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  1. Fermikante

    Enchodus vs Xiphactinus

    Hi everyone, I have been going through my finds from Monmouth Country, NJ (mostly Big Brooks and Ramanessin Brook) and I am struggling to properly differentiate between Enchodus and Xiphactinus. I attempted to sort them into E. gladiolus, E. petrosus, X. vetus, and X. audax, which I believe are the main types that occur there. But especially for X. vetus vs X. audax I find it hard to find reliable information. I attached a couple of images: Image 1: I believe those are all from E. gladiolus due to their characteristic sigmoidal shape. Image 2: I think those are all Enchodus dermopalatines. I'd guess mostly petrosus but quite unsure about this assignment. Images 3 and 4: Mostly (broken) E. petrosus fangs? Not sure if there's something else mixed in. Images 5 and 6: Xiphactinus? I am fairly sure a)-c) are Xiphactinus because I can see the typical conical indent at the root. In fact, @Carl and @Al Dente had already identified c) as an X. vetus in an older post of mine. b) looks very similar so I'd wager it is an X. vetus as well. a) is much slimmer and more straight, so maybe that's an X. audax instead? For d)-h) I can't see the conical indent at the root and I am not sure whether that's because they are too broken or actually Enchodus fangs. Happy to take pictures of other angles, I just wasn't sure which features to focus on...
  2. jenwat

    Ladonia Fossil Park Finds

    Hello, everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve been on this forum, but I was finally able to make my way back up to Ladonia this week to hunt a little. I didn’t walk too far from the bridge and mostly just surface-searched through gravel bars; unfortunately, I didn’t fulfill my dream of finding a mosasaur tooth, but I did find some other cool things! (Please note that all measurements are in centimeters) 1. My favorite find today was this Xiphactinus tooth. I found it just sitting on top of a submerged (but very shallow) gravel bar. 2. I accidentally found this point after just picking up what looked like a black rock in the water. I’d love to learn more about it; I was thinking perhaps a Gary Point? 3. Next up is a tooth(?) that is so worn down I’m not even sure if it’s identifiable, but I thought I would put it out there in case anyone had any ideas. I was thinking perhaps Ptychodus, but someone suggested to me that it could possibly be Globidens. Any thoughts? 4. Fish bone? 5. Mosasaur vert? This is an unfamiliar shape to me so I’d love some insight. 6. Another mosasaur vert. 7. Bone fragment #1. Not sure if it’s possible to identify this, but it had a distinct shape, so I decided to just post and see. 8. Bone fragment #2. Also not sure if this will be identifiable. That’s all that I have for right now!
  3. Thanks in advance. Any help you can give this newbie will be appreciated! I found this on east coast of central Florida, about a mile west of the Indian River Lagoon. It weighs about 10 grams. Most of the vertebra is hard like stone. Except on two of the sides, those cream color areas are like very densely packed powder. I've scraped away a lot of it and am wondering if I should try to clean it all out. Does an ultra sonic cleaner help with an item like this? Also, the concrete like deposits that are filling the openings. Can I aggressively clean those holes out? Any chance it's a xiphactinus?
  4. Tooth has flat facets running most of the length from the crown to the tip, a hollow crown, and is just under an inch long.
  5. NE Kansas

    Fossil or Rock!

    Was jogging on trail in NE Kansas today near areas we found Crinoids, brachiopods, fusulinids prior. The hole in this rock caught my attention. Looking closer, it has the shape of a jaw and it looks like teeth. It reminds me of the shape of a Xiphactinus jaw. It’s probably nothing. But what if ? Whether it’s “just a rock” or not, there are some shapes on this that looks like teeth or bone joints. Does anyone see anything in these pictures? my 6 year old daughter says, “it’s never just a rock Dad”. What are your thoughts???
  6. Mikrogeophagus

    Xiphactinus audax

    From the album: Ozan Formation

    Xiphactinus audax, North TX Campanian, Cretaceous Jun, 2023 Two teeth are erupting from the sockets. This is the distal end of a lower right jaw.
  7. Fullux

    Pachyrhizodus? Xiphactinus?

    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.
  8. Fullux

    Pachyrhizodus?

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

    Pachyrhizodus? Xiphactinus?

