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If anyone has stories, tips, experiences/ images of hunting in Peru, specifically the Ocucaje desert that would be so interesting! I have thinking about traveling there for a long time! (I know you can’t take the teeth out of country)

I was just wanting to show off my biggest hemi in 2 years of amateur fossil hunting. Its a 1.7 inch hemi from a dredge system in georgia, its been cleaned up alot since the root was fully covered in matrix still slightly unstable however. Im pretty happy with the condition and colors I was wondering whats the biggest hemi ever found or biggest personal hemi anyone else has found.

I was just going through my unread on the forum when I found the show us your rarest shark tooth thread. As I was scrolling through this thread I noticed at least two different species of Parotodus, which I found strange, as I was only aware of Parotodus Benedini. So what are the other species of the genus Parotodus and how do you distinguish between them?

Well, it's taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to write the second part of this trip report, mostly because I've been busy with school and several trips to other places across Texas collecting fossils, but also because I must have made about nine trips to the particular Eagle Ford formation creek site I wrote about in the first post. I've got a lot I could say, but I'll narrow it down to just the most exciting finds - I've still got another trip report covering two trips I took to Jacksboro/Mineral Wells and Post Oak Creek to write as soon as I'm done with this one! I'll link that first trip report here for anyone that wants to read it: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/126948-texas-shark-tooth-extravaganza/&tab=comments#comment-1377551 As I had located the specific lense in the shale with the most shark teeth on the very same day that I discovered the site, the next couple trips were spent breaking it up further and seeing what else I could find in the exposed sections. Although I came away with a respectable haul of nicely-preserved teeth I didn't find anything I hadn't already found before. Getting bored of finding the same Ptychodus and Squalicorax teeth I decided to climb up the small and now-dry waterfall that stemmed from a creekbed sitting almost on top of the shark teeth lense in the shale. I figured that it would be easier to look down and break up the rock layers than to look up at them above my head and hope they didn't land on me when ever I pulled out another chunk. Here's a picture of the site with the waterfall to the left. You can follow the bentonite seam from the right to the left with your eyes to see where the lense crops up in the creekbed (it's the sort of dark crevice just above the waterfall ledge). Very quickly I was rewarded for my exploration as I pulled out the largest Ptychodus tooth I had ever seen (at the time - a little hint as to what I'll be talking about in my Post Oak Creek trip report ). I'm generally pretty clueless when it comes to identifying most Ptychodus down to the species level, so if anyone could help me out I'd really appreciate it! Here's an in-situ picture: And another picture taken after I had broken it out of its rocky prison: With my enthusiasm rekindled I kept digging through the shale and was rewarded by another Ptychodus tooth, even larger than the last, that actually popped out directly into my hand before I had even seen it. I didn't get a picture at the time but it is in this photo I took after I got home. It has some really interesting surface wear that I reasoned was probably accrued during the shark's lifetime. Directly behind where I found the two Ptychodus teeth was the find of the day and maybe even the find of the year, although I didn't know it at the time. This is a picture of it still in-situ if anyone wants to take a guess as to what it was: It was a mosasaur vertebra! And the largest piece of bone I had found at the site so far, many times larger than the coniasaur vert from the previous trip. This is what it looked like out of the shale back home when viewed from the bottom: One of the transverse processes can be seen on the right as well as the two attachment points for the haemal arch, which is sort of like the spine that's on top of each vertabra but located on the bottom in the vertebrae that make up the tail. Now at the time I didn't think this individual vertebra was anything special. I had found mosasaur vertebrae before at the North Sulphur River, many of which were much larger than this one and in much better condition. I was pleasantly surprised that I had found one at this site but didn't think much of it and so it was pocketed to be looked at later. It wasn't until I got home and had a conversation with @Jared C who is much more informed when it comes to the Eagle Ford than myself that I realized this one bone might be much more important. That's because I had initially assumed that I was looking at the contact between the Eagle Ford and the Austin Chalk, making this particular shark tooth lense I had discovered the famous Atco contact. Mosasaurs are rare in Turonian age rocks but certainly not unheard of (Jared himself even found one two years ago!). But after reading several different university publications on this particular site I realized that this spot wasn't the contact between the Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk, but actually entirely Eagle Ford rock - specifically a subunit that placed it in the lower half of the formation. This meant that this one bone had come from the Cenomanian, not the Turonian, making it slightly older than the oldest known basal mosasaurines, both of which are also from Texas - Russellosaurus and Dallasaurus. Still not believing that I could have possibly been this lucky, I emailed Dr. Polcyn at SMU to get his opinion. He was the one to actually first describe both Russellosaurus and Dallasaurus and so I figured if anyone could tell me whether or not what I had found was significant it would be him. Jared has a pretty good relationship with Dr. Polcyn from his own mosasaur discovery so he was able to tell him to be on the lookout for my email. After a short exchange in which Dr. Polcyn expressed his interest in seeing the vertebra in person we arranged for me to meet him north of Dallas at a plesiosaur dig both he and Jared would be involved in. Meeting Dr. Polcyn was incredible. I've known of him for a long time since mosasaurs have always been my favorite prehistoric animal and he's definitely one of the leading researchers as far as they're concerned. I even remember seeing him interviewed for the news in 2005 when the Dallasaurus discovery was first made public and begging my grandparents to take me to the Dallas Museum to see their mosasaur skeletons. Dr. Polcyn was very interested in the vertebra when he saw it in person and asked me if I would be willing to donate it to SMU alongside the two Ptychodus teeth I had found next to it as they might be useful for dating purposes. I of course said yes as donating a fossil I had found to science has probably been my dream since I could first talk. We made plans for me to go back to the site and collect a large sample of the bentonite from the seam located beneath where I found the vertebra so it can be dated by SMU and the age of the bone confirmed. The bentonite being present at the site is extremely fortunate as it is one of the most conducive materials to dating sedimentary strata. Rounding out my finds for the day that I found the mosasaur vertebra was a pycnodont fish mouthplate: And also another nice coniasaur vertebra (I actually found several more but this was the best and the only one I got a good picture of): Not all of the animals I saw at the site were dead and many millions of years old though. In the same vicinity as the mosasaur vertebra was a toad that I had clearly disturbed in my search for associated bones. I apologized for my intrusion and replaced the front door to his little hole that I had inadvertently dug up. A much less welcome sight than the toad was an absolutely massive wolf spider that I spotted on a clump of shale I had been just about to pick up. On my way back to my car I finally spotted the pack of hogs that been so kind as to create a trail through the woods for me to follow on my first trip. I gave them a wide berth and continued on my way. This site has become one of my favorites, not only because of what I've found there but because I discovered it on my own after a lot of geologic map studying and old paper reading. I can finally say I understand Jared's Eagle Ford obsession! Until next time, - Graham

