January 2025 - Fossil Find of the Month Contest

[digit]

REMINDER: PLEASE carefully read ALL of the rules below.

Make sure you include all the required information, IN THE REQUESTED FORMAT (below) when you submit your fossil! 

Entries will be taken until 11:59:00 PM EDT on JANUARY 31, 2025

In the new un-moderated (still experimental) form of the FOTM contest, there will not be separate polls for the Vertebrate and the Invertebrate/Plant entries. Instead, members will vote directly in this topic for the fossils they deem worthy. This direct voting method will be implemented using the response buttons in the lower right corner of the entry. To vote for specimens you like all you have to do is click the "Enjoyed" button and your vote will be registered.

****Votes may be cast (or changed) up until a week after the submission period ends. ****

At that point, the ones with the most votes in the Vertebrate and the Invertebrate/Plant divisions will be declared the winners. Notice that unlike the old polling system, you may split your vote if you feel more than one fossil in a category are worthy of your vote--but remember, the more you split your vote the more you dilute it.

 

In addition to the fun of a contest, we also want to learn more about the fossils. 

Tell us more about your fossil, and why you think it is worthy of the honor. 

To view the Winning Fossils from past contests visit the Find Of The Month Winner's Gallery.

 

Now, go find your fossil, do your research, and make an entry!
Best of success to all, and good hunting!

 

***********************************

Rules for The Fossil of the Month Contests

 

1. Find a great Vertebrate Fossil or Invertebrate/Plant Fossil! 
   Only fossils found personally by you are allowed. NO PURCHASED FOSSILS.
2. Post your entry in the Fossil Find of the Month topic. Use a separate post for each entry if more than one.
3. Your fossil must have been found (or fossil preparation completed) during the month of the contest.
4. You must include the Date of Discovery.
5. You must include the Date of Preparation Completion for prepped fossils completed in the contest month.
   Please provide before/after prep photos so the membership can judge for themselves the extent of preparation.
6. You must include the Common and/or Scientific Name.
7. You must include the Geologic Age or Geologic Formation where the fossil was found.
8. You must include the State, Province, or region where the fossil was found.
9. You must include CLEAR, cropped, well-lit images. If you are proud enough of your fossil to submit it for FOTM, spend some time to take good photos to show off your fossil.
10. Play fair and honest. No bought fossils. No false claims.

Please use the following format to standardize entries

 

Please include some information about your find. A short paragraph or sentence or two about why it should be fossil of the month.

Rarity, completeness, beauty, etc.

 

• Date of Discovery  [month, day, year]

• Preparation Completion Date (if prepped) [month, day, year]

• Scientific and/or Common Name

• Geologic Formation and/or Geologic Age

• State, Province, or Region Found

• Photos of Find (Please submit clear, cropped, and well-lit images.) (If prepped, before and after photos are required, please.)

[Ludwigia]

@digit You've inadvertently put the wrong year in the title

[Fin Lover]

7 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

@digit You've inadvertently put the wrong year in the title

Thanks for catching that!    

[digit]

1 hour ago, Ludwigia said:

@digit You've inadvertently put the wrong year in the title

Copy and paste error or Groundhog Day Syndrome for an entire year.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[patelinho7]

It’s not much, but I guess I’ll start us off! I was sick right after Christmas when I usually make it out to collect but I finally managed to get out for a few hours to scout a Maastrichtian stream outcrop. The Cretaceous unit is overlain with a Paleocene unit, so shark teeth are common, but most are poor quality and small and I was not looking to collect them anyway as I was searching the Cretaceous unit.

 

I was leaving the site not having found much and carefully charting my path out of the creek when to my surprise and delight, I looked down for a safe place to step and spotted a very nice quality tooth! While it isn’t the biggest or rarest tooth, the condition given the rest of the teeth around coupled with the surprise was quite fun. I don’t collect shark teeth often and I definitely don’t get out to collect much these days so I was excited for this one.

 

• Date of Discovery: 01/04/2025

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Striatolamia sp.

• Geologic Formation and/or Geologic Age: Aquia Fm., Paleocene

• State, Province, or Region Found: Maryland, USA

 

 

 

[Al Dente]

6 hours ago, patelinho7 said:

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Anomotodon novus

Maybe Striatolamia?

[Huntlyfossils]

This is one of my smaller finds but also my rarest!

This month's entry is a very small Early Cretaceous, Bird phalanage.

I found this while processing material I bring back from site it has taken me 8 years but have finally found some bird material.

 

 

• Date of Discovery  :  01/12/25

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Bird phalanage bone unknown species , Aves

• Geologic Formation and/or Geologic Age:  Toolebuc Formation, Early Cretaceous

• State, Province, or Region Found:  NW Queensland , Australia 

 

[digit]

3 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Maybe Striatolamia?

I had the pleasure of hunting the Aquia Formation once, several years back, with @MarcoSr. He knows the chondrichthyan fauna from this formation well.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[patelinho7]

It’s possible, I’m no expert on chondrichthyan ID. I was going off the root shape and lack of cusps but if I am wrong please let me know.