    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.
  10. Mikrogeophagus

    Xiphactinus sp

    From the album: Austin Chalk

    Xiphactinus sp., DFW Coniacian, Cretaceous Mar, 2023
  11. A few of my favorite, smaller, non-dinosaurian Campanian (Cretaceous) finds from last fall on the east coast. Enchodus petrosus fang, Xiphactinus vetus teeth, plesiosaur teeth, mosasaur teeth, Deinosuchus rugosus teeth and osteoderms, Ischyrhiza mira rostral spines and vertebra (I think it’s a vert to I. mira anyways), Cretolamna appendiculata teeth, Archaeolamna kopingensis teeth, Serratolamna serrata tooth, Trionyx spp. carapace plate, Flemingostrea shell, Hybodont cephalic clasper and dorsal spines and teeth, Scapanorhynchus texanus teeth, and Squalicorax pristodontus and kaupi teeth.
  12. After no rain for many months we got a big 13 foot rise last weekend. I was hoping that would wash away all the mud and uncover many great fossils. Unfortunately it was still few and far between. The mud has been halfway washed away, which is halfway to where we want it, but the fossils are still not uncovered. Here are a few of the things i found: A couple decent but small mosasaur verts. Also the in situ shots. Decent fish jaw. Not sure which species though. A cool shell from the grey shale zone. All I ever see are impressions but this came out whole with nacre. 1. Coprolite? People find it all the time but I just don't have an eye for it. However this looks like a dog just had a fresh one on the ground. 2. No idea. Looks like a modern bone but hard as a rock. Maybe it is just rock? 3. Last looks like a fossilized jaw bone but is modern unfossilized non-jaw bone. It is amazing how much it looks like the fish and mosasaur jaw i found earlier. Anyone know what part of the animal this is from?
  13. I went to the North Sulphur River twice in October with little luck. The first time was after a rain that I thought would get a big rise but only got about a 1 foot rise. The second time saw about a 5 foot rise but each time the rain did nothing to wash away all the mud. It was easy walking because the river was so low and dry but no gravel bars as they are all covered in mud. I went to two different parts of the river as well as the feeder creeks and it was the same. Here are a few pictures of the little I was able to find: Some worn chunckasaur, petrified wood, pyrite sun (cool but common), a couple xiphactinus fangs, a decent mosasaur jaw piece, a piece of mammoth enamel, and a couple other oddities. 1. Some odd fish bone? 2. Horse Tooth? 3. No Idea. I would say fish fin but it doesn't have the flaky fish texture though. 4. Any idea what age and formation these shiny shells come from in the top left of this picture?
  14. WOW, what a day! Today I had the pleasure of finally meeting @Jared C after over a year of reading his trip reports and admiring all of the incredible finds he's made exploring the Cretaceous formations of Central Texas. We have a lot in common: both of us are pursuing a career in paleontology, are both (almost) the same age, and are both attending universities in-state that are only an hour and a half away from each other. Needless to say, I can't believe it took us this long to finally go on a hunt together. Jared drove up from his new place in College Station this morning to meet me at my apartment and from there we set off in search of an exposure of the Eagle Ford formation I wasn't sure existed. Last spring I became very active in the geology society here at Baylor, and as a result I found a treasure trove of old literature published by the university in the '70's and '80's. More than a few of the many booklets, articles, and papers I searched through contained almost exact directions to several interesting locales that were apparently known for producing vertebrate material, specifically shark teeth. I cross referenced Google Maps, marked the spots likeliest to be the ones I had read about, and then....did nothing. I was a little too busy with school work at the end of last semester to have the energy to go scout out new locations with a high probability of finding nothing, and so I sat on the information I'd found. Flash forward to earlier this week when Jared and I were talking to each other on Instagram about the incredible plesiosaur tooth he recently found and the topic of the exposure I had read about got brought back up. It wasn't long before he had made plans to visit and help me do some legwork in a formation he was much more familiar with than myself. Just after noon we arrived at the spot. Getting to the location I had predicted to be the exposure was incredibly easy, and in no time my hunch was proven right when we found ourselves facing a steep wall of grey shale. It's worth saying now that I'm a believer in luck, specifically as it relates to fossil hunting trips. Almost all of my best finds have been found when I was with other people. With Jared being so notorious here on the forum for the insane rarity of some of his finds, I had high hopes that some of that luck would rub off on me today - and it seems like it did! Less than a minute after arriving at the Eagle Ford exposure I spotted a Squalicorax falcatus tooth lying on top of some loose shale. I was incredibly excited, as the only shark teeth I've ever found coming fresh out of the formation they originated from is the Grayson that's exposed most famously at the Waco Pit. Even better, finding a tooth this fast meant that that there must be a lot more to be found. Jared congratulated me on the find and the two of us immediately started scanning the shale for a line of shell hash that might indicate more teeth. After what could only have been two or three minutes at most, I laid eyes on my best find to date. Sandwiched between a couple of roots and a thick layer of sandstone was a line of tooth sockets extending directly back into the wall of shale. If I thought I had been excited by the shark tooth just a few minutes prior, I was wrong - NOW I was excited! After several exclamations of "oh my god I found a jaw!" Jared hustled back over to where I was standing and confirmed that yes, my eyes weren't deceiving me. We took a bunch of pictures from several different angles of the bone as it was without being disturbed in case it turned out to be a significant find or if there was articulated material covered up by the shale. Here's a view of the shale wall with my gardening knife marking the spot just below where the jaw was located: After examining what