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Palaeorhincodon from the Eocene of Virginia


MarcoSr

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I usually don’t post a single tooth, but the rarity and colors of this Palaeorhincodon tooth make it worthwhile to post.  The tooth came from Eocene matrix from Virginia that I collected a few weeks ago from what I call a “funky” layer.  This layer is very hard and contains lots of minerals.  The minerals were probably introduced by groundwater seepage eons ago.  Most teeth in this layer can have really funky enamel but a few have decent enamel and great colors like this tooth.  I usually don’t take this layer because of the funky teeth but a little of it got mixed in with the good layer that I normally take.  This tooth is blue, white and black with golden pyrite (fool’s gold) on the root.  I believe the tooth is a Palaeorhincodon daouii.

 

Pictures of a 53 million year old tooth (3.5 mm):

 

5cd17780c862d_Palaeorhincodondaouii3.jpg.6f91fea785b4ede44da32727d52c6162.jpg

 

5cd1777fb3fe3_Palaeorhincodondaouii2.jpg.836ae0a417c5ff9f4ece0d69306ffee3.jpg

 

5cd17781dae8e_Palaeorhincodondaouii4.jpg.ec21c3bb7bd0426bddd9b736abecd652.jpg

 

5cd1777e9da9b_Palaeorhincodondaouii1.jpg.f7ed38fb0ccbf8f298bd6edc41285229.jpg

 

 

For comparison below are pictures of an extant Rhincodon typus (Whale Shark) (4 mm) tooth:

 

5cd176ec2fa3d_Rhincodontypus(WhaleShark)24mm2.thumb.jpg.6f64b9648e1cbffb3d65a85fa6e44cd1.jpg

 

5cd1772631d1e_Rhincodontypus(WhaleShark)24mm.thumb.jpg.653eaee488edd81b675925c0099b5554.jpg

 

5cd1772754f9d_RRhincodontypus(WhaleShark)24mm3.thumb.jpg.a2251900e654045422121a633c86b5b7.jpg

 

 

Although there are a number of differences in the features of the two teeth, the most obvious is the strong cusplets on the Palaeorhincodon.

 

Marco Sr.

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"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

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Great find, and photos! :) 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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Great colors! Have any thoughts about how to manage the potential for fossil rot? 

-a

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39 minutes ago, sharkdoctor said:

Great colors! Have any thoughts about how to manage the potential for fossil rot? 

-a

 

Luckily for the vast majority of the fossils that I find, I don't need to worry about fossil rot.  I wash my fossils in an ultrasonic cleaner with water for up to an hour (or as short as a few seconds with delicate specimens) to remove salt (from beach finds) and any chemical residues from chemicals that I used for matrix processing before storage.  However, the ultrasonic cleaner won't do much to remove mineral staining and will be more harmful than help with pyrite.  Pyrite rot will destroy your fossil over time.  If you don't want to store your pyrite fossils in a liquid which prevents or slows rot, which I don't, the best you can do is to try to dry them thoroughly and to keep them from water moisture.  I know collectors who surface coated their pyrite fossils to keep moisture out and the specimens still rotted under the coating.  I also find lignitized wood/seeds/nuts which need to be stored in a liquid like Glycerin with a bit of thymol, which is an anti fungal agent.  Unfortunately I didn't store them like this and most deteriorated at least somewhat and some did have fungus grow on them.

 

Marco Sr.

 

 

 

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

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Awesome! Very sweet micro-tooth!

 

Very cool how the ancestors of the whale sharks had cusped teeth. It is easy to see how a species that evolved into a filter feeder could lose the side cusps that would be of little value on these vestigial teeth. Not a whole lot of images of Paleorhincodon daouii available online but the ones I do see seem to have a fully enameled uvula-like extension on the lingual base of the tooth. The third (top-down) image above shows what could be this area but with the enamel not preserved in the same way as on the cusps.

Dad2008Palaeorhincodon Daouii.JPG

 

A very nice surprise to spot while picking micro-matrix. I always enjoy these tiny gifts. Excellent photography as usual as well.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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1 hour ago, Fossildude19 said:

Great find, and photos! :) 

 

Thank you.  I had a really hard time taking these pictures.  The detail kept washing out in the pictures especially because of the color mixtures, like taking a picture of a camouflaged item.  It is really hard to see the cusplet in the first picture for instance.  It just blends into the crown in the background.

 

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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3 minutes ago, MarcoSr said:

The detail kept washing out in the pictures especially because of the color mixtures, like taking a picture of a camouflaged item.

There is a huge dynamic range with the bluish-white highlights and the darker colors in the enamel. Were you able to use HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging to make this photo?

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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55 minutes ago, digit said:

Awesome! Very sweet micro-tooth!

 

Very cool how the ancestors of the whale sharks had cusped teeth. It is easy to see how a species that evolved into a filter feeder could lose the side cusps that would be of little value on these vestigial teeth. Not a whole lot of images of Paleorhincodon daouii available online but the ones I do see seem to have a fully enameled uvula-like extension on the lingual base of the tooth. The third (top-down) image above shows what could be this area but with the enamel not preserved in the same way as on the cusps.

Dad2