[MarcoSr]

4 hours ago, digit said:

I had the pleasure of hunting the Aquia Formation once, several years back, with @MarcoSr. He knows the chondrichthyan fauna from this formation well.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

I agree with Eric, Striatolamia.

 

Marco Sr.

[ziggycardon]

Date of Discovery:   08-11-2024

Preparation Completion Date: 01-15-2025

Scientific and/or Common Name: Pinna decussata

Geologic Formation and/or Geologic Age: Maastricht formation, Cretaceous, Maastrichtian, 68 mya

State, Province, or Region Found: Romontbos quarry, Eben Emael, Belgium

 

In field:

 

Preparing for preparation:

 

 

 

After first day of prep:

 

After second day of prep:

 

 

While there where two Pinna's present on the outside we feel that the second ones shell might not or only be partially preserved, so we decided to not try and expose that one to not risk it to damage to other Pinna already present since it's exceptionally large and complete.
I also donated the piece to the Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel where I did the preparation myself.
Many thanks to my good friend and Curator Jonathan Wallaard and advised me during the preparation and helped me cut and stabilize the piece with gypsum before prep.

 

 

[digit]

Very nice. Have your prepped fossils before or was this your first experience doing it. Looks like you had fun and ended up with a fine result.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[newb]

On 1/11/2025 at 11:04 PM, patelinho7 said:

• Date of Discovery: 01/04/2025

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Striatolamia sp.

• Geologic Formation and/or Geologic Age: Aquia Fm., Paleocene

• State, Province, or Region Found: Maryland, USA

Oooh

[ziggycardon]

17 hours ago, digit said:

Very nice. Have your prepped fossils before or was this your first experience doing it. Looks like you had fun and ended up with a fine result.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

I am an volunteer prepper at the Oertijdmuseum.
Though I still consider myself an apprentice since I haven't been doing it for a very long time and still needs to gather a lot more experience.
But I have worked on Metoposaurus material from Krasiejow, some Spanish dinosaur bones and I've prepped multiple fish and shrimp from Solnhofen before.
But this is the first time I done some major prepping on a piece I've found myself

[digit]

5 minutes ago, ziggycardon said:

But this is the first time I done some major prepping on a piece I've found myself

Nice! You get better the more you do (as expected). Also, working on a variety of projects brings in a mix of skills which is always helpful when you are learning to prep.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[ziggycardon]

1 hour ago, digit said:

Nice! You get better the more you do (as expected). Also, working on a variety of projects brings in a mix of skills which is always helpful when you are learning to prep.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Exactly, that why I consider myself blessed to be able to learn at the museum!
Curator Jonathan is an excellent teacher and he lets me try out a great variety of stuff with different techniques.
I particulary love prepping under the microscope and have gotten quite the hang of at is as well.
I have tried multiple different airscribes tools, mechanical scratchers, I've worked with the sandblast table multiple times (especially with the spanish dinosaur bones).

And now with this piece I've learned to use Acryllic One as a stabilizer. 
There are just so many benefits from volunteering at such a place, new opportunities to learn new techniques and access to so many different types of materials.

[jpc]

what is Acrylic One?  

 

 

[Fossildude19]

36 minutes ago, jpc said:

what is Acrylic One?  

 

 

 

 

LINK

[FB003]

On 1/7/2025 at 4:46 PM, digit said:

REMINDER: PLEASE carefully read ALL of the rules below.

Make sure you include all the required information, IN THE REQUESTED FORMAT (below) when you submit your fossil! 

Entries will be taken until 11:59:00 PM EDT on JANUARY 31, 2025

In the new un-moderated (still experimental) form of the FOTM contest, there will not be separate polls for the Vertebrate and the Invertebrate/Plant entries. Instead, members will vote directly in this topic for the fossils they deem worthy. This direct voting method will be implemented using the response buttons in the lower right corner of the entry. To vote for specimens you like all you have to do is click the "Enjoyed" button and your vote will be registered. Votes may be cast (or changed) up until a week after the submission period ends. At that point, the ones with the most votes in the Vertebrate and the Invertebrate/Plant divisions will be declared the winners. Notice that unlike the old polling system, you may split your vote if you feel more than one fossil in a category are worthy of your vote--but remember, the more you split your vote the more you dilute it.

 

In addition to the fun of a contest, we also want to learn more about the fossils. 

Tell us more about your fossil, and why you think it is worthy of the honor. 

To view the Winning Fossils from past contests visit the Find Of The Month Winner's Gallery.

 

Now, go find your fossil, do your research, and make an entry!
Best of success to all, and good hunting!

 

***********************************

Rules for The Fossil of the Month Contests

 

1. Find a great Vertebrate Fossil or Invertebrate/Plant Fossil! 
   Only fossils found personally by you are allowed. NO PURCHASED FOSSILS.
2. Post your entry in the Fossil Find of the Month topic. Use a separate post for each entry if more than one.
3. Your fossil must have been found (or fossil preparation completed) during the month of the contest.
4. You must include the Date of Discovery.
5. You must include the Date of Preparation Completion for prepped fossils completed in the contest month.
   Please provide before/after prep photos so the membership can judge for themselves the extent of preparation.
6. You must include the Common and/or Scientific Name.
7. You must include the Geologic Age or Geologic Formation where the fossil was found.
8. You must include the State, Province, or region where the fossil was found.
9. You must include CLEAR, cropped, well-lit images. If you are proud enough of your fossil to submit it for FOTM, spend some time to take good photos to show off your fossil.
10. Play fair and honest. No bought fossils. No false claims.

