South Carolina black water

[flyg]

I got out this morning for a few hours on a local river. The water level was nice, but the visibility was terrible. Nevertheless I got on the snorkel and spent some time face-down over the gravels. It was a modest day in terms of finds, but lovely and quiet and cool under the forest canopy, away from the crowds on a holiday weekend. I ended up with a few of the usual small suspects: Carcharias, Hemipristis, Galeocerdo, Isurus, unknowns. My "good" stuff for this short trip included a tooth I believe to be a small C. megalodon, but uncertain. I also found a decent sawfish rostral spine (Pristis spp?, uncertain). My favorite tooth was a quite complete 4.5 cm Isurus tooth worn to a nice mellow smoothness. I also picked up something that may be a coprolite--it appears to have inclusions and also hatching or scratch marks. Or it could be a worn bit of hash or a lumpy rock, I really know nothing about coprolites. I had some interesting wildlife encounters and ended up spending more time taking photos of the naughty bits of various streamside vegetation. It was a pleasant way to spend a morning. I'd welcome any comments on the "coprolite".

 

G

[RCW3D]

Absolutely love all of these wildlife pictures! Nice finds too!

[Fossil-Hound]

Excellent baby Meg and Mako.

[Ludwigia]

Really looks like you had a peaceful time. Nice nature photos as well. I'm don't know enough to be able to say if that's a coprolite, but it almost looks like there are scratch marks on it made by claws or teeth. Maybe @GeschWhat can help.

[Ash]

That deer pic almost looks fake or staged! Has a magic to it.

 

Nice finds, what are those super serrated teeth?

[kirk]

Nice finds and beautiful pictures. Love the Low Country, wish it was a little closer to my house. 

[Al Dente]

That is a nice looking Brown Water Snake. Your sawfish rostral tooth is Anoxypristis.

[Fossildude19]

Great pics, finds, and report!

Thanks for showing us.

Regards,

[sixgill pete]

I agree with AlDente that your rostral tooth is Anoxypristis (he beat me to it). You have some great teeth and awesome photos. I love the pic of the fawn on the river bank. And yes, your tooth is a meg, probably posterior. 

[RickNC]

Great capture of the Brown Watersnake. 

[GeschWhat]

Love the photos! I do believe you have a coprolite there, and a pretty nice one at that. I hesitate to remark on what may have caused these scratches, but possibilities I usually consider include turbidity, feeding/tasting traces, or incidental scratching resulting from walking, swimming or rutting behaviors. It is hard to tell from the photos, but from what I can see it appears to have come from a fish with a scroll valve. Is this an inclusion? if so, can I get a better shot of it? 

[Darktooth]

Nice report , pics, and finds!

[Rowboater]

Beautiful pictures!  Peaceful just looking through them.  Thanks for the report!

[flyg]

9 hours ago, GeschWhat said:

...It is hard to tell from the photos, but from what I can see it appears to have come from a fish with a scroll valve. Is this an inclusion? if so, can I get a better shot of it? 

I think that particular spot is just an edge where at the end of the crack that runs through the piece. I've attached a few more shots.

 

When I saw those little scratches, I was reminded of a topic I remembered from this winter:

 

[Grimlock]

Those are some wonderful finds and the photos are absolutely stunning.

[GeschWhat]

3 hours ago, flyg said:

When I saw those little scratches, I was reminded of a topic I remembered from this winter:

Yeah, that is what I was thinking of as well. It is much easier to see the sets of parallel marks in the new photos. My best guess on these is some type of feeding trace.  I'm thinking it may be a cololite (pre-poop intestinal or in your case scroll valve contents). Perhaps scavenger fish left the marks as they fed on the surrounding tissue. Super cool find. Double ichnos are the best!

 

@Carl

[Carl]

What an intriguing fossil! I'd also go with scroll coprolite. I'm less inclined to think cololite because of all the scratches. I agree that they are probably feeding traces but it all leaves more questions than answers.

[JohnBrewer]

Great finds and the nature photos are wonderful too. 

[TNCollector]

Nice watersnake! Every time I collect in the Oligocene I find at least 2 or 3 of them...strange.

 

Oh and cool fossils as well!

[JarrodB]

Nice finds and great pics. I agree it's a coprolite.