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Old Church Formation Micro Shark Teeth


fossilsonwheels

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Our friend @sharkdoctor sent us some micro matrix from the Old Church Formation in Virginia. This is our second batch and the first was fairly sparse but we did find some cool stuff. I haven’t searched much of this matrix but it’s already produced some nice teeth and has a better density too. 

 

There isnt, to my knowledge, any descriptions of Old Church material so my ID’s are just best guess. 

 

First pic- a beautiful little Galeorhinus tooth. 

Second pic- a really awesome Sphyrna tooth, maybe S. media. 

Third pic- a colorful Galeocerdo, I’d guess G. aduncas. 

 

I will update this I go. 

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Nice colors.  Teeth from the Old Church Formation in Virginia are not common because there are only a few outcrops in Virginia.  Being a diver opens up more sites.

 

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

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11 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

Nice colors.  Teeth from the Old Church Formation in Virginia are not common because there are only a few outcrops in Virginia.  Being a diver opens up more sites.

 

Marco Sr.

Thank you Marco Sr. There’s quite a variety of colors. We’re very lucky to have had as good a trade partner as Aaron. 

 

Kurt

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I found a few interesting teeth today. 

 

First one looks to me to be an Odontaspis. Could be Carcharias too. 

 

Second picture is a nice little Cow Shark ! My guess is Notorynchus and it would be the smallest in my collection. 

 

Last two are a Batoid. There’s been some nice ray teeth but this is the most interesting one. My best guess is Paramobula but that’s just a guess. 

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 My best guess is Paramobula but that’s just a guess. 

Good guess 

 

Probably Mobula or Paramobula fragilis (Cappetta, 1970), just need to confirmed with Mobula melanyae (Case, 1980) which is also reported from Rupelian strata.

 

Fabrice

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5 hours ago, Chimera said:

Good guess 

 

Probably Mobula or Paramobula fragilis (Cappetta, 1970), just need to confirmed with Mobula melanyae (Case, 1980) which is also reported from Rupelian strata.

 

Fabrice

I will look into Mobula. I’m not all that familiar with Oligocene material so I appreciate the suggestion. 

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This article sheds some light on the matter :

 

 

Adnet, S., H. Cappetta, et al. (2012). "Evolutionary history of the devilrays (Chondrichthyes: Myliobatiformes) from fossil and morphological inference." Zoological journal of the Linnean Society 166(1): 132-159.
    The exact affinities of the fossil teeth attributed to the devilrays (mobulids) are critical for resolving the debated origin of these giant pelagic rays amongst Myliobatiformes and the timing of their evolution toward planktivory. We performed the first detailed comparative description of teeth belonging to most of the living and fossil mobulids. Based on a survey of living devilrays, three dental morphologies are newly identified as cobblestone tooth plates, comb-like teeth, and peg-like teeth. In addition, all extinct mobulid species are reviewed with comments on their dentition, fossil record, and geographical distribution. As a result, three fossil mobulid taxa are newly described from the Late Eocene of south-west Morocco (Argoubia barbei gen. et sp. nov., Oromobula dakhlaensis gen. et sp. nov., and Eoplinthicus underwoodi sp. nov.). This has permitted the first assessment of the phylogenetic positions of extinct and extant species of mobulids, using cladistic analyses and a combined data set of nondental anatomical characters from the literature and the dental characters defined here. Our new results support the monophyly of mobulids including all living and most extinct species and indicate that mobulids are closely related to rhinopterids. They also indicate that there was a recent split within Mobulidae into the three tooth morphology groups that we describe in this paper. This work provides clues to the evolutionary history of this clade since the Early Eocene, including the gradual lack in tooth interlocking toward the filter-feeding strategy, whereas the preservation of cusped teeth without feeding function in modern filter-feeder mobulids is interpreted as a tool for precopulatory purposes.
© Zoological journal of the Linnean Society

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First pic- An awesome find today. A perfect little Squatina. Always happy to find Angelshark material.

 

Second pic- This one looks to be a Rhynchobatus which according to Elasmo is know from Old Church.  R. pristinus as the species listed. 

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15 hours ago, Chimera said:

This article sheds some light on the matter :

 

 

Adnet, S., H. Cappetta, et al. (2012). "Evolutionary history of the devilrays (Chondrichthyes: Myliobatiformes) from fossil and morphological inference." Zoological journal of the Linnean Society 166(1): 132-159.
    The exact affinities of the fossil teeth attributed to the devilrays (mobulids) are critical for resolving the debated origin of these giant pelagic rays amongst Myliobatiformes and the timing of their evolution toward planktivory. We performed the first detailed comparative description of teeth belonging to most of the living and fossil mobulids. Based on a survey of living devilrays, three dental morphologies are newly identified as cobblestone tooth plates, comb-like teeth, and peg-like teeth. In addition, all extinct mobulid species are reviewed with comments on their dentition, fossil record, and geographical distribution. As a result, three fossil mobulid taxa are newly described from the Late Eocene of south-west Morocco (Argoubia barbei gen. et sp. nov., Oromobula dakhlaensis gen. et sp. nov., and Eoplinthicus underwoodi sp. nov.). This has permitted the first assessment of the phylogenetic positions of extinct and extant species of mobulids, using cladistic analyses and a combined data set of nondental anatomical characters from the literature and the dental characters defined here. Our new results support the monophyly of mobulids including all living and most extinct species and indicate that mobulids are closely related to rhinopterids. They also indicate that there was a recent split within Mobulidae into the three tooth morphology groups that we describe in this paper. This work provides clues to the evolutionary history of this clade since the Early Eocene, including the gradual lack in tooth interlocking toward the filter-feeding strategy, whereas the preservation of cusped teeth without feeding function in modern filter-feeder mobulids is interpreted as a tool for precopulatory purposes.
© Zoological journal of the Linnean Society

Great information. Thanks for posting that. I’m already seeing that this formation will provide a good opportunity to improve on my knowledge of Batoids. I’ve already found a pretty diverse group. In addition to the Paramobula/Mobula, I’ve found Dasyatis, Raja, Rynchobatus, one that looks to be Plinthicus, a few that look Rhinoptera, and Myliobatoidea type stuff. I’ll post pictures soon. 

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First Pic- some pretty nice Pachyscyllium teeth. I love Catsharks so quite happy with these finds. 

 

Second pic- the picture isn’t all that great but under the scope it’s very clearly a Mobula tooth. I’m pretty convinced the previous tooth is Paramobula so this would be our first Old Church Mobula.

 

I’m really impressed by the diversity of Batoid material in this matrix. I’m also really happy with the sharks as well. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a Pristiophorus rostral tooth in my collection from the Old Church Formation. I didn’t find it myself but I know they are in the fauna. I did not find one in the first batch and hadn’t yet found one in this batch, until today. Very happy to see this in the scope ! 

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have a Pristiophorus rostral tooth in my collection from the Old Church Formation.    

 

Great ! 

Pristiophorus rostral teeth are never common.

You can expected to find oral teeth.

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15 hours ago, Chimera said:

 

Great ! 

Pristiophorus rostral teeth are never common.

You can expected to find oral teeth.

Well I’m hoping to find one as I don’t have an oral tooth but given that I’ve only found one rostral, I can’t say I’m expecting to find an oral lol

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