The hydrocarbon-rich Bakken Shale play revealed a rare fossil find this summer with the discovery by a North Dakota Geological Survey (NDGS) intern of a 65-million-year-old half-inch jawbone from one of the earth’s first known mammals. The state Department of Mineral Resources, usually touting oil/natural gas statistics, announced the find by Bismarck, ND, native Sean Ternes. The state geological service’s Clint Boyd, senior paleontologist, called it “an incredibly significant find.” In a public fossil dig on U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands, the intern spotted the lower jaw bone of a mouse-sized marsupial, the “Glasbius Twitchelli.” The fossil was the first of its kind to be found in North Dakota, and its existence in the southwest corner of the state can be used in subsequent comparisons and analyses of fauna in neighboring states.

Units of Castleton Commodities International LLC (CCI) have acquired certain East Texas assets and operations from EDF Trading Resources LLC. Terms were not disclosed. The acquired assets consist of working interests in 545 oil and gas wells and 30,855 net acres in multiple counties throughout East Texas. “The acquisition provides CCI with a significant proven reserve base that complements and expands the company’s existing oil and gas operations in the area,” it said.