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A few Riker mounts with specimens from the Aquia Formation of Maryland and the Nanjemoy Formation of Virginia


MarcoSr

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For years I’ve had my macro fossils in drawers and my micro fossils in gem jar displays.  Recently I’ve started putting some of my macro fossils in 8”X12” Riker mounts.  Below are the Riker mounts that I now have.  I’ll probably put together at least twenty of these.

 

Below are two Riker mount displays with specimens from the Paleocene Aquia Formation from the Potomac River in the Liverpool Point, Maryland area.

 

This display contains in the top crocodile vertebrae, a couple of crocodile leg bones, and two crocodile coprolites.  I have larger crocodile vertebrae but they are too large for these Riker mount displays.  Then a row of crocodile teeth (for size reference the largest partially rooted tooth is 2”).  I have over 200 crocodile teeth from the area but the vast majority are fairly small.  Then on the bottom there are turtle shell pieces and a crocodile scute.

 

 

5e18991d3e995_PaleoceneAquiaFormationPotomacRiverLiverpoolPointMaryland1.thumb.JPG.ff7f576935f0d95b232c3c37b1dae7af.JPG

 

 

This display contains in the top ray dental plates and a ray barb.  I have a lot of very nice very small ray dental plates but the larger ones tend to be damaged/beat up.  Ray barbs are not really that common from the area.  The middle has a few Otodus obliquus teeth and a partial vertebra.  The day I found that partial vertebra, a person that I took to the site for the first time, found a complete, perfect one of the same size.  For size reference, the anterior O. obliquus tooth is just less than 3”.  I have over 700 O. obliquus teeth from the area but the vast majority are water worn and/or have damaged root lobes, cusplets, tips etc.  I believe that these sharks ate a lot of turtles which took a toll on the teeth.  At the bottom are a couple of chimaera mouth plates and a fin spine.  I have at least 110 smaller chimaera mouth plates in my gem jar displays.

 

 

5e189920cda82_PaleoceneAquiaFormationPotomacRiverLiverpoolPointMaryland2.thumb.JPG.5ab5ddf81543a2e1fa2c24a41c40b9f6.JPG

 

 

 

 

The next two Riker mount displays contain specimens from the Eocene Nanjemoy Formation of Virginia.  I posted one of these awhile back here on TFF but I’ve rearranged it as I’m now putting more of my specimens in Riker mounts.

 

This display contains on top a few of the larger coprolites that I still have from the Nanjemoy Formation.  I’ve already donated over 20,000 of these to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.  I’ve accumulated another 30,000 since my last donation in 2015.  Then there is a row of sand tiger teeth two inches and larger.  Then there is a row with additional sand tiger teeth and two Otodus obliquus.  O. obliquus are not common at all from the area.  I’ve only found five in over 165 trips to various sites in the area.  Then there are two sawfish rostral spines/teeth and a sawfish vertebra, and a ray mouthplate and medial tooth with several ray partial barbs.   On the bottom are three associated fish vertebrae, a small fish jaw, fish spine, and then two fish teeth.

 

 

5e189916a7987_EoceneNanjemoyFormationVirginia1.thumb.JPG.582239cf05d3d03a25989ac1839f4137.JPG

 

 

This display is a work in progress.  I’m putting some of my larger reptile specimens in it.  The bottom rows have two turtle lower jaws, turtle shell and a turtle bone.  I have lots of other turtle shell pieces so what’s in this display is only a representative sample of what I have collected from the area.  The next row contains sea snake vertebrae.  I have over 100 of these so I’ll add a few more to this display.  My largest, 1.5“ thick won’t fit in this display.  At the top are three rooted crocodile teeth, a partial crocodile scute and a small crocodile vertebra.

 

 

5e18991987e34_EoceneNanjemoyFormationVirginia2.thumb.JPG.cab63ec643bd4a4c64e222490e00b00d.JPG

 

 

 

At some point in the future I will post more of these Riker mounts as I finish them.  I’m also thinking of putting together a number of artificial shark tooth dentitions and mounting them in Riker mount displays  I have several hundred thousand shark teeth from the Nanjemoy so I should have most of the positions for a number of different shark dentitions.

 

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 22

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

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Great thread and displays. I can't wait to see the dentitions:popcorn::popcorn:

 

Totally agree about the Otodus eating a lot of turtles. Even collecting in situ, the vast majority of teeth seem to have tip and/or blade damage. 

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2 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

:wub: :wub: :wub:

Don

 

Don

 

Thank you.  I spend the vast majority of my time collecting and searching matrix for micro vertebrate specimens.  However, every now and then, I burn out with the micros and put some time into my macro collection.

 

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Stunning collection.:)

 

Thank you.  I have a bunch of drawers to go through like those below to put my macro specimens into Ricker mount displays.

 

 

IMG_2764.thumb.JPG.c3b5ec4803ae9987d6689ad93a2a1fd5.JPG

 

 

5e18cbd60b990_Site1displaydrawer.thumb.jpg.01ea54e3ac3d4214deb8d819198b978a.jpg

 

 

5e18cbd85ddc9_Site2displaydrawer.thumb.jpg.eb39ee299acd6ca6c992593b37be74a9.jpg

 

 

5e18cbda82f9f_site5a.thumb.jpg.94bc7af5d2e14e69265b55ea152427a8.jpg

 

 

5e18cbdcbce93_site7.thumb.jpg.c457c52feb277f5e411e2d4393e00273.jpg

 

 

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 7

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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42 minutes ago, sharkdoctor said:

Great thread and displays. I can't wait to see the dentitions:popcorn::popcorn:

 

Totally agree about the Otodus eating a lot of turtles. Even collecting in situ, the vast majority of teeth seem to have tip and/or blade damage. 

