Micro shark, ray and bony fish specimens from the Miocene of France and Cretaceous of the Congo

[MarcoSr]

I want to thank Alexandre @Quriosity  for matrix from the Miocene of France (Miocene, Langhian Age, lower "dark" horizon, Loupian Quarry, France) and the Cretaceous of the Congo (Cretaceous, Maastrichtian,Tchivoula Quarry, near Hinda, Congo).  The matrix was very fine.  It was processed and ready to search.

 

I spent almost a year and a half almost exclusively with the terrestrial Eocene/Oligocene matrix from my sons' ranch in Nebraska.  It was nice to get back to marine matrix especially from two sites that I hadn't searched before.

 

 

In the Miocene matrix from France (This was a very small sample size of a very fine matrix) I found a number of bony fish teeth, 7 Dasyatis teeth, 3 shark teeth, and two dermal denticles.

 

 

 

Here is a picture of everything in a 1.75” diameter gem jar cup.

 

 

Here are pictures of the 3 shark teeth.  They are pretty small around .4 to .5 mm.

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture of one of the Dasyatis teeth which were all under 1 mm.

 

 

 

 

In the Cretaceous matrix from the Congo I found a good number of bony fish teeth, a good number of ray and sawfish teeth, and at least one shark tooth.  Because of the matrix size I really didn’t expect to find shark teeth.  I did recognize a number of species from the Maastrichtian of Morocco.  However I did find several species that looked different.  At some point I’ll take a lot more pictures of the ray and sawfish teeth. 

 

 

 

Here is a picture of the bony fish teeth in a 1.75” diameter gem jar cup.

 

 

Here is a picture of the ray and sawfish teeth in a 1.75” diameter gem jar cup.

 

 

Here is a picture of the shark tooth and a few odd specimens in a 1.75” diameter gem jar cup.

 

 

Here is a picture of the 2 mm shark tooth.

 

 

 

I’m not sure if this is a shark tooth with a damaged root or maybe a ray tooth, something like Cretomanta.

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

 

 

 

[doushantuo]

Some interesting stuff there,Marco Sr

[Troodon]

Beautiful, love the micro teeth

[jcbshark]

Excellent pics as always Marco I haven't seen much vertabrate material from France

[Miocene_Mason]

interesting locations! Ive never heard of Congolese fossils before!

[sixgill pete]

Very interesting Marco. You always seem to come up with the coolest matrixes.

[Nimravis]

Beautiful finds and as always, I love the photography.

[ynot]

Nice!

You come up with such unique matrixes to search and find some nice pieces in most of the matrix.

[MarcoSr]

11 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Beautiful finds and as always, I love the photography.

 

Thank you.  Shark teeth around .4 mm are tough to take pictures of because it is very difficult to position specimens that small without damaging them.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

12 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

interesting locations! Ive never heard of Congolese fossils before!

 

I have obtained a lot of matrix from different sites in Morocco before but this was my first matrix from the Congo.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

11 hours ago, sixgill pete said:

Very interesting Marco. You always seem to come up with the coolest matrixes.

 

4 hours ago, ynot said:

Nice!

You come up with such unique matrixes to search and find some nice pieces in most of the matrix.

 

Don/Tony

 

I get a lot of the matrix that I post about from TFF members.  TFF is a great place to communicate with fossil collectors worldwide.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

13 hours ago, jcbshark said:

Excellent pics as always Marco I haven't seen much vertabrate material from France

 

Jeff

 

It is difficult to get matrix from France with vertebrate material.  I've tried for years and have only gotten vertebrate matrix from one additional site in France which was Cretaceous.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

15 hours ago, doushantuo said:

Some interesting stuff there,Marco Sr

 

I always find specimens from new sites (for me) interesting especially when I find species that I haven't collected before.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

14 hours ago, Troodon said:

Beautiful, love the micro teeth

 

I love the micro teeth also.  At some point I hope to move to South Dakota and spend lots of time looking for micros in formations like the Lance Formation and Hell Creek Formation.  I've only looked at a small amount of matrix from these formations so far.

 

Marco Sr.