portions of the jawbone we could see that were already exposed, Jared ruled out marine reptile pretty fast. That left bony fish as the only real contender. Based on the shape of the jaw and the differently-sized sockets, I reasoned that we had a Xiphactinus on our hands. With a tentative ID, probably as many pictures taken in the span of a few minutes as possible, and the exact location marked on my phone, all that was left to do was excavate the fish. This proved to be incredibly challenging. Shale is a lot easier to separate and break apart than something like limestone, but unfortunately it's also more similar to soil - roots surrounded the fossil on almost all sides and would be a pain to remove. Jared's pocketknife and the serrated edge of my gardening knife were both pretty blunt, but after several minutes' worth of sawing away we were able to remove the offenders and clear away some of the overburden in the process. What was immediately clear was that what was exposed wasn't a jawbone, but instead the maxillary, with what seemed like a fair amount of the skull and facial elements attached. Traversing the rest of the exposure to find more shark teeth no longer seemed like the direction the day was headed, but to say I didn't mind would be an understatement! During the hours we spent crouched amongst the loose shale, slowly chipping away at the earth around the fossil with a dental pick and a knife, I was immensely glad that I had waited to explore this location with someone else who knew what they were doing when it came to articulated remains (and in this formation no less!), as I had never come across anything like it before. Jared's knowledge from his mosasaur excavation and time spent in the Hell Creek was a lifesaver. Thankfully he had also decided on a whim this morning to bring Paraloid pellets and acetone which saved us a trip to the local Lowe's. After a while it became clear that there wasn't an end to the fish in sight and more overburden shale would need to be cleared out of the way before we continued any farther. Jared produced a roll of aluminum foil from his backpack and we got to work wrapping what was already exposed. Once protected by the foil, the risk of falling shale damaging the fossil was greatly decreased. Once the overburden was cleared it was time to get rid of some more pesky roots. Distinguishing between shale and bone became increasingly difficult as the hours wore on. In many places the bone was the exact same color as the shale that surrounded it. As a result, a couple of pieces were broken off by accident, however, videos were taken explaining where they came from before they were glued back into place. After a while Jared and I both needed a break and some time to stretch our legs. We ended up following the exposure further away from the direction we came from. I followed Jared, and so I squinted my eyes to try and see if I could spot a shark tooth he might have overlooked. That's why I was so surprised when I found an ammonite right next to the snakeskin he'd just been examining. Jared had just started walking away again when I pulled the ammonite out of the shale, flipped it over, and spotted a tiny Ptychodus tooth clinging to the underside of it. After getting home and pulling the tooth out of the matrix tonight, my best guess is that it's a posterior tooth from Ptychodus anonymous, one of the more common species from the Cenomanian; although decurrens is also a possibility. On our way back to the dig site Jared spotted a large slab of limestone with some really eye-catching gastropod internal molds. I wonder why they all seem to be facing the same direction? Finally, after several more hours spent uncovering and preserving the sections of bone we could see, the sun was beginning to set and that meant it was time to leave. The chances of getting the skull out in one piece before we left were looking very unlikely. Jared had initially been optimistic and I wanted to be as well as I knew the forecast for this upcoming week looks like multiple days of rain. Unfortunately it just wasn't doable. We both decided it would be best to cover up the bone still in place with tinfoil and take the assorted loose fragments with us. I took another look at what he had exposed and did a quick mockup later of what the portion of the skull I think we uncovered today looks like (although it's debatable whether or not the orbital is part of that portion just yet): All-in-all, today was one of the best days of fossil hunting I've ever experienced, made even better by great company, amazing finds, good weather, and excellent ice-cold lemonades from Sonic after Jared and I headed home. Some time this week I plan to speak with the paleontology professors at Baylor that I know personally and get their opinion on what should be done next. There is obviously more bone to be found than just what Jared and I were able to uncover today, and I don't have the equipment or the expertise needed to do it properly. Luckily I know quite a few graduate geology students who would be more than willing to help. With the direction of a professor or two we should be able to get the fish out in one piece. I'll make sure to keep everyone posted! I know this is just the sort of thing that I'd be waiting every week to hear more about. Until then.... - Graham
  15. I finally took a trip to the North Sulphur river last week. There have been a couple good rains so I was hoping that would uncover some stuff. The last couple of trips in 2021 were terrible. All muddy and picked over. This trip was still pretty muddy and little in terms of quality mosasaur material. However I went low and found a lot of smaller material. I wonder if the recent muddyness of the river is due to the lake construction or if the river just hasn't had enough rain lately? Is picture 2 an enchodus jaw? I believe the pictures of item 3 are of a really chipped piece of mosasaur tooth. Still never found a whole one this color. Are the pictures of item 4 pachyrhizodus? I have seen people say these are really small mosasaur but I have always doubted this. Any way to identify item 5? Maybe xiphactinus? Item 6 are the few decent mosasaur pieces i found. Is the second one a phalanges bone? Any idea about 7? It is heavily fossilized so i was thinking cretaceous but the shape makes me think of more recent like pleistocene. And my final question. Is item 8 coprolite? Im terrible at identifying the stuff. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
  16. fossil_lover_2277

