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DPS Moss Creek Field Trip: Micro Highlights!


Mikrogeophagus

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So a couple of weeks ago, I, along with my younger brother, decided to embark on our first field trip with the Dallas Paleontological Society. The destination was Moss Creek, a decently sized waterway on private property that feeds into the NSR. Just like in the main river, we were seeking a red layer exposure of the Ozan Fm (though I read that this red layer is different from the one at the river). This site is famous for its abundance of marine microfossils, namely shark/fish teeth. One of the people on the trip was a researcher (Shawn Hamm) who is currently finishing up a paper on this very site. I hope to read it once it's published! Anyways, the day was miserably hot as expected, but the scenery and air of discovery made up for it. My brother and I took a more secluded route, traveling downstream whereas most headed upstream. After a bit of searching, I came across a part of the creek bed that was red and, upon close inspection, was filled with tiny black phosphatic fossils. Because the matrix of the layer is so sticky, we couldn't really sift through it at the site. Instead, we, like everyone else, filled up a bucket and took it back to our car. It was a fun day and I met a lot of interesting people. One member told me to use baking soda to break up the matrix and that advice worked like a charm! I'm not sure about a lot of these IDs so feel free to correct me. If you know any species names feel free to drop those too :) . Here are the pictures of the highlight finds. Sorry the quality is bad... taking pictures of things this small was more difficult than expected:

 

Fishes

 

Lots of Enchodus Fangs and Jaw Sections

IMG_E0893.thumb.JPG.e8d3ab6e1294202c8a9b3f6d3c390079.JPGIMG_E0892.thumb.JPG.d62a551832706ec6124f74e51109887a.JPG

 

Lots of Hadrodus Teeth

IMG_E0882.thumb.JPG.67a1e79f5c177ab363995a153ce7cced.JPG

 

Pachyrhizodus? Teeth

IMG_E0890.thumb.JPG.0e9e6d896572e21f960b78b22496b6be.JPG

 

Protosphyraena? Teeth. Really not 100% on this ID

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Pycnodont Teeth

IMG_E0886.thumb.JPG.9dd0541556bf0fb0f5c8e3ec17c7f78b.JPG

 

Fish Neural Spine. 2nd photo is compared to an X-Fish neural spine I found in Austin. Love the size discrepancy of the two.

IMG_E0914.thumb.JPG.e09578226dfdea19ebcab0cf83c70df1.JPGIMG_E0915.thumb.JPG.4807c293c129021788c9dbc08c7de6e0.JPG

 

Fish Verts (Left) and Shark Vert (Right)

IMG_E0923.thumb.JPG.f44c72e29aa87bd94b9e5a08c52f9a5d.JPG

 

Sharks

 

Hybodont Shark Tooth. This is one of my favorites. Looks like Lonchidion? but that's just my guess.

IMG_E0883.thumb.JPG.90e1a1e1d31c66f251eaee84d948f4db.JPGIMG_E0884.thumb.JPG.f62dab495d6e3f88b82e106f2bc0b1ec.JPGIMG_E0885.thumb.JPG.a0e220020def2dc5c04bcc28ea55061b.JPG

 

Lots of Pseudocorax Teeth

IMG_E0916.thumb.JPG.e37ade5107db8128f6ee61313a5f9c27.JPG

 

Lots of un-ID Shark Teeth. Distinguishing between Scapanorhynchus, Carcharias, etc. is way above my pay grade :default_faint:. Trust me, I tried...

IMG_E0917.thumb.JPG.07a6893180ce31da5df7cdac24af9789.JPG

 

Cretalamna appendiculata Tooth. By far the biggest tooth.

IMG_E0913.thumb.JPG.84ad895e2a609bd4e03e95d2b189a9f1.JPG

 

Protolamna? Teeth

IMG_E0918.thumb.JPG.abfe92accb34fe56120f9b78b4d3cdda.JPG

 

Squalicorax Teeth. For some reason they all came out broken.

IMG_E0919.thumb.JPG.3bad9580e0ebbe17b276c65bb8315d2c.JPG

 

Unidentified Tooth. Pathological? The crown is just a flat edge.

 IMG_E0927.thumb.JPG.2a3262f0eae4e952f4b5da0771dda0f9.JPGIMG_E0928.thumb.JPG.8d253f75c89975eb7f06863c1fd3112f.JPG

 

Shark Coprolite? It's ringed like the ones I've seen online.

