What do termites eat? Wood or bone?

These two fossils were found just a few feet from one another in the same bed of green sandstone. The first is a pretty rare item for the Uinta Formation. It's wood, the yellowish stuff.

This second one is a humerus from a large mammal (probably a Brontothere). A large portion of the proximal end (end closer to the body, left side in photos) is missing and it's not my fault. This bone shows extensive signs of insect calcium harvesting. These pits and trails were probably made by termites (dermestid beetles are another likely candidate) prior to the burial of this bone. This kind of feature (taphonomy) is actually fairly common on fossils, but it doesn't get a lot of attention because it doesn't have fangs, horns, or claws.

Sticks and stones may break my bones,

Dan

Sphenocoelus uintensis

There are three North American species of Sphenocoeuls: S. uintensis, S. intermedius, and S. hyognathus. S. uintensis is the most primitive, S. hyognathus is the most advanced, and S. intermedius is in the middle. This skull is of S. uintensis. Found by my friend Garrett, it was in some very soft (poorly cemented) sandstone matrix. So I was able to finish it in three days, hence so few progress photos.

As you can see, a lot of the teeth are missing. It was a fairly old individual because the wear on the remaining molars is very extensive. Here are the sagittal (top) and right side views of the same skull. When you compare it to the two S. intermedius skulls I prepared earlier this year (1 and 2), you can see that while those ones have more teeth, this one has more of the entire skull.

Aching finger,

Dan

Turtle Jaws (Apalone? sp.)

The most common fossils in the Uinta Formation are turtles. There are 14 or 15 different species some more common than others. But as far as I know, there are no known cranial (head) remains of fossil turtles in the Uinta Formation. So here it is folks, the first known cranial turtle material from the Uinta Formation. I didn't find them, I'm not sure to who that distinction goes (Shaun?), but I did get to prepare them. The pink stuff in the photos is Bond-O (autobody filler) which is a really strong support and bonder for delicate or large fossils. The occlusal (biting) surface of the jaws was weathered away and they got really thin toward the front, so I strengthened them with the Bond-O.

Sorry for the change in orientation,

Dan

Brontothere Cervical (Neck) Vertebrae

I'm pretty sure this vert is from a brontothere. If you look at the posterior view (2nd photo) you can see a large burrow running from top right to bottom left. It was probably made by a beetle or something scavenging the corpse before the vert was buried.
Carbonated hydroxyapatite,

Dan

Small Rhinocerous Jaw

This is a partial jaw from a small Rhinoceros. It was in very hard matrix so I only took enough off to make it small and reveal the teeth. It's missing everything forward of the last premolar. So it has p3-m3 for you anatomy types.
In this second photo you can sort of see the last molar (m3) to the left which is unerupted. So this guy was a young adult just getting his last "wisdom" tooth.No horns,

Dan

No they didn't. Yes, they did.

In the November 2010 volume of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Thomas Lehman and Steven Wick published an article naming and describing a new type of fossil. They call it Chupacabrachelys complexus. They actually named it after the mythical chupacabra.
So now you must be thinking, it must be some vicious, fangy, meat-eating, terrible monster right? Wrong. Chupacabrachelys means "Chupacabra shell". It's a turtle. It's not even a vicious spiky turtle. It just has a narrow head that "resembles that of a mangy coyote believed to be responsible for chupacabra sightings in South Texas during 2008".
Also, complexus isn't the species name because it's necessarily complex either, it's after the Blue Man Group album 'The Complex' which the researchers listened to while collecting and preparing the turtle.

Watch out,

Dan

Who is Gaidal Cain?

There has been a lot of speculation as to who Gaidal Cain has been reborn as in the Wheel of Time Universe. I haven't seen anyone else say this, so I wanted to get it out there first. I think that Gaidal Cain was reborn as Jur and Sora Grady's son Gadren. In Towers of Midnight, Grady tells Perrin (I think it was Perrin) that his young son is ugly, but he loves him still.

Gaidal Cain is Gadren Grady,

Dan

P.S. After a little more searching, I found some people had already postulated this. Oh well. RAFO

Sphenocoelus intermedius Part 2

This summer some of my co-workers found a little canyon that was surprisingly fossiliferous. (Fossiliferous means containing lots of fossils.) Each time it was revisited, more and better fossils were found. We first started calling it Fossil Canyon, but eventually we settled on Magic Canyon. This skull is the second we found and collected from Magic Canyon. It's from a species called Sphenocoelus intermedius.

The block was much larger and I don't have a photo of it before I started prep (Notice all the rubble around the block). This photo was taken when I first discovered bone (the darker gray patch in the middle left).
End of work on Day 1
Day 2

Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6 - Work complete!

We collected 2 other things from Magic Canyon, (though there are more than would merit returning). I already prepared another skull, but don't presently have all the photos of it. I'll post it when I get them. The third thing is a remarkably complete skeleton of a new lizard. I'm currently working on preparing it.

Oompa Loompa Doompa Dee-Do,

Dan

What does 63 mean?

A conversation this morning.

Grace: Dad, what does 63 mean?
Dan: 63 is a number. 63 is 9 times 7.
Faith: Sometimes you have a hard time speaking in layman's terms.
Dan: How am I supposed to answer that question?
Faith: What was the question?
Dan: "What does 63 mean?"

What DOES 63 mean?,

Dan

Horses for Susie

Neigh,

Dan