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Another nice surprise from sixgill pete's Lee Creek matrix showed up on my plate last night. I was baffled until I searched on Elasmo.com, and found what I believe is the correct ID for this neat tooth. It looks just like the Wahoo tooth pictured there. I have never seen one before, so I'd like to have my tentative ID confirmed. The photo montage includes all four sides, and top and bottom. Thanks

I found this in sixgill pete's Lee Creek micro martix. My little 'point and shoot' has trouble with depth of field, but I think you can see the features that made me think crab. I find all sorts of crab bits in this matrix, so why not a body?! If I am way off, let me down easy, I have a vivid imagination!

Here are two more shark teeth that I am not sure of. And this one I was hoping was a 7 gill shark tooth, but I wonder if it isn't a posterior Hemi or something... What do you all think? thanks for looking.

I found this in the Lee Creek matrix sent to me by TFF member sixgill pete. Thanks Don! It looks like a ray ( starfish arm) frag to me. Any ideas? Thanks for looking

I found this this past weekend... I was told that it is a dolphin tooth, but have never seen one like it before. Please let me know what you think... -Bill H.

Let me first say im doing this all from my smartphone, so sorry for any bad pics. I bought a micro camera attachment for my phone for $20 a few weeks ago and im still ironing out the details of how to get a presentable picture from it, but here's my first attempts. I found this little guy last night while sifting some Lee Creek micro matrix. I was pumped when i found it in my first couple of scoops. I thought it to be a Whale Shark tooth, but now after seeing some pictures im not so sure. Any help is appreciated guys!

On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched, this satellite was later renamed Landsat. Some 40+ years later the program continues with 6 more subsequent launches (5 successful and 1 failed). The next one is scheduled to be launched next month to continue mapping Earth's ever changing landscape. I was recently thinking about Lee Creek (Aurora, NC) missing the wonderful collecting these last few years but feeling very lucky to have had the opportunity to visit in the past. I was wondering how the area looked over the years and I found a really nice website where you can focus on an area and see Landsat images going back to its initial launch. I decided to put together a series of images from times that were relatively cloud-free. I tried to get at least one good image per year but some years I was able to get 2 or 3. By the time the first image was acquired in 1972 phosphate mining had been occurring for about 7 years. I hadn't realized until seeing these images they also mined to the southeast of South Creek. Here is what I put together and I wanted to share as I thought others might be interested in seeing the changes over the years. I had to shrink the image down to get under the 2 MB (~2500 pixel) limit. I also embedded an animation I made of the 40 years of images. I do have a higher resolution (7 MB) image that I could link to if others are interested. Let me know. Luke Image Animation

I found this a while ago in Lee Creek material, but I am not quite sure what it is from. I think it is from a whale shark.

I have seen many great looking meg teeth from various places, sizes and colors as well as price ranges. So it makes me curious, I have seen a lot of people and dealers talking about the rarity and desirability of certain specific kind of Megtooth, like Bone Valley, Lee Creek, Chilean, etc. I guess Chilean and Aurora Mine one's high prices are due to the rarity and limited supply with no more new materials entering the market. But what about the variety of colors of Megtooth like Red, Larva, Green or I have seen some with multiple colors split on the same root. Is there some kind of general consensus among serious collectors that rank a certain kind of colors to a certain degree of rarity and desirability? Or is it pretty much, purely "If I want this color, I am willing to pay $xxx"? - i.e. just due to the whim of the buyer's desirability or do certain colors have some geological or paleontological implication that makes certain colored specimens more rare and valuable? Thx

Hello Everyone, I was hoping someone could help me identify two teeth I found in some Lee Creek reject material I brought home from the Aurora Fossil Festival this year. Both teeth are approximately 1cm in length and have rather large roots for their small size. Here is the first tooth: At first I thought maybe a whale shark or possibly a basking shark, but really have no clue. I'm hoping one of the experts could give me a positive ID. Sorry if there is not enough detail in the pictures above to make a positive ID, these little micros are hard to shoot. Here is the second tooth, which I really have no clue what it could be. Thanks in advance for any assistance with the IDs.

Found this ray tooth in Lee Creek matrix. Could it be a pathologic female dasyatis?

I was getting familiar with my new microscope and decided to look at some of my whaleshark teeth from Lee Creek matrix and I noticed one of them had cusp. I was wondering if it could be a Palaeorhincodon tooth?

I have a tooth I found in some Lee Creek matrix a couple of weeks ago that is stumping me. As soon as I found it my first thought was Anomotodon, what the heck. Then while doing some research I found where a specimen labeled as Anomotodon cravenensis was ID'd by Case (1980) Here are a few pictures, any thoughts on this. Is this what I have? Any other thoughts on ID? EDIT ... the scale is in mm

Is this tooth Parascyllium, Proscyllium, or Scyliorhinus?

Is this a Megachasma or a symphyseal?