IMG_E0912.thumb.JPG.439b947ccd146c70cd70bfe1beae19a3.JPG

 

Sawfish

 

 

Ischyrhiza Oral Teeth

IMG_E0901.thumb.JPG.bdf6c3fa874abc79d815562fb92b3953.JPG

 

Ischyrhiza? Rostral Teeth

IMG_E0910.thumb.JPG.a5383d685ea977e12b693f4f8fa9afaf.JPGIMG_E0907.thumb.JPG.7eb65e7f04da9c19a95a9de144700dba.JPG

 

Ptychotrygon? Oral Teeth

IMG_E0905.thumb.JPG.acc97f17a9c9f384f6a1541594c5ca3c.JPG

 

Cantioscyllium? Oral Teeth

IMG_E0903.thumb.JPG.84b7e58f1075a6167caaf7a173337a38.JPG

 

Misc./Enigmatic Finds

 

Brittle Star Parts?

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Part of an Urchin? It's rounded and the center has a protrusion for where a spine once was.

IMG_E0925.thumb.JPG.08d342d2fe9d83bb8be4f4993b7db039.JPGIMG_E0926.thumb.JPG.bab9ec58e9c2614b53799214b86fb104.JPG

 

Kinda looks like a denticle, but may be some weird tooth?

IMG_E0895.thumb.JPG.6eec137c98ab3376d13caca66b7355aa.JPGIMG_E0896.thumb.JPG.c35dc38cad7ea9c5c98671e1aa774aa2.JPG

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IMG_E0899.thumb.JPG.bc89da2ab5a73c1818471012f1ebc9b5.JPGIMG_E0900.thumb.JPG.03ed410afd6f2b18d82ee2f576fb5b5d.JPG

 

Bivalves

IMG_E0887.thumb.JPG.35454023bb933eeb4ef19bb975f483f2.JPG

 

If you would like any additional pics, let me know. Thanks for reading!

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Looks like a great layer to collect. The two teeth I’ve circled look to be lateral Heterodontus teeth.

 

 

60D9BB9C-E1E1-4D99-9FC8-1B9FF756974A.jpeg

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The one in the middle might be Ischyrhiza but all the barbed ones are Sclerorhynchus.

 

 

2AC517ED-EE9B-4269-8AF8-DAE337204BC4.jpeg

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The two circled in red are prismatic cartilage from a shark or ray. The other circled ones are crustacean shell.

 

 

5203D61E-58E5-4E5C-ACE3-63F2FA3EABD2.jpeg

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@MarcoSr Ooo nice catch. It looked a little strange but I thought nothing of it!

@Al Dente Thanks for the many IDs. Shark cartilage is a neat one I did not expect! Also nice to add a few genus names that I was not aware of.

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I forgot to comment on the vertebrae.  The left looks like it is a mixture of bony fish and shark or ray vertebrae.  The circled blue look like bony fish vertebrae, and the circled red look like shark or ray vertebrae.  The vertebra on the right could be from a ray.

 

 

714220454_vertebraeTFF.thumb.JPG.3cbeaa7626ac648065fa4e9407465afb.JPG

 

 

Marco Sr.

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"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Oh wow, these are awesome! I especially like the Pseudocorax and Heterodontus teeth. 

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"Argumentation cannot suffice for the discovery of new work, since the subtlety of Nature is greater many times than the subtlety of argument." - Carl Sagan

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." - Richard Feynman

 

Collections: Hell Creek Microsite | Hell Creek/Lance | Dinosaurs | Sharks | SquamatesPost Oak Creek | North Sulphur RiverLee Creek | Aguja | Permian | Devonian | Triassic | Harding Sandstone

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I would add that I think you’re correct on Cantioscyllium as the ID but not a sawfish. It’s an Orectolobiformes  shark. The Heterodontus and Squatina are great finds. 

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10 hours ago, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Kinda looks like a denticle, but may be some weird tooth?

IMG_E0895.thumb.JPG.6eec137c98ab3376d13caca66b7355aa.JPGIMG_E0896.thumb.JPG.c35dc38cad7ea9c5c98671e1aa774aa2.JPG

IMG_E0897.thumb.JPG.df49626ab55c37e4e9c35ad508864645.JPGIMG_E0898.thumb.JPG.0afd7ab8c999916017db5d8260210941.JPG

IMG_E0899.thumb.JPG.bc89da2ab5a73c1818471012f1ebc9b5.JPGIMG_E0900.thumb.JPG.03ed410afd6f2b18d82ee2f576fb5b5d.JPG

 

Looks a lot like a symphysar hexanchidae tooth despite the small size of the photos.

 

Coco

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----------------------
OUTIL POUR MESURER VOS FOSSILES : ici

Ma bibliothèque PDF 1 (Poissons et sélaciens récents & fossiles) : ici
Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici
Mâchoires sélaciennes récentes : ici
Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici
Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici
Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici

Un Greg...

