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Cephalopod Hooks in Jurassic Coprolite


GeschWhat

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Much fun. More studies like this should be done. If our local enterprising coyotes' 'deposits'...here... ever end up the future fossil record? It will nothing but apricot & plum pits. Might make for some interesting coprolites, if the organic material could "stick around".

We are what we eat, I s'pose? Fascinating post.

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Much fun. More studies like this should be done. If our local enterprising coyotes' 'deposits'...here... ever end up the future fossil record? It will nothing but apricot & plum pits. Might make for some interesting coprolites, if the organic material could "stick around".

We are what we eat, I s'pose? Fascinating post.

Welcome to the forum! It really is fun! I had two Triassic coprolites from your neck of the woods(or should I say dessert) scanned. I haven't done much work on them yet, No plum pits, just fish scales...possibly a jaw section. I posted preliminary images of one of them HERE if you are interested in taking a look.

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I'm sure. It is getting even cooler...I think I found parasite eggs and a worm in this particular one also. I am still working on the CT data trying to separate everything out. I just got higher resolution images from the lab last week so I can possibly confirm what I'm seeing. In the higher res images, it looks like there is even some sort of tendon or possibly a blood vessel opening in some of the hooks. Once I get all the data sorted, I plan on sending photos to a guy in Zurich that specializes in cephalopods. Hopefully, he will be able to shed some light on some of the strange things I'm seeing.

There is a total of 241 hooks that are relatively intact, plus many more partially digested fragments. 18 small egg-shaped structures, 3 larger egg-shaped structures (3 of which look like they something hatched out...like the weevil cocoons from Australia), 5 segments that look like they could be from a parasitic worm, large, flat plate-like structures.

Here are some images from the CT data. most of these are from the low res data. It will be a couple more weeks before I am able to separate everything out in high resolution.

If anyone has any ideas about what the plate-like structures could be, I would love to know.

Superb images! Maybe the plate structures are bits of a thin, chewable gladius.

Tarquin

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GeschWhat or others, a question, should there also be some hard beaks (like squid) present in the coprolites?

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

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Your CT images are fantastic.

I sent a link to your post to Adrian Hunt, a renowned coprolite expert, who is studying a large group of marine coprolites that I donated. There are a number of coprolites in the group with visible bone inclusions on the surface and I asked Adrian if he planned to CT scan any of them. He replied "Thank you for the fascinating link – the CT image is really impressive. I had not initially thought about imaging the Fisher/Sullivan coprolites but this definitely makes me think that it might be a good idea."

Thank you for your post.

Marco Sr.

"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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Your CT images are fantastic.

I sent a link to your post to Adrian Hunt, a renowned coprolite expert, who is studying a large group of marine coprolites that I donated. There are a number of coprolites in the group with visible bone inclusions on the surface and I asked Adrian if he planned to CT scan any of them. He replied "Thank you for the fascinating link – the CT image is really impressive. I had not initially thought about imaging the Fisher/Sullivan coprolites but this definitely makes me think that it might be a good idea."

Thank you for your post.

Marco Sr.

That is wonderful. I have read a number of his papers.

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GeschWhat or others, a question, should there also be some hard beaks (like squid) present in the coprolites?

I read somewhere that scientist have been in a bit of a quandary regarding this. Evidently beaks are commonly found in the stomach contents of modern whales, but no hooks. In the fossil record they are finding hooks, but no beaks. I haven't finished processing all the data in this coprolite. It is a very long process...especially using the free software available (very glitchy and corrupts easily). Right now I have been concentrating on the low density inclusions. The higher density inclusions are harder to extract using the software I have available. So it is possible that it is there, but I haven't isolated it yet. I have one other coprolite that I believe has cephalopod parts. However, that specimen is larger and more dense, so the resolution of the CT data isn't very high. In addition, I believe more than one type of prey item was eaten. I Another specimen that I believe may contain beaks was too large/dense to scan with the equipment at the U of Mn.

It is also possible that the beaks were regurgitated along with rostrums/phragmocones.

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Here is a website with a photo of a cephalopod arm with hooks: http://tolweb.org/accessory/Cephalopod_Hooks?acc_id=1983

I was working on separating out the lowest density material last night. This is part of thee different hooks. While not all hooks in this coprolite include this structure, There are quite a few that do. Any ideas?

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post-17480-0-11911200-1466524425_thumb.jpg

post-17480-0-67154800-1466524425_thumb.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Hi GeshWhat,

I thought you might like to see my latest Oxford Clay Jurassic marine coprolite find from another Brick Pit quarry in Peterborough UK.

Can you see what I see.... ;)

attachicon.gifCoprolite.jpg

attachicon.gifcoprolite with fish vertebrae inclusions 1a.jpg

attachicon.gifcoprolite with fish vertebrae inclusions 1b.jpg

Nice fish verts in the coprolite, Darren!

Thanks for posting that - pretty cool.

Regards,

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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Hi GeshWhat,

I thought you might like to see my latest Oxford Clay Jurassic marine coprolite find from another Brick Pit quarry in Peterborough UK.

Can you see what I see.... ;)

attachicon.gifCoprolite.jpg

attachicon.gifcoprolite with fish vertebrae inclusions 1a.jpg

attachicon.gifcoprolite with fish vertebrae inclusions 1b.jpg

I second Tim's comment...very nice vertebrae! That's a nice sized one too!

I would love to see more photos after you clean off the rest of the matrix.

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I second Tim's comment...very nice vertebrae! That's a nice sized one too!

I would love to see more photos after you clean off the rest of the matrix.

It's a cracking find isn't it. But due to its delicate nature I'm not sure if I can clean it further without dislodging any of the verts.

Regards.....D&E&i

The only certainty with fossil hunting is the uncertainty.

https://lnk.bio/Darren.Withers

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Nice fish verts in the coprolite, Darren!

Thanks for posting that - pretty cool.

Regards,

Thank you Tim as it's certainly food for thought. As I now can assign a probable genus of fish to it.

Regards.....D&E&i

The only certainty with fossil hunting is the uncertainty.

https://lnk.bio/Darren.Withers

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With coprolites like yours I usually soak them and then gently clean away the matrix under the microscope with soft brush. If the matrix is harder you could gently clean it away under the microscope with an x-acto blade. There could be even more interesting surprises under there. This one had vertebrae exposed, but under the matrix there was an intact fish tail. I had to stitch together microscopic images, so the photos aren't the best...but you get the idea.

post-17480-0-14943100-1470063686_thumb.jpg

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