March 2019 Finds of the Month Entries

[CSimpson176]

Decided that I would put this beauty in the invertebrate running. Had this recently confirmed on the ID section on the forum. Found this on the creek that runs behind my farm on Northern Kentucky, and as soon as I saw it, I could only think, "Wow!". What sets this piece apart from many other orthocone specimens found in Kentucky is that this preserves the distinctive shape, from tip to what can be inferred as the worn living chamber at the end. I personally love the bryozoans and crinoid stems that adorn the stone around it, helping shape a picture of the ancient sea that this creature once swam in. And while this may have not been the biggest orthocone to roam the Ordovician, this was the predominant predator, striking at small trilobites. And finally found after hundreds of millions of years, it's resting place on the ocean floor turned into a small cattle farm in Kentucky. This is the best find that I have plucked on my property thus far.

 

Found 17MAR2019

Orthocerid cephalopod

Late Ordovician, Fairview formation

Northern Kentucky

 

 

 

[MeargleSchmeargl]

I'll go ahead and take a shot at it. (Only 90% sure on horn coral ID. Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

 

Date: 3/16/19

Species: 3 Triplophyllum cliffordanum Rugose Corals

Age: Early Missisipian Fort Payne Chert, ~340 MYO

Ooltewah, Tennessee

 

And of course, pictures!

 

 

All 3:

 

Individual photos:

 

 

[jpc]

Here is my entry for March 2019.  I collected this in the early 2000's but only pulled it out on March 4th. 

 

Found and collected in 2012

Crocodile dentary, probably Borealosuchus

Eocene Wasatch Fm

Sweetwater County, Wyoming

It is about 10 inches (25cm) long, has alveoli for 14 teeth although only 5 of them are mostly there.

 

Here is the before photo.  At this point I have only cleaned the tip of the jaw; the piece on the far left.  I was pleased to find a large croc vert under the jaw.  Likely from the same animal although this site is a great big mixed pile of all sorts of bones. 

 

 

24 1/2 hours of preptime later... here is the jaw.  

 

 

The jaw has been crushed and most of the teeth are not in good shape, but I did keep the matrix to screen it for tooth pieces.  Maybe I will be able to rebuild some of them.  The vert under it turned out to be quite crushed.  It is above the tip of the pencil in the photo above.  This vert caused some soft sediment deformation of the jaw; it is crushed where it sat on the vert, and a piece of the vert is embedded in the jaw, never to be freed.  In the photo below, the dark spot in the jaw, just below the right-most tooth is a piece of the vertebra.  And you can see the impression of the vertebra's ball end just to the left of the dark spot. 

 

 

Here is a shot of the vert found under the jaw.  I don't know how well this one will go back together; except for the centrum, it is a mess.  

 

 

For those taking notes, the work was all done under a microscope with a No. 3 MicroJack (Paleotools) and air abraded with fine bicarb at 30 to 60 psi.  

 

 

 

 

[caterpillar]

Cervical vert

[FranzBernhard]

Found: 03/17/2019

Name: Colonial coral (Cycloria?)

Age / Formation: Campanian / St. Bartholomä-formation, Gosau-group, Eastern Alps

Locality: St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria

 

Maeandroid, colonial coral from my nearby upper Cretaceous hunting grounds. Its in some parts rather nicely preserved with good contrast (for the formation). The two polished slabs are about 3 mm apart. For a discussion of genus, see here:

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/87678-coral-4-from-the-campanian-st-bartholomä-formation-styria-austria-gosau-group-eastern-alps/

Franz Bernhard

 

[Monica]

Hi all!

 

Last year, @deutscheben was kind enough to send me some small, unopened Mazon Creek nodules that he had collected so that I could try the freeze-thaw method myself in order to see if the nodules contained any fossil goodies.  So far only three have popped open, and one of them contained a beautiful little critter, and that is what I'll be entering for this month's IFOTM!  Details and photos can be found below:

 

Date of Discovery: The 2cm-diameter nodule popped open for me on Sunday, March 17, 2019 after more than ten freeze-thaw sessions

Scientific and/or Common Name: Cyclus americanus - can be seen in both halves of the nodule

Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Upper Carboniferous, Francis Creek Shale

State, Province, or Region Found: Chowder Flats, Grundy County, Illinois, USA

 

And in case anyone wants to know a little more about this little animal, it "was a small (~15 mm) aquatic organism that lived in the Mazon Creek 307 million years ago. The Mazon Creek was a tropical estuary with a large area of shallow water habitat. Although originally thought to be a crustacean, we now believe Cyclus to be more closely related to copepods. The fossils of this organism show us, in great detail, the shape of the carapace (the hard outer covering), antennae, and legs." (from https://www.facebook.com/fieldmuseum/posts/cyclus-americanus-was-a-small-15-mm-aquatic-organism-that-lived-in-the-mazon-cre/10154709502172273/)

(Photo from https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/bringing-fossils-life-through-art)

 

Thanks for having a look-see at my sweet little find! 

