Search the Community

A few weeks ago I was working an exposure of the middle Turonian Kamp Ranch member of the Arcadia Park Formation in North Texas, using a chisel and the natural bedding planes to pull up slabs. I had been there less than 15 minutes and had only found one small, broken tooth amongst shell hash when I found this almost perfect medium sized Cretodus crassidens. I also found some smaller shark teeth including Ptychodus sp., miscellaneous vertebrate material, and ammonites of possibly multiple species. So far this specimen is my largest from the site The first thing I noticed about it was the white color of most of the enamel and strange patterns covering the exposed tooth. It looked like it had been recently exposed and weathered, but since it was only exposed by me pulling up slabs that is not possible. All the other teeth I found there didn’t have this type of preservation but had the normal brown enamel. I have searched for pictures of any other teeth with patterns like this, but so far nothing. I prepared it out of the rock and can see that the patterns occur on both the front and back of the blade and root. It is 35 mm diagonal and 25 mm root width. It was resting just a few millimeters above a large inoceramid shell. The tooth is perfect except that the tip of the left cusp broke off before fossilization. There are certain areas where the blade isn’t white and there are no patterns, but for the most part the pattern covers the tooth. I was also able to rub off a bit of the white with my finger, but it seems that the patterns are embedded in the tooth itself since it is also on the root. Here are some pictures. I am hoping the origin of these patterns can be explained and any links and/or pictures of other teeth like this can be provided. The first three are before prep and the rest are after. Thanks in advance! FIG 1. FIG 2.