 

The Nanjemoy Formation specimens were all collected in situ.  Most of the Aquia Formation specimens were collected in float.

 

I've wanted to put together the shark dentitions for awhile.   However, I always seem to get sidetracked with another micro vertebrate project.

 

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 1

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Those otodus are spectacular! I’ll find one one day!

On The Hunt For The Trophy Otodus!

 

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31 minutes ago, FossilsAnonymous said:

Those otodus are spectacular! I’ll find one one day!

 

Have good luck finding your Otodus tooth.  When I first started collecting the Liverpool Point area along the Potomac River in the 1970s I would find 7 or more Otodus teeth every trip.  I never ran into other collectors back then except the ones that were collecting with me.  However because the area hadn't been collected much, the vast majority of the Otodus teeth were very water worn because they had been in the Potomac River for many years.  As more and more collectors went to the area as the years passed, the Otodus teeth that had been in the river for years got collected and the number that I found each trip dropped dramatically.  However, the condition of the teeth got better because most of what I was finding recently sloughed from the cliffs. So hopefully when you do find your first Otodus tooth, it will be fresh from the cliffs.  However, even these fresh Otodus teeth tend to have lots of feeding damage.  The best time to find teeth fresh from the cliffs is after the freeze/thaw cycles in late Winter/early Spring especially after a very cold winter.

 

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 1

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Congratulations on those, especially the ray dental plates which I'm still hoping to find someday. I'm sure it took a lot of time and effort to build up a collection like that. 

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10 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

Congratulations on those, especially the ray dental plates which I'm still hoping to find someday. I'm sure it took a lot of time and effort to build up a collection like that. 

 

I started fossil collecting in 1974.  I typically made 100 fossil trips a year except for about a 10 year period when I was coaching different youth sports teams for my sons.

 

I have lots of ray dental plates from the Aquia Formation of Maryland.  Below is a new picture of my Aquia Formation, macro fossil drawer which shows the two new Riker mounts from this post and the other macro specimens not in Riker mounts.

 

 

5e19c25356317_PaleoceneAquiaFormationPotomacRiverLiverpoolPointMarylandspecimensnewdrawer.thumb.JPG.a7b5654055136e292931427f37fe2fbb.JPG

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 2

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Awesome stuff as always! Thanks for sharing. 

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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18 hours ago, Allosaurus said:

Wow I'm in awe. That is a beautiful collection. 

 

18 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

Awesome stuff as always! Thanks for sharing. 

 

Thank you.  I've started pulling some of my Miocene macro specimens from Virginia (see the below picture) from my map chest drawers that I'll put in Riker mount displays hopefully Friday right after I should receive the displays.

 

 

5e1cd9842cdb4_MioceneStratfordHallStratfordHarbourWestmorelandCountyVirginiaspecimens.thumb.jpg.ad9bd981b999bf2e152e96671a9501d6.jpg

 

 

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 2

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Marco Sr.,

 

Wow, that's a lot of great material.  I have an idea how rare the larger Aquia croc teeth are.  Great stuff.  I also know how rare the Nanjemoy Otodus are especially anything large.  I managed to deal for just one in the late 90's.

 

Of course, any ray tooth plates with lateral teeth are rare.  You have some great specimens.  They must be the oldest ones I've seen like that.

 

Jess

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16 hours ago, siteseer said:

Marco Sr.,

 

Wow, that's a lot of great material.  I have an idea how rare the larger Aquia croc teeth are.  Great stuff.  I also know how rare the Nanjemoy Otodus are especially anything large.  I managed to deal for just one in the late 90's.

 

Of course, any ray tooth plates with lateral teeth are rare.  You have some great specimens.  They must be the oldest ones I've seen like that.

 

Jess

 

Jess

 

I started collecting the Aquia Formation in 1974 and was able to find some really nice specimens before the mass of collectors descended upon the area.

 

I only have 5 Otodus from the Nanjemoy Formation of Virginia after over twenty years of collecting.  I found two of them this year in a new collecting location.  The two folks I collect with found five.  So we are hopeful of many more Otodus from this new area than usual.  Most of the ones found were small, under two inches.

 

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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  • 8 months later...

I've updated the two displays (8” by 12”) which contain fossils from the Eocene of Virginia.  I’ve added additional specimens to these displays which weren’t in the pictures that I originally posted back in January.  I only added a few things to the first display (most noteworthy is the Otodus obliquus lower parasymphyseal tooth in the gem jar).  The second display was only half filled in earlier pictures.  I’ve added a good number of specimens to this display (additional turtle carapace shell, a croc scute, and a good number of additional sea snake vertebrae).

 

5f83048fe5132_Display19EoceneNanjemoyFormationVirginiaspecimens8X121a.thumb.jpg.dde1f84138b01d2b458c7f91a2aa7fba.jpg

 

5f83049405709_Display20EoceneNanjemoyFormationVirginiaspecimens8X122a.thumb.jpg.21df1ee709a2ec343a57db07b59f6b13.jpg

 

 

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 4

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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33 minutes ago, fossilsonwheels said:

Beautiful displays !!

 

Thank you.  I'm finished adding specimens to the first fish (shark, ray and bony fish) display.  However, I still want to add to the second reptile (turtle, crocodile and sea snake) display.

 

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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