Please use the following format to standardize entries

 

Please include some information about your find. A short paragraph or sentence or two about why it should be fossil of the month.

Rarity, completeness, beauty, etc.

 

• Date of Discovery  [month, day, year]

• Preparation Completion Date (if prepped) [month, day, year]

• Scientific and/or Common Name

• Geologic Formation and/or Geologic Age

• State, Province, or Region Found

• Photos of Find (Please submit clear, cropped, and well-lit images.) (If prepped, before and after photos are required, please.)

I may have missed it but I noticed it said entries taken until 31st but no voting deadline.  If voting is also done in here, what is the voting deadline since it can't really be on the same date if entries are still coming in?

Edited Friday at 02:02 PM by FB003

[Fossildude19]

25 minutes ago, FB003 said:

I may have missed it but I noticed it said entries taken until 31st but no voting deadline.  If voting is also done in here, what is the voting deadline since it can't really be on the same date if entries are still coming in?

 

 

"In the new un-moderated (still experimental) form of the FOTM contest, there will not be separate polls for the Vertebrate and the Invertebrate/Plant entries. Instead, members will vote directly in this topic for the fossils they deem worthy. This direct voting method will be implemented using the response buttons in the lower right corner of the entry. To vote for specimens you like all you have to do is click the "Enjoyed" button and your vote will be registered.

Votes may be cast (or changed) up until a week after the submission period ends. "

 

Frank,

I've made it more visible now. It was there, in the fine print.

 

[digit]

Thanks, Tim!

 

As stated above, I won't be making a separate poll from the entries but when the end of the month comes and you've seen all the fossils entered in the period, you can scan back through and click the Enjoyed button for your favorite. Unlike the previous poll where you could only vote for one vertebrate entry and one invert/plant entry, there is now nothing stopping you from splitting your vote if you really can't decide between 2 very worthy candidates that you really enjoy. As members can only "Enjoy" any entry more than once, this system has built-in ballot box stuffing protection.

 

After the week of voting/enjoying has concluded, I'll search back though the entries and see which ones garnered the most enjoyment and declare those the winner.

 

We may still need to do some tweaks and adjustments to this new format for the FOTM contests so while we're working the bugs out feel free to comment or to suggest.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 1/16/2025 at 8:06 PM, ziggycardon said:

I am an volunteer prepper at the Oertijdmuseum.
Though I still consider myself an apprentice since I haven't been doing it for a very long time and still needs to gather a lot more experience.
But I have worked on Metoposaurus material from Krasiejow, some Spanish dinosaur bones and I've prepped multiple fish and shrimp from Solnhofen before.
But this is the first time I done some major prepping on a piece I've found myself

Good work and it's a wonderful piece!

[trilobites_are_awesome]

On 1/17/2025 at 9:53 AM, digit said:

After the week of voting/enjoying has concluded

Week or month?

As I feel there isn't enough finds a week to warrant it.

[digit]

9 minutes ago, trilobites_are_awesome said:

Week or month?

As I feel there isn't enough finds a week to warrant it.

A month of entries and a week of voting following the month--virtually the same way as we've been doing it for years.

 

The entries run for the length of the calendar month (28-31) days. At the close of the month (start of the next month) I would construct the polls for the contests and the voting for the previous month's entries would start on the first day of the following month. We had somehow settled upon 9 days of voting previously and the winners being announced on the 10th of the following month. Virtually all of the votes came in during the first few days and most contests were decided within the span of a week. This new evolution of the contests (without separately constructed polls) will allow folks to actually vote for a favorite even before the close of the month by using the Enjoyed reaction to the entry. Because the voting can actually begin before the end of the month, I felt declaring the winning entry a week (7 days instead of 9) was a nice round number.

 

We would never try to move to a Fossil Of The Week contest as you are correct that we don't get enough entries to merit something like that.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[trilobites_are_awesome]

54 minutes ago, digit said:

A month of entries and a week of voting following the month--virtually the same way as we've been doing it for years.

 

The entries run for the length of the calendar month (28-31) days. At the close of the month (start of the next month) I would construct the polls for the contests and the voting for the previous month's entries would start on the first day of the following month. We had somehow settled upon 9 days of voting previously and the winners being announced on the 10th of the following month. Virtually all of the votes came in during the first few days and most contests were decided within the span of a week. This new evolution of the contests (without separately constructed polls) will allow folks to actually vote for a favorite even before the close of the month by using the Enjoyed reaction to the entry. Because the voting can actually begin before the end of the month, I felt declaring the winning entry a week (7 days instead of 9) was a nice round number.

 

We would never try to move to a Fossil Of The Week contest as you are correct that we don't get enough entries to merit something like that.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Sounds good!