Search the Community

Both of these verts have been identified as Pachyrhizodus and were found in the Niobrara Chalk of Gove County, Kansas. Needing a second opinion.

Not quite sure if this piece of fish jaw is X-fish or Pachyrhizodus. What do y'all think? Found in the Ozan formation of Fannin County, Texas.

Just got this vert. It was found in Fannin County, Texas, and was originally described as Xiphactinus audax. I'm not sure now if this is Xiphactinus or if it came from another large fish like Pachyrhizodus caninus.

A couple of weeks ago, @Jackito, his son, and I took a trip out to one of his favorite Eagle Ford sites. For those of you who are familiar with Carter's posts, this was once the famed location of the so-called "giving rock", so the bar was set high for the day. I've come across some of Austin's eagle ford material in the past, but it was always only the leftovers of what had been washed through miles of rushing creek water. This was my first time getting to poke through the source material, so I was eager to see what could be found. The water was low and the temperature mild. I was thankful I wouldn't have to suffer trudging around in soggy shoes. As we walked beside the creek, Carter explained the various layers and where the best stuff could be found. He pointed out the notable spots where things like pseudomegachasma and pliosaur teeth had been dug up. I knew to not get my hopes THAT high up, but it was certainly a good motivator to stay attentive and expect the unexpectable. It took me a while to get the hang of pinpointing which slabs were best to open and how. Carter was nice enough to share some of his finds, and I must admit, not everything pictured below was necessarily first spotted by me . I was quickly surprised by the sheer number of shark teeth we started finding. Being the completionist that I am, I would immediately try to excavate every tooth I found. Carter advised me that simply bringing the matrix home and processing it there would be the most efficient use of time which I have come to agree with. Every tooth had fantastic preservation and would often pop right out of the shale (though not necessarily in one piece). The Ptychodus teeth were the most mesmerizing. They basically broke off without a speck of matrix still attached and had a beautiful shine. Thankfully, they were also robust and rarely fell apart. A decently sized Ptychodus still in matrix The amount of Cretoxyrhina to be found was also staggering. Unfortunately, they required a little bit more delicate prep than what I had to offer in the field, so my ratio of broken to unbroken teeth was higher than I'd like to admit. In my defense, I managed to lower that ratio as the day progressed. Squalicorax was also a common sight along with various fish teeth. Carter's son managed to find some turtle material... that was still alive and may or may not have come from out of the stream . For most of the hunt, Carter and I had some nice discussions on things to be found here in Austin along with various chats about life. The hours seemed to fly by so fast, it wasn't long until Carter and Jack had to head on out. They'd been wanting to find some mosasaur material for a while, so I sent info on one of my favorite sites (the place where I came out with 4 mosasaur verts in a day). Hopefully we'll get to hunt together over there some time in the near future. I stuck around as I had a couple hours to kill before needing to drive to a friend's birthday. The rest of the time was spent doing more of the same. I managed to come across a huge Cretodus tooth, but the root was unfortunately nowhere to be found. I also started gathering some of the leftover matrix for later processing for microfossils. The layer was just so rich, how could there not be something cool to find? I filled up a couple Ziploc bags with the stuff and made my way out, thinking of ways I could clean this while residing in a college dorm. The richness of fossils in the matrix. This piece was a little too stony to break down though. Might try vinegar. Suffice it to say, I figured out a way to clean it without clogging the communal sinks, but it's a slow process. Though, I must admit, it's nice to come home each day to a cup's worth of dried micro matrix ready for screening. In only my first batch, I found something I think is pretty amazing. What was at first just a shiny little speck, upon closer analyzing, may, in fact, be a tiny coniasaur tooth! It has that characteristic bulging crown that is instantly recognizable. Hopefully I'm not jumping the gun on this one. A couple rounds later, and many many puny Ptychodus teeth, I managed to spot what appeared to be the tooth plate to a Pycnodont fish or something similar. After some delicate cleaning and lots of paraloid, it's still a little bit scuffed, but there are definitely some little round bulbous teeth in close association. The tooth plate before and after cleaning. Can anyone confirm if it's Pycnodont? There was plenty bony fish and shark material. Interspersed within them were some that eluded my identification (including mayyybe Paraisurus?). I've got plenty of matrix to still go through, so I will post updates if anything cool is found. For now, here are some pictures summarizing the finds: Please excuse the hand pics. It's just that the details come out better on a slightly darker surface as opposed to white paper. Closeups of Coniasaur(?) Tooth L to R: Bony bits, "Coniasaur" tooth, and "Pycnodont" tooth plate The best of the Ptychodus and a close up of the smallest one. The bottom left is smoothed over. Is this maybe feeding damage? Also, any ID for species is much appreciated : Cretoxyrhina mantelli. My favorite is the fat one on the left Best of the Squalicorax falcatus. Right two are a little strange. Possibly symphyseal? Best of Scapanorhynchus and huge rootless Cretodus (hard to see in pic, but its got the wrinkling): Paraisurus? I saw that genus mentioned in a Shawn Hamm publication on the Atco and thought it could be a match. The roots are very skinny on both specimens and the teeth seem vertically stretched. The larger tooth on the left initially appears to be missing half the root, but it is actually nearly complete. The only break is a tiny portion of the root at the very top. The right specimen is very fragmented. No signs of cusps nor nutrient groove on either one. Cantioscyllium orals and Sawfish Rostral Teeth: L to R: Enchodus, Protosphyraena, and Pachyrhizodus Some oddballs. The left is a fragment of some sort of multi-cusped shark tooth. The middle is a a segment of some barbed material that seems similar in appearance to the fishy bits found in the matrix. The right specimen is a shiny crescent shaped thing that I have found in other micro matrixes from Moss Creek and POC. Never kept them, but now I'm curious after finding them again: Thanks for reading!

