GMR Trip With UnID Fossils

[Xiphodan]

I paid a visit back to Greensmill Run for the first time in several years and after striking out in a couple of spots I headed back to an area where I had done well in the past but had stopped collecting as I thought it had dried up a little bit. Long story short I hit a great patch of material finding several A+ great whites, a 1" mosasaur tooth that was 99% pristine and a piece of a gompothere tooth.  I also found an odd piece of bone that had what I thought looked like tooth sockets but it was hard to tell if I was dealing with a piece of jawbone or a really mangled piece of non-descript whale bone. I had to head home due to a family commitment so I returned the following week and picked up where I left off. The spot continued to produce and after an hour I came up with another tooth socket looking piece of bone. It wasn't until I got home and compared it to my previous week's find that I realized the two bones were from the exact piece of anatomy. I then went back through my GMR unid'd stuff and found another smaller piece of bone that while much more partial, appeared to match as well. After doing research I have an uneducated guess of what these bones are but I wanted to see if anyone else has come across these before I taint any minds with a wrong identification. I realized after I took the pics that I didn't have a scale on them. The largest piece is 3" long by 1.75" wide.

I'd appreciate any info anyone might have.

[Al Dente]

These are pieces of baleen whale petrosals. 

[Xiphodan]

Thanks for the ID. With your info I went back and saw a saw a post from RickNC in 2013 where he had found a similar bone at GMR.  Do these perform the same function as a bulla or does it work in conjunction with it?  

[Al Dente]

22 minutes ago, Xiphodan said:

Thanks for the ID. With your info I went back and saw a saw a post from RickNC in 2013 where he had found a similar bone at GMR.  Do these perform the same function as a bulla or does it work in conjunction with it?  

 

Your fossils are the part of the petrosal that sits against the concave part of the bulla.

[Jakuzi]

Cool finds.  Do you have pics of the teeth?  I'd love to see that mos tooth.

[Xiphodan]

I'll need to take some pictures of the rest of my better finds but it might be a couple of days before I get them posted.

[Xiphodan]

These were the better misc finds. At bottom right is a nice enchodus jaw section that has some of the tooth enamel on it. Directly to the left of the enchodus jaw is a small but very decent (for GMR) meg.

A slice of a gomphothere tooth. Its about .5" thick. I was hoping to find the rest of it.

[Xiphodan]

The makos.

[Xiphodan]

The Great Whites.

[Xiphodan]

The mosasaur tooth.

[Xiphodan]

This one I could use some help with. It looks mammalian but doesn't look like anything I'm familiar with and its hard to tell how "partial" it is. If anyone has an idea of what it might be I sure would appreciate it!

.

[sixgill pete]

 

The item I have circled in red in your picture is an extremely interesting find for Greens Mill Run. It appears to be a Hybodont shark cephalic hook. I have never seen one from GMR. Most of the Cretaceous teeth from GMR date to the Maastrichtian aged PeeDee Formation, but this is older. I find these at an exposure an hour or so away that is Campanian in age, Tar Heel Formation of the Black Creek Group. Very interesting and excellent find. 

[Jakuzi]

Wow these are all killer!  That enchodus jaw is huge compared to some of the ones I've found here in Texas.  Great mos tooth.

 

I have a job interview in NC next week and if things go well I'll be spending several weeks there for training in the near future.  I may stay over for a weekend and have to try to make it to GMR.

[Xiphodan]

The hybodont cephalic hook is the first I've found at Greensmill; I have two from NJ so I was pretty stoked to add one from NC.

The enclodus jaw is probably the nicest one I've found. I have a bunch from both NJ and NC but the detail on this one is exceptional. I have a feeling that the tooth was intact before it met my shovel as the break looks very recent. There's a small portion of enamel remaining right at where the tooth would have met the jaw.