Taxonomic Shark Displays- a work in progress

[fossilsonwheels]

Cretoxyrhinidae display and I am including Cretodus in this even though I’m not sure exactly what family it belongs to. The Ginsu is a favorite of mine and I like what we’ve got. A couple of 2” plus some diverse locations. 

[fossilsonwheels]

The Early Sharks. This turned out to be one of more enjoyable projects. We ended with some super interesting Devonian micro shark remains from the Givetian of New York and D/C Boundary sharks from Iowa. 

 

This is would be a high area of interest for future collecting but I believe it will be quite difficult to acquire matrix or specimens from other locations. So for now it goes on the back burner.

 

Kind of a ragtag looking display I am pretty proud of it. I think we more than accomplished our goal of showing early sharks and starting the story of sharks as far back as we could go. 

[fossilsonwheels]

Soooooo many Sand Tiger and related sharks lol Some of the ID’s need some work and there are other teeth scattered about my house that could go in here but I’m done with this for now. It’s full of interesting teeth from a variety of locations. I added the Xiphodolamia we just got because I had room in this display. 

[fossilsonwheels]

Can not forget the updated Otodontid teeth. We lack certain transitional teeth and other sharks in the family like Parotodus and Cardabiodon but this tells the story of the largest sharks to ever live fairly well I think. Rics are my personal favorite and I am very fond of the Peruvian one. 

[fossilsonwheels]

The Squatina display. Made better use of the STH teeth we have and added the little vertebra. I am going to arrange the STH as uppers and lowers as soon as I can tell the difference but it’ll look good. 

[fossilsonwheels]

We decided to make use of the STH Squalus teeth we had and we added another Bramble tooth and a denticle from STH. I rearranged the Squaliformes display and I like how it looks. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Love the way that your marvelous displays keep growing and growing. 

[fossilsonwheels]

25 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Love the way that your marvelous displays keep growing and growing. 

Thank you. It’s been a really fun project. We are at a fun point where we can basically just pick one order to improve at a time. Working on the Cow Sharks at the moment. 

[fossilsonwheels]

Been a minute since I updated this. I decided to split the Hexanchiformes into two displays and have been concentrating on the Cow Shark collection for a few months. 

 

The 6 Gill Sharks !!!!!

 

I would not say this is complete yet. Belgium is the next location I’m working on. Eventually a symphseal or two will be added. I am extremely happy with the progress we’ve made and I’d say this is a nice display of Hexanchus teeth. 

 

It is also a collection that has been aided by some of our TFF friends. @Troodon, @siteseer, @Anomotodon, @Untitled, and @JBMugu provided some of the awesome teeth in this display. 

[fossilsonwheels]

Here’s one I’ve yet to post. Our Ground Shark display got too big so I had to put something in its own display. Since we believe our Lebanese shark is a Catshark, made sense to give the teeth their own display. 

 

We have a small collection and they are tiny but we still have the temporal range pretty well covered and a couple of cool locations. Two are micro matrix finds. 

[fossilsonwheels]

We’ve made a couple of additions to the Squaliformes display. A lovely Squalus tooth from Hornby Island and a Belgian Centrophorus tooth. I added a few more of the Florida Cookiecutter teeth to that gem jar as well. It’s definitely coming along. The blank spaces are a reminder that this one isn’t done lol 

 

Another one that has had some help from TFF members. @Troodon, @digit, @siteseer, @Untitled and @JBMugu all contributed to this fine looking group of teeth. 

[digit]

Looks like the "Fossil on Wheels" program is making good use of this (extended) pit-stop to rev-up the displays so it will be even more impressive when it goes out on the road again.

 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop as the program grows and matures. Looking forward to seeing photos and stories of groups getting to appreciate your hard work in the hopefully not to distant future.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[fossilsonwheels]

On 10/29/2020 at 5:29 AM, digit said:

Looks like the "Fossil on Wheels" program is making good use of this (extended) pit-stop to rev-up the displays so it will be even more impressive when it goes out on the road again.

 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop as the program grows and matures. Looking forward to seeing photos and stories of groups getting to appreciate your hard work in the hopefully not to distant future.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Hi Ken

 

I have tried to make use of the time. I’ve worked on the curriculum quite a bit too. I am not even done with the displays yet. I need a few more rikers. I’ve got shark verts and all of the batoid fossils that still need to get finished. A few like the Goblin teeth and Hybodonts need larger rikers. I’d say I’m 80% done maybe lol

 

We’ll get back to doing what we do eventually and I’m confident we will do some really good presentations  

 

Kurt

[fossilsonwheels]

We have made some solid progress with the Bullhead Shark display. I love Bullheads and they are a fun shark to talk to people about. It’s been surprisingly difficult to expand this display as far as new locations go but we were able to add teeth from two of the three locations I really wanted, Chile and Belgium. 

 

I think the temporal range (Jurassic- Pliocene minus the Oligocene) is well outlined and we have some diversity in the locations. The Lee on Solent UK teeth from @siteseer and all of the STH teeth came from micro matrix we got from @JBMugu so there is some TFF flavor in the mix. 

 

The next goal is moving this a larger display so there is work to be done yet but I am happy with the progress  

[fossilsonwheels]

The other half of the Cow Shark collection. This display includes fossil examples of both extant 7 Gill Sharks , Heptranchias and Notorhynchus, plus Notidanodon and Weltonia teeth. The blank space is not wishful thinking lol We will have a UK Notidanodon after the holidays. 

TFF members that have helped this display include @Troodon, @siteseer, and @will stevenson.  

[fossilsonwheels]

The whole Cow Shark collection as it now stands. Love these displays. A lot of work and a lot of help from our awesome TFF friends  

[Notidanodon]

Great stuff, can’t wait to see that notinatodon  

[fossilsonwheels]

10 hours ago, will stevenson said:

Great stuff, can’t wait to see that notinatodon  

It’s not a super nice one at all but it’s all about the location lol I am looking forward to the NZ and UK Squaliformes from you. Those will get us very close to a full display. 

[fossilsonwheels]

I am starting to finally finish these displays up and it’s safe to say this became a much bigger project than I thought it would be lol

 

This is one that I put quite a bit of effort into and I’m pretty proud of, Squaliformes. I’ve considered splitting Echinorhinus off but for now I’m not going to do that. The open space on the Squalus row is going to have another Belgian location occupying it soon I think. The handwritten labels will be gone soon. 

 

We have Cretaceous-Pliocene Squalus teeth from Canada, Morocco, Belgium, the Netherlands, England, California, NC, and Maryland. 

 

A couple of Cretaceous genera from cool locations, Protosqualus from Small Dole and Centrophoroides from ENCI. 

 

Megasqualus from Herne Bay and Nanjemoy. 

 

Squaliolus from Bonpas France

 

Somniosus and Centrophorus from Belgium

 

Possible Dalatias and Scymnodon from New Zealand 

 

Isistius from Virginia, France and Florida

 

Echinorhinus teeth from Australia, Morocco, and STH plus denticles. 

[fossilsonwheels]

I was doing that larger Ground Shark display and wanted to see what a display of just STH teeth would look like. 

 

It looked cool so this the STH Carcharhiniformes display. Physogaleus, Galeocerdo, Hemipristis, Carcharhinus, Galeorhinus, Triakis, Sphyrna, and Mustelus. 

[fossilsonwheels]

Thresher Shark display. Primarily from the east coast of the US. We don’t have a ton of teeth but it is a nice little display. 

 

Alopias alabamensis  Punta Chica Morocco

Alopias hermani  Tuzbair Kazakhstan

Alopias latidens   Castle Hayne  NC

Alopias latidens    Chandler Bridge SC

Alopias superscilious   Ashley Marl  SC

Alopias sp  Round Mountain Silt CA   I think these are a good match to A. vulpinus

Alopias sp  Calvert Cliff MAryland 

Alopias sp  Lee Creek NC

Alopias grandis   both are from SC

Edited February 17, 2021 by fossilsonwheels
added additional information

[Notidanodon]

Your khazakstan alopias should be alopias hermani I think 

[sharkdoctor]

Wow! This is a very inspiring project. Thanks for sharing!

[fossilsonwheels]

17 hours ago, will stevenson said:

Your khazakstan alopias should be alopias hermani I think 

You are correct Will. I got super lazy when doing the temporary labels and when I posted it here lol I updated to reflect species and locations.

[fossilsonwheels]

8 hours ago, sharkdoctor said:

Wow! This is a very inspiring project. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you. It’s been a fun project and only made possible with a lot of help from TFF members !