Campanian Shark, Ray, And Fish Micros From The Menefee Formation Of New Mexico

[MarcoSr]

I want to thank Mike for sending me some Cretaceous matrix from the Campanian Menefee Formation of New Mexico. This Menefee matrix is an exceptional matrix, easy to process, easy to search with little debris and loaded with a variety of species of great conditioned shark, ray and fish specimens. This matrix broke down very easily by soaking it in hot water and letting it sit overnight, and then washing it in a .4mm sieve using a water hose. There was a very high fossil density with very little other debris. I found a large number of fish teeth and teeth from the shark Restesia. I also found other shark and ray teeth. I’m posting the nicer and more unusual micros which I found. These micros were very small with specimens ranging in size from .4mm to 3mm. All of the teeth would have probably fallen through window screen.

If you place your cursor on a JPEG image you will see the file name which will have the specimen id as best that I can determine and the specimen size. If you can identify the specimens further please do so.

Each matrix that I search makes me more of an avid micro tooth collector. If anyone has or can collect good matrix with shark, ray, and fish micros please send me a PM.

Below are some of the shark teeth, a shark vertebra and several dermal denticles which I found.

Chiloscyllium:

Cretorectolobus:

Lissodus:

Restesia [This is a newly erected genus (Cook et al. 2014) to replace Squatirhina for Squatirhina americana. The genus was revised because S. americana is clearly Orectolobiform (shark) and the genus Squatirhina is closer to a rajiform]:

Shark Vertebra:

Need id help (1 & 2 may just be positional variations of Restesia and 3 may be a Lissodus):

Dermal Denticles (I believe that these are shark dermal denticles):

Below are some of the ray teeth and dermal elements which I found.

Myledaphus:

Ptychotrygon (I find a lot of Ptychotrygons but still have a lot of trouble identifying them to a species. The literature has a lot of different species and most in my opinion are not well described and don’t contain a good number of high quality images):

Continued in the next reply.

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

Ptychotrygon Continued:

Dermal elements:

Dermal elements/Sawfish rostral teeth (The two below specimens could be ray dermal elements or a sawfish rostral tooth that I don’t recognize):

Below are some of the fish teeth and a fish scale which I found.

An unknown specimen that I need id help for (It may be just another dermal element. Unfortunately I broke the specimen in half trying to take additional pictures. It is very difficult to take pictures of these very small, fragile specimens.):

Marco Sr.

Edited June 20, 2014 by MarcoSr

[old bones]

Really neat finds Marco! And some rather bizarre looking specimens as well. How can you tell that the last fish tooth with the crenelated root is a fish tooth as opposed to a rostral tooth? ( I am just trying to commit images to memory)

Julianna

[MarcoSr]

Really neat finds Marco! And some rather bizarre looking specimens as well. How can you tell that the last fish tooth with the crenelated root is a fish tooth as opposed to a rostral tooth? ( I am just trying to commit images to memory)

Julianna

Julianna

Rostral teeth have a wide variety of root shapes but none look like that tooth that I am aware of and are solid at the base versus hollow. They also have a wide variety of crown shapes and none look like that tooth that I have seen before. The general tooth morphology is very similar to lots of different fish teeth that I have seen. Although I have seen amphibian teeth that can look similar but I believe these are fish.

Marco Sr.

[PFOOLEY]

I hope to have your patience one day...this is "eye opening" work you are conducting! Thank you very much for your efforts...much appreciation for your knowledge.

Cheers to Marco's scope!(glass raised...huge grin)

[MarcoSr]

I hope to have your patience one day...this is "eye opening" work you are conducting! Thank you very much for your efforts...much appreciation for your knowledge.

Cheers to Marco's scope!(glass raised...huge grin)

Mike

Thank you for the kind words. Thank you for the matrix. I really do enjoy searching matrix and photographing what I find.

Marco Sr.