Martin Marietta quarry, Midlothian, Texas - 11-14-15. (formerly TXI quarry)

[DinoMike]

My finds so far from the Dallas Paleo Society field trip to the Martin Marietta quarry. ( I still have a lot of matrix to break down.) IDs are based on my comparing the teeth to the best of my ability with Welton & Farish's book on fossil sharks & rays of Cretaceous Texas.

A shark tooth peeking out of the matrix. I managed to fumble-finger while trying to extract it in the field, and lost the side cusp.

An overview of the teeth. Top row, L to R: Unknown, Cretodus, Scapanorynchus, unknown, Cretolamna. Bottow row, L to R: Carcharias? symphyseal tooth, broken Scapanorynchus crown, rest unknown.

(Continued in next post)

[DinoMike]

Closeup of the possible Carcharias symphyseal and the broken Scapanorynchus.

The best find of the trip, a nice Cretolamna.

Before & after: Cretolamna in the field, and after extraction & repair. Just after that in-matrix shot, I tried getting the rest of the tooth out, and sure enough, I snapped off the visible part. I packed it & the matrix away. At home, I used a water / hydrogen peroxide solution to soften up the shale & extract the broken-off part. A little cleanup & some super glue, and it's ALMOST as good as new!

The current home of the quarry collection.

[DinoMike]

I brought home a couple of gallon-sized bags of matrix from the site, and have been slowly breaking chunks down in water. Here's what I've found so far. (Ruler hash marks in photos = 1mm):

Unidentified shark tooth.

Squalicorax sp. shark tooth

Both teeth.

Bit of bone. Might be fish, but the shape & texture remind me of turtle shell I've found in the past. There are fine striations on the piece that don't show in the photo.

Another angle on the bone bit.

Still have a good bit of rock to go through, then comes screening the resultant mud to find the REALLY tiny stuff that I hope is in there.

Edited November 28, 2015 by DinoMike