FAIL!

[Still_human]

"The appearance of these sharks are largely unknown. However, author and illustrator Ray Troll mentions in his book, Sharkabet, about how paleontologist Rainer Zangerl once discovered a large shale slab containing a long, eel-like fish covered in long, spine-like denticles, only to have it dry out and crumble into dust. As such, according to Zangerl's account, Troll reconstructs Listracanthus as resembling a tremendous, fiercely-bristled frill shark."

http://fossil.wikia.com/wiki/Listracanthus

 

Oh my GOD!!!!!!! How frustrating!!!! To actually have uncovered an imprint of an extinct shark, one of the many holy grails of collecting, but it being destroyed, and before anyone else could even see it(and i guess before he took a picture of it:/ ). Brings a whole new aspect into the sad idea of discoveries that could, or even HAVE been made, but haven't, won't, or can't be actually discovered to science:( I wonder how many paleontologists have nightmares about that? Maybe even a common nightmare thread for the career?

 

*by the way, these are in the edestus/helicoprion family, so maybe this is a clue as to what those guys looked like?

(simultaneous to all of helicoprion's and to most of edestus' known spans...I don't know what, if anything, that might point to as far as likelyhoods of potential similarities)

 

 

[Macrophyseter]

Tragically, this happens alot. Many times, someone can come across an exceptionally preserved fossil but is unable to preserve them or ended with being careless and destroying them.

 

As far as I know, the actual placement for Listracanthus is still uncertain and probably will never be unless we obtain not-destroyed fossils of them. A lot of people traditionally assume its placement in the Eugeneodontida, but in reality we don't know.

 

Fortunately, @fossilized6s says that he's found the most complete Listracanthus fossil known to date so far and will soon begin full prepping. Let's see what insight his progress shows 

[Still_human]

On 10/6/2018 at 3:10 AM, Macrophyseter said:

Fortunately, @fossilized6s says that he's found the most complete Listracanthus fossil known to date so far and will soon begin full prepping. Let's see what insight his progress shows

Oh wow, that's so awesome! So exciting to know about that! Hopefully it doesn't get put at the back of a que!

 

On 10/6/2018 at 3:10 AM, Macrophyseter said:

As far as I know, the actual placement for Listracanthus is still uncertain and probably will never be unless we obtain not-destroyed fossils of them. A lot of people traditionally assume its placement in the Eugeneodontida, but in reality we don't know.

Interesting! That's bad news though, I'd kill to have legitimate clues, even small ones, that pointed to what edestus and helicoprion likely have actually looked like!

[Still_human]

Speaking of, I happily just got a listra of my own:D

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice!