A few new Cretaceous fossils in my collection

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Hey everyone

Last week I went to a small mineral/fossil market/exhibition near Lille (northern France). The thing lasted the whole weekend (29th and 30th September) - I managed to get to it just a few hours before it closed.

 

 

 

 

 

There wasn't much diversity in terms of fossils, but I did spot some rather neat stuff - including some cool vertebrate specimens

Cephalic 'armour' of a small placoderm (don't really remember from where, tho... )

 

Well-preserved eurypterid from the Silurian of Ukraine

 

 

Little array of dinosaur teeth from the Cretaceous of USA (I think the seller mentioned that they were from the Hell Creek Fm.)

 

 

More dinosaur (and 1 pterosaur, bottom-left corner) teeth; including 2 Bothriospondylus teeth from Madagascar.. I'd have loved to buy them  

 

Well-preserved Keichousaurus from the Triassic of Guizhou province (China).

 

 

I didn't only 'gawk' at the fossils, I also bought a few little things :

 

 

2 small ?Lepisosteus fish teeth from the Cenomanian (Cretaceous) of Cap Blanc Nez (coast of northern France)

 

I'm rather pleased I bought this one...  Associated cranial remains of a small frog (?Ranidae) from the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of the Hell Creek Formation (Montana, USA). Seller told me that stuff is fairly uncommon..

 

 

Well, that's it  Hope you enjoyed this

 

-Christian

 

 

EDIT: The last item (thanks for pointing this out, @jdp!) is actually a Doleserpeton skull from the Permian of Oklahoma... not a Hell Creek Fm. frog skull

-Apologies for any confusion

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by The Amateur Paleontologist
"Ranid frog skull from HC Fm." is actually a Doleserpeton skull

[jdp]

So I hate to be a downer, but that last item is actually probably Doleserpeton from the early Permian Dolese Quarry in Oklahoma. The teeth on the lower jaw establish that it is not frog at all (frogs have no teeth on the lower jaw) and the anatomy in general is consistent with Doleserpeton. Doleserpeton is relatively common in those deposits as isolated fragments, and some sellers put together these sorts of associations of partial skull fragments. There are occasional associated or articulated skulls, but they are relatively rare (I've seen maybe a half-dozen total).

 

Doleserpeton is actually pretty cool in itself because it is thought to be very closely related to modern amphibians and would have looked like something in between a frog and a salamander.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

@jdp Sorry for my mistake  you're right, it's definitely a Doleserpeton skull - thanks for pointing this out. I still nevertheless find it pretty cool

-Christian

[Bobby Rico]

33 minutes ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

Doleserpeton is a pretty cool one too - in my opinion  

I think that is really cool too. I can’t give you an ID but Doleserpeton is also found in Richards spur quorry Oklahoma I think . The Permian is an really interesting period mainly because I love Dimetrodon .

[Anomotodon]

And the first two teeth are very likely plesiosaurian rather than Lepisosteus, more pictures would help, but I am pretty sure they are from a ?Polycotylid plesiosaur or, less likely, a crocodilian

 

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

5 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

I think that is really cool too. I can’t give you an ID but Doleserpeton is also found in Richards spur quorry Oklahoma I think . The Permian is an really interesting period mainly because I love Dimetrodon .

You're right - I've seen records of Doleserpeton from the Richards Spur locality

-Christian

 

 

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

@Anomotodon the largest tooth is approximately 10mm tall with a 4mm (diameter) base.. isn't that a bit small for a polycotylid tooth, though?

[Anomotodon]

5 minutes ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

@Anomotodon the largest tooth is approximately 10mm tall with a 4mm (diameter) base.. isn't that a bit small for a polycotylid tooth, though?

 They can be even smaller, in juveniles, plus Polycotylids were not very large marine reptiles. In addition it's just the bottom half of the tooth. Size is very rarely among determining criteria for tooth ID.

 

Here is mine from Albian of Kanev, Ukraine (?Polycotylidae indet.)

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

23 minutes ago, Anomotodon said:

 They can be even smaller, in juveniles, plus Polycotylids were not very large marine reptiles. In addition it's just the bottom half of the tooth. Size is very rarely among determining criteria for tooth ID.

 

Here is mine from Albian of Kanev, Ukraine (?Polycotylidae indet.)

Alright  I'm willing to consider that option.. I'll look through a few papers, and soon I'll post here better quality pictures of my two specimens - to see if that's the right ID

Thanks for the idea, though - I'd be thrilled if my specimens turned out to be polycotylid teeth

-Christian

[jdp]

10 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

I think that is really cool too. I can’t give you an ID but Doleserpeton is also found in Richards spur quorry Oklahoma I think . The Permian is an really interesting period mainly because I love Dimetrodon .

Richard's Spur is where the Dolese Brothers Quarry is. Both names refer to the same place and same deposits.

 

I have seen other Doleserpeton material from other localities but it has not been formally described yet.

[Bobby Rico]

1 hour ago, jdp said:

Richard's Spur is where the Dolese Brothers Quarry is. Both names refer to the same place and same deposits.

 

I have seen other Doleserpeton material from other localities but it has not been formally described yet.

Thank you I didn’t know that. I am very new to this material. @jdp can you please have a look at a thread I added a couple of days ago and if you have any thoughts. It would be much appreciated.

@The Amateur Paleontologist I hope you don’t mind me adding a link from your post. If it is a problem l can delete it .

cheers both .

 

 

 

[Brittle Star]

Hi

Perhaps Someone can put me right here, I thought the export of vertebrate fossilsfrom China were banned.

Very nice collection you have there.

[Bobby Rico]

6 minutes ago, Brittle Star said:

Hi

Perhaps Someone can put me right here, I thought the export of vertebrate fossilsfrom China were banned.

Very nice collection you have there.

Was you talking about the Keichousaurus?  I think a lot of vertebrae fossil from China are band from been exported but Keichousaurus are plenty full and not on part of this ban. 

[Brittle Star]

Thank you for the information, so confusing.

[jdp]

All Chinese exports are banned. Some still make it out, though, and there are some fossils that were exported prior to the enforcement of the ban

[jdp]

11 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Thank you I didn’t know that. I am very new to this material. @jdp can you please have a look at a thread I added a couple of days ago and if you have any thoughts. It would be much appreciated.

@The Amateur Paleontologist I hope you don’t mind me adding a link from your post. If it is a problem l can delete it .

cheers both .

 

 

 

I'll give these a look in a bit.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

I'll post a few more pictures of my polycotylid/fish teeth tomorrow It'd be really cool if they turn out to really be poly. teeth!

-Christian

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Sorry for the lateness of this post, but there was a slight problem with my computer..

Anyways, here are some more pictures of the most diagnostic tooth - does the polycotylid ID still hold? @Anomotodon

 

BTW., sorry for not great photo quality - hope ID is still possible.. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just for information, specimen measures ~7 milimetres.

So what do you guys think it is?

 

-Christian

[Anomotodon]

Definitely a plesiosaur (open pulpar cavity and thick enamel are the diagnostic features of most reptiles, striae and compression are typical of plesiosaurs), not sure about family though, elasmosaurid teeth are very compressed and polycotylids are more conical

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

13 minutes ago, Anomotodon said:

Definitely a plesiosaur

Thanks for taking the time to ID my specimen - You've just made my day  By the way, it isn't really clear from the pictures, but the base of the tooth is rather circular and the tooth is overall more conical.. So - Polycotylidae indet. it is, huh?  

-Christian

[Anomotodon]

Anyway in this preservation the most accurate call is Plesiosauria indet.