Let's see your latest mailbox score - 2021!

[Misha]

Super excited today as I received a shipment of fossils early that I have been getting together for a few months now. 

This is 22 unique species of brachiopods from the Coladilla formation (Emsian) of Spain.

I have previously purchased two brachiopods from this formation as I was intrigued by their beautiful and unique appearance, after this I have learned a lot more about the formation and have become interested in the other organisms that inhabited it, especially the brachiopods since they are my favorite inverts. I communicated with the seller and they assembled many different species present in this formation and sent them to me which is what I received today.

Before I get into the fossils, I have to say that all the IDs I will mention came from the labels the seller provided, I already know that some of them are wrong but I have not had the time to ID all of them myself yet and I think most are probably okay.

Plicathyris ezquerrai:

This is one of the brachiopods that initially got me interested in the formation as these athyrids have a very interesting and unique shape to them which I really liked.

Hexarhytis sp. (This ID is definitely wrong, they might be Anathyris sp.)

 

Quadriloba colletti:

Atrypa reticularis:

Retzia adrieni:

Pachyplax gyralea:

Saberaia truyolsae:

Cimicinella loxogonia:

Cryptonella truyolsi:

Maisotia truyolsi:

Eopugnax maisae:

Not the greatest picture of them, sorry. They were hard to capture on camera as they were rather small and not too well preserved

Brimethyris subconcentrica: \

Teichostrophia naranjoana:

Tryathyris mucronata: 

Devonix virgo:

Isopoma hertae:

Cooperispira subferita:

Inaequalibellirostrum pareti:

Xanastur bulbo:

Cyrtina intermedia:

Boucotiellina ezquerrai:

[ThePhysicist]

Added another beautiful Tyrannosaur to the collection (right) - my biggest so far at about 24 mm CH.

 

Tyrannosauridae

Hell Creek Fm., Powder River Co., MT, USA

 

[Wrangellian]

More Chengjiang stuff... a couple of priapulids finally arrived for me, much more delayed than the earlier package.

 

I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking here at bit I think I see some segmentation and some blobby parts, and anyway it is a better example than the one I already had. The overall 'blob' is about 13mm across.

Corynetis brevis, Cambrian Stage 4, Wulongqing Fm (Guanshan Biota), Kunming, Yunnan, China.

 

This one is pretty cool... small but nice. It's no more than 10mm (maybe 9mm), but clear. I should have rotated the pic, I think the upper end is to the left. The bristles are clearly visible on the proboscis(?) which seems to comprise half the total body, and I wonder if that is a coiled gut with contents on the right...

Sicyophorus rara, Cambrian Stage 3, Qiongzhusi Fm, Anning, Yunnan.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Wrangellian

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 10/2/2021 at 2:34 AM, Misha said:

Super excited today as I received a shipment of fossils early that I have been getting together for a few months now. 

This is 22 unique species of brachiopods from the Coladilla formation (Emsian) of Spain.

Yum Yum. 

The diversity of brachiopods was at its height in the Devonian, and it shows in this formation. I have a couple from here, but what an incredible selection you have! 

 

[fifbrindacier]

Here is m'y last mailbox, two books about the Mazon creek fossils.

Edited October 10, 2021 by fifbrindacier

[digit]

13 hours ago, fifbrindacier said:

two books about the Mazon creeks fossils.

Not only "two books" but "THE books".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Welsh Wizard]

I’ve been trying to get hold of one of these for a while.

 

Duria Antiquior by Henry de la Beche. The first reconstruction of life in the Jurassic (I think).

 

 

A coloured lithograph of the original painting which were produced by William Buckland to raise money for Mary Anning recently sold for circa $20,000. I’m assuming this is a reproduction as it cost me $40 but it looks real.

[Kiros]

Hello everyone, today I want to show you the last fossil I received and also the last of the year (I have to save for Christmas gifts). The fossil is a partial bear maxilla (with the first and second molar) from the Hipparion red clay (Upper Miocene) of the Linxia basin. Three different kinds of bear are known from this locality: Ursavus, Agriotherium and Indarctos. All three show very similar dental morphology but some characters allow us to distinguish them. First of all we can exclude Agriotherium in fact even if the teeth of my fossil have similar dimensions to this genus, the first upper molar of Agriotherium is more trapezoidal and the second molar does not have a talonid as well developed as in my fossil. The morphology of the two upper molars of Ursavus and Indarctos are much more similar but in Ursavus the second molar is less wide than the first molar while in Indarctos as in my fossil the two teeth have similar width. Another point in favor of Indarctos is the size of the teeth. The size of the teeth of my fossil are more than twice as large as the largest specimen of Ursavus while they fall within the range of values of Indarctos (although it is also one of the largest specimens of this genus, probably a large male). Another interesting thing is that the degree of wear of the molars is very high. Based on the dental wear we can therefore think that it was a fairly old specimen (15+ years old) and that it also suffered from caries, ouch (the hole on the second molar) . As for the species, Indarctos has from 2 to 5 species often based on singular individuals. It may be Indarctos zdanskyi or Indarctos Punjabensis (more probable) or maybe a new species, who knows

 

I'm sorry for the photos I'll try to take better ones in the future

Edited October 10, 2021 by Kiros

[fifbrindacier]

6 hours ago, digit said:

Not only "two books" but "THE books".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

They're amazing.

[digit]

17 minutes ago, fifbrindacier said:

They're amazing.