I recently found a construction site in a productive layer of the Eagle Ford. I found several ptychodus and other shark teeth as well as some pachyrhizodus teeth, a possible mosasaur tooth, and a couple of items that i cant figure out. Here are a few pictures of my finds as well as the items im not sure about. 1. The haul 2. possible Mosasaur or other reptile tooth? It is skinnier than a mosasaur and it is oval like as well so i cant figure it out. 3. I have seen this before on TFF but cant find the post. Anyone know what this is? 4. Fish bone for sure. Maybe a jaw segment? 5. I have no idea about this one. Anyone? 6. This is just a rock i'm pretty sure but don't think it would have formed this way coincidentally. Geological?

For the rank amateurs here is it possible to explain the differences and how to identify these teeth? Of lesser importance I am attaching photos of 3 inch to inch and a half teeth I had previously thought were all Enchodus and then 2 small half inch fragments found yesterday, both heavily striated. As always thank you all

A couple weeks ago Petrol Pete was up in my neck of the woods, so my wife and I took him out to a few spots to look for something cool. We found a few shark teeth, and fish teeth, along with this section I'm fairly certain is Pachyrhizodus jaw. Forgot to get any pictures of us hunting, but we had a good time, and found some nice stuff. Pete gave me a couple blastoids that seem to elude me whenever I go looking for them, so I was thankful to finally get a couple in my collection. Here's a few pictures from our hunt. Not real sure what that little tooth is in the 3rd picture. Any ideas?

