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Hi everyone. I received this ichthyosaur tooth from holzmaden, probably ohmden quarry, but I can't identify the genus. in the holzmaden area there are many species of Ichthyosaur. Maybe the most common is Stenopterygius. Can anyone help me identify this tooth please? Size approximately 1,5 cm

Scientists Uncover New Information Regarding an Ancient Mass Extinction Event Florida state University, SciTechDailey, December 22, 2022 The open access paper is: Them, T.R., Owens, J.D., Marroquín, S.M., Caruthers, A.H., Alexandre, J.T. and Gill, B.C., 2022. Reduced Marine Molybdenum Inventory Related to Enhanced Organic Carbon Burial and an Expansion of Reducing Environments in the Toarcian (Early Jurassic) Oceans. AGU Advances, 3(6), p.e2022AV000671. open access Yours, Paul H.

L.S., I recently purchased an old collection of plant fossils. The boxes also contained an odd couple of non-plants, which I would like to offer up for trade. Ideally, I would like to get some plant fossils in return. Photos below, with scale in centimetres at bottom. Disclaimer: The information below is "as received". I cannot guarantee provenance/identifications are 100% correct since these pieces come from an old collection, plus marine beasties are not really my cup of tea... Kind regards, Tim Specimen A: Large plate with several ammonites (Harpoceras sp.?) on a large plate from the Toarcian (Liassic, Jurassic) of Dudelange in Luxembourg Specimen B: Polished section with several belemnites (Dactyloteuthis sp.?) from the Jurassic of the area around Bayreuth in Bavaria, Germany (note: could use a re-polish to bring out the texture better).

Hi ! So I went on a walk in some marls in Lozère, France. Usually, I find some amonites and belemnites but this time I decided to change from my usual spot and searched around. I found an isolated marl which is a couple of kilometers away from the main marls which are known to be from the Toarcian. In the whole region (région des grands causses), marls can be either from Toarcian or Pliensbachian according to french wikipedia (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marne_(géologie) ). Anyway in this new marl, I didn't find the same fossils as usual, at all. I found mainly gastropods, very small bivalves as well as some rare cases of amonites (which are abundant on the contrary on the other spot). So I was wondering what they were. I believe there are at least two different species in my findings : those on the upper lines look like some pictures of Amphitrochus pictures I found on this forum and on the net. On the second line are what I believe is a second species I didn't really manage to find similar thing on this forum. Under it I put the best looking very small bivalve I found in the very same marl. Do you know what could those be ? I hope it interests you ! Alice

Help needed to identify this. Seems to be a dermal denticle. Piensbachian/Toarcian border. 4mm wide field of view.

Hi friends, I went to Marrat formation area (toarcian) to the west of Riyadh and found many? ammonits, they are of varies sizes, it is internal mold, what sp. Is it?

Hi friends, I went to Marrat formation area (toarcian) to the west of Riyadh and found many? Bivalves, they are of varies sizes, it is internal mold, what sp. Is it?

Hello, I have recently bought this fossil as an Acrocoelites oxyconus, from the toarcien of Tournadous, France. But after seeing the photos of Ludwigia, and others in the internet, it seems that it is not Acrocoelites oxyconus. The fossil looks to be broken and glued: Thanks!

