April 2011 Vertebrate Find Of The Month

[JohnJ]

Each one of these entries is a real winner; but now, it is your turn to decide your favorite for VFOTM (and this won't be easy).

The poll ends on Friday, May 6th. You can also vote in our other Poll HERE.

1. Unknown Bird Feather part & counterpart – (Lower Middle Eocene Allenby Formation) – British Columbia, Canada

2. Unknown jaw fragment – (Permian/Pennsylvanian contact) – TX, USA

3. Carcharocles angustidens pathological shark tooth – (Oligocene Chandler Bridge Formation) – SC, USA

4. Porpoise skull – (Miocene Calvert Formation) – MD, USA

5. Spratelloides gracilis 8 cm fish part and counterpart – (Late Miocene) - Middle Crete island, Greece

6. Mosasaur tooth w/root – (Upper Cretaceous Ozan Formation) – TX, USA

7. Unknown Bird Tail Feather part & counterpart – (Lower Middle Eocene Allenby Formation) – British Columbia, Canada

[Nandomas]

Great great entries. Congrats everyone :)

[Ramo]

Tough vote. Too bad those bird feathers are going to split (Count and counterpart) their votes!

[bear-dog]

Congrats on your win BFG. I had a sweet Mako I was going to enter until you made your entry.I hid it so it wouldn't be embarrased.

[palaeopix]

Tough vote. Too bad those bird feathers are going to split (Count and counterpart) their votes!

Yeah,

I should have only chosen one feather but I was excited about both! Anyway, it doesn't look like either is a serious threat to BFG's mosasaur tooth!!!!!

Dan

[Diplotomodon]

Holy cow. This is a prize assortment here. Can you vote for all of them?

I'm torn between the feathers, the mos tooth, and the purpose-porpoise. I may need prpfessional help soon.

[astron]

Yeah,

I should have only chosen one feather but I was excited about both! Anyway, it doesn't look like either is a serious threat to BFG's mosasaur tooth!!!!!

Dan

Dan,

At any rate your feathers are unique and great finds :wub:

[palaeopix]

Dan,

At any rate your feathers are unique and great finds :wub:

Thanks Astrinos,

I'm still pretty excited about finding them! As far as rarity goes the feathers are as rare as they get. I can only think of a few rarer things from the Allenby Formation (i.e. amphibians, crayfish, moths, butterflies, birds and mammals). I know of only one butterfly (at the University of Alberta) and a couple of Tillodont teeth (collected early in the twentieth century) from the Princeton area. All the rest remain unknown from the Allenby Formation to my knowledge.

At any rate BFG's mosasaur tooth is a worthy specimen to loose to!

Dan

[astron]

Thanks Astrinos,

I'm still pretty excited about finding them! As far as rarity goes the feathers are as rare as they get. I can only think of a few rarer things from the Allenby Formation (i.e. amphibians, crayfish, moths, butterflies, birds and mammals). I know of only one butterfly (at the University of Alberta) and a couple of Tillodont teeth (collected early in the twentieth century) from the Princeton area. All the rest remain unknown from the Allenby Formation to my knowledge.

At any rate BFG's mosasaur tooth is a worthy specimen to loose to!

Dan

Great Dan.

I think I would feel and say about the same...

[ckmullin]

good luck 2 all

[cowsharks]

Thanks to all who submitted specimens for consideration in FOTM. It's neat to see so many cool, neat, rare, special, etc. fossils. Any one of them is good enough to be a winner, however, the process requires a single winner to be chosen. It's funny how BFG swooped in there near the end of the month and stole the show with the monster Mosasaur tooth. As currently seen by the results so far, she's way out in front in the lead with that specimen. It's difficult sometimes trying to figure out which specimen to vote for. Being a "tooth" collector (shark's mostly), I'm a bit biased and favor the awesome shark teeth that get submitted. But then I look at specimens such as those rare bird feathers and think, boy, those are really rare, prolly more rare than a Mosasaur tooth...but then that Porpoise skull is awesome too (15 yrs of collecting and I've never found one) so maybe I should vote for that. I guess in my rambling here what I'm trying to say is what many others have already said, that all of the specimens are great and no one should feel bad if their fossil doesn't win - you already won, you found the fossil !!!

Daryl S.

[JohnJ]

Well said, Daryl.

[Terry Dactyll]

Some great specimens, Congratulations on the finds and good luck everyone

[FossilDAWG]

Well I voted for feather #1, because it's so beautiful and I know how rare they are, but everything this month is a winner, and that mosasaur tooth is just breathtaking.

Don

[Haddy]

What a hard decision -- they're all terrific! Each would likely win any other month; it's too bad that we can only vote for one this month. Great finds everyone!

[Nicholas]

The forum keeps out doing itself with finds, this is a great line up. Good luck to everyone, its a tough decision.