 

Monica

[RJB]

On 3/12/2019 at 1:22 AM, D.N.FossilmanLithuania said:

Pleurotomaria sp. gastropod

Bathonian- Callowian (Middle Jurassic)

Found in Juodikiai quarry, Klaipeda district, Western Lithuania

Date of finding 06. 03. 2019

This really tickles my fancy.  Just wondering what the scale of this thing is?   Have to say that @jpc find is a bit impressive though.

 

RB

 

 

[D.N.FossilmanLithuania]

5 hours ago, RJB said:

This really tickles my fancy.  Just wondering what the scale of this thing is?   Have to say that @jpc find is a bit impressive though.

 

RB

 

 

This gastropod is 1.5 cm height. The fossil is found without rock material but in the same quarry many Bathonian- Callowian mollusc remains were identified and the often cases of dark brown rocks show that Middle Jurassic fragments are very widespread in that area.

 

[Natalie81]

hello, my entry for this month is my Mantelliceras mantelli with Inoceramus shell that I found on 16 March 2019

age: Cenomanian from Cap Blanc Nez in France:

 

[Birdman]

My March find is a large three dimensional preserved Lepidotes fish fossil. It was lying on its back when I fist spotted a few scales sticking out of the nodule, that was all I could see until I turned it over and this is what I was confronted with! It's nice to have the pectoral fin preserved. I prepped some of the front teeth out, and they are very large. It measures approx. 20 inches along the curvature of the body. 

 

Date of discovery: 15th March

Lepidotes mantelli

Valanginian - 135 M.Y.A.

Sussex - UK

 

[RyanNREMTP]

Finally, finally found my first shark tooth at Mineral Wells fossil park.

 

 

Petalodus shark.

Pennsylvanian age.

Finis shale if I recall.

[Archie]

Heres my best find from March I'd like to enter, an unidentified Petalodont shark tooth in a Lower Carboniferous stromatolite formation found on the 29/03/19. 

 

Unidentified Petalodont 

Kingswood Stromatolite Bed

Lower Carboniferous, Visean Stage, Asbian Substage

Fife, Scotland

19mm

[Jesuslover340]

This one is a bit of a unique find-certainly more uncommon than the usual Diprotodon @Ash and I find. For FOTM this month, I'd like to submit a Zygomaturus maxillary piece we found earlier this month. Zygomaturus ' larger and more well-known relative is, of course, Diprotodon optatum, but I'll include a couple photos to give some background information to the unique critter. First up is a scale (taken from the online web) of Zygomaturus:

 

And secondly, here is another photo showing a skeletal comparison between Diprotodon and Zygomaturus:

As you can see, Zygomaturus was Diprotodon's 'hillbilly cousin'

This was just a really nice, rare find for us of a lesser-known animal that lived in the Australian pleistocene. 

Date of Discovery: 10 March, 2019

Scientific and/or Common Name: Zygomaturus sp. (trilobus?) Maxillary piece

Geologic Age: Pleistocene

State: Queensland, Australia

Photos of find:

 

As we found it:

 

After cleaning it up:

[Al Tahan]

Here is my entry for March invertebrate FOTM . I found this Eldredgeops rana trilobite scouting out a roadcut I’ve never visited before in Madison county, New York. The cephalon is disarticulated and shifted a little but looks stellar!!! The detail on the eye is mind boggling . 

 

Date of discovery: March 30th 2019

Scientific name: Eldredgeops rana

Geologic age: Middle Devonian (Givetian)

Geologic formation: Upper Ludlowville, Hamilton group

Location: Madison county, New York

 

4 photos

 

Field shot

 

 

 

The rock in had it on broke into 4-5 pieces but I put it all together. I wanted it to sit on something for stability. 

 

I put inches and centimeters in my pictures to cover everyone haha.

 

That eye!!

 

I’m really excited to find my first good Eldredgeops rana from Eastern New York . 

 

Thanks hope everyone likes this. So many great submissions this month!

 

Al

[Max-fossils]

All those amazing submissions!!! I'm definitely not jealous, oh no...

Congrats everyone! This is gonna be a really tough month!