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In the Blue Hill Shale Member of the Carlile Shale formation, you can sometimes find concretions that have very colorfully preserved ammonites. The concretions are usually about the size of a golf ball to baseball. They are smacked with a hammer to see if there is something inside, as many are empty. The concretions are extremely hard, but there is usually a weak spot between the ammonite and the super hard limestone. I recently picked up a CP air scribe, so I thought I'd try it out on a "mud ball" that had a little of a Scaphites carlilensis exposed. The outside of the concretion that is light gray is fairly soft. The dark gray interior is too hard to do much with. I found that if I worked on a part for a while with the scribe, a crack finally developed somewhere on the concretion. After working on the one in the lower part of the first photo, I found that it had another ammonite right next to it. This one was a Prionotropis hyatti. After a lot of work removing matrix, finding a couple tiny "extra ammonites" in the same ball, and gluing parts back together I finally arrived at the finished product. The camera does not do the color justice. The purpleish, pinkish, reddish, rainbows just don't show up well, but as you probably gathered from this long post, I'm kind of happy with the results!! Ramo

I was fortunate enough to be invited along on a Blue Hill shale hunt and thought I'd share some pictures of what can be found here in Kansas. Most Limestone ammonites are just impressions, but up in the Blue Hill Shale, ammonites are usually found in "mud-balls" and a little prep is necessary along with a lot of luck. Hopefully you can see some of the color on these. This is the result of a full day, and probably 100+ mud-balls found and cracked. Most are empty, or just contain parts and pieces of shells, ammonites, etc. The first photo shows a mud-ball cracked in the field. The second is after some prep, and the 3rd shows the same one in the back after all prep is done, along with the rest of the days finds. The last photo hopefully shows some of the color. (Picture taken through the lens of a pair of 3-D movie glasses for polarization) Ramo

Hey everyone. Just wanted to share last weekends outing. Kind of funny, but in the course of two weeks I went from have never found a shark tooth to finding a dozen and now possibly hundreds. I went to another place in the Blue Hill Shale in Osborne county Kansas on an unexpected day trip with my father just to look around. Couldn't go to our new favorite spot because of deer season. Anyway, we found about a dozen nice teeth and a HUGE Cretodus tooth (my dad's first shark tooth ever). But the real interesting thing is that I found several small and very thin conglomerates of tiny shark and fish teeth as well as some vertibrate and various other parts and pieces. Hopefully you can get the idea from the pictures. It's pretty neat- hundreds of tiny teeth from various fish and sharks. Read about a similar find on Oceans of Kansas in Jewel county in he Blue Hill Shale. Here are a few photos. Dad's find on top- bigger than the one from last week and beautiful. Not sure, but isn't Credotus the biggest shark from Kansas?

I recently received some Blue Hill Shale matrix from a fellow forum member to break down and search for micro and mini teeth. After the second break down cycle I found this tooth that I am trying to get a positive ID for. It has been suggested Psuedocorax or possibly a symphyseal by another forum member. Any thoughts?

Hello everyone. I found this guy last week in the Blue Hill Shale of Kansas. I immediatly thought it was a Cretodus crassidens as I found another one close by last year and have found several large Cretodus in the Blue Hill Shale. However when I got home I noticed that the cusplets appeared to be missing. Upon closer inspection I found that they were not missing/broken and the tooth was in perfect shape. I have about 8 of these anterior Cretodus teeth and all of cusplets or clear breaks where they were. This one does not. Could it be I am looking at something other than Cretodus (Cretoxyrhina?) or just an unusual Cretodus tooth? It's not a big deal, but I would like to know. Thanks in advance!

I found this in the blue hill shale, carlile formation, upper Cretaceous(Kansas ). It was complete when I found it but the root broke off during cleaning. When I picked it up I thought squalicorax but after I cleaned it I could not identify it. Searched all over Oceans of Kansas website. Note the little cusplet like nubs (for lack of a better word)on the sides. Probably an easy one and I am disappointed I couldn't figure it out. Thanks in advance! Note: about 1 cm wide.

My dad found this yesterday and by "found" I mean poked it with a stick and said "what is that"? I picked it up and said "dad you just found a shark vertebrate"! He didn't believe me and figured it was from a cow or coyote- anything but a shark. You guys are the judge and jury. Render your decision! Location: Blue Hill Shale, Carlile Formation, Upper Cretacous