Fossils to ID - found today at Walton On The Naze, Essex (UK)

[Gallen]

Hi there,

 

The kids had a nice few little finds today at Walton On The Naze, Essex (UK).

 

We got there just as the tide was revealing the beach so had some nice fresh cliff fall and stoney sand to sort through.

 

Rest assured that any help advising what their finds may be will be greeted with great enthusiasm and excitement! (They are 5 and 8 - and very excited to post this here!).

 

Thank you,

 

G. 

 

 

[Rockwood]

Just to break the ice, vertebrae, shark teeth, possible coprolite.

[abyssunder]

I'm not sure about the coprolite, but the vertebrae are really nice.

[Rockwood]

6 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

I'm not sure about the coprolite

Agree it may be a long shot. @Carl might know more.

[abyssunder]

9 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

Agree it may be a long shot. @Carl might know more.

I'm pretty sure of that.

Other pictures from more angles may help, also.

Ferruginous concretion was my initial thought, maybe something pyritised?

[hemipristis]

8 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Just to break the ice, vertebrae, shark teeth, possible coprolite.

And two kids, apparently

[hemipristis]

The tooth can be one of several. It is difficult to distinguish the anterior teeth physically, and often I have to rely on knowledge of the sediments from whence they came.  The possible options:

Scapanorhynchus sp. (Cretaceous)

Striatolamia macrota (Paleogene)

Carcharias taurus (Neogene)

 

My money is on Striatolamia macrota

[Mark Kmiecik]

1 hour ago, hemipristis said:

And two kids, apparently

And two more people in the background!  The shark tooth on the right (goblin?) is a beauty. I'd like to see the ends and other side of the "coprolite".

[Carl]

Sorry, not seeing a coprolite there.

[Rockwood]

18 minutes ago, Carl said:

Sorry, not seeing a coprolite there.

It seems like I remember reading that this general form, commonly more earthy and curled in appearance, is dubious as a coprolite. True ? 

[Carl]

2 hours ago, Rockwood said:

It seems like I remember reading that this general form, commonly more earthy and curled in appearance, is dubious as a coprolite. True ? 

It's pretty hard to generalize with coprolites as they don't have morphology as tightly guided as body parts but I can't think of any genuine coprolites I've seen with this kind of septarian cracking.