Amateur hour at Ladonia Fossil Park in Ladonia, TX

[Ringorock]

Hi, we just got back from our first fossil hunting trip. Did we find anything special in this lot? I know it's a bit much to ask but hoping someone might be able to spot some things right off bat.

 

The photo with no labels are ones we are almost certain are fossils, just don't know to what... Except that one cleaner modern tooth.

[JamieLynn]

I can definitely say that you are looking for the right thing- geometric shapes, repetition of line and texture. That being said, the only things that look like fossils on the first photo are numbers 8 - worm tubes possibly, hard to tell being so small and 9 which look to be some worn baculites, a straight shelled ammonite. 

 

All items in the second photo look to be various water tumbled rocks. 

 

I know this big one LOOKS like a shark tooth....but I hate to have to tell you....it's not. Yes, it is the exact right shape, but it is one of those tricky water worn limestones that Texas is famous for. Plus Megaladons are not found in this area. Teeth will have an enamel surface and will look JUST LIKE a regular shark tooth except usually darker in color.  Like the very bottom left one in the last picture. That looks to be a very nice Squalicorax.  The top three in that picture are oysters - Exogyra genus.  Not sure about that clam, but the one to the right of it looks to be another little baculites section. All else appear to be tumbled rocks.  

 

I'd be interested to see a closer better picture of the pointy round one third down on the left. That is interesting looking. 

[Ringorock]

12 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

I can definitely say that you are looking for the right thing- geometric shapes, repetition of line and texture. That being said, the only things that look like fossils on the first photo are numbers 8 - worm tubes possibly, hard to tell being so small and 9 which look to be some worn baculites, a straight shelled ammonite. 

 

All items in the second photo look to be various water tumbled rocks. 

 

I know this big one LOOKS like a shark tooth....but I hate to have to tell you....it's not. Yes, it is the exact right shape, but it is one of those tricky water worn limestones that Texas is famous for. Plus Megaladons are not found in this area. Teeth will have an enamel surface and will look JUST LIKE a regular shark tooth except usually darker in color.  Like the very bottom left one in the last picture. That looks to be a very nice Squalicorax.  The top three in that picture are oysters - Exogyra genus.  Not sure about that clam, but the one to the right of it looks to be another little baculites section. All else appear to be tumbled rocks.  

 

I'd be interested to see a closer better picture of the pointy round one third down on the left. That is interesting looking. 

Thanks! I think the very bottom left is a baculite. Here's a better picture.

 

 

Here's a better picture of that tooth you requested.

 

 

 

 

Also, I thought this one look an awful lot like a molar of some sort. Here are better photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PXL_20210629_214359386.dng PXL_20210629_214408361.dng

[Ringorock]

The sharp tooth was identified by a local as a masosauraus tooth.

[ThePhysicist]

Certainly not amateur finds here - you've found some uncommon items. Mosasaur and shark teeth are hard to find there (being pedantic, your mosasaur tooth is most accurately identified as an indeterminate Mosasaur tooth, Mosasaurus is a genus within the family of mosasaurs).

 

The "molar" is a section of baculite - I thought that too when I first started hunting. I agree with @JamieLynn on the numbered finds. 8 in the first grouping are definitely worm tubes. In the unnumbered grouping, column 1 row 2 is not a fossil - possible concretion with those contraction cracks, column 3 row 3 may be baculite but can't tell, column 2 row 4 is too small for me to tell what it is. Column 1 row 4 that you got more pictures of is certainly ammonoid, but I think the suture lines remind me more of ammonites than baculites, but could be either. 

Edited June 29, 2021 by ThePhysicist

[JamieLynn]

Lucky you!! I've been to the NSR at least 5 times and never found a Mosi tooth. It's on my bucket list! 

[Ringorock]

21 minutes ago, ThePhysicist said:

Certainly not amateur finds here - you've found some uncommon items. Mosasaur and shark teeth are hard to find there (being pedantic, your mosasaur tooth is most accurately identified as an indeterminate Mosasaur tooth, Mosasaurus is a genus within the family of mosasaurs).

 

The "molar" is a section of baculite - I thought that too when I first started hunting. I agree with @JamieLynn on the numbered finds. 8 in the first grouping are definitely worm tubes. In the unnumbered grouping, column 1 row 2 is not a fossil - possible concretion with those contraction cracks, column 3 row 3 may be baculite but can't tell, column 2 row 4 is too small for me to tell what it is. Column 1 row 4 that you got more pictures of is certainly ammonoid, but I think the suture lines remind me more of ammonites than baculites, but could be either. 

Here is column 2 row 4. It's a vertebrae of some kind.

 

 

 

 

[ThePhysicist]

Hmmm... I'm not great with non-mosasaur vertebrae. It looks opisthocoelous? @Harry Pristis

 

[Mahnmut]

Hi,

What about that thing that looks very much like a bright two-rooted tooth in the middle of the second-lowest row, above the vertebra?

(Numbering the items was a great idea!)

I am curious about that one.

best regards,

J