Sharktooth Hill micromatrix

[Monica]

Hello once again!

 

Well, March Break has finally begun, so my daughter Viola and I decided to spend some time sorting through the Sharktooth Hill micromatrix that Ken (@digit) sent me as part of the "rolling auction" lot that I won last month.  Here are some pictures of a few of the finds so far...

 

Ray teeth? - different from the usual plates that I've seen before

 

Cow shark (Notorynchus sp.)?

 

Dogshark (Squalus sp.)?

 

Marine mammal teeth?  Any ideas?

 

Cute little shark teeth in matrix - any ideas re: their identity?

 

???

 

???

 

I'll post pictures of more items on another day, when my eyes have stopped burning 

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Monica

[digit]

Looks like you and the little one are having some fun now that you've gotten into the STH micro-matrix. The little ray teeth are Dasyatis (stingray). They are fun little double-rooted teeth that I also find in micro-matrix from Florida (though those tend to be black rather than the lovely colors from Shark Tooth Hill). @ynot has found several Notorynchus teeth from STH but they are rare enough that I've not come across one yet. I just showed my wife the piece of Cow Shark tooth you discovered--she laughed and commented that you never know what is unsearched micro-matrix. Congrats on a great find!

 

The Squalus teeth are very distinctive (and rather common in STH micro-matrix). They are fun to find as they don't seem to occur in Florida fossil deposits. Dolphin teeth are pretty common two and it looks like you've already found a couple. Love the little teeth in matrix. The spongy bits are small frags of some of the marine mammal bones (seal? whale? who knows?) which are pretty common in the matrix. These are frags of the spongy (cancellous) interior of the bones. Last one almost looks like a burrow or something--not familiar with that as I can't recall seeing one before.

 

Looks like you are doing well and you still have Angelshark (Squatina) and Basking Shark (Cetorhinus) to find. They are pretty common so you'll find some before long. There are lots of great image galleries on this forum for STH material so you should have little problem identifying your finds.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[ynot]

Hey Monica,

Nice finds!

In the first picture - the tooth on the left is a myliobatis (cow nosed or eagle rays), same as the long comb type but from the side of tooth plate. All of the others are dasyatis (stingray) teeth. There are at least 2 other species of ray (Gymnura sp - Butterfly Rays. and Raja sp - Skate) that have similar teeth to the dasyatis, but the roots are different. Then there are  Mustelus sp - Smooth-hound shark, and "Rhinobatos" sp - Guitarfish, that also have similar looking teeth.

Second picture does look like a cow shark.

Third picture  are dogfish shark teeth.

Fourth picture  one on right looks like the root of a porpoise tooth, the other looks more fish to Me.

Fifth picture larger tooth maybe a Squatina lericheii JORDAN & BEAL, 1913  Angel shark   the other is Galeorhinus sp - Tope shark.

(Really like the matrix pieces!)

Sixth picture bone marrow pieces.

Seventh picture is a burrow cast, they are usually solid and appear to be selenite.

 

Looking forward to seeing what else You find in that matrix!

 

Tony

[Darktooth]

Hi Monica! I got some of this Matrix From ynot and found lots of good stuff from it. Your post reminded me that I never posted my pics from what I found. Definately a lot of fun to look through. 

[ynot]

4 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

Your post reminded me that I never posted my pics

So when and where?

[Darktooth]

Just now, ynot said:

So when and where?

I will try tomorrow, as I have had too many glasses of Chardonnay and it is getting late. ( And I'm not done with the Chardonnay yet!)

[Monica]

@ynot @digit et al.!

 

Okay, I'm back with pictures of some of the other STH micromatrix fossils that Viola and I found while searching through half of the stuff Ken sent us last month - thanks in advance for your help!

 

Monica

 

Angel shark teeth (Squatina sp.) - the specimen on the right looks different from the other two - is it just broken, or is it a different thing altogether?

 

Basking shark teeth (Cetorhinus sp.)?

 

At first I thought that this was another angel shark tooth, but now I'm thinking it might be a ray dermal denticle?

 

I was just going to lump all of these items in with the ray plates (Myliobatis sp.) that I collected, but they look a bit different from the ones I'm used to seeing so I wanted to check with the experts before I bag them up.

 

I'm not sure about these little guys.  Could the one on the left be a ray tooth?  And the one on the right a dogfish shark tooth (Squalus sp.)?

