Very small Cladodont (Falcatidae?) Tooth in Phosphatic Nodule ( Missouri )

[Samurai]

Location: Missouri

Period: Pennsylvanian

Formation: Iola Limestone (Muncie Creek Shale Member) 

Hello once again!

 

Today I have a fossil tooth that I happened to have seen while going through my old phosphatic nodules from Muncie Creek and was wondering if anyone could identify it further than a Cladodont tooth. I have googled images of Cladodont teeth and believe it to possible be a tooth belonging to Falcatidae, but what do you think?

 

 

 

 

It resembles a few of these teeth on the chart below in size and form, hence why i'm making the guess of it being a Falcatid even though my tooth has very slight differences in lengths of each cusplet. I will note that my specimen seems to have 6 cusps total, while the specimens below that it most resembles has 5. 

 

 

Here is the size in mm.

 

The last thing I wanted to note is that it might be next to possible coprolitic material, although it's hard to tell as coprolites in these nodules looks very similar to just a phosphate center, although if you find inclusions its almost guaranteed. 

 

Example of an obvious coprolite and a not so obvious coprolite from these nodules.

 

 

 

 

[RuMert]

Why not a simple Conodont?

[westcoast]

I was thinking conodont too

[Samurai]

2 hours ago, RuMert said:

Why not a simple Conodont?

Very well could be, I did consider this at first but I may have jumped the shark so to speak. I can ask a professor I know who works with conodonts just to confirm it. I still need to study up on my micro fossil identifications, so thank you. 

[Missourian]

5 hours ago, Samurai said:

I may have jumped the shark so to speak.

 

 

Good eye in any case.

[Samurai]

On 9/6/2022 at 11:10 AM, RuMert said:

Why not a simple Conodont?

 

Hello everyone, I have an update, In a bizarre twist of events he did say Cladodont tooth. I came to him asking if it was conodont and when he looked under the microscope he saw this image (left) and drew a small diagram:

 

 

 

 

I was worried he only saw the mineral that filled in the tooth and not the outer external mold of the tooth so I showed him a few images on my phone after class (shown below) and he didn't seem to change his mind or mention that it was a conodont. He did also say the main cusp looks broken. 

 

He also told me he knew someone in Russia that could identify Pennsylvanian fish teeth, but due to the war going on it's unlikely I would be able to get into contact with them.  

 

 

 

For greater context he specializes in Radiolarians but he has also written/co-authored papers on conodonts in the past (I looked up his name). I casually mentioned never seeing a conodont tooth in person and he took me back to his lab room and showed me rows upon rows of conodont teeth under a microscope from samples he collected in the past. It was pretty cool lol. Nevertheless If anyone knows another conodont specialist I wouldn't mind hearing from another's perspective on this mystery tooth as a precaution.

 

 

On an unrelated note, he mentioned we could also make thin sections of the Muncie Creek Nodules to look for Radiolarians and I couldn't refuse the chance. So once those are made I will definitely be posting what we find, if he is ok with that of course. 

 

 

 

[westcoast]

With that better image I would now also say cladodont. 

[Samurai]

14 hours ago, westcoast said:

With that better image I would now also say cladodont. 

Thank you for confirmation, I was fortunate to get a clear photo yesterday