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Showing results for tags 'SHARK'.
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From the album: Neutache Shoreline
Found in Muncie creek shale, was already cracked open by natural freeze-thaw. 2/13/24 #VM4© CC BY-NC
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- campodus
- concretion
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Hiya everyone I bought a lot a while back, going through it I found a rooted tooth that wasn’t mentioned, my best guess is due to the shape it’s a whale tooth, also there was a shark tooth unlike any other in my collection, any help with ids would be great thanks.
- 3 replies
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- great white
- rooted
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Hello everyone, I was recently looking at one of our local beaches. I didn’t have a lot of time so went where most people go. Sometimes even though it is picked over you might still find something special. I often think, there could be just a few mm of sand covering up something special! I saw this sitting there waiting for me and thought. That’s cool. Level of excitement maybe a 6 out of 10? I hadn’t seen associated verts like this at this site and was thinking “shark or fish” (p.s. photos are at home after finding it in better light. But pretty much what saw on the beach) I was leaning towards shark and then flipped it over. Excitement went to 9/10!! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This looked like preserved shark “skin” or at least in situ dermal denticles. A first for me at this site. If you’d like to join me down a wormhole on learning about shark dermal denticles. Read on! This is a normal journey I take as I learn as much as I can about each fossil. Every fossil has something to teach. About the environment the animal lived in or the creature itself. I’ve learnt a lot about biology/ecology this way. if you zoom in under the scope, there are 2 layers of denticles. The top one most visible in the above photo seems to be looking at the base of the denticles from underneath, like a skin has folded on itself these look like the “roots” of the denticles. In the photo below. Each one about 1-2mm across In the photo below is the underside of the top of some denticles A tricuspid type. A few mm across. So zoomed in more than the above photos. these look like the “drag reduction” type tricuspid denticles top left in the figure below. This figure shows that sharks will have different types of denticles on different parts of the body. The proportions and types differ depending on ecology. Pelagic (requiring drag reduction) vs bottom feeding (demersal) requiring protection from abrasion. I searched around the specimen and found a few examples looking at the top of the denticles. Below. Unedited Photo above with red sketch to highlight features below. denticle is a couple of mm across. You can see the crests typical of the drag reduction type. below: looking side on at an individual denticle. The “root” at the bottom and tricuspid denticle on top. so how to move forward? The matrix isn’t acid soluble. But I’d like to be able to clearly see some complete denticles. Gentle air abrasion? I’m not sure if an ID to family will be possible. I have shown a shark tooth/denticle expert (from Japan) and he thought we could narrow it down to Triakidae (hound sharks) or Pentanchidae (deep water cat sharks). The age range is Miocene- Pliocene for the coast in this area. I think Late Pliocene for this based on lithology. So now…..where is the rest of the shark? Thanks for following along!
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- denticle
- new zealand
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From the album: Hell Creek Formation Microsite
A collection of microscopic (~ 1 mm in size) teeth from the orectolobiform, Galagadon. These are very difficult to collect, as it requires sieving a large volume of sediment and searching the concentrate under a microscope.-
- galagadon
- galagadon nordquistae
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Greetings all, I was looking back through some specimens I found on the bank of the Broad River in Beaufort, SC a few years ago. Found this nice sized piece and have not been able to identify. I thought maybe Lemon, but the root seemed to be not quite the right shape. Anyone have any insights?
- 5 replies
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- black tip shark
- lemon
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From the album: Neutache Shoreline
My best preserved whipplei tooth. Interesting pattern is visible under microscope: #VM2 3/10/24© CC BY-NC
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From the album: Neutache Shoreline
Q4 2023 My largest ptychodus tooth to date, found in glacial deposits in E KS© CC BY-NC
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Yesterday I went to Eastern AR to an Eocene outcrop exposed in a creek. I found about a dozen Venericardia planicosta clam shell fossils and a Mennerotodus shark tooth!