Badges-IPFOTH.jpg.f4a8635cda47a3cc506743a8aabce700.jpg Badges-MOTM.jpg.461001e1a9db5dc29ca1c07a041a1a86.jpg

 

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I'm wondering if this could be a juvenile Heterodontus anterior tooth. Here are two Cretaceous ones from the Peedee Formation to compare with.

 

 

heter.JPG

Heterodontus granti.JPG

Heterodontus granti2.JPG

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Great thread!  I was on the same trip a couple weeks before you went and have been working my way through a bunch of the matrix but was away from home for over a month so not able to post anything.  You were much quicker at getting things ID'd and photographed, great job!  You have a couple of ID's that I did not so that is very helpful.

 

I have been calling the teeth in the lower left of this picture the pycnodont Anomoeodus, hopefully that is correct.

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Pycnodont Teeth

IMG_E0886.thumb.JPG.9dd0541556bf0fb0f5c8e3ec17c7f78b.JPG

 

 

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Squalicorax Teeth. For some reason they all came out broken

I found the exact same thing!  For such a relatively robust looking tooth, why are they all broken?  I think I found one complete one but lots of fragments as opposed to all the other shark types that were more often complete (or nearly so) than broken.   Strange.

 

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Bivalves

There are lots of bivalve fragments in the matrix (mostly oysters it seems), but I believe what you pictured are brachiopods.  I have not really researched them yet, but that is what they look like based on their symmetry.

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@ClearLake Cool that you went to the same site! I'll go with anomoeodus too since I don't have much basis for anything else lol. The squalicoraxes were strange. I thought I was being too rough with the matrix at first, but breaking it down more gently seemed to change nothing. The bivalve ID I just got from some other FF post on microfossils from the Mooreville Chalk. They looked similar enough to the ones I had so I went with it! Be sure to post your micro finds when you're all done. I would love to see what you got. 

Edited by EPIKLULSXDDDDD
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Hi,

 

We need much closer pictures.

 

Coco

----------------------
OUTIL POUR MESURER VOS FOSSILES : ici

Ma bibliothèque PDF 1 (Poissons et sélaciens récents & fossiles) : ici
Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici
Mâchoires sélaciennes récentes : ici
Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici
Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici
Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici

Un Greg...

Badges-IPFOTH.jpg.f4a8635cda47a3cc506743a8aabce700.jpg Badges-MOTM.jpg.461001e1a9db5dc29ca1c07a041a1a86.jpg

 

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Sorry for the delay! I tried taking some more pics through a magnifying glass.

IMG_0940.thumb.JPG.e5af87fb3033993bfa9fa658c11eb1b5.JPGIMG_0941.thumb.JPG.d2603a786fe6d06ff2874743a07f3aa2.JPG

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Sorry they are a bit blurry!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey there! I was on that same trip!

 

Unfortunately, I had a family emergency to deal with so I haven't been able to go through any of the matrix I took home yet.

 

What is the baking soda trick you used?

 

Have a good one!

 

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@Ironhead42 Hey, nice to see someone from the trip on here! Hope things are ok for you in regards to the emergency!

 

Prior to any soaking, I let my matrix completely dry in the summer sun (important step in my opinion). I found that just using only water wasn't effective for breaking down my matrix. Instead, I filled a large bucket with hot water and mixed in about a cup of baking soda for every gallon of water (thankfully baking soda is pretty cheap). When you then add your matrix, it will fizz and bubble as it breaks apart. I generally let mine sit in the baking soda/water for about 12 hours with occasional stirring just to mix things around a bit. After it's soaked, you will see a pile of slimy mud at the bottom of the bucket. I hosed down this mud through my sieve in order to catch all the fossils, gravel, etc. Sometimes larger, harder bits of matrix may not break down on the first go. You can try drying, soaking, and sieving them again and they may break down more though no guarantees.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Also, consider posting your finds when you're done. I'd love to see what sort of things you find!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ran a small batch and posted a few pictures. I had the same experience with all squalicorax teeth being broken.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

what a delightful array of unusual fossils for the Ozan. Very nice

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“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Today, I discovered that the UT Geology Library had copies of Farish's sharks and rays book as well as the Fossil Collector's Guidebook to NSR which, for some reason, I hadn't expected... don't ask me why. Anyways, I got to reading through them and found tons of info pertinent to this topic. A lot of my initial identifications for these teeth were just results of random google searches and were overall pretty scuffed. Thank you to all the repliers in this thread for correcting me! Anyways, there were still many gaps left to be filled, so I am happy to have found these resources to fill in most of them.