Hi everyone, I got offered this pair of marine reptile teeth as those of ichthyosaurs, but am having a hard time making my mind up about their identification. I'd therefore like to ask for your opinions. The teeth were found during works around Nancy back in 2004, and, based on other ichthyosaur finds from the region, likely dates the Toarcian stage of the Early Jurassic (though, from what I can tell, Oxfordian marine deposits are also accessible in the area). This makes them roughly the same age as material from the Posidonia Shale/Holzmaden and Whitby, but slightly younger than that of the Lyme Bay area. The above photograph is the only one I have, with the seller being on fieldwork and unable to provide much further information for the next couple of weeks. Although we can safely eliminate marine crocodile as contenders for the original owners of these teeth, and I think they are too big to have belonged to fish, I'm undecided on whether these are just highly worn ichthyosaur teeth or plesiosaur teeth. There's something to be said for both. The tall, slender shape of the teeth and their slight curvature, for instance, would seem to fit plesiosaurian teeth, as would, most significantly, the round root of the bigger tooth. In that case, however, the smaller tooth does seem a bit stubby, and the traces of ornamentation along the midsection of the larger tooth surprisingly equidistantly spaced. Generally, the morphology of the smaller tooth to me suggests ichthyosaur rather than plesiosaur. But if that were the case, I'd expect either enamel folds on the crowns themselves, folds on the root, or both (even when ichthyosaur teeth have smooth enamel, I find they still have folds on their roots). I'd also expect the root to be more polygonal in shape, somewhere in the range of triangular to (rounded) square. This is not the case. Now there seems to be some ornamentation midway up the larger specimen which equidistant spacing correlates well with patterns of the folds found on ichthyosaur teeth, thus may indicate the tooth is ophthalmosaurid and therefore Oxfordian rather than Torcian in age. The below image I drew up makes the comparison: As you can see, the match is less then ideal, as the top part of the French tooth is completely devoid of enamel folds, whereas in an ophthalmosaurid tooth the plicidentine folds actually taper out until the enamel is clear. @belemniten, however, posted images of a couple of his ichthyosaur teeth from Holzmaden, one of which appears to show a similar pattern as visible in the middle of the French tooth under consideration here, including what appears to be a round root: However, when looking at other images of the same tooth, it turns out that the root does have folds, as you'd expect from ichthyosaur teeth: Similarly, the below tooth seems to have a superficially similar appearance to the French tooth for the hairline cracking of the enamel, and the fact that enamel appears to be missing from the crown immediately above the root proper (which, again, exhibits folds, however). Still, if the "smooth round root" on the French tooth would've been covered by enamel as well, this would make for a very tall tooth as far as ichthyosaurs go. As illustrated by the specimen below (source), though, ichthyosaur teeth do occasionally have round roots: Moreover, the folds on the root don't always run the full height of it (image source): Lastly, as the specimen below demonstrates (source), the entire root can look completely smooth, presumably from wear: As such, I'm wondering whether the French tooth specimen might not be a very worn ichthyosaur tooth, with its parts being composed as such: This doesn't particularly make too much sense to me either, as the part of the root with folds is rather long and has a very abrupt transition into the remainder of the root. In addition, it raises the question of how the tooth would've gotten so worn. Though I understand there are fluvially exposed sites around Nancy, could this have caused the wear we're seeing. Or would the wear rather be peridepositional? So, I guess I can summarize my questions as: Do these look like plesiosaur or ichthyosaur teeth? If plesiosaurian, what would the equidistant striations on the midsection of the tooth be? If ichthyosaurian, do these teeth look more ophthalmosaurid or pre-ophthalmosaur? How might the wear I think I'm seeing be explained? Thanks for the help! cc @paulgdls @PointyKnight @DE&i @Welsh Wizard @RuMert @FF7_Yuffie

Hi friends and happy holidays, I went to Marrat formation area (toarcian) to the west of Riyadh and found many ammonites, one of them is Nejdia bramkampi , it is one of the most beautiful ammonites you can find , enjoy.

Hi friends and happy holidays ,can you help me with this ,I went to Marrat formation area (toarcian) to the west of Riyadh and found many ammonites ,they are small , thin , 6-10 cm wide and 4-5 cm high , it was a surface find . What sp. could they be?

I keep finding small rocks at the base of banks alongside the road, around the area where I live in Bath, UK. Most of them contain bivalves but I keep coming across this shape which I can’t recognise (picture 1) Picture 2 is a close-up of rock A which seems least weathered. I think these are the imprints left behind by something but I also have an example of what I think could be the actual object itself (please excuse my lack of terminology!) but it’s tiny compared to the other three examples (picture 3) Any help with this would be great thanks.

