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Formation: Dammam, midra shale member Age: Middle Eocene Location: Qatar 1. First specimen Picture 1: Backside Picture 2: Front side Picture 3: Side view Picture 4: Top view Picture 5: Closeup of the striations Picture 6: Root Length: ~6mm Width: ~5mm Specimen 2 Picture 1: Same species as the first one I believe but with much less wear on the tip Length: ~6mm

Hello! Help please to identify this Orectolobid tooth. Height ~ 1,2 mm. Age - Early Eocene. Location - Western Ukraine. Thanks in advance!

I found this tooth several years ago while searching micro matrix from Colorado, which I am now certain is Mancos Shale. Never mind. Mystery solved. Lesson learned=I need to wear my glasses when trying to ID teeth from pictures lol It’s a Catshark or something similar.

Hey all, does anyone know of a good source of information for the identification of orectolobiformes? Or someone I could contact concerning these sharks? I have five teeth that most likely belong to different species, but have been having a hard time with their IDs. I am going through Cappetta's 2012 handbook, have gone through Welton and Farish, and looked up orectolobiformes on the Fossil Forum, to no avail. I will most likely be posting pictures later today or tomorrow. Thanks!

I have learned so much and enjoy the Squaliformes thread so much, that i wanted to get a start on the next one. I am very curious about the Orectolobiformes fossils that are lurking in the collections of TFF members. Carpet Sharks are not only represented by teeth but there are also opportunities for far more complete specimens, especially from the Cretaceous of Lebanon. The goal of this thread is show off our fossils but also exchange information, learn and in general just appreciate some of the sharks less frequently seen on TFF. Orectolobiformes fossils date back as far as the Early Jurassic of Europe. Early genera include Folipistrix, Annea, Pseudospinax, Ornatoscyllium, and Palaeobrachaelurus. There is a pretty good amount of diversity during the Cretaceous, including North America. I have had good luck finding Orectolobiformes teeth by searching micro matrix from Texas. Several genera also come out of Lebanon as complete fossils. There are some great Cenozoic locations that produce multiple genera like Morocco, the Nanjemoy formation, the Tallahatta formation, and Lee Creek. I am sure others can provide further insights into good locations for Carpet Shark fossils. The modern Orectolobiformes are a fairly diverse group of sharks and they have some cool adaptations. There are 7 extant families, 13 genera and 46 species. Some members of this order are really beautiful with interesting colors and patterns. The largest fish in the sea is a Carpet Shark, of course the Whale Shark. It is the only only filter feeder in the order. Nurse Sharks use chemosensory organs to find their prey. Wobbegongs use stealth and excellent camouflage to avoid predators and be very effective hunters. Perhaps the coolest adaptation in this order and possibly the coolest shark adaptation anywhere comes from the ability of Bamboo Sharks to walk. Many Bambbo Sharks can use their pectoral find to walk along the ocean floor and a few can walk over land. The Epaulette Sharks will walk from tide pool to tide pool when they have to. They also have the remarkable ability to turn off certain neural functions in order to deal with hypoxia, a result of their extremely shallow water habitats. They can go a full air with no oxygen with no permanent damage. Anyway, on to the fossils....

I am really excited about a project we have been working on. We decided to switch our shark displays from the ones based on Geological era to a taxonomic display style. We had been considering this since we made a similar switch with our dinosaurs. It has made those programs flow more easily and i think allowed the kids to get a better understanding of the animals. We originally set our displays up as they were because we simply did not have enough material to do taxonomic displays. There were a few orders of sharks for which we had only one or two fossils and one extinct order for which we had zero fossils. Doing the displays along a timeline allowed us to cover up the holes in the collection. We have made a lot of improvements to our shark collection in the last year and were strongly considering changing things. A conversation with @siteseer really sealed the deal. Jess nudged me over the ledge lol So work has begun on this project and I am loving it but it is a lot of work. Each order of shark, extant and extinct, will eventually have it's own display. Within the the display, each family or in some cases genus, will be set up by temporal range. I think these displays will not only allow more efficient presentations but will also show temporal range and distribution as best we can. Step 1 was identifying which orders, families, and genera we need to add to the collection in order to round out what we already had. Some orders needed little attention but there were some that needed a bit of a boost. Heterodontiformes was an example of one that needed to a boost. We had Jurassic teeth (Paracestracion and Heterodontus) but little else. Having the Jurassic teeth is awesome because it shows how far back they go in the fossils record but that would be an underwhelming display visually and not give the kids a great sense of the sharks. We had to find fossils to place them at various points in their temporal range and widen their distribution to the best of our ability. Pristiophoriformes was another that we needed to upgrade as we only had one small rostal tooth. We had a good variety of material for most extinct orders but wanted a Carboniferous Xencanthid tooth to better tell the whole story of the Eel sharks as all of ours were Permian. We picked through micro fossils to add Devonian Ctenacanthiformes teeth to expand the temporal range and add diversity in the form of Phoebodus. Step 2 is on going and is probably the hardest part, acquiring the fossils we need. It is quite easy to find some of the things we needed. Others have been extremely difficult and a few are pretty much impossible. We are unlikely to knock Hemiscyllium or Oxynotus off the list. It proved very difficult, but not impossible, to locate a Cenozoic Chiloscyllium tooth. We had Cretaceous teeth but nothing beyond that and Bamboo Sharks are one that we do talk about quite a bit. After a lengthy search, we finally tracked one down and it was quite inexpensive. Cost is always a factor for us so early on we understood we were not going to be adding some collector type teeth like a 2" Chilean White Shark or the transitional White Shark teeth. We focused instead in smaller teeth and anything that added a new shark, contributed to showing distribution or temporal range. For us a STH Scyliorhinus is a significant fossils because it adds to both distribution and temporal range of a shark we talk about. I am very proud of some of the inexpensive teeth we have found including a Chilean Angelshark, a Miocene Mitsukurina, the Paleocene Chiloscyllium, and a Heterodontus fin spine from STH. We have also been greatly aided in our quest by a couple of donations, including one from @Troodon that included very important Eocene Orectolobiformes teeth and a super Megachasma from Chile. I want to credit @siteseer too though I am not sure what he is sending but I know it help tremendously lol Step 3 was figuring out how many display cases we would need and what sizes we would need. We knew that in addition to the displays by order, some sharks would get their own displays. For example, we have a lot of Lamniformes that we cover during our presentations but Goblin Sharks get special attention because kids really love them so they would get a separate display. The displays will not be of uniform size as some orders will be better represented. There will be more Carcharhiniformes than other orders for example. Size of the shark and size of the fossils also contribute to the need for a variation in display size. Step 4 is dismantling the old displays and putting together the new ones. This is on going and will not be finished until mid March probably. We need new labels which is taking a bit of time as there is a lot of shark fossils going into these displays. Step 5 will be displays of shark relatives. I think we will have one small one that will feature the three Stethacanthids we have, one small display for the two Eugenodontids and then another larger one to house the Batoids. We do cover shark relatives and they are quite popular with the students so these are important to the programs too. Kids love these wierdo creatues lol One of the really cool parts of this project is it allows me to think as an educator but also very much as a collector. I am an educator first and these fossils are for educational purposes but I consider myself a collector of shark fossils too. Doing this does allow me to add things that have educational value but also cross things off the personal list of sharks I want in the collection, like Megachasma and Mitsukurina. I can also view the collection and see areas where we can improve the quality of teeth at some point down the road. White Sharks and Cow sharks in particular will get an upgrade at some point. We can hunt for some of the rare Squaliformes teeth. Maybe we will track down a Ctenacanthus fin spine. Our goal is not just to tell the story of sharks but to show the story of sharks through the fossils. The people who invite us to present our fossils not only get to handle Megalodon teeth but they get close up examinations of a 300 million year old egg case, a Hybodus fin spine, shark vertebra and can compare the difference between Sawshark rostal teeth and Sawfish rostal teeth in their hands. I am quite proud of the hands-on education we give people and I think this project improves the overall impact. This project has also given us far more scientific knowledge and a far better understanding of shark classification. The learning has been invaluable really. Carter and I are both very passionate about sharks as we are with all of our programs but sharks have a special place. When he was a little guy, we would watch shark documentaries and this is an extension of that father son time for us. We knew this would require spending more money and take some time to do but we know it will be worth it. This will be a shark education program that will educate elementary students, museum patrons, college students and senior citizens. That is pretty darn cool I think. We also want to thank all of the forum members who contributed shark fossils and knowledge over the last year. This, like our other programs, would not be possible without the support, encouragement and generosity of TFF members. I apologize for the length of this post lol I have been really busy and have not been able to take the time to post about this and am pretty excited hence the rambling nature. I will post some pictures as we go through this and complete these. Pic 1 one of the boxes of shark fossils currently laying around our house lol It is a small box but there is quite a lot stored in there, just waiting for their permanent home.