 

I'll follow these up with some other shark teeth in the next posting of this topic...

[Monica]

These teeth don't appear to have any serrations at all (as far as I can see...):

 

These teeth have serrations along the crown as well as along the "shoulder" near the root (again, as far as I can see):

 

These teeth appear to have serrations along the "shoulder" near the root but I can't see any serrations close to the tip of the crown:

 

These teeth are partials - I'm not sure if they can be identified, but I thought that I'd post a picture of them just in case someone out there can help:

 

[ynot]

Looks like You got them all correct to Me. (first post)

The last picture are both dogfish teeth. The one on the left is either broken or a pathologic.

[ynot]

http://elasmo.com/

Go to the fauna list and select Sharktooth hill, it will help You determine what the teeth in the second post are.

 

I have a hard time differentiating the small teeth.

[Monica]

14 minutes ago, ynot said:

Looks like You got them all correct to Me. (first post)

The last picture are both dogfish teeth. The one on the left is either broken or a pathologic.

Hi ynot!

 

I just want to confirm that all of those items in the 4th picture of my first post today are ray plates, correct?  They look different, I suppose, because of the material they are made of (they are almost translucent) and the fact that they're broken and worn down.  Again, I just want to make sure I'm identifying them properly.

 

Thanks again SO much!!!  I really appreciate all of your help!

 

Monica

 

PS - I'll check out the elasmo site tonight or tomorrow to try to identify some of the little shark teeth before sorting through the second half of the matrix.  And then I think I'll go through all of the matrix again just to make sure I didn't miss anything.  I can see how looking through micromatrix can become an addictive pass-time... 

[ynot]

4 hours ago, Monica said:

items in the 4th picture of my first post today are ray plates, correct?

It would help if there were multiple angeled views of them, but as far as I can tell - Yes.

 

4 hours ago, Monica said:

 I can see how looking through micromatrix can become an addictive pass-time...

YEAH1

[Monica]

On 3/11/2017 at 4:32 PM, Monica said:

Cow shark (Notorynchus sp.)?

Hello there!

 

As per @ynot's suggestion, I've gone onto the "elasmo" website (http://www.elasmo.com/frameMe.html?file=paleo/sth/shrkhill_new.html&menu=bin/menu_fauna-alt.html) in order to try to identify some of the wee little shark teeth that I found in the Sharktooth Hill micromatrix given to me by @digit, and the first thing I find is that the tooth that I identified as Notorynchus sp. isn't a shark that's found at that location!!!  So, it appears that this little tooth should instead be labeled as Hexanchus andersoni JORDAN 1907.  What do you all think?

 

Thanks so much!

 

Monica

[ynot]

2 hours ago, Monica said:

 So, it appears that this little tooth should instead be labeled as Hexanchus andersoni JORDAN 1907.  What do you all think?

Whoops, My bad-- You are right! (At least it is still a cow shark.)

[Monica]

Okay - I'm back!

 

I've finished my first go-through of the second half of Sharktooth Hill micromatrix, and I've found more shark teeth and ray teeth, as well as a few items which I'd like your opinion on:

 

Item #1: It looks like a chunk of crinoid on the outside but there is no crinoid detail when looking at it in cross-section.  In fact, it looks like it could be a cylindrical something (burrow of some sort, perhaps?) that was filled in - what do you think?

 

Item #2: Fist vertebra?

 

Item #3: Part of a basking shark gill raker?

 

Item #4: I have no idea whatsoever!  It has a very weird shape, as you can see, and it's pretty flat on both sides but it appears to have bumps/ridges (although it's pretty hard to tell since there's still matrix attached to it).  Any ideas?

 

Thanks for your help @ynot et al.!  I look forward to your input, and I hope you'll be looking forward to pictures of more items in the coming days! 

 

Monica

 

[ynot]

13 minutes ago, Monica said:

Thanks for your help @ynot et al.!  I look forward to your input, and I hope you'll be looking forward to pictures of more items in the coming days! 

1 partial porpoise tooth (?)

2 could be, side view would help.

3 fish spine/bone, stingray barb fragment, bone fragment....?

4 bone fragment? The round black parts are manganese crystals.

 

Always love seeing what others find!

(I do not suffer from fossil envy, there are so many good things for Me to find that I just enjoy seeing what others find!)

I do suffer from trip envy, just a little. The closest good spot to fossil hunt is a 6 hour drive from Me.