You can thank @fiddlehead for his work on compiling these guides. Our forum is fortunate to count Jack among our membership. We have a number of members in the Mazon Creek area who are very familiar with the fossil flora and fauna from this wonderful mid-Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) lagerstätte and who answer most ID questions presented by those collecting the area but it is a wonderful luxury to be able to call upon the one who quite literally "wrote the book" on the subject. He doesn't post very frequently but you can be sure that he gets our attention when he chooses to speak authoritatively on a particular specimen in question.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[fossilhunter21]

6 hours ago, Kiros said:

Hello everyone, today I want to show you the last fossil I received and also the last of the year (I have to save for Christmas gifts). The fossil is a partial bear maxilla (with the first and second molar) from the Hipparion red clay (Upper Miocene) of the Linxia basin. Three different kinds of bear are known from this locality: Ursavus, Agriotherium and Indarctos. All three show very similar dental morphology but some characters allow us to distinguish them. First of all we can exclude Agriotherium in fact even if the teeth of my fossil have similar dimensions to this genus, the first upper molar of Agriotherium is more trapezoidal and the second molar does not have a talonid as well developed as in my fossil. The morphology of the two upper molars of Ursavus and Indarctos are much more similar but in Ursavus the second molar is less wide than the first molar while in Indarctos as in my fossil the two teeth have similar width. Another point in favor of Indarctos is the size of the teeth. The size of the teeth of my fossil are more than twice as large as the largest specimen of Ursavus while they fall within the range of values of Indarctos (although it is also one of the largest specimens of this genus, probably a large male). Another interesting thing is that the degree of wear of the molars is very high. Based on the dental wear we can therefore think that it was a fairly old specimen (15+ years old) and that it also suffered from caries, ouch (the hole on the second molar) . As for the species, Indarctos has from 2 to 5 species often based on singular individuals. It may be Indarctos zdanskyi or Indarctos Punjabensis (more probable) or maybe a new species, who knows

 

I'm sorry for the photos I'll try to take better ones in the future

That's awesome!

[Kiros]

4 hours ago, fossilhunter21 said:

That's awesome!

Thank you! 

[Notidanodon]

Couldn’t pass on a 6inch Meg!  

[fossilhunter21]

12 hours ago, will stevenson said:

Couldn’t pass on a 6inch Meg!  

Nice Meg!

[fossilhunter21]

I recieved this partially unprepped Leptauchenia Decora skull today!

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by fossilhunter21

[Randyw]

Ahhh. You decided to go for it. Good luck with it and be sure to post pics of your prepping progress! Hopefully theres more there then it looks like there is!

[snolly50]

10 hours ago, will stevenson said:

6inch Meg

Very nice Meg, are you certain as to the 6" measure? From the photo, it just seems smaller to my eye. Perhaps it's a matter of the size of the hand in the image; that's throwing off my perception.

[Notidanodon]

2 hours ago, snolly50 said:

Very nice Meg, are you certain as to the 6" measure? From the photo, it just seems smaller to my eye. Perhaps it's a matter of the size of the hand in the image; that's throwing off my perception.

Took the measurement myself  I have quite large hands and they were spread out here

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

13 hours ago, will stevenson said:

Couldn’t pass on a 6inch Meg!  

 

13 hours ago, fossilhunter21 said:

Nice Meg!

 

Very nice Meg! And for that price, that's just insane! I've got one just short of 6" and paid a hell of a lot more for that one!

[Bobby Rico]

1 hour ago, will stevenson said:

Took the measurement myself

That goes to show that hands are not great to gauge measurements. This is because we use our own hand as a reference point. You must Will have some massive goal keepers hands . Nice buy mate bargain of the year.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Bobby Rico

[snolly50]

5 hours ago, will stevenson said:

Took the measurement myself

Excellent, any information as to the site of recovery? It has the dark, monochromatic look of a SC tooth.

[Notidanodon]

10 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

 

 

Very nice Meg! And for that price, that's just insane! I've got one just short of 6" and paid a hell of a lot more for that one!

Cheers! Yeah I was lucky to catch it before someone else got it! I see the price on my post has been removed but I assure anyone who looks it was cheap as chips!  

9 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

That goes to show that hands are not great to gauge measurements. This is because we use our own hand as a reference point. You must Will have some massive goal keepers hands . Nice buy mate bargain of the year.

I think it was mostly the perspective that made it look smaller! I have fairly average hands I think  I will use a ruler next time! Yeah I was happy to see it! There was no measurement on the listing but it looked around 5 inches so imagine my shock when this beast turned up! Bargain for sure !  

 

5 hours ago, snolly50 said:

Excellent, any information as to the site of recovery? It has the dark, monochromatic look of a SC tooth.

I normally only buy teeth with site info but I couldn’t pass on, it’s most probably a SC tooth for sure! 

[Bobby Rico]

29 minutes ago, will stevenson said:

normally only buy teeth with site info but I couldn’t pass on, it’s most probably a SC tooth for sure! 

That’s good practice I also only buy with good provenance but when a bargain reveals itself sometimes you just got to snap it up.

[Notidanodon]

1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

That’s good practice I also only buy with good provenance but when a bargain reveals itself sometimes you just got to snap it up.

I do try to limit myself but I do sometimes get distracted by nice teeth 

[ThePhysicist]

Adopted another infant Tyrannosaur that needed a home:

 

Cf. Tyrannosaurus rex (will post ID topic soon)

Hell Creek Fm., Wibaux Co., MT, USA

9 mm CH