Show Us Your Smallest Stuff

[Nandomas]

Show us your smallest stuff

Six flat, small belemnites (Suebibelus pressulus) on American cent:

Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian), Sengenthal Mine, Germany

[Bill]

Some Foraminiferans from the Red Crag, Walton on the Naze, Essex, England. F.O.V. is 10mm approx.

Edited July 10, 2010 by Bill

[Acryzona]

An annelid worm jaw from the Middle Devonian Silica Shale of Ohio. Scale bar = 0.01" = 0.25mm

[Acryzona]

I find alot of Kirkbyella sp on the 80 mesh screen - I'm thinking of getting a 125 mesh screen but I'm not sure my eyes can take it - microscope or not! This is also from the Middle Devonian Silica formation in Sylvania, OH

Edited July 10, 2010 by Acryzona

[Acryzona]

Fossili,

I like the arrangment on the cent. Very nice!

[Plantguy]

Nice specimens so far everyone! Continuing on the 1 cent theme...How about some smallish gastropods.

Those on the left and lower center are Olivella biplicata (Sowerby) and those two on the right are one of the Nassarius species. Upper Pliocene, Merced Formation, Sonoma County, California

Regards, Chris

[RomanK]

Mariopteris nervosa (length of the plant some 1,5 inches). Not smallest but small.

[Auspex]

Bird teeth The smallest is under 1mm.

Avisaurus archibaldi teeth, Hell Creek (uppermost Cretaceous)

[Lindsey]

Our North Sulphur River finds, shark teeth and tiny vert. It's amazing how you can see something way more clearly after taking a picture of it, didn't really know what they looked like until I just now took this picture.

Edited July 11, 2010 by Lindsey

[jpc]

Since this is still in matrix, I couldn't put it on a penny, so the scale is the tip of a sharpened sewing needle. This is the smallest mammal jaw I have found. The jawbone portion is 1 1/2 mm long, which gives you an idea of the size of the one tooth. Puny. I cannot tell you the species, but it is a lower fourth premolar, probably of a little insectivore. I'm not even sure you can ID it to genus from simply one lower fourth premolar. It is Eocene in age, from the Wasatch Fm of sw Wyoming. I spent a few days quarrying a crocodile skeleton in the limestone layer. There are numerous fish bones and scales in the rock, most of which I don't keep, but this little guy also showed up. I'm not sure why I kept it; the tooth was not exposed. I think I just had a hunch that it might prove to be a fun fossil. And it is. This is from the same site my blue bones I showed somewhere else on the forum are from, only the next layer below.

[Roz]

Some really cool tiny stuff on this thread.. I am enjoying seeing all of them...

Auspex, I had no idea bird teeth looked like that!

Jpc, that tooth is really cool. Cannot imagine what it was. It has such an unusual shape..

Here are some of my smallest teeth from Arkansas..

The lowest one in the last pic is the hook-like juvenile tooth is part of the pharyngeal "tooth comb" of the pycnodontoid bony fish

Hadrodus priscus (often identified on the East Coast as "Stephanodus).

This is another tiny one, and I have misplaced the ID, sorry

[Ludwigia]

Nice idea Nando, and nice stuff turning up! I was thinking along those lines too, what with all these "Show me your biggest..." threads, but you beat me to the ball.

I like collecting tiny little pyritized Ammonites. Of course they're mostly not complete, since their "living room" has mostly dissolved away, but they ARE small.

The first 2 pictures are from Gruibingen, Germany, the second 2 from Provence, France.

Best wishes, Roger.

[MikeD]

Found this ammonite last month in the Kamp Ranch of the Dallas area. The coin is a U.S. quarter. It is just over twice as wide as the letter C on the quarter.

[jpc]

Auspex, I had no idea bird teeth looked like that!

Jpc, that tooth is really cool. Cannot imagine what it was. It has such an unusual shape..

Yeah, lots of really cool stuff here. I've always liked the small stuff.

Roz, I'm glad you were able to appreciate the shape of the tooth. It is fairly typical of insectivore type last premolars. The molars are evenweirder if you've never seen them. Lots of bumps on them. Typically mammals have pretty complex teeth, this is why we ("we" in the larger sense) are able to identify them by teeth alone.

Auspex... Those teeth are cool. I've done lots of collecting iincluding screening in the Lance and hell Creek Fms and have never seen bird teeth show up.

[FossilForKids]

I took these photos about a year ago when I first got my microscope for my amber. The shells are from NC

[crinus]

Some of you may have seen this photo before. My tiny Arkona Formation trilobites. All are complete and enrolled. I have a tiny flat one that I will have to photograph.

crinus

[Nandomas]

What a nice stuff you found.

The small enrolled trilos, the shells, the ostracod, the worm, the bird teeth, the small mammal, the ammos, the shark teeth, the leaf: all of them are fantastic

Thanks to show us those small treasures

Here my little big tooth (half inch). Do you think is it from great white?

[CreekCrawler]

Here is my entry.Not the smallest,but hard for these old eyes to see.

Sclerorhynchus rostral teeth and two unidentified sharks teeth.

[Roz]

What a nice stuff you found.

The small enrolled trilos, the shells, the ostracod, the worm, the bird teeth, the small mammal, the ammos, the shark teeth, the leaf: all of them are fantastic

Thanks to show us those small treasures

Here my little big tooth (half inch). Do you think is it from great white?

Not sure but it looks like a Lissodus. That 's a Cretaceous one though and

I don't know what age shark that is..

[Roz]

Here is my entry.Not the smallest,but hard for these old eyes to see.

Sclerorhynchus rostral teeth and two unidentified sharks teeth.

I think the top tooth is a Cretodus. Not sure about the other one though.

[LanceH]

CreekCrawler, the other teeth looks like "Sclerorhynchus" rostral barbs.

They are described on page 146 of "The Collector's Guide to Fossil Sharks and rays from the Cretaceous of Texas." Also described in "Notes on Rostral Teeth of Ganopristine Sawfishes, with Special Reference to Texas Material" by Bob H. Slaughter; Maureen Steiner, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 42, No. 1. (Jan., 1968), pp. 233-239

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Edit: you already found the name

Edited July 12, 2010 by LanceHall

[danielp]

Fish verts, pyritized ammonites, pyritized gastropds, and a fish tooth. All from Texas

[CreekCrawler]

CreekCrawler, the other teeth looks like "Sclerorhynchus" rostral barbs.

They are described on page 146 of "The Collector's Guide to Fossil Sharks and rays from the Cretaceous of Texas." Also described in "Notes on Rostral Teeth of Ganopristine Sawfishes, with Special Reference to Texas Material" by Bob H. Slaughter; Maureen Steiner, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 42, No. 1. (Jan., 1968), pp. 233-239

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Edit: you already found the name

Lance,thanks for mentioning the other reference material.I'll have to go to the library at SMU and check those papers out. I still have about 5 gallons of material where the rostral teeth came from and should be able to screen out some oral teeth from ole Sclerorhynchus sp.

[Nandomas]

Not sure but it looks like a Lissodus. That 's a Cretaceous one though and

I don't know what age shark that is..

Roz, effectively seems the shark you are speaking about, but I found that tooth at Matoaka Cottages, MD (Miocene)

Maybe it is the very first lateral in the jaw from a small Meg or from small Great White. The very lateral of Great White lose the serration.

I sent the photo to B. Purdy

[Hieronymus]

I think the top tooth is a Cretodus. Not sure about the other one though.

That tooth is definately not a Cretodus. Probably some small cretaceous Odontaspid-like species.