Late Triassic - New Mexico

[Peat Burns]

Date of Trip: June 2018

Location: Quay Co., NM, USA

Age: Late Triassic

Formation: Redonda

 

This was the second of a number of hunting trips across the country this summer (the first was Silex, MO, reported earlier).  This will be the Triassic Vertebrate report from this trip.  Triassic invertebrate report will have to wait (perhaps exciting news ).  Triassic plants and Cretaceous inverts from the same general locality will also be reported later.

 

These are finds from a coarse-grained fluvial deposit rich in fish remains.  In one layer, ganoid fish scales were almost as abundant as the mineral clasts. Here is a view looking down on the bedding plane showing the fish scales laying on top:

 

Here is the same chunk of matrix cut across the bedding planes (i.e. in side view) showing numerous scales in transverse section:

 

Disaggregation of the matrix and rinsing through a sieve yields numerous small, complete scales (scale in mm):

Large scales are present in the matrix but heavily fractured and very difficult to extract intact.

 

(Continued below)

[Nimravis]

Nice so far 

[Peat Burns]

Fish bones were also abundant, but mostly as small, water-worn fragments.  I did however find one relatively large fish bone (this one occurred in association with a very large Phytosaur tooth):

 

Here is a smaller fish bone that I carefully exposed from the matrix (scale in mm):

 

Here is the larger fish bone shown with the nearby cf. Redondasaurus (phytosaur) tooth:

 

And a close-up of the tooth (the largest tooth recovered at 6 cm):

 

(Continued below)

[Peat Burns]

And here is the total haul (>50) of phytosaur teeth representing many positions in the jaw and possibly more than one species (I ran out of gem boxes and have more ordered ):

 

Some of the teeth are serrated.  Others are not.  Here's a close-up of one showing the serrations:

 

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks for looking.

[Nimravis]

Great trip report Tony and you found a ton of great fossils- congrats.

[Cowboy Paleontologist]

Pretty nice haul!

[Peat Burns]

2 minutes ago, Cowboy Paleontologist said:

Pretty nice haul!

Thanks 

[Peat Burns]

14 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

Great trip report Tony and you found a ton of great fossils- congrats.

Thanks Ralph. You might get some of these 

[Peat Burns]

Oops. I almost forgot to include a photo of the mesa for which the formation is named:

[ynot]

Nice grouping of fossils.

Looks like You did good there.

[Dan 1000]

Nice finds!

[smt126]

looks like you had some pretty nice finds

[RJB]

I'd say you found a purty good spot!  Congrats man.  Nice report.

 

RB

[Tidgy's Dad]

Vertebrates?

You've been lured to The Dark Side! 

Seriously, that's a great haul, what a lot of phytosaur teeth and scales! 

Nice. 

I'm very interested to see the Triassic invertebrates too. Sounds intriguing.

 

[jpc]

very nice.  I am jealous.  Are you sure all those teeth are phtyosaurs?  There seems to be quite a variety, and there was a huge variety of animals in the Triassic.  

[caldigger]

How long did you dig that area? That is a whopping amount of items. Very cool!

[Peat Burns]

54 minutes ago, jpc said:

very nice.  I am jealous.  Are you sure all those teeth are phtyosaurs?  There seems to be quite a variety, and there was a huge variety of animals in the Triassic.  

Thanks. There definitely (very likely) could be some aetosaur teeth in there.  I just got finished prepping them and haven't had opportunity yet to "sit down" with them yet.

[Peat Burns]

22 minutes ago, caldigger said:

How long did you dig that area? That is a whopping amount of items. Very cool!

I got lucky.  I got into a little pocket that was really rich.  The spot I worked was probably not much bigger than 1 m.  

[Darktooth]

Wow Tony! You found a good quantity of fossils in great condition. Congratulations!

[andreas]

Thank you much for the report! Great finds! Triassic is my favorite time/age, especially inverts/ammonoids. So I am very curious to see your inverts

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Very nice and informative report - absolutely love the phytosaur teeth!!!

-Christian

 

P.S. Just to know, is it easy to access the location where you collected that material?

[Max-fossils]

Just crazy stuff, I love it 

I thought phytosaur teeth were a rather rare type of fossil... was I wrong or did you just get unbelievably lucky?

And how would you describe the hunting there? Easy or tiring?

Curious to see what the inverts hold. Maybe some cool bivalves!

[Peat Burns]

29 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

Wow Tony! You found a good quantity of fossils in great condition. Congratulations!

 

Thanks, Dave!  Hopefully I can meet you and hunt with you at DSR sometime this year 

 

29 minutes ago, andreas said:

Thank you much for the report! Great finds! Triassic is my favorite time/age, especially inverts/ammonoids. So I am very curious to see your inverts

 

Thank you.  It was a real treat to be able to hunt the Triassic.  Not many such opportunities for me or many others.  Unfortunately, the invert report may be a very long time in coming.  Very difficult and tedious prep among other issues.

 

10 minutes ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

Very nice and informative report - absolutely love the phytosaur teeth!!!

-Christian

 

P.S. Just to know, is it easy to access the location where you collected that material?

Thanks, Christian.  This site was on private property (with permission, of course ) and not otherwise open for hunting.

 

1 minute ago, Max-fossils said:

Just crazy stuff, I love it 

I thought phytosaur teeth were a rather rare type of fossil... was I wrong or did you just get unbelievably lucky?

And how would you describe the hunting there? Easy or tiring?

Curious to see what the inverts hold. Maybe some cool bivalves!

Oh yes!  You'll be pleased, but I may need to publish before I can post, which means it's going to be a long wait, unfortunately 

[Max-fossils]

2 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

Oh yes!  You'll be pleased, but I may need to publish before I can post, which means it's going to be a long wait, unfortunately 

Gah! Guess I'll have to wait then...   

 

What about those two questions? I'm mostly curious about the first one...

10 minutes ago, Max-fossils said:

I thought phytosaur teeth were a rather rare type of fossil... was I wrong or did you just get unbelievably lucky?

And how would you describe the hunting there? Easy or tiring?

 

[Peat Burns]

16 minutes ago, Max-fossils said:

I thought phytosaur teeth were a rather rare type of fossil... was I wrong or did you just get unbelievably lucky?

And how would you describe the hunting there? Easy or tiring?

Oh, I forgot to respond to this.  The short answer is unbelievably lucky with regards to the site in general and specifically with regard to the pocket I was in.  Very tedious digging in hard conglomerate, and the teeth are usually cracked and extremely fragile - so field consolidant, toilet paper, and aluminum foil 

 

The inverts came from a different site.