Fossil Trip to Portland, Victoria

[Dan 1000]

G'day everyone!

 

I have just returned from a two day fossil trip to the town of Portland, Victoira. We visited three sites and were hunting for vertebrate and invertebrate fossils and came back with a pretty decent haul. This trip my dad and I were mainly focused on collecting vertebrate material as it is quite hard to come by around Melbourne. 

 

Day 1

My dad and I left home at 9:00 am and started our four and a half hour journey to Portland, right on the other side of the state. We arrived at around 2:30 at a beach near Narrawong to look for shark teeth. We had heard that sharks teeth could be found on beaches around Narrawong and Allestree after storms, and were found in deposits of shell grit. The teeth come from an underwater formation and wash onto the beach. Luckily for us, we had arrived just after a storm and found the beach covered in patches of shell grit. The shell grit was too fine for our sifters and the fossils we were finding fell straight through them so we spent the next two hours on our hands and knees searching through the fine grit looking for teeth. We ended up finding many small teeth and bones, most of them partial, but we were luck to find 2 large whole specimens (tiger shark teeth ??), some nice Port Jackson Shark teeth and some other goodies. For the rest of the day we checked out Cape Bridgewater and the Petrified Forest. The 'Petrified Forest' was first thought to be a forest of Moonah trees buried by a large sand dune and preserved. However, scientists now believe they are 'Rhizo Concretions' formed from hollow limestone tubes that have eroded over millions of years.

 

Day 2

Today we headed out to a place called 'Yellow Rock', near Cape Nelson Lighthouse. The cliffs we were looking in were apart of the Nelson Bay Formation. In the cliffs, Australian megafauna fossils from animals such as diprotodons and marsupial lions could be found and were aged around Middle Pleistocene. Unfortunately the conditions were too rough for us to stay very long and we did not find any fossils. We then visited the Cape Nelson Lighthouse and explored its rugged coastline. To end of the day, we took one final look at Narrawong Beach and found a couple more sharks teeth and checked out the cliffs north of Portland Harbour. The cliffs north of Portland Harbour were apart of the Whalers Bluff Formation and were Pliocene in age. In the cliffs we observed many shell bits and collected a few lovenia urchins. However on our way out of the site I spotted the side of a large shell poking out of one of the cliffs boulders. I safely extracted it and to my surprise, It was a palm sized gastropod. (Fossil of the month maybe? ) This put a large smile on my face and was a great find to end the trip. Here are some photos:
 

If any of you are interested, here are some wildlife photos of my trips: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/d_kurek

 

Hope you all enjoyed the report,

Dan

 

 

The Beach

 

Shell grit we were searching

 

Hooded Dotterel (Thinornis rubricollis) we saw on the beach and its nest. These birds are a protected species in Australia and have a very low chick survival rate

 

Blue Ant (Diamma bicolor) a solitary, parasitic wasp we saw along the beach.

 

The Petrified Forest

 

Rough swell at Cape Bridgewater

 

Cape Nelson Lighthouse

 

Cape Nelson Coast

 

Pied Oystercatcher (Haematopus longirostris)

 

Cliffs north of Portland Harbour

 

Cliffs north of Portland Harbour

 

Very tame Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) we helped as it tried to cross a busy road

 

'Monster' gastropod (Appreciate any help in ID)

 

Lovenia Urchins

 

Shark Teeth Finds (Appreciate any help in ID)

 

Heterodontus cainozoicus teeth?

 

Fish material (Toadfish mouthplate, drumfish teeth, ray tooth and fish jaw)

[Macrophyseter]

Amazing haul and trip! That koala is just too cute, how did you help it cross the road? 

 

For ID on shark teeth, most are way too fragmentary for a good ID, but some guesses could be made other than a simple Fraglodon indetus. The largest of the left is either Cosmopolitodus hastalis or Carcharodon plicatilis. The four small teeth at the top are extinct tiger shark teeth, but I do not know which genus/species. The middle two teeth appear to either be fish teeth or not teeth at all. The big tooth on the bottom could be a Carcharodon plicatilis. The last bottom right 3 could be in order of mako, Fraglodon indetus, and sand tiger.

[izak_]

Awesome finds mate, very envious, have wanted to go there for a while! 

Surprised you didn't get scratched to bits by the koala  

[Coco]

Hi,

 

About your shell : Cassis family ?

 

Coco

[Dan 1000]

@Coco  @Foozil 

 

Thank you! 

[Dan 1000]

@Macrophyseter  Thanks for helping to Id the teeth.  Agree the teeth are pretty worn.  Thanks for the ID of the Tiger Shark teeth.  As for the koala we came across the koala crossing the road and just made sure he didn't get run over by stopping traffic and ushering him along to the kerb  He was going in the right direction by himself.

[Fossildude19]

Great report and images, Dan.   

Looks like beautiful country there.
Thanks for posting them. 

Regards,

[Tidgy's Dad]

Lovely photos of nature, scenery and fossils as usual, Dan. 

Great report. 

I'm very glad you managed to find a few specimens, the gastropod is great.

[Dan 1000]

@Tidgy's Dad @FOSSILDUDE12896

 

Thank you! 

[Al Dente]

These small teeth are some type of Triakid or Hemigaleid similar to Galeorhinus or Hemipristis.

 

[siteseer]

On 11/6/2018 at 3:50 AM, Al Dente said:

These small teeth are some type of Triakid or Hemigaleid similar to Galeorhinus or Hemipristis.

 

 

 

Hi Al Dente,

 

Yes, I think those teeth could be Paragaleus, a genus otherwise rare and/or misidentified  in the fossil record.  As you indicated, Paragaleus, Galeorhinus, and other teeth in their respective families are difficult-impossible to tell apart probably because they aren't far-removed from their common ancestor.  I'm leaning toward Paragaleus or Chaenogaleus because the Galeorhinus specimens I have seem to have a broader-based main cusp that is also shorter and less-slender to the tip.  These genera are all in the same approximate size range and I assume the variation in form is more than I have seen so it's hard to say.

 

I couldn't find similar teeth figured in "Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia," which has a nice shark section with numerous plates.

 

Jess

 

 

Jess

[Dan 1000]

@siteseer  @Al Dente

 

Thank you for your help

 

I also have read through the “Vertebrate Paleontology of Australasia” and couldn’t find any similar teeth as well. Was thinking of sending some photos to thr Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at Melbourne Museum to get some help.