Interesting fossil

[Darbi]

I found this very interesting fossil yesterday and I do not know what it is. Found it in Ellsworth County by Kanopolis reservoir. It's from Kiowa formation/Kiowa Shale and age is Albian. Dimension is 5/16 inches wide and 3/8 inches long or about 8 mm wide and 9.5mm long. I have never seen anything like this before and I hope somebody else have an idea what it came from! 

[connorp]

Hm. Looks modern to me, but I have no idea what it is.

[Ludwigia]

Drumfish tooth maybe?

[Mark Kmiecik]

It looks like a drop of pitch. Check if it melts with a hot nail or thick wire.

[Darbi]

It cannot be modern or a drop of pitch because I literally yanked it out of the bluff. It was part of the underneath of capping shale that stuck out of the bluff. In other words, this black thing were inside the shale before I broke it free.

 

I have thought it might have belonged to a fish...

[Darktooth]

1 hour ago, Ludwigia said:

Drumfish tooth maybe?

I agree with Roger.

[Darbi]

3 hours ago, Darbi said:

It cannot be modern or a drop of pitch because I literally yanked it out of the bluff. It was part of the underneath of capping shale that stuck out of the bluff. In other words, this black thing were inside the shale before I broke it free.

 

I have thought it might have belonged to a fish...

Correction: It didn't come from the bluff, it was on the beach as a weathered boulder which this piece came from and it came apart when I removed it. I was thinking of another matrix that I removed from the bluff. The matrix from beach containing this 'black drop' also contained small vertebrae of same color. This led me to thinking it's probably a fish.

[Darbi]

After digging around on the internet for a while, I think I found the answer! It's a tooth from Pycnodont fish: Coleodus sp., possibly Coleodus brownii. The round, stone-like teeth were used for crushing the shellfish and other hard-shelled preys.

http://oceansofkansas.com/Pycnodont.html

A picture of very similar tooth:  

[Ludwigia]

8 hours ago, Darbi said:

After digging around on the internet for a while, I think I found the answer! It's a tooth from Pycnodont fish: Coleodus sp., possibly Coleodus brownii. The round, stone-like teeth were used for crushing the shellfish and other hard-shelled preys.

http://oceansofkansas.com/Pycnodont.html

A picture of very similar tooth:

 

Yes, that is what I and Darktooth were already suggesting to you.

 

[grandpa]

Great joy in solving the mystery and finding a look-alike photo to go with the solution.  That is a special find.  Job well-done.

 

Kudos also to @Ludwigia and @Darktooth for recognizing what you had.

[Darbi]

15 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Yes, that is what I and Darktooth were already suggesting to you.

 

@Ludwigia and @Darktooth I was not sure what you both meant because I did look up for drumfish and all the results I got were about the modern drum and fossilized Pleistocene drum teeth of the coastal states, and nothing related to Kansas and Cretaceous. The modern and pleistocene drum teeth looks very similar to the teeth of Coleodus sp. and the suggestions from both of you did help some in giving me the direction that pointed to the Coleodus sp. Thank you both for helping me. 

[doushantuo]

Darbi,you might like:

pycnodoA3-169-E-Poyato-Ariza.pdf

 

Bull. Kitakyushu Mus. Nat. Hist. Hum. Hist., Ser. A, 3: 169-184, March 31, 2005

Pycnodont fishes: morphologic variation, ecomorphologic plasticity,and a new interpretation of their evolutionary history
Francisco Jose Poyato-Ariza

 

edit: as posted by the splendid Fruitbat,and to be found in his library

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Haravex]

I agree with pycnodont type tooth.