You are going to make me pick just one?!?  Masi, that is cruel, bordering on unusual.

Of the fossils that I own, I am rather attached to two partial Megalodon teeth, however I also have eyes for south american seal teeth that I lacked the funds to purchase.  I'll get one someday, mark my words!

Of the fossils that I have prepared for a local museum (they taught me how to prepare bones and give me access to equipment, they get their fossils cleaned.  It is a happy relationship) I must say that the first bone that I worked on was my favorite.  An Edmontosaur neural spine.  Cute little fossil, pictured below.
But the museum also looks for microfossils, among which are troodontid teeth, fish scales and teeth, etc, and I am also rather fond of these.

In broader terms I really like Dunkleosteus.  I also like the Haast's eagle (and anything else from NZ), Argentavis, Pelagornithids, birds in general, really.  And Pinnipeds.  And Pterosaurs.  And anything from the most recent ice age...

Our State fossil here in Missouri is the crinoid.   Wow....   Looks like a deceased dandelion.

We have a fine collection here at the university...Lots of mastodont skulls and teeth, various crocodilians, whole sheets of fish...Probably killed by a volcanic eruption or somesuch.

Masiakasaurus wrote on Oct 17^th, 2012 at 1:32pm:

I do love Eoraptor, don't get me wrong, but you've got to take it with a grain of salt.  The recovered skeletons were at least initially misinterpreted, and I am not confidant that it has been given due credit yet and fear it has been caught up in 'scientific politics' (*hurk*).  Turns out it is likely not the ancestor of theropods, but of sauropods.  A rather large oversight.  I am certain Eoraptor was awesome, but I don't think anyone has figured what kind of awesome it was yet.

So far as a pen name goes, though, Eoraptor lunensis is where it's at.  The Dawn Plunderer of the Valley of the Moon.  Aw yes.
  You may all refer to me as The Dawn Plunderer from now on.  I may start signing PMs like that.  Or sign it Eo, but put The Dawn Plunderer in as a title.  Yeeessssssss...


Also crocs, man, espacially the propperly quadropedal ones.  Check out this fellow  v   Folks call him the Boar Croc.

I was tagging along with some who was looking for signs of an historic Choctaw fort.  We were walking up a creek that cut through chalk, the stream bed was about 10 meters down, it actually only had a trickle of water down the middle.  We never found the fort, what we did find were mosasaur bones, turtle bones,  shark vertabre and teeth, camel teeth, horse teeth, pig teeth,and a bear tooth.  Plus one Union Officers' Swordbelt buckle, no idea how that last one came to be there.

I have a piece of fossilised octopus tentacle I found as kid - probably my favourite as soft tissue fossils are rare and this one is incredibly detailed.


It's about two inches long on the surface of a very hard rock that weighs about 12 lb -  I use it as a doorstop to my workshop. I think both david morningstar and slingbadger have stubbed their toes on it . It's one of the few things I was allowed to bring back from germany when I was a kid. The army has fairly strict weight allowances for families. Had to leave most of my books behind (had about 30 of the original destroyer series too) but did get to pack my rocks and fossils  


It would be interesting to know just how old it is. I think cephalapods have been around for a very long time, geologically speaking.

I have a few bits of petrified palm (Texas) , a few un identifiable bits of bone plus one small bit that looks like skin..

Where I grew up (in central Nebraska) the most common find in the area was mastodon teeth ( they turn up a lot by being pumped out of sand and gravel pits) .

Favorite fossil (not owned) would have to be shark teeth.

I'm pretty partial to Archeopteryx, not to be confused with Archeopteris!