spinosaurus skull, as the bone is pretty small. So I shouldn't jump to too many conclusions. But I do think it's a pretty nifty bone.

 

Nice skull element and agree with what you believe it might be.  Like I have said slowly that skull is coming together.   The cervical vert is great find congrats.  Pays off when you have the knowledge to see these undescribed bones

[LordTrilobite]

On 1/20/2018 at 11:41 PM, Max-fossils said:

@LordTrilobite cool fossils! That second bone really seems like it could be something interesting and perhaps somewhat new to science 

Thanks, the Kem Kem beds is still very much shrouded in mystery, almost every other fossil from that location is something new to science. Sure this could possibly be a bone that hasn't been seen before, but such isolated bones are very hard to place when there's no real reference to go on. If this is indeed a larcimal from a Spinosaurid, right now, I don't really see a way to find out if this is from a Spinosaurus with a slender skull or from a different Spinosaurid with a different skull shape. We really don't know a lot about the ontogeny in Spinosaurids. Only more finds will tell I think.

42 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Nice skull element and agree with what you believe it might be.  Like I have said slowly that skull is coming together.   The cervical vert is great find congrats.  Pays off when you have the knowledge to see these undescribed bones

Thanks, I probably only recognised the Pterosaur vert because of the recent vertebrae thread I started. I might add it on there as well when I have some better photos. I can also confirm by now that this vert is not a composite. I've cleaned the middle area some more and it's clearly only repaired.

[Max-fossils]

@LordTrilobite yeah it’s a shame that there is so little research done in this location; I’m sure that it has a lot of very valuable fossils that would bring great contributions to science. It would probably be good if professional institutions paid more attention to Kem Kem. Then again I can perceive that it must be difficult to plan field trips there because of the hostile terrain.

[Bobby Rico]

On 20/01/2018 at 4:01 PM, LordTrilobite said:

I bought a few more cool Kem Kem, Morocco fossils. As usual the bones were being sold as unidentified vertebrae bones.

@LordTrilobite I just wanted to say your last  kem kem purchase made for a very interesting/ informative post and it is also a nice bone too. Good luck  with acquiring the next piece of your Jurassic jigsaw. Cheers Bobby 

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 1/19/2018 at 11:13 PM, GeschWhat said:

Lucky you! Poop is the best 

I thought you might say that, Lori! 

[LordTrilobite]

14 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

@LordTrilobite I just wanted to say your last  kem kem purchase made for a very interesting/ informative post and it is also a nice bone too. Good luck  with acquiring the next piece of your Jurassic jigsaw. Cheers Bobby 

Thanks! These are from the Late Cretaceous though.

 

 

As it happens I just got another Moroccan Kem Kem fossil in the mail. Another partial braincase of a Theropod.

It's not very complete as its only a single bone from the base of the skull. This is the basioccipital with the condyle that attaches to the first cervical vertebra. It's shape seems to fit with Theropods. I'm not quite sure what type it is yet. But I do know that this is definitely not from a Spinosaurid.

 

Here's an example of the back of an Allosaurus skull. The basioccipital is located just below the hole that enters into the brain.

 

[caldigger]

You guys secretly building a dino one bone at a time? I can just hear the cackling cries during the next lightning storm..."It's alive, it's alive!"

[Troodon]

46 minutes ago, LordTrilobite said:

Thanks! These are from the Late Cretaceous though.

 

 

As it happens I just got another Moroccan Kem Kem fossil in the mail. Another partial braincase of a Theropod.

It's not very complete as its only a single bone from the base of the skull. This is the basioccipital with the condyle that attaches to the first cervical vertebra. It's shape seems to fit with Theropods. I'm not quite sure what type it is yet. But I do know that this is definitely not from a Spinosaurid.

 

Here's an example of the back of an Allosaurus skull. The basioccipital is located just below the hole that enters into the brain.

Excellent pickup.  If it's an Allosauroidea then you might be looking at a Carch or Neovenatorid?

[LordTrilobite]

35 minutes ago, caldigger said:

You guys secretly building a dino one bone at a time? I can just hear the cackling cries during the next lightning storm..."It's alive, it's alive!"

Shh, you'll give away the secret plan!

 

25 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Excellent pickup.  If it's an Allosauroidea then you might be looking at a Carch or Neovenatorid?

From some initial research it looks the most like an Abelisaurid. But I'm by no means certain. There's a lot of matrix on it still, so I'm gonna clean it and maybe I can get a better ID than Theropoda indet. at a later date.

[Troodon]

3 minutes ago, LordTrilobite said:

 

From some initial research it looks the most like an Abelisaurid. But I'm by no means certain. There's a lot of matrix on it still, so I'm gonna clean it and maybe I can get a better ID than Theropoda indet. at a later date.

Do you have any images of their condyle?

[LordTrilobite]

I've only cursorily checked a few skulls to see what it could be. But it seemed to show some similarities with Majungasaurus. I need to clean it some more and then to a more thorough search.

[Troodon]

Also check this out @LordTrilobite

 

Bonaparte, José F.; Novas, Fernando E.; Coria, Rodolfo A. (1990). "Carnotaurus sastrei Bonaparte, the horned, lightly built carnosaur from the Middle Cretaceous of Patagonia" (PDF). Contributions in Science. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. 416.