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Edit* Title changed to say shark skeletal elements ( previously said bones). This is an interesting topic that was brought up by my mentor and vertebrate paleontology professor during a lecture about a year ago. He mentioned that for some reason there seems to be a higher occurrence of shark bones and relative scarcity of teeth in the Astoria formation. That is the verbage he used. I am willing to bet this is some kind of collection bias where people just aren't recognizing the teeth as often as skeletal elements for some reason. I haven't been able to find information on Google scholar or really anywhere else that has provided information on depositional environments that would favor the preservation of shark skeletal elements over teeth, especially where there are plentiful well preserved invertebrate shells. Most of the fossils are locked in concretions or embedded in concrete-hard sandstone. There is intermittent softer sandstone and siltstone, but seems like most of the vertebrate and invertebrate fossils occur in the harder layers. This is something that has interested me as a research topic, but I haven't been able to make it out in awhile to do any collecting of my own. It would be interesting to set up a transect say from Newport to Lincoln City, take a group out and just collect fossils over a period of time across the transect to get an idea of fossil type, frequency, etc. And see if there really is something lending itself to a higher frequency of shark skeletal elements. On a side note it does seem like there is an usually high occurrence of young vertebrates such as pinnipeds and whales in the sections of the formation I've collected. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the matter as well as any additional insights you may be able to provide. What do you think?
- 11 replies
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- 1
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- astoria formation
- bones
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Piggybacking off of the fantastic trip report @Jared C wrote about our Eocene excursion, I thought I'd go ahead and publish an account of the solo expedition I embarked on several days prior. Some of you who are familiar with my past endeavors in the fossil rich creeks and constructions of North Texas may know that dinosaur material has been a huge goal of mine for a while now. The Woodbine offers a shot at fulfilling such a dream, though dinosaurs are still very difficult to come by. Luckily, the uniqueness of its environment means that a day without a dino is by no means an unsuccessful one as a plethora of other strange and wonderful things can be found in their stead. After an early start, I set out with a sizeable list of new sites in the Upper Woodbine. There were some mild successes to start, but to keep things concise I will only speak of the final and most productive spot. By now it was midafternoon and the winds were howling at full force. After floating about, examining various chunks of oyster hash, I at last reached a stopping point. Before me was a massive boulder, the size of a car, with a fantastically complex arrangement of debris cemented to one face. From afar it was just a greyish mess, but up close I could pick apart the various oyster shells, driftwood, Thalassanoides, etc. This mixture of debris and later considerations led me to believe that I was gazing upon an ancient storm deposit. Oyster shell hash Up until this point, I had been unsuccessful in finding any sign of vertebrates. I laid myself upon the slanted body of the boulder and got my face as close as possible to its heavily ornamented surface. Like a visual puzzle of sorts, it was very inviting to look at. Intuition told me that there had to have been something of worth hidden within the noise. Phosphate and carbonized wood It took a bit of time, but sure enough I eventually found a tiny pebble of phosphate lost in between the fissure to some branching burrow. The familiar sheen immediately reminded me of the jet black teeth I had once pulled out of the basal Atco conglomerate. With a little more wind in my sails, I continued perusing until I was met with something much more substantial. First phosphatic Cretodus semiplicatus of the day I had found a beautiful Cretodus semiplicatus. To those whom the Woodbine is foreign, such a find may seem pretty lucky as Cretodus is usually a rarity in most places. However, the marginal marine deposition of the group means that coastal predators are represented in very high numbers, so much so that C. semiplicatus is often the most common taxon of large shark to be found. Contrast this with the deeper waters of the slightly younger Bouldin Flags Fm in Central TX, where the same species occurs in much smaller numbers (though admittedly the individual sizes of the teeth are often considerably bigger). Anyways, I got to busting it out which proved difficult. The high density of durable oyster shells halted my progress greatly. Somehow I managed to extract the tooth as a clean chip without it poofing away into a million fine particles. From there, I began finding a large quantity of phosphatic bone material. Most were reptilian in nature and either obviously belonged to turtle or likely belonged to a croc. Sadly, the resilient nature of the matrix and fragility of the bones made a clean extraction more or less impossible... for me at least. Croc vert likely Terminonaris cf. robusta T Turtle elements Random ammonite fragment As my walking continued I