 

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Lots of Hadrodus Teeth

IMG_E0882.thumb.JPG.67a1e79f5c177ab363995a153ce7cced.JPG

 

NSR Guidebook lists these as Stephanodus

 

 

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

 

IMG_E0886.thumb.JPG.9dd0541556bf0fb0f5c8e3ec17c7f78b.JPG

On the left, NSR Guidebook listed Anomoeodus barbini as a possibility while the right two are Heterodontus canaliculatus.

 

 

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Hybodont Shark Tooth. This is one of my favorites. Looks like Lonchidion? but that's just my guess.

IMG_E0883.thumb.JPG.90e1a1e1d31c66f251eaee84d948f4db.JPGIMG_E0884.thumb.JPG.f62dab495d6e3f88b82e106f2bc0b1ec.JPGIMG_E0885.thumb.JPG.a0e220020def2dc5c04bcc28ea55061b.JPG

Apparently I wasn't too far off with Lonchidion which surprises me. According to Farish's book, Lissodus has come to be preferred for these guys whereas Lonchidion was previously used. The original reason why I thought this wasn't Lissodus was actually mentioned in the book! Most Lissodus have pointy angled crowns that are very distinct whereas mine is pretty smooth. Farish talks about undescribed Texan Lissodus teeth of similar time period being found that are smooth and missing roots, just like mine. On one hand, I would have liked to have gotten a species name for this guy, but the fact it's undescribed makes it a little special!

 

 

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Ischyrhiza Oral Teeth

IMG_E0901.thumb.JPG.bdf6c3fa874abc79d815562fb92b3953.JPG

Definitely gotta hand it to @MarcoSr's keen eye for spotting this Squatina hassei (NSR Guidebook) out of a crowd of Ischyrhiza oral teeth. I chuckled when I read in the NSR guidebook that Squatina hassei are often confused with them. From personal experience I know this to be true.

 

 

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Ischyrhiza? Rostral Teeth

IMG_E0910.thumb.JPG.a5383d685ea977e12b693f4f8fa9afaf.JPGIMG_E0907.thumb.JPG.7eb65e7f04da9c19a95a9de144700dba.JPG

As others have mentioned, the left side rostral teeth are mostly Sclerorhynchus fanninensis with the exception of one Ischyrhiza mira that slipped in there. The right are both Ischyrhiza avonicola. I had assumed the Ischyrhiza teeth were just from different parts of the rostrum so it's cool to learn that they are actually from entirely different species altogether (NSR Guidebook).

 

 

On 6/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

Cantioscyllium? Oral Teeth

IMG_E0903.thumb.JPG.84b7e58f1075a6167caaf7a173337a38.JPG

Cantioscyllium meyeri (NSR Guide)

 

 

IMG_E0908.thumb.JPG.219fcd4c2abaf607a36f043587404974.JPGIMG_E0909.thumb.JPG.66395f43cb04cb534ba28ce45b27c189.JPG

Pictured above is actually not from the original post. I decided against adding it because I assumed it was probably just some broken tooth and not worth putting into an already long-winded post. Looking through the NSR Guidebook, I'm glad I didn't throw it out. It appears to be the only Rhinobatos ladoniaensis I managed to pick up.

 

One thing I did throw out, unfortunately, is what may have been a Myliobatiform tooth. I remember picking something out of the micromatrix that was skinny and looked pretty similar to it, though a bit degraded. It snapped when I tried to clean it so I just tossed it. This was before I became addicted to Paraloid and I didn't think to try keeping something that was "probably nothing". Apparently they are pretty special finds according to the NSR guide :Speechless:

 

Anyways... there are still some anomalous finds that I couldn't confidently pick out from either book, so I am still open to suggestions. There's even a decent chance I am mistaken on something in this post so please let me know about that as well if you find such a thing. Reading through these books has taught me a lot, so I would strongly recommend them to anyone considering purchasing.

 

Hope someone found this informative. Thanks for reading!

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4 hours ago, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

NSR Guidebook lists these as Stephanodus

The copy in the library must be an early edition. In the 2nd edition(2019), the authors explain that those distinctive teeth do not represent triggerfish (Stephanodus) at all, but rather are identical to pharyngeal teeth of Hadrodus priscus

 

See page 89 in the second edition for this explanation and plate 23 on page 102 for a picture of the teeth. 

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1 hour ago, ClearLake said:

The copy in the library must be an early edition. In the 2nd edition(2019), the authors explain that those distinctive teeth do not represent triggerfish (Stephanodus) at all, but rather are identical to pharyngeal teeth of Hadrodus priscus

Huh, he must have changed it in a later edition. The ones at the library were older, though I can't recall the exact year at the moment. Appreciate the heads up.

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Be aware that Heterodontus have flat crushing teeth and more pointy teeth very similar to Cantioscyllium.

 

tooth.png

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