What was Found in April This Year?
We went out fossiling earlier this year than we ever have in previous years, and we found some pretty cool finds!
Highlights
Some of the Highlights of our finds include what I think is a hadrosaur caudal vertebra, And maybe a large theropod coprolite! However I really don't know if it is or not. It does look like some of the pictures I found online but I'll have to do some more looking. (Spoiler it's not!) More teeth fragments were also found but no super intact ones were found this month.
New Fossil Sites?
April 2025 had a four new fossil site additions! These were:
- RDR FS 5
- RDR FS 7
- RDR FS8
- RDR FS 9
A clam from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation.
Some larger bone pieces, some had ironstone mixed in with them.
A smaller fragment of bone.
Some more fossils that have ironstone mixed in with them.
Some weird pieces of ironstone. They have really weird patterns to them.
More weird ironstone.
Doesn't look like a fossil in the picture but it is! It may be apart of a hadrosaur jaw? I don't really know but it sort of has the shape of one
same fossil as previous image.
Some petrified wood.
Some more petrified wood
Even more petrified wood
Hadrosaur caudal vertebra I think.
A tooth fragment!
Some plant fragments inside this piece of ironstone. The one to the right a bit sort of looks like a seed?
Some other plant matter inside ironstone.
A really big bone on top of a flatter plateau. There were a whole bunch of other fossils there too.
Bone fragment with lichen on it.
This really weird layer made of of some sort of weird rock. It has really black coal on the underside and is found alongside a lot of petrified wood. My dad thinks it's leaves but I really have no clue what it is.
A closer shot of the weird rock mentioned in the previous picture.
Petrified wood made up of ironstone! also looks like you can see some of its rings which is pretty cool!
More of that petrified wood that was made up of ironstone. This one didn't have rings though.
Fossil ID: 1-MB-57
More petrified wood!
A lot of bones with a lot of lichen on them.
Random bone fragment that has a pretty pattern.
A piece of what might be coprolite? Still unsure.
(I got some information about it. It is most likely not as coprolites aren't very common in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation because the soils deposited during this time were acidic. (Thanks to Atharva Roy https://www.instagram.com/atharvar_fossils?igsh=ejZ2MWh3NDg3OHEx for this very important information!))
A whole pile of rocks that in fact, are not coprolite.
A larger bone, don't know how far it goes under the surface though.
Massive Bone! Well really long bone at least, it's pretty flat.