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Here are two links to posts dealing with how to post pictures on Black River Fossils forums.
1. How to Post Pictures on Black River Fossils Forums by ditchweezil
2. How to Post Pictures on Black River Fossils Forums by Daryl
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Hi guys,
Newbie here. Grew up in Morehead City, NC just a stones throw from Aurora and never knew about the fossils there! Just got started mainly collecting for my young son. Most of the fossils I have came from rock shops I visit when I travel on business. The pix above are items I picked up on my first trip to Aurora, visiting the museum and sifting through their piles out front. Have no idea what I have here and I know most are broken...I am just using them as reference to learn how to identify things. Any help you can offer would really be appreciated.
Jimmy
Skeety, you living so close to Aurora and not knowing about the fossils there isn't that unbelievable. I live just minutes from the famous Calvert Cliffs, MD, and even have a fossil exposure in the town I live in and never knew about until a coworker told me years ago. In any event, since what you collected was all Miocene age material that came out of the PCS phosphate mine (aka "Lee Creek"), an excellent resource for you to use is www.elasmo.com. Click on faunas and then Lee Creek and start exploring around to help get ID's for your fossils. Jim Bourdon, elasmo's webmaster sticks to the sharks and rays mostly, so you might not find too much help with whale/porpoise, crocodile, turtle, bird, etc. type material. Even so, elasmo is #1 for Lee Creek!
I took a quick look at your specimens and came up with the following ID's: I'll stick to the common shark name and leave the scientific names for you to review on elasmo:specimen#1) Porpoise (dolphin) vertebra (bone from the spinal column)2) missing?3) missing?4) Coprolite (fancy name for "poop" - probably shark)5) Snaggletooth6) Snaggletooth7) Tiger Shark (twisted crown = Physogaleus contortus)8) Tiger shark (same as 7)9) Sand tiger (cusps on side of crown are missing - harder to ID)10) Snaggletooth11) Snaggletooth12) Tiger shark (same as 7)13) Tiger Shark (straight crown = Galeocerdo aduncus)14) Tiger Shark (same as 7)15) Copper or Silky shark (upper tooth)16) Copper or Silky shark (lower tooth)17) missing?18) Snaggletooth19) Tiger Shark (same as 13)20) Copper or Silky Shark (upper tooth)
I didn't see a few of the specimens in your pics, and I can tell you had a little difficulty getting them posted, but these ID's should help get you started. We're not always correct on our ID's, that's why sites like this are so great because there's a lot of folks out there that know a lot more about this stuff.
Daryl.
Thanks for the quick reply. I will definitely check out the website you mentioned. I have one other pic I wanted to add but apparently forgot to include it...Jimmy
Sorry Jimmy, I'm not certain what that #2 specimen is, but seems to be a piece of bone from something. The little scratches and dig marks on the surface appear to be bite/feeding (predation) marks from something feeding or scavaging on it. Bone material this size, shape, and texture are most commonly from one of the many species of whale or porpoise/dolphin. It might be a piece of skull fragment, or piece of vertebra. You'll also come across turtle material (shell and vertebra pieces), croc material, and fish material.