March 6, 2010 It was time to paddle one of my favorite places. The water had finally receded from recent rains to make the trip manageable. It was also a test for a shoulder injury that I had been working back into shape. So I waved to my wife and slipped the boat into the cold water. As I negotiated the twisted channel, I noted many changes to familiar stretches of water. A new tree down here, a missing log jam there and fresh, untracked gravel soon became part of things behind me. Yet the water still had its surprises as I dealt with the first of four major, new logjams. Slippery mud banks, ripping briars and budding poison ivy greeted me on every portage around the chaos of flood debris. But at the same time, I started to make a few finds and a jaw fragment with a tooth root made the morning a little easier to bear. Late Cretaceous fish jaw/tooth fragment - cf. Pachyrhizodus sp. In familiar territory, the memories of past finds kept me optimistic. Anticipation generated the excitement I felt when I reached under the water to lift out a dark object. Most of the time it was nothing; this time it was part of a fish. The unidentified bone fragment was soon followed by a vertebra from another Upper Cretaceous fish (possibly Xiphactinus). Fish bone fragment Xiphactinus (?) vertebra After going around another 20 yard logjam, I found my first mosasaur vertebra of the day. Although it was slightly eroded, I could still make out the eye-like scars where the caudal chevrons of the tail attached. It was still a nice find; I’ve learned to appreciate that what may be a common find in one geographic area can be rare to unknown in others. So any time I have the chance to pick up a 70 million year old reptile bone, I generally do. Within the next two hundred yards, another mosasaur caudal vertebra, this one in a little better shape, laid just under the water. It was already a good day. The solitude of my solo run allowed me a state of mind which made it easy to imagine walking on the bottom of the late Cretaceous sea or hiking through somewhat familiar Pleistocene terrain. I pictured complete fossil skeletons just a few feet inside the Taylor Group clays and mammoth herds lingering on the banks above me. However, on a steep descent back into the water, a slight slip on the muddy bank focused my attention to the reality of the risks involved while alone. I moved on with heightened senses. I am often amazed at how some finds are made. When I turned around to lift the boat off a sandbar, something caught my eye. Straight lines contrasted with the rounded gravel and this time it was a fractured horse tooth. Yet a few minutes later, that “contrast” was a nice, resharpened Pedernales dart point. My fossil hunting mojo continued over the next hour or so and I added two more mosasaur vertebrae to my cargo. Mosasaur vertebrae, horse molar and previous finds Chevron attachment scars on mosasaur caudal vertebrae Then, it happened; I saw tracks…aarrghh! I switched hunting modes as I looked at the size 10 footprints. They were fresh enough to be from the morning or the previous day. I studied the directional patterns to see if I was following a fisherman or fossil/artifact hunter. After a few hundred yards, I concluded it was a hunter; the weaving imprints left me with little doubt. When it happens, I try to look where they haven’t or look even closer where they have. It was time to be both tracker and hunter. With my adjusted viewpoint, I kept moving on. Scanning and tracking, in and out of the boat, I found a few tidbits missed by the other hunter. Smudges on the algae coating the underwater gravel indicated I was still “following”. Yet after about a mile, the pattern of the tracks started to change from a wandering to a more linear path. Ahhh…they might have been tired or running out of time. Either way, it allowed me more unexamined gravel to search. The reward for persistence came only 4 feet away from the tracks and… One of the largest flint knives I’ve found With overcast skies and late afternoon approaching, I became more selective in the areas I comprehensively searched. On one of the last large gravel bars of the trip, I stepped out of the boat to pull it from the current and, several feet off to the side, I caught sight of another dart point. (The adrenaline was still in my system from the previous find!) I felt a big smile as I reached for the camera. My wife and friends would be surprised by all the finds when I got home; but, I would enjoy telling the story of each one. Who was the last person to touch this before I did? What happened that day? I finished photographing the Hoxie point and started to scan the bar. About 15 feet away, I reached for what I thought was just a chert flake and I pulled another artifact from the sand. This one appeared to be older than the others. It may be a variant of a late Paleo San Patrice point. Impact damage was the likely cause of the flake scar on the tip. I chuckled on the way back to the canoe. At the water’s edge, I looked down and spotted a broken, crudely flaked point. The chuckle turned into a laugh. Broken point/scraper What a day! I lifted my paddle and gear in one hand and hefted the 16 foot boat on the other shoulder then purposely made my ascent up the bank at the take-out. My heart pounded by the time I reached a spot to drop everything. However, with the exertion came the satisfaction and reward of persistence in the field.