began finding some occurrences of sandier depositions that were much easier to dig through and even richer with phosphate. What surprised me most, however, was their appearance. C. semiplicatus in situ In my eyes, those pictures above look as though they could have been taken along the shores of any sandy beach saturated with seashells. The soft sand was so loosely packed, the slightest pressure could disturb the granules and send them drifting away. As I scanned, I couldn't help but imagine the tropical storm or hurricane that must have taken place here 96 million years ago in order to create this flash-frozen formation. The wind suddenly felt of an ocean breeze, and the cloudy backdrop like a Mesozoic sky in recovery from absolute chaos; Alone, I wandered the shore. A couple of croc teeth. Likely Terminonaris cf. robusta To round off the day, I found some beautiful, though damaged, croc teeth. Like the critters asleep in this dune, it seemed I had lost track of time, so I made my way home. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have a bit of micro matrix to go through, but as of now, these are the species of vertebrates found: Cretodus semiplicatus Cenocarcharias tenuiplicatus Meristodonoides rajkovichi Pseudohypolophus mcnultyi Some nice pycnodont teeth were found Mostly Haimirichia amonensis, but I will take a closer look later Terminonaris cf. robusta I really thought I saw a dino tooth sticking out of the sand when I first spotted this. Actually it is an inarticulate brachiopod ( @Tidgy's Dad enjoy!) called Lingula subspatula. Thanks for reading!
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While preparing a large xenacanth tail from a new site south of Sydney I noticed this juvenile of the same species within the nodule. Xenacanths are very common in this horizon of the Ashfield Shale but are often poorly preserved, so this example offered a unique opportunity to photograph certain features such as the denticles. Unfortunately, both specimens are incomplete since half the nodule was missing, but that is just the nature of this site! Here is the whole nodule with the partial xenacanth tail, three poorly preserved Cleithrolepis and juvenile xenacanth towards the right: The juvenile xenacanth. Towards the top middle section is the base of the dorsal spine which never seems to preserve on adult specimens, and towards the left are impressions of denticles and the vertebrae. Towards the right, the lower jaws with teeth are preserved and there even seems to be an impression of the eye. Ammonium chloride images of a latex peel showing the whole specimen and closeups of the jaw and teeth: Closeups of denticles:
- 22 replies
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- 20
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- ashfield shale
- australia
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From the album: Neutache Shoreline
3/11/2024 Thanks to @Al Dente for pointing out that is in fact a bony fish vertebra, not a lamnoid shark vert.© CC BY-NC
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Curious if anyone has any ideas as to what these might have came from. Found this piece in SE Colorado that has tons of shark teeth but these are way different than anything we have found so far.
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Dear fellow TFF members, The following two teeth are fairly strange to me. Im afraid Florida is as specific as I can get with the locality of the two. Could the first tooth be a snaggle??? Thank you for your time and expertise.
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I found this fossil among other mollusk and other small sea creatures this one was interesting. Can anyone tell me what Eon it’s from? 73204866674__3686FFD8-EB9D-4E1A-BAA9-89B16BC033B3.MOV
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I need help with a couple of ID's.... The first one is a shark tooth, from the east coast of the USA - most likely from the Meg ledge. I'm not sure if it's a Carcharodon or Isurus tooth. The root shape looks more Isurus-ish but I'm not 100% which is why I'm asking here. The other one is an awesome Mosasaur tooth in matrix (Moroccan in origin, if that wasn't obvious haha)... does anyone know the genus of this tooth? It doesn't look like the typical Prognathodon teeth often seen in natural matrix. The other fossils within this matrix have me very curious too.... can anyone ID the shark tooth and other random fossils? There is a good size chunk of bone in there too. The hourglass(ish) shaped fossil might be a vertebra ...?
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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- orthocanthus
- permian
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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- orthocanthus
- permian
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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- orthocanthus
- permian
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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- orthocanthus
- permian
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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- orthocanthus
- permian
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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- orthocanthus
- permian
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From the album: Texas Permian Fossil Finds
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- orthocanthus
- permian
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