My students are currently traveling 1500 miles, from Texas to Aurora, NC. And they are traveling back 20 million years in time. I'm hearing excited cries of "I found a shark tooth," and "I've got a coprolite." Ordinarily I would be doing this at our lab tables, but I'm still hobbling around on a cane, so they are working in the front of the lab. But I can tell you that days like this are what make teaching wonderful.

I got some Lee Creek material, and I was sifting through it when I found these. I think these are barracuda teeth. Pungo River formation.

I am enjoying and appreciate the comments on my ID request from yesterday. Here are some more teeth from the same batch of material. These are the ones I thought might be dolphin. Please ID. Rule is marked in mm.

I have received many helpful responses to the first two posts in this series. Check out the first one, if you have not already. The thoughtful and informative content is wonderful, but it also aptly illustrates the powerful value of this forum. This one is much less enigmatic. Because of the singular shape of these teeth, I believe they are correctly identified. Lagodon sp, the pinfish. Please verify and add any comment about this animal. Does anyone have a line drawing showing how these curiously shaped teeth resided in the mouth?

I have recently been enjoying running material from the PCS Phosphate Mine, Aurora, NC under my 'scope. I have been able to sort out a trove of interesting fossils. I obtained the material in trade with Forum member, Fossilz. Here is a photo of a rooted tooth. The rule is in mm. I hope that a member or members will enlighten me about it. Thanks.

I've just arrived back from a weeks holiday and to my delight there was a lovely gift from Carmine (Xonenine) sitting on my doorstep. I opened the parcel instantly, and was astounded with the variety and beauty of the specimens that Carmine had kindly sent to me. These are the beautiful curios that I was presented with... Elredgeops rana. Eldredgeops rana. The information about these specimens was provided by Carmine - Mid Devonian, Windom Shale, Moscow Formation, Section 8 - 18 Mile Creek, Hamburg, NY. A Meteorite. An interesting bottle. Interesting Micro-fossils from Hamburg, NY. Finally, some wonderful Micros from Lee Creek (more detailed photos up close to follow...). Perhaps someone could aid me with identification of the small tooth? As you can see, I was overjoyed with the specimens; and the fact that there was such a vast variety made it all the more sweet! I'd just like to publicly say thank you to Carmine for his generous gift! Joe

The Public Affairs dept. of PotashCorp-Aurora today released it's official statement concerning a Fall-2012 fossil collecting season. " Due to safety concerns related to heavy equipment in the Mine area, we are unable to host a Fall season. As we approach the Spring season, we will re-evaluate. Thank you for your patience." Time to start crossing fingers-again. Pat

Hello everyone! I'm glad to have the forum back online! It was a very rough time going through fossil withdrawal. I managed to pass some of the time looking through my micro material from Aurora and GMR. Now I'd like some help ID'ing a few items. Please take a look and let me know your thoughts. As always thanks in advance for your feed back. 1. GMR Symphyseal? 2. Lee Creek ? 3. Lee Creek Squalus cf acanthias? 4. Lee Creek Basking Shark?

Like many people here in eastern NC my first full fledged exposures to fossils was at the Aurora Fossil museum. Growing up here, I had seen and found my share of smaller sharks teeth and "petrified" clams as we called them, but never thought much about it. Never had anyone able to expose me to the world of fossils.(Plus, I was much more interested in baseball ..... then girls.) After I had grandkids a friend said, hey you should take them to the fossil museum in Aurora. So I did and the rest is, as we say, history. I was amazed at the teeth and everything else that was on display there. The first day in the piles there my grandson Nick(who I hunt with regularly and the one who coined me sixgill pete) found a 2 plus inch meg and a 2 plus inch mako. We were hooked. We went back to those piles tirelessly, as often as we could. We found huge numbers of mako's and tiger's and some megs and some cow sharks. Everything the piles had to offer. Then I got into the mine, wow, I found some amazing things in there, my favorite being the cow shark teeth. But there had to be more, so I found GMR and then all the MM quarries here in the eastern part of NC. Did research and found out about the beaches and rivers and much more. Then I discovered micro's and as many of you know, they are among my favorites. Beautiful little things the eye can barely see, but amazing and in many cases some of the rarest teeth. I also discovered shells, and echinoids. Then came The Fossil forum. Without a doubt, the finest fossil site on the web, great people and a plethora of USEFULL information. And the knowledge here is 5 star A+. I have learned so much and continue to learn everyday I am able to log in. I recently was able to get my first trilobite from fantastic forum member xonenine. Here in NC, there is no where to find them. My collection has come along way since its humble beginnings. So here are a few highlight's of it, some of my favorite pieces. Don a.k.a. sixgill pete my first big meg, 4 3/8" from GMR a 2 1/8 lower hastalis from Lee Creek two upper hastalis 2 1/8 and 2 3/8 from Lee Creek my two favorite rics a beautiful gun metal blue perfect 2 1/16 and a very rare parasymphyseal, both found on the same day at the Onslow Martin Marietta Quarry From GMR a very nice about 1 1/4 Great White in matrix Also from GMR a 2 1/2 inch great white