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This is from the temblor formation, Sharktooth Hill. Let me know if better photos are needed. Posting photos from my phone is unpredictable. These tiny teeth (?) are on silt matrix. Whether they are prepped depends on an ID, as the silt is rather loose. There seems to be some chance that bone is beneath what is visible. one bit broke off, and might be glued into position. Below the Section remaining on the matrix, appears to be more teeth of a different shape or angle, which are partially shown in the final photo. I’m grateful for any help with the ID, or prep suggestions. This loose silt is a challenge to say the least.

The specimen was found at Ernst Quarries, Temblor formation, round mountain silt. This reminds me of a ray plate except the plate is somewhat wedge shaped, with very thin teeth (?). One longer “tooth” remains in the matrix. Sorry I couldn’t clean it up better, while attempting to do so, it popped out of the matrix. I hope to glue it back in place to complete the prep, but the risk of further damage may change my mind. This prep has revealed multiple specimens, changing the plan and approach again and again. Nice problem to have,right? The last photo shows one of three larger specimens in the original matrix. I will seek additional IDs and prep advice in separate posts.

We know that fossils are not the priority for people at the moment. They are not for us either but I have found a good amount of stress relief in going through a large donation we got. The material is all from STH and we have enough to make a trade. It was part of the donation actually. Extra fossils for sale or for trade to improve our collection. I would like to avoid sales or doing smaller trades just for shipping reasons so I decided to put the trade stuff out as one lot. Given the current state of the world, consider this a post corona virus trade offer. We would probably not ship for 2-4 weeks if not a bit longer so we would not expect immediate shipping. Nobody needs to risk a trip to the post office. I did however want to put it out there. I think a little engagement among fossil nerds may be a good thing at this time We tried to put together a pretty decent representation of the shark and ray fauna plus a variety of colors. Miocene Temblor Formation, Round Mountain Silt Member Kern County, California Carcharodon hastalis- 8 teeth, variety of positions, variety of colors, none bigger than 1.5" Cosmopolitodus planus- 8 teeth, upper and lower, beautiful color array Isurus desori- 1 tooth Hemiprisitis serra- 1 symphyseal tooth Hexanchus andersonii- one partial tooth (I think upper) Heterodontus- 1 lateral tooth Physogaleus- 4 teeth Galeocerdo- 3 teeth Carcharhinus- 3 teeth Squatina Squalus Galeorhinus Included but not pictured- a couple of Cetorhinus teeth and a Mustelus tooth. Various Batoid fossils. We are open to any shark tooth offers but we do have some specific needs/wants. I listed them below. GW teeth Squaliformes- any family except Squalus Orectolobiformes- Hemiscyllium, Rhincodon, Ginglymostoma (Eocene & Cretaceous) Otodus sokolovi Isurus oxyrinchus and retroflexus some specific Cretaceous material- Cardabiodontid, Squatina, Ginglymostoma, Cretorectolobus, Odontaspis, Cantioscyllium, Cretoxyrhina PM us if you have any questions, need to see additional pictures, or want to make an offer.

We got a large donation of STH fossil material from @JBMugu recently. I have been working from home for a week now and this has given me time to break down the large amount of material. There has been lots of sorting, some light cleaning, and quite a bit of time at the microscope as he gave us quite a bit of micro matrix to go through and that can be pretty time consuming. I thought it might be fun to go through the donation and show the progress we have made in sorting through so many fossils. This donation is so large that we got fossils that will not only bolster the displays and give us loads of give away teeth for the kids but we also have some trade material from this as well. We not only got a huge boost to the shark programs but the marine mammal program was boosted and even the dinosaurs got a lift from a bird bone. The first step was going through each item that was already set aside. Easiest part lol Next we sorted through the large bags of shark teeth to separate the complete/mostly complete teeth from the broken ones. Then we sorted through the complete teeth to separate by order and then family/genus. Once we had done all that, the material got a further sorting based on items being used in displays, giveaways, hands on fossils, and potential trade teeth. After we got those basic sorting out of the way, I began sorting through the micros. Hardest part but the most fun for sure. I also sorted out a few teeth for our good friend @Tay Francis and he will be getting some of micro matrix too. We got some incredible teeth. We got a 2" Cosmopolitodus hastalis upper and a huge lower tooh ( a bit of root restoration but really awesome) plus loads of smaller teeth from various positions. We got loads of really pretty planus teeth including a couple of large ones, 1.75" inches. I found a few Isurus desori and they may be my favorites so far. 8 that I can say with some degree of confidence are desori. Gorgeous colors. We got a beautiful lower Hexanchus and found a small partial lower. We got a couple of really nice Hemipristis teeth and found two symphyseal teeth. We got a partial STH Meg and a giant 6" east coast Meg. Plenty of Galeocerdo and Physogaleus teeth. We found quite a few Carcharhinus teeth. I need to take a closer look to get the specific ID's. We also got a very rare and awesome Echinorhinus tooth !! We got excellent batoid material and have found plenty in the micros. The marine mammal teeth are awesome. We got a fantastic Cetacean vert and a small bird bone. Jesse also included some great matrix pieces for us to show the kids too and a beautiful shark vert. The micros have been a really pleasant surprise. I have found about 10 Heterodontus teeth so far which is more than I had thought. The colors on the Squatina teeth are awesome. I love the Tope Shark teeth. We have found a couple of really interesting teeth. We found one that according to Elasmo would seem to fit the Triakis type tooth that can be found in STH micro stuff. We found one that I am 99% sure is a Scyliorhinus tooth. We found one that looks like it might be an Alopias tooth. Not sure on the ID on it but it is an interesting tooth. I have found far fewer Mustelus teeth than I thought but I have found two so we can add that to our display. I think we have found at least one example of all batoids. We even found a tiny shark vert ! We are still processing micros and will not be able to show off the displays until we get more rikers lol We want to thank Jesse for his generosity and continued support of what we do. This improves what can we do and how we do it. It will also allow us to further improve our collection through a trade or two which we really never get to do. Enjoy the pictures