Picked this up yesterday. It is easy to get excited on a small package. Looks like G. aduncus symphyseal but is much wider than the ones I see on a google search.

Good morning everyone, I think a couple of people of this forum already posted some of their finds from the Arabian peninsula (Saudi Arabia/Qatar) here but here are some shark teeth that I’m struggling to ID. mom thinking that those might be some kind of Brachycarcharias? Thank you guys for your help!

This is a Megalodon tooth that was added to my shark tooth collection. It measures 6.34 inches and was discovered on Java Island, Indonesia.

I found this tooth a while back on a dredge system in georgia. I was wondering on its ID since im not too familiar with the area.

Today I took a spur of the moment trip up to the Canyon Lake area for some hunting in the lower Glen Rose. My first venture into the region took place last year and was only a limited success in that I scored a measly two micro echinoids. The plan for today was to try some new spots in hopes of striking the perfect layer of echinoid diversity. The first site was a complete bust, but the second immediately showed promise when I noticed the ground was littered with broken bits of thin echinoid test. Because I had arrived so close after the recent rains, the ground was still a sticky slop of Glen Rose mud. The combination of running along the slopes and frequent crouching set my calves on fire, but the scent of urchins kept me on the chase. Very quickly I was lucky to encounter some really nice crab claws from Pagurus banderensis. A couple had both pincers still preserved. Surprisingly common was also the tiny crushing dentition of Pycnodont fish. They aren't all that interesting to look at, but the simple fact that vertebrate material was present gave me daydreams of finding an elusive Glen Rose shark tooth. I tried to shake away such a hopeless goal, but it continued to sit in my mind. After a couple hours, I found an Amiid fish tooth and some star-shaped Isocrinus annulatus columns. For whatever reason, I could not find a single echinoid spine, let alone a complete test. I was searching the ground very closely, so my thinking was it may be more to do with the site than myself. As I was doing the usual close inspection, I snuck up on a black figure nestled securely in a pile of Glen Rose matrix. It took a moment to register that I wasn't looking at just another chunk of black bug. I safely stashed the two pieces of Polyacrodus. Sadly, the third fragment was nowhere to be seen despite my best efforts. After finding some more crab claws it was time to head out. On the trek to the car, I spotted a Trigonia whitneyi? clam, maybe from the upper Glen Rose. I'm not sure what species this is. I see Polyacrodus aff. parvidens is described form the Texas Albian up north. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be much info. I've seen some discussion on Polyacrodus brevicostata being a possibility as well. Top L to R: Trigonia whitneyi? and Pagurus banderensis Bottom L to R: Amiid tooth, Pycnodont teeth, Isocrinus annulatus It seems my streak of urchin unluckiness has continued, but I'll take a Polyacrodus any day of the week!

Found them lined up like this in Pierre shale sd. Never seen verts like this before but heard shark vert are flat like this. Any insight would be great!

I've just found what Im sure is a petrified 9.5" chubutensis if I'm measuring correctly if anyone is interested in having a look please, I'm super inexperienced with shark teeth

Hello , I have this Basilosaurus tooth in my collection and found today something very interesting in the surrounding matrix : a tooth ! But from what ? I've prepped it a little bit to have a better Look at it . Can someone identify it maybe ?

Hi all, I have a ton of teeth gathered from Purse state park and I’m not sure how to ID. Can anyone please help with these few? Hoping to learn how to do it myself eventually