Hi guys I was wondering if you could provide me with any more info than tha label provides thanks

A lovely 18" belemnite slab I've bought for my birthday (birthday belemnites are a bit of a tradition!). From the Jurassic Posidonienschiefer (Toarcian, Upper Lias) of Holzmaden - a very interesting and unusual selection of mostly the same species, one with a nice epirostrum. Not quite sure of the actual species, but it's close to Acrocoelites subtenuis and A. gracilis - neither of which usually have epirostra (the squashed bit at the tip of photo 2). It also contains a couple of bonus teeth including a Hybodus type which Sebastian @belemniten tells me is a rarity there. Apart from the fact it's a great display piece, the main reason I bought it is its faunal similarity to the basal beds of the Alum Shales around Whitby in Yorkshire, known as the "Hard Shales" (Toarcian, Bifrons Zone). There, you get accumulations of Acrocoelites subtenuis at the same sort of density - possibly conspecific with these, but never showing an epirostrum. One possible reason for this is that the epirostrum is a sexual dimorphism, connected with breeding grounds, so they only occur in specific areas at any given time. Or it may just be a different species... form with short epirostrum: orthorostrum:

Found a rather large and partially well preserved ammonite in ammonitico rosso dating early to middle Toarcian in the mountains of Epirus, Greece. Partially preserved because the other side was exposed and totally flattened. I am actually puzzled by the flattened state of the inner whorl as opposed to the outer whorl and center which appear intact. The shine is due to the paralloid-acetone mix i coated the specimen with, to prevent further deterioration. Would appreciate any suggestions to the species.

I've just purchased a fine slab of belemnites from Holzmaden and the stratigraphy is given as Posidonienschifer, Lias epsilon II-102. I know that epsilon is Lower Toarcian but please could anyone enlighten me about the II-102? I particularly want to correlate this accurately with Yorkshire, if possible! @belemniten ? EDIT: I've just checked the seller's other material and one that I'd expect to be from the same beds is given as "II-12" - so @oilshale is almost certainly right with his answer below, and it seems to be near the base of the Bifrons Zone.

Exceptional fossils may need a breath of air to form University of Texas at Austin, November 6, 2019 https://phys.org/news/2019-11-exceptional-fossils-air.html https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191106112109.htm https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/uota-efm110519.php Exceptionally preserved Jurassic sea life found in new fossil site by University of Texas at Austin https://phys.org/news/2017-01-exceptionally-jurassic-sea-life-fossil.html The paper is: A.D. Muscente Et Al, Taphonomy Of The Lower Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte At Ya Ha Tinda (Alberta, Canada) And Its Significance For Exceptional Fossil Preservation During Oceanic Anoxic Events, Palaios (2019). DOI: 10.2110/Palo.2019.050 https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/palaios/article/34/11/515/574686/TAPHONOMY-OF-THE-LOWER-JURASSIC Martindale, R.C., Them, T.R., Gill, B.C., Marroquín, S.M. and Knoll, A.H., 2017. A new Early Jurassic (ca. 183 Ma) fossil Lagerstätte from Ya Ha Tinda, Alberta, Canada. Geology, 45(3). https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10066020 https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/81874/Geology 2017 Martindale-2.pdf?sequence=1 Yours, Paul H.

On Saturday, whilst - as I thought - recovering from a cold, I spent six hours in the blazing sunshine, hunting for ammonites in the inland exposures of the Beacon Limestone in Somerset, England. It involved a lot of physical exertion, especially for someone who was ill, with the result that it's now two days later and I'm as sick as a dog - and on my 40th birthday, too. If that's not depressing, tell me something that is. Whilst I'm feeling sorry for myself, at least I can take comfort in the fact that I made some pretty good finds. These are just the most photogenic finds, there were many others that were covered in rock and will need some prep. These need prep too, but you can at least get a good idea. Kettle for scale (ahem). Note the two belemnite phragmocones at the front. I was very pleased with this bit. I found it in-situ, and was chuffed when I turned it upside down and saw these two ammonites. The bottom one was preserved like that, with a corner missing. This one, like the previous example, has the characteristic matrix from this layer, which is absolutely packed with trace fossils. The best nautilus of the day. I found three in total.