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Year ago two friends of mine found some nice teeth and vertebraes from Squalicorax. As they were found close together - what is very unusual - we decided to write a small paper about it. We came to the solution that the verts and teeth belong to the skull-region of the shark. Finds like this are very rare, not many published till now. Journal was "APH" (www.ap-h.de), founded in Hannover. A nice Paper (now existing 50 Years!), 4 issues a year full of papers about northern germany fossils and more 49-61 (Raquet).pdf

It's been over a month now since @Jared C and I found the Eagle Ford Xiphactinus. In the weeks that followed our discovery I was able to get in touch with the right people at Baylor University where I go to school and start to organize a retrieval project. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make it back to the site since then as all involved will have to wait for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn enough for us to have the proper permission necessary to return. So I was left with a problem: my first visit to the Eagle Ford turned out so well that I wanted nothing more than to go back, but I couldn't! Of course, that was just because I only knew of one exposure. And so I turned to more old literature in the hopes that I could locate another productive site the same way I had the first one. After many hours of reading papers that were filled to the brim with so much scientific jargon that they often went completely over my head, it seemed like I had finally struck gold when I found directions to a specific locality. Several days later I found myself with enough free time to make a scouting trip. The woods that I traveled through to get to the creek that was my ultimate destination were not making my job easy for me. Anyone who's spent even a little time outdoors in the eastern half of Texas knows that any given stretch of woods is about 80% brambles and thorns. This particular area was absolutely covered in them. I made slow progress - every fifteen minutes that passed would find me moving roughly the same number of feet. Eventually I got lucky and stumbled onto a trail through the thorns made by the local hogs. It's probably the only time I've ever been grateful for an invasive species! Following the trail led me to a steep bank and the creek I had been looking for. Peering over the ledge, I could see that the sides were lined with shale almost from top to bottom. All that shale had to mean fossils and so I wasted no time in making my way down to the creekbed. The paper I was referencing told me that I was within the Lake Waco and South Bosque formations of the Eagle Ford group, but it didn't take long for me to realize that there were probably others present as well. Massive slabs of limestone had fallen from the ledges at the top of the bank and littered the creekbed. Here's a picture of probably the biggest one I saw: My best guess is that this was some of the nearby Austin Chalk making a surprise appearance. From there I made my way westward. Fragments and impressions of giant inoceramid bivalves were visible on almost every scrap of rock I passed. I was so focused on inspecting the broken pieces of shale and limestone I was picking my way through that I failed to notice the pack of wild hogs I had inadvertently cornered! The creek dead-ended just beyond a fallen log, behind which were the makers of the trail I had followed through the woods. A limestone ledge formed a now-dry waterfall and below it was a pool of stagnant water and mud that the local hogs were obviously using as a place to wallow and escape the Texas summer heat - I can't say I blame them! I made sure to give them enough space to escape up the side of the bank and once I was sure they were gone I moved to inspect the pit they had been so kind to leave me. The shale I had been walking alongside further up the creek was exposed in all its many-layered glory here. For a mudhole used by a bunch of pigs it was surprisingly beautiful, and I found my breath briefly taken away when I got my first good look at it. Interpreting what I was seeing using the paper that had led me here proved to be a challenge at this point. At first I believed that everything below the waterfall ledge was the Lake Waco formation and everything above it was the South Bosque, but after a LOT of research since my first visit I'm now fairly confident in saying that almost everything I saw was just one particular member of the Lake Waco formation: the Cloice. The first finds of the day were located on the right side of the picture above in a layer just above a bentonite seam and just below the thick layer represented by the waterfall ledge. See how fast you can figure out what they are: The tooth on the left turned out to be a species of Ptychodus that was super common here (maybe anonymous?) while the tooth on the right was a perfect anterior Cretoxyrhina mantelli, my first of that species! Unfortunately I still don't own a rock hammer and even if I did I would have forgotten to bring it. I'm so used to just walking around at a site and surface collecting that the most I ever pack on fossil hunting trips is a garden trowel. At first I told myself I'd leave the teeth for a return trip when I had proper tools, but my impatience got the better of me as the hours wore on and I ended up using my trowel as an impromptu chisel and a rock as a hammer. The root of the Cretoxyrhina tooth broke in one place but I saved it for reattachment later. My troubles weren't over when I finally got the tooth out of the rock, however. My attempts to pry it out with a screwdriver on my walk back to my car were far from successful and actually caused my thumb to slip at one point, forcing the the tip of the tooth up and underneath my nail. Ninety million years since it was alive and this particular Ginsu shark finally got to taste blood again (even if it was only because of my stupidity ). Rewinding back a little bit to when I first found the site, I was able to follow the layer that I first spotted the Ptychodus and Cretoxyrhina in to the left where it was better exposed. It turned out that although there were obviously teeth in the grey/tan, fine-grained layers roughly three to four inches above the bentonite seam (the two teeth I just mentioned being examples), the vast majority were to be found within the red-stained "contact layer" immediately above the bentonite. A super thin lense was sandwiched between the bentonite and the dense shale/siltstone above. Here's a picture of the lense as I first saw it: Over the course of the next couple of hours I had my hands full pulling out shark tooth after shark tooth. There were so many in such close proximity that just a single small four by five inch slab of the red contact lense contained three decent sized Squalicorax teeth, a small Ptychodus, a fish vertebra, and an uncountable amount of microscopic fish teeth and other vertebrate detritus. I personally love in-situ photos, so I took a couple to show off. First up, a nicely-preserved Ptychodus anonymous. With the stratigraphy of the site more or less ironed out now, I'm pretty sure that the majority of Ptychodus teeth I found were P. anonymous with a couple of the much less common P. decurrens mixed in for variety. An incredibly small palatine bone from an Enchodus with the trademark fang intact, surrounded by a jumble of fragmented bone and teeth detritus. The blade of a Squalicorax falcatus peeking out from the contact lense. This specific tooth turned out to be the largest example of the species I've ever found (just barely bigger than those from Post Oak Creek!). How it looked once it was cleaned up: My blurry attempt at using an iPhone camera to take a closeup of the incredible serrations of a different Squalicorax tooth sticking out of a piece of the contact lense: One of the bigger fish scales I saw at the site. Every piece of shale was absolutely covered in them. Yet another Ptychodus tooth (probably P. anonymous). A second large Cretoxyrhina mantelli anterior tooth. This one still required some time spent with a dental pick but it proved to be much easier to retrieve than the first one I found. A before and after: And just to show how abundant the teeth were at this site, here's a picture showing the result of only four minutes' worth of digging and picking around: The best find of the day turned out to not be one of the shark teeth, but a tiny little bone that I didn't find particularly interesting when I first pulled it out of the shale. Any guesses as to what it might be? (Hint: this is a view from the bottom side) If you guessed vertebra, you're right! And you're also a lot smarter than I me - my lack of interest was because I thought I was looking at part of a crab carapace. This particular vertebra is from a Coniasaurus (an ID provided by @Jared C) - and it wouldn't be the only one I'd find here. But I'll leave that for the next post since I'm running out of space for pictures and I've already rambled for too long. I'll leave you all with a group picture of the finds from that first day: - Graham