    North Carolina Xiphactinus tooth?

    I found this tooth in Cretaceous Black Creek group sediments of North Carolina. I think it might be Xiphactinus since it has a hollow in it and is not solid like an Enchodus tooth. Does this look correct, or am I off the mark? Thank you!
  17. Titan

    Titan's Preps

    Over the spring and early summer I got my prep lab set up and am having a blast with it so I wanted to start sharing some of my preps with the forum. Here we go! Fish vertebrae, possibly Xiphactinus: Late cretaceous. The larger of the two, in situ under a few inches of water. The smaller was about a foot away. Preprep: I tore them up getting them out of the matrix - bad collecting on my part as I could have been more careful. Post prep: I used baking soda as blast media at about 25 psi and had some trouble trying to clean out the matrix from the vertebra body without burning through some of the bone. Instead of continuing to try to remove it I decided to leave it.
  18. ThePhysicist

    Fish bone (2)

    From the album: North Sulphur River

    Fish bones tend to be flaky or layered to some degree.
  19. ThePhysicist

    Fish bone (1)

    From the album: North Sulphur River

    Fish bones tend to be flaky or layered to some degree. I can't say for sure, but the size of this chunk makes me think it could be from Xiphactinus.
  20. 10 hr North Sulphur River Texas hike with friends. I found a little bit of everything. Mosasaur, Xiphactinus, Pleisosaur, Mastodon, Horse, Coral and cool antiques.
  21. Crankyjob21

    F744B84E-7893-429D-BB58-720365BCFFDE

    From the album: Cranky’s album of fossils

    A vertebra from the massive bony fish xiphactinus from the Niobara chalk formation
  22. Got to work on these guys because some of these creatures were my inspiration of what they would have looked like in color and others are at an art show. Wonder what animals will you like to see when its unleashed before your very eyes?
  23. Sorry I have been crazy busy lately and unable to post. Here's a few of Northeast Texas finds my last couple of trips. Pleisosaur partial girdle, silver spoon, artifacts, xiphactinus tooth, mosasaur verts, old door knob, enchodus jaws, old hard hat, old bottles, ammonite, exogyra and my first crocodile scute.
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