the final results of our first two Paleozoic micro shark hunts

[fossilsonwheels]

We started working on two early forays into micro fossils over a year ago when we cracked open the vile of Permian matrix from Kansas. Those tiny Neva Formation formation fossils and the even older and smaller Genundewa Limestone fossils proved to be extremely challenging, sometimes very frustrating and all kinds of fun. 

 

The results were few shark fossils that made it from matrix to the safety of the display cases lol There were several lost or broken shark teeth and one pulverized to dust by a millimeter worth of thumb slippage. If we judged this by volume, one could say this wasn’t successful. 

 

I would call it an overwhelming victory for us. We didn’t find a lot but we nailed our three target morphologies plus we found an unexpected gem. 

 

The goal with the Neva material was simple Oceans of Kansas website provided the examples of a small unnamed Ctenacanthiformes/Cladodont tooth from this formation. That was it. I only needed one and we found 3. Unfortunately the first got crushed. The second found by our friend @Tay Francis but I lost it. It was on our third and final complete  search that yielded one last Cladodont. This one survived and made to it’s final home in our display. Our youngest tooth in this order. Victory after a few defeats is no less a victory lol 

 

The Devonian Genudewa from New York  yielded a half dozen partial Phoebodus type teeth. We also found 4 partial Omalodus teeth.Omalodus is also a relative of Doliodus. For me, this is so cool. We found a connection to a transitional shark ! 

 

The biggest surprise was a tooth that seemed a very close match to teeth I’ve seen described as Wellerodus, a relative of Antarticlamna. Devonian era New York does have some descriptions of these tooth morphologies and my tentative ID’s are based on publications so Im fairly confident in saying we found a couple of teeth from important early shark families. 

 

 I’ll be starting another round of Paleozoic micro shark hunts including a return to both of these formations with new matrix. We will be better prepared with micro fossil slides and better handling. We are going to try a few different matrix samples including Maple Mill. 

 

I will get better pictures when I can but I’m just glad to have finally finished sorting and separating these tiny delicate teeth. 

 

First pic is the Kansas Cladodont 

Second pic on the left are Phoebodus, the right holds Omalodus and possible Wellerodus teeth. 

[fossilsonwheels]

[EscarpmentMary]

Really I can’t begin to truly understand how you find them! Can you post a photo of the rock they were encased in? Very exciting!

[fossilsonwheels]

On 7/5/2020 at 1:22 PM, EscarpmentMary said:

Really I can’t begin to truly understand how you find them! Can you post a photo of the rock they were encased in? Very exciting!

Unfortunately I can not. I received the mix already broken down. These are extremely small fossils. It’s like sand. 

 

A microscope with a good dose of trial and error has been involved from ID to handling lol 

[fossilsonwheels]

A quick update. Some extremely educational posts here have led me to say I believe my initial ID of the Cladodont tooth from the Neva Formation was wrong. I do not believe it is a Cladodont but rather Hybodontiformes. Specifically either  Diablodontus or something closely related. I will post some pictures when I get access to the microeye at work.