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

Hey everyone! I’m looking to trade various Florida fossils such as Lemon shark, Carcharhinus, Tiger, and Hemipristis Serra teeth, soft shelled turtle shell, sting Ray mouth plates and barbs, etc. for a Ptychodus or a Squalicorax tooth! Feel free to send me a message if you want pictures or have requests!

Hello forum members! With the new Coronavirus raging across the world, I thought it would be nice to start some kind of advent calendar, using my own Squalicorax collection. Everyday I will post one or multiple Squalicorax teeth from one location. Let's see what ends sooner, my collection or the virus outbreak. I will start with the oldest tooth from the Albian substage and end with the teeth from the uppermost substage; the Maastrichtian. The first one is the oldest and also one of the smallest teeth in my collection. Unfortunately it is so small that the photo's are not as sharp as I would have liked, but I think they are good enough. It is Squalicorax primaevus from the Middle Albian Argiles tégulines of Courcelles, Aube Department, France. See you guys tomorrow, Sander

Hello! I have a question. The Squalicorax species, kaupi and basanii: Are they the same species? For example: I got a Squalicorax from Morocco. With the label Squalicorax kaupi but I have seen the same shark teeth being named Squalicorax basanii. Is it kaupi or basanii? Here is a photo of a "Squalicorax kaupi" (not mine) but similar : Regards Adriano

Recently I purchased these two Squalicorax sp. tooths from an auction website and both are currently on the way. I have a few questions about identification since I know very little about shark tooths and also please correct any misidentifications. Seller A sold me this tooth and it was listed as Squalicorax hartwelli. It is collected from Niobrara formation in western Kansas. Is Squalicorax hartwelli considered a variation of Squalicorax falcatus? Do you agree with seller A's identification above? Seller B sold me this tooth and it was listed as Squalicorax kaupi. It is collected from Lincoln Limestone member of Greenhorn Limestone formation. I suspect this tooth is misidentified and it should be Squalicorax falcatus, a paleobucket taxa for Squalicorax sp. variations. I thought Squalicorax kaupi is found from Santonian to Maastrichtian and Lincoln Limestone member is Cenomanian. I spent quite a bit looking up on here and Ocean of Kansas website comparing Squalicorax sp. tooths before posting! Although I am more confident in some of the members' identification skills than I am with mine. Regardless of identifications (or misidentifications), I am happy with both and is excited to have them arrive soon!

After spending a great deal of time in the house lately do to COVID and days and days of rain, I took the family on a nice leisurely walk to our favorite hunting spot on this beautiful North Texas day. While the kids wwere off collecting some beautiful Turitellas and oysters, I had only one thing on the mind, shark teeth. Cretalamna seems to dominate this site, however some large Cretodus semiplicatus have been found. A Ptychodus latissimus and 2 Plesiosaur teeth have also been found at the site, filling us with hope on each trip for an incredible find. The trip was a pretty good haul, 11 teeth found in 2 hours. Not bad for a nice family outing. The real highlight though were 2 shark verebrae (about the size of a bottle cap), not large, but still my first ones I've ever found which put me over the moon. They were found just a few feet away from each other, so odds are they belonged to the same critter which is even more incredible! And now it's time for everyone's favorite game, FIND THAT FOSSIL!

Hello, I'm looking at this shark tooth for sale, which is listed as Squalicorax bassani from the Phosphate beds of Morocco (scale in cm). I quite trust the seller and as far as I can tell it looks to be the correct species based on a cursory search. However since I am a complete rookie to teeth and have never bought any before, I wanted to ask for a confirmation on the species, and ask how is the quality? Is it good/medium/bad? The other S. bassani teeth I see don't usually have this reddish brown coloration, rather they are ivory/black and shiny, compared to this one appearing rough and grainy. Any idea why that is? Thanks.

Here is my shark teeth collection. photo 1 Species: Carcharocles megalodon Age: 2,6-15 million years (Miocene-Pliocene) Size: 9,5 centimeters Localisation: Georgia River (Georgia) Formation: Hawthorn photo 2 Species : Isurus hastalis Age: 9 million years (Miocene) Size: 4,8 centimeters Localisation: Copiapo, Chile Formation: Bahia Inglesa photo 3 Species: Squalicorax pristodontus Age: 70 million years (Upper Cretaceous) Size: 2,9 centimeters Localisation: Morocco Formation: Kem Kem Beds photo 4 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Age: 3 million years (Plocene) Size: 4,6 centimeters Localisation: Ica region, Peru Formation: Pisco

Hi all, I found this pristodontus tooth at Big Brook. Of all the Squalicorax teeth I've collected and seen, I haven't seen any with ridges on its lingual or labial sides. Would anyone be able to share if this is a normal feature or pathology? Thanks.

I made a trip to a Navarro County creek yesterday morning. This is the same creek I visited a few weeks ago, but I was a little bit further downstream yesterday. It was still a Wolfe City formation area. It ended up being one of those days where I spent more time hiking and exploring than I should have. I was looking for likely outcrops in this creek, and just didn't find any. I eventually started checking the unlikely looking ones closely, but never did find any fossils that way. I finally spent some time crawling gravel bars, and found a few things there. I'm still a relative newbie at this, but in my limited experience, I've had better luck finding fossils in good shape in outcrops than on gravel bars. This day was no exception; what I found on the gravel bars was in rough shape. The best gravel bar was less than a half mile downstream from the outcrop where I found everything last time I was in this creek, but it was obvious that yesterday's teeth didn't come from that outcrop. All of the teeth from that outcrop were black; yesterday's teeth were brown. I found myself wondering where the outcrop was where they came from, if it was covered with mud and would show up again next flood, or if I had just missed it in my searching. I didn't leave myself much time for crawling gravel bars yesterday. I want to hunt this area again. Yesterday's haul was pretty sparse, and in rough shape.

I live near the western edge of Henderson County in Texas. It's a fairly flat area with few outcrops of any kind exposed, and even when they are, they aren't very fossiliferous. The county just west of me is Navarro County, and it does actually have some formations that hold fossils. But I haven't had much luck finding anything in Navarro County. I keep looking, since it's so close. I did a long hike down a Navarro County creek yesterday. For most of the day, it looked like another of those trips where I just don't find anything. But one thing I've learned about fossil hunting is that even after hours of unproductive searching, it only takes one small spot to make you end up bringing home some cool stuff. Yesterday, I eventually found that small spot. The area I hunted is Wolfe City formation. I just didn't have any luck finding anything in the gravel bars in the creek, or in the outcrops themselves. But I did stumble on an outcrop that had some fossils in the mud just below it. For those who enjoy "Find the fossil", here are some in situ photos. That pick is small. The handle is about 55 mm long.

I recently went on two fossil hunting trips to Cretaceous sediments of Eastern North Carolina, the second of which was earlier today. Today’s trip to the Bladen formation yielded baculites ammonites, some worn mosasaur teeth, the nicest goblin shark teeth I’ve personally collected, some fish mouth plates, turtle shell fragments, and some other goodies. My first trip a couple weeks ago was to Tar Heel formation sediments and I collected several small mosasaur teeth, a mosasaur vertebra, a piece of petrified lignite, lots of goblin and crow shark teeth, lots of turtle shell, a very worn Deinosuchus tooth, and some coprolites (I’ve posted a few of the images from this trip in the ID section of the forum already). North Carolina is an amazing U.S. state for fossils, it has loads of fossils from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic (although if you want Jurassic look elsewhere). If you haven’t already, you should come check it out! Pics from today’s trip: Pics from the first trip: