Peat Burns Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Hello, Can anyone help me put a name on this tooth from the Big Clifty Formation (Late-Mississippian: Chesterian) of Crawford County, Indiana? It may be a plate of several teeth, I don't know. Any help would be greatly appreciated. With kind regards, Peat Burns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Outstanding! Don't know my Paleozoic shark teeth as well as my much younger ones but I can say this is special. It may very well be a tooth file of 4 teeth. Maybe something akin to Orodus? Nice find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Dr. John Maisey offers: "looks like fused up tooth family (Helodus teeth are sometimes like that... I think they were called Pleuroplax)." 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archie Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 These are beautiful! I agree with an Orodus sp. but if not something very similar like Helodus. It is indeed a tooth plate, great find! Sam 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peat Burns Posted March 29, 2016 Author Share Posted March 29, 2016 Thank you, Carl, Sam, and John. I also saw some similarity with the Helodus ("Pleuroplax-type"). I will continue to examine this possibility along with the genus Orodus. Helodus has been confirmed at the site. Orodus has been reported with reservation. Thanks very much for your help and suggestions! Peat Burns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darktooth Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Pretty cool! I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 There has been a large influx of Carb. teeth recently. Looks like an Orodus plate of teeth to me, which is one of the few paleozoic sharks that are well described because of the fact that they have a full skeleton of one. Here is what you found! I like to print photos of what my fossils looked like and display them next to it. Image courtesy of Wikipedia page on Orodus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesandstone Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 I am in agreement with the opinion that it is an Orodus plate. Wonderful find! Congrats. Fossils: The Original Limited Edition Collectible. www.bonesandstone.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne_colorado Posted September 13, 2017 Share Posted September 13, 2017 I just saw this post. I hesitate to open an old topic, but this is quite interesting.This is a shark tooth file. It resembles Helodus coxanus, but is not identical. The teeth are much broader. These are photos of the type specimen of Helodus coxanus in the Smithsonian. This might be something new. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted September 13, 2017 Share Posted September 13, 2017 5 hours ago, wayne_colorado said: I hesitate to open an old topic, but this is quite interesting.This is a shark tooth file. It resembles Helodus coxanus, but is not identical. The teeth are much broader. These are photos of the type specimen of Helodus coxanus in the Smithsonian. This might be something new. I for one am glad You did reply to this old thread. Very nice fossil, thanks for sharing it here! Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peat Burns Posted September 14, 2017 Author Share Posted September 14, 2017 Thank you, Wayne. PM coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNCollector Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Yes this is a classic Helodus tooth plate. I see that I posted over a year ago that this is an Orodus, but that's wrong. There is no reason to ID it any further than that, as there were likely dozens of species of Helodus roaming about this area. I for one probably have nearly a hundred of these teeth, none of which can be narrowed down to a particular species except for H. simplex, which has the tell-tale ridges around the edge of the tooth. As an example, here is a page from the 1866 Geological Survey of Illinois, Vol. 2 by Worthen, that shows quite a few teeth that all belong to Helodus species. There are some groups of teeth that appear similar to each other, but without a full jaw set, there is no way to differentiate tooth types from species-specific tooth types. The same rule applies to a lot of the Moroccan theropods. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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