Taxonomic Shark Displays- a work in progress

[siteseer]

On 5/20/2023 at 4:53 PM, fossilsonwheels said:

Finally got the Triakidae display into a bigger riker and properly labeled. Quite a few of these teeth came from micro matrix searches. I think it’s a good representation. Decent variety of genera and locations. 
 

Galeorhinus

Cretaceous - North Carolina 

Paleocene- Morocco

Eocene- Belgium, Virginia 

Oligocene- Virginia 

Miocene- Australia, California (3 formations) 

Pleistocene- California 

 

Triakis

Eocene- Belgium, Virginia 

Miocene- California (2 formations) 

 

Mustelus

Eocene- UK

Miocene- Virginia, California (2 formations) 

 

Palaeogaleus

Cretaceous- Texas, the Netherlands 

Paleocene- Maryland 

 

Pachygaleus

Paleocene- Maryland 

 

Khouribgaleus

Eocene- Morocco

 

Palaeotriakis

Cretaceous- France 

 

Paratriakis

Cretaceous- France

 

Gomphogaleus

Eocene- Belgium 

 

A few TFF members contributed teeth to this display @Troodon, @siteseer, @Untitled, @sharkdoctor who also contributed matrix that put teeth in this display. We got the Hallencourt matrix from @Notidanodon

 

 

Another interesting display!

[fossilsonwheels]

On 5/20/2023 at 8:28 AM, digit said:

Very nice! These crushing teeth have always intrigued me with their fingerprint textures. Too old to have these in Florida but maybe one day I'll make it to some place like Texas where they can be found (with luck).

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Thanks Ken. I enjoyed putting this together and found a great appreciation for the unique teeth !! 

[fossilsonwheels]

On 5/20/2023 at 5:26 PM, LSCHNELLE said:

Your welcome! I love those Ptychodus teeth. Quite a diverse collection from many different formations. Very cosmopolitan! I'd love to see a close up of your P. occidentalis and P. marginalis - two of my most favorite teeth from the Cenomanian and Turonian, respectively. From the Coniacian my fave is P. latissimus. But, I think I have already seen that one of yours up close. My Ptychodus finds are limited to Texas (ten species), Wyoming (P. anonymous and P. whipplei), and South Dakota (P. marginalis).

Thank you. I can get your pictures of those teeth this week. I am pretty happy with the locations and diversity. I had hoped to add one from Western Europe but I’m not complaining lol 

[fossilsonwheels]

On 5/21/2023 at 2:51 PM, Notidanodon said:

Great stuff! Love  the triakidae display, very diverse  

Thanks Will. That one grew significantly thanks to micro searches. The Hallencourt teeth were great additions!

[fossilsonwheels]

20 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

 

Just seeing this now...wow, interesting range of localities.  Always good to get a fin spine - tough find anywhere.  Nice display, Kurt.

 

Jess

Thanks Jess. I’m really proud of that one. Took some effort but worth it. I’m also not saying it’s done lol I will probably keep going. 

[fossilsonwheels]

19 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

Another great display but maybe take another shot of it because the labels are hard for me to read (or is it my eyes?).  Also, maybe in another thread, or this one, you might show some photos of individual teeth especially anything unusual.  I assume the P. decurrens teeth the oldest ones in the display.

I think there’s a Ptychodus thread somewhere on TFF. I’ll look for it. I think, and I’ll double check this, the Ukrainian teeth are the oldest. They are Albian I believe. I’ll take another picture this week. 

[fossilsonwheels]

I decided to take apart the Filter Feeder display and use those teeth in other displays primarily because I’d really like to do the deep water shark program some day so I wanted to do a Megamouth display. 
 

It’s a little underwhelming I know lol 4 teeth but they are not easy to find so for giggles, Here’s the Megachasma display. 
 

Megachasma applegatei Jewett Sands Kern Co California. Both of these are courtesy of @siteseer. It’s always great to have California teeth in these displays. 
 

Megachasma pelagios Bahia Ingles Copiapo Chile. The tooth on the right is from @Troodon. The extant Megamouth. Very cool teeth from a weird, mysterious shark that will be fun to include in educational programs, should I have time to do any lol 

 

I can’t imagine being able to add much. They are hard to find and not cheap. I know teeth from Lee Creek, Florida, and Belgium exist but I’m not holding my breath lol 

[LSCHNELLE]

On 5/28/2023 at 4:20 AM, siteseer said:

 

Another great display but maybe take another shot of it because the labels are hard for me to read (or is it my eyes?).  Also, maybe in another thread, or this one, you might show some photos of individual teeth especially anything unusual.  I assume the P. decurrens teeth the oldest ones in the display.

Based on NMMNH Bulletin 81 by Shawn Hamm, the oldest was first P. anonymous, then P. occidentalis, then P. marginalis and P. decurrens. People used to think that P. decurrens was the oldest one because of middle Albian finds in the Duck Creek formation of Texas. It is what Shawn Hamm now refers to as Paraptychodus washitaensis. Assuming that his diagnosis that it should no longer be called P. decurrens is correct, then the above order is the accepted age norm.

Edited May 31, 2023 by LSCHNELLE
Clarification

[LSCHNELLE]

On 5/30/2023 at 7:43 PM, LSCHNELLE said:

Based on NMMNH Bulletin 81 by Shawn Hamm, the oldest was first P. anonymous, then P. occidentalis, then P. marginalis and P. decurrens. People used to think that P. decurrens was the oldest one because of middle Albian finds in the Duck Creek formation of Texas. It is what Shawn Hamm now refers to as Paraptychodus washitaensis. Assuming that his diagnosis that it should no longer be called P. decurrens is correct, then the above order is the accepted age norm.

A slight update on this matter of the first Ptychodus species. I re-read Shawn Hamm's NMMNH Bulletin 81 sections about Ptychodus origins. He lists the above-noted Cenomanian species in that order (I cut out P. rhombodus because he is not certain it is a new species.) But, he doesn't specify which species came first. The discussions imply that Ptychodus anonymous and P. rhombodus were slightly earlier. Then, there was P. occidentalis and P. decurrens next. P. marginalis probably was Late Cenomanian. [Notes:  I have found Middle and Late Cenomanian P. decurrens only here in Central Texas - rarely Turonian. I think Turonian P. decurrens are more common in North Texas - even in the Kamp Ranch.]

 

The other four species were Middle Cenomanian to Late Cenomanian. There is no certainty in the Western Interior Seaway of anything originating in the Early Cenomanian. I am not sure about other parts of the world. But, Shawn does discuss the strong connection between seaways in Europe and North America. So, he implies that there is not a significant time lag from Europe to WIS species.