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Triassic shark teeth from the Rhaetian bone bed of Somerset, UK


Aurelius

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The coast of Somerset is famous for one of the exposures of the Rhaetian Penarth formation, which is better known from Aust, where it is better exposed. It contains many reptile bones, fish scales, shark teeth, fin spines, coprolites, that sort of thing. On my last visit I didn't find any of the blocks which contain large bones, but I did find some containing large numbers of tiny teeth and very small bones. These blocks can be broken down to reveal large quantities of fossils.

 

These teeth are absolutely tiny, some as small as 1mm across and none bigger than 3mm. They can barely be made out by the naked eye, except as a shiny black dot on the rock.

 

75mp panorama of one of the larger teeth (approx 3mm)

59d70b1f45f11_Slab1PMax_dof_stitch2.thumb.jpg.7c590078142de42620030e9e42b9aaee.jpg

 

I placed this tooth on a magazine to illustrate scale. The letters are standard small print.

 

59d70b206dd19_Slab1PMax-2.thumb.jpg.58258907dd9338f40b46b97d9f96652a.jpg

 

59d70b1b9efbf_Slab1PMax.thumb.jpg.6d14bfae4981a80b9b3798f0a5901b84.jpg

 

59d70b21d9a00_Slab6PMax.thumb.jpg.abc1047b042d714676f686a4122fdf4c.jpg

 

 

 

59d70c03610d6_Slab13PMax.thumb.jpg.d7e29a09e2d322d7f782ba8a2ac27ab4.jpg

 

59d70c0083ae1_Slab9PMax.thumb.jpg.d2a7e95f0c030535efb29410eb8f3552.jpg

 

59d70e665ff7e_Slab10PMax-2.thumb.jpg.4aee41ec496f60c1250a29045df4fd69.jpg

 

59d70bfcbb5b9_Slab8PMax.thumb.jpg.aa9ed33bd7d2e69f0d8c4ad19cd7c889.jpg

 

Slab 10 PMax.jpg

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My guess is you've always got a loupe in your pocket when you go down there. Thanks for sharing! I'll have to keep my eyes peeled next time I'm in the area.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Oh thats great, :o

 

I recently got a box of gravel from a now closed location in Belgium from the same age.

The material found in that gravel is identical to yours.

I’ll try to make some pictures this weekend to compare.

 

 

 

 

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

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@Aurelius Lovely material and photos and you've just beaten me to it! - I've got a large slab from Blue Anchor Bay that I picked up decades ago, packed with similar teeth and I recently started photographing them. Most are black but some aren't, like this one - and I'd like to know what the holes are...

 

IMG_2557.thumb.jpg.40489046e7b4876c159b72fd67b1fdf8.jpg

 

 

 

 

Tarquin

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Tiny, but awesome teeth!

If you're a fossil nut from Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Redondo Beach, or Torrance, feel free to shoot me a PM!

 

 

Mosasaurus_hoffmannii_skull_schematic.png

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Excellent photos, Aurelius! :wub: 

Thanks for posting them. 

 

Have any of them be identified?

I'd love to know what I'm looking at!

Regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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The last one looks like Scyliorhinidae.

 

Coco

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Thanks for the comments. I have no idea about shark teeth, although there is a book called Fossils of the Rhaetian Penarth Group, which I intend on purchasing when I'm out of my current state of miserable penury. 

 

 

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10 hours ago, TqB said:

@Aurelius Lovely material and photos and you've just beaten me to it! - I've got a large slab from Blue Anchor Bay that I picked up decades ago, packed with similar teeth and I recently started photographing them. Most are black but some aren't, like this one - and I'd like to know what the holes are...

 

IMG_2557.thumb.jpg.40489046e7b4876c159b72fd67b1fdf8.jpg

 

 

 

 

That's a beautiful tooth, and the holes are interesting! 

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Here are some of my simmilar specimens from Belgium:

 

V4lss7kZji95ItqDm6tLR9HyAoGlIX5AM_iWcNwz

 

GRjRw-kCREdz3-_wdsmQZBmwatbIKVQ9HEaqSvp7

 

p296GpfPb1kE1CbNxArMIOI9wO_6V2ppWz5984Sp

 

Iw_nVqpqOf2o4IE-tgmKQ4XFF22nmVmW3VAPENtY

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

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Excellent finds and pics, thanks for sharing:)

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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Great finds! I always wanted to find some cool Triassic teeth. 

I suppose, flatter and wider crushing teeth belong to Lissodus, and conical teeth with 2-4 cusplets - Rhomphaiodon (Hybodus) minor.

On 10/6/2017 at 6:19 PM, Coco said:

The last one looks like Scyliorhinidae.

 

Coco

 

I think root here is anaulacorizous, that is typical of Hybodonts, not Carcharhiniforms. Here is a picture from Welton & Fairish - scyliorhinids have holaulacorhizous roots, unlike hybodonts (I).

 

image.thumb.png.9daa93d45612608508bdb843e7c5838b.png

The Tooth Fairy

 

 

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On 10/6/2017 at 0:51 AM, Aurelius said:

59d70bfcbb5b9_Slab8PMax.thumb.jpg.aa9ed33bd7d2e69f0d8c4ad19cd7c889.jpg

 

Slab 10 PMax.jpg

 These things might be scales, by the way. First one is weird, by the second one is definitely a scale.

The Tooth Fairy

 

 

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I have that paper, I like the fish teeth in it, ordered a few more papers like it, may get some more ID's. I love researchgate, you can apply for full text and it is free. Really helpful PDF's.

Never ask a starfish for directions

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