As I’ve gone through the donation of STH material we received, I have found a couple of shark teeth that I can not ID. My picture capability is limited to my phone so I apologize for picture quality. I thought the first tooth looks something like a Hemipristis symphyseal tooth but I could be off base. It appears to be a complete tooth as I see no evidence of the root being broken.

As we work on our new displays I have found a few shark teeth that I need to verify an ID for. These are all from STH. First up is one I am fairly certain is Isurus desori. A little over .5”

Fair warning on this post; it is not intended to have great pictures or exact identifications for the fossils that you are about to see. Rather it is the lengthy process that I go through when I search through matrix that I receive from Doren @caldigger and more importantly the great number of fossils that I find. Lastly, this post will not be completed today and will take a while since the process is still on going. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do while searching this stuff. Doren knows that I do like searching through micro matrix, but I absolutely love searching through the Mid-Miocene / Temblor Formation / Round Mountain Silt Member bone bed material that he collects from Bakersfield, California. For the past couple of years he has sent me material to search in the Winter since it is too cold to crack open Mazon Creek concretions outside. Nothing makes my Winter than getting a package from him and knowing that I will be occupied 1-2 hours a night for several weeks. Thanks again, Doren. What makes this material different than the majority of matrix that I have searched is that it comes directly from a bone bed and teeth, bones, etc. become fossils over time. I also want to thank @MarcoSr for his post on the ID’s for fossils from that area. Once again, I am not stating that everything is correct with my identifications and I can guarantee that I am missing a number of species, but that is not the purpose of this post. With that said, let’s move on. I received these these 2 bags of matrix that fit perfectly inside a small USPS Priority box on or around 2-13-20. Once I open these packages I pour them into 4 sifters (I do not use the 1/2" sifter) that are set on top of a 5 gallon bucket. The sifters that I use for this process are in the following sizes: 1/4" (.250") 1/8" (.125") 1/12" (.083") 1/20" (.050") Once I pour the matrix into the top (largest) sifter, I shake it around so the pieces are somewhat organized by size. The below pictures shows how the matrix looks from 3 of the sifters. I then begin my search, starting with the largest tray. This is the easiest tray to search, since not many fossils are found in it. I search through each tray using this Luxo brand magnifying light and a pair of tweezers. Searching the first 3 trays is not too hard, but searching the 4th tray takes a very long time since the fossils are so small, but the numbers in tray 3 and 4 are huge. After I search each tray for the fossils, I organize them by species, with the exception of most shark teeth, I organize those by broken and complete or near complete. I then place each fossil in a compartment type tray by species. Now let's move on to what I found in the first 2 trays. TRAY 1- Myliobatis (Total found 3) Complete or near complete shark teeth- (Total number found 18) Broken shark teeth (Total number found 6) TRAY 2- Squalus- (Total number found 56) Squatina- (Total number found 59) Misc Shark teeth- (Total number found 62) Misc. broken Shark teeth- (Total number found 90) Myliobatis- (Total number found 74) Myliobatis- (Total number found 22) Dasyatis- (Total number found 37) Dermal Skutes- (Total number found 9) Verts- (Total number found 11) Heterodontus or Triakis or something else?- (Total number found 2) My favorite teeth to find Cetorhinus- (Total number found 10) Heterodontus- (Total number found 1) The last thing that I found in Tray 2 was the below pictured piece, I found several broken, but only 1 that looked complete. Doren told me what he thought it was, but I forget. This is the first year that I have come across these in the matrix. After I am finished with a search of the unwashed matrix that comes from each tray, it is time for the soaking and rinsing. I place the matrix into a large plastic bottle and I fill it with very hot water and then agitate it around for several minutes. I then strain it with a small strainer and rinse it out. When I finish this, I place the matrix back into the bottle and again fill it with hot water, agitate it and let it sit for a couple of days before I do that process all over again. When I am satisfied that the matrix is very clean, I place the different sizes onto trays so it can dry thoroughly. Below are pics from tray 2 and tray 3. This matrix has not been searched again, since I am still searching the unwashed matrix from tray 4, the smallest stuff. If my cleaning was done correctly , I will be pulling a lot of fossils out of this stuff once I re-search it. TRAY 2 TRAY 3 Later today I will try to post pictures and the number of fossils found in Tray 3. There are some big numbers coming, and then I have to finish searching tray 4 and start the process over again, so check back.

Hello, I returned from Sharktooth Hill (Bakersfield) with a bunch of bone fragments that seem to be mostly whale ribs and unidentifiable fragments. But I did have a few pieces that seemed distinctive enough that I thought someone more knowledgeable than me might be able to recognize. The third one from the top looks very similar to something another member posted (though not identified) - one side looks exactly like driftwood (is this known form STH?) but the other side very different, as shown in the pics. Someday I hope to be on the help-delivering side of the equation in this forum. Until then, much gratitude!