PaleoNoel Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Hi everyone. I found this little fossil recently while working through a sandy conglomerate matrix I brought back from this summer's hunt in Wyoming's Lance fm. I believe it's a dermal denticle from some variety of cartilaginous fish, my first guess would be the Hybodont shark Lonchidion, but the guitarfish Myledaphus is also incredibly common in these sediments, however I haven't seen any pictures of denticles belonging to the latter or close relatives. It's about 2 mm long and about 1.5 mm tall. I would love to hear some input. Thanks, Noel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 That's probably a ray dermal denticle. I don't think any of the dermal denticles of the Lance nor Hell Creek have been matched to particular genera but Myledaphus is the most common ray by far. I think I've seen a small Rhombodus tooth from the Hell Creek. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Nice find. Here is an illustration of Myledaphus Todd D. Cook, Michael G. Newbrey, Donald B. Brinkman, et al. Euselachians from the freshwater deposits of the Hell Creek Formation of Montana 2014 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Here is an example of a triassic Lonchidion, guessing it won't be crazy different in Cretaceous and the teeth are similar A selachian freshwater fauna from the Triassic of Kyrgyzstan and its implication for Mesozoic shark nurseries Jan Fischer,Sebastian Voigt,Jörg W. Schneider,Michael Buchwitz &Silke Voigt. 2011 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Not sure if it helps but can you take a brighter /sharper photo. Tried to brighten it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 NIce find... whatever it is. I have not seen anything like this from the Lance but it sure has a shark/ray dermal denticle look.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoNoel Posted December 4, 2020 Author Share Posted December 4, 2020 11 hours ago, jpc said: NIce find... whatever it is. I have not seen anything like this from the Lance but it sure has a shark/ray dermal denticle look.. Thanks! If you think it could scientifically important I would be willing to send it to you or to someone doing research on cretaceous Selachians. 18 hours ago, Troodon said: Not sure if it helps but can you take a brighter /sharper photo. Tried to brighten it I'll try to get better pics, the quality of the camera on my digital microscope is somewhat limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 I sent you a PM, but looking at it a little closer with the info I got, I think F in the above clip from Cook 2014 is a good approximation, yours having a possibly broken base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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