fossilsonwheels Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 We recently got some great STH Hexanchus teeth from @JBMugu and he was kind enough to send us some great micro matrix. I always enjoy searching for micro shark teeth and the STH material usually provides quite a few surprises. This batch was no exception. I have only searched about about half of the matrix but so far it has given us some really cool shark fossils. I found a few Hexanchus teeth which included a tiny lower (pic 1) and a few commisural teeth. In our previous searches, we found a total of 1 partial Hammerhead tooth. This matrix was, comparatively speaking, loaded with Hammerhead teeth. We found 6 small ones, mostly complete specimens and a large one. (Pic 2) We also found an Alopias tooth, a bunch of excellent complete Heterodontus teeth including a high number of anterior teeth, a lot of Triakis teeth, and much more. I think we came across another Squatina vertebra as well. One of the more interesting finds was a what appears to be the gill raker of a Basking Shark. (Pic 3) I am posting a few few pictures and will take more later on. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 Pic 1 appears to be a broken Galeocerdo to me, not Hexanchus. Could be wrong as the pic gets very blurry trying to enlarge it. Pic 3 does indeed look like a Cetorhinus huddlestoni gill raker. That is a spectacular find! 2 Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 29 minutes ago, sixgill pete said: Pic 1 appears to be a broken Galeocerdo to me, not Hexanchus. Could be wrong as the pic gets very blurry trying to enlarge it. Pic 3 does indeed look like a Cetorhinus huddlestoni gill raker. That is a spectacular find! I thought it might be possible it was Galeocerdo but under the scope it appeared to look more like Hexanchus. I will take another look. Yeah I was really surprised to come across that gill raker. I’ve searched quite a bit of STH matrix and found a bunch of Cetorhinus teeth but no rakers until that one 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scylla Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 Nice teeth. Now I have something to look for when I clean the matrix off of my STH finds 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 5 hours ago, sixgill pete said: Pic 1 appears to be a broken Galeocerdo to me, not Hexanchus. Could be wrong as the pic gets very blurry trying to enlarge it. Pic 3 does indeed look like a Cetorhinus huddlestoni gill raker. That is a spectacular find! Hi Don, I agree. A Hexanchus commissural tooth doesn't have cusps like the anteriors and laterals. It has a low, blade-like crown and a rather flat root. It's a rather delicate tooth overall and I'm not sure I've seen a fossil one but I think someone did show one from somewhere. Yeah, gill rakers are occasionally found. They are very thin and break easily. Jess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 4 hours ago, fossilsonwheels said: I thought it might be possible it was Galeocerdo but under the scope it appeared to look more like Hexanchus. I will take another look. Yeah I was really surprised to come across that gill raker. I’ve searched quite a bit of STH matrix and found a bunch of Cetorhinus teeth but no rakers until that one Hi Kurt, Great stuff. Yeah, Alopias is a rare one there. Hammerheads are not as tough to find but it's great when you get one. That's a decent gill raker - a keeper. Jess 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 On 9/28/2020 at 8:22 PM, Scylla said: Nice teeth. Now I have something to look for when I clean the matrix off of my STH finds I hope you find some cool stuff. It is really fun matrix to sort through and usually very productive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 On 9/28/2020 at 10:41 PM, siteseer said: Hi Kurt, Great stuff. Yeah, Alopias is a rare one there. Hammerheads are not as tough to find but it's great when you get one. That's a decent gill raker - a keeper. Jess Hi Jess Thank you. This matrix had a surprising number of Hammerhead teeth but also a lot of anterior and nice complete lateral Heterodontus. Lots of nice Triakis teeth too. A couple denticles that might be Echinorhinus. It was extremely productive matrix. Kurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBMugu Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 Kurt, Glad you found some cool stuff, that was a really condensed batch of matrix. Hopefully the second half is as productive as the first half. Jesse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 On 9/28/2020 at 5:17 PM, sixgill pete said: Pic 1 appears to be a broken Galeocerdo to me, not Hexanchus. Could be wrong as the pic gets very blurry trying to enlarge it. Pic 3 does indeed look like a Cetorhinus huddlestoni gill raker. That is a spectacular find! After putting that tooth back under the scope and comparing it to cows and tigers, I am going to agree with your Galeocerdo ID. It really fooled me as it looked so similar to Hexanchus. Fortunately I did find other micro cow shark teeth so it worked out. I appreciate your assistance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 3 hours ago, JBMugu said: Kurt, Glad you found some cool stuff, that was a really condensed batch of matrix. Hopefully the second half is as productive as the first half. Jesse Jesse It has been really fun to search. So far the second half has been good. A lot of Cetorhinus teeth. Kurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 Got a chance to use the microeye at work today so I got a few pictures of some of microfossils I have found in the STH matrix. First up are two interesting micros. One is a vert that I suspect could be shark. I have a hunch as to the ID but I need to study a paper I found. The other is what I think is a dermal denticle. It’s quite different than the batoid denticles I have found. Could be a shark perhaps. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 One of the Hammerhead teeth I found. A real beauty 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 A mess of beautiful Heterodontus teeth. We have a pretty nice collection now which includes anterior, lateral, anterolateral, and even one that could represent the transition from juvenile to adult. The majority of anterior teeth came from the recent matrix searches. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 According to Elasmo, Alopias is relatively rare in the fauna. Our various searches have produced 4 teeth so I am quite happy. Really cool little Thresher teeth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilsonwheels Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 We’ve come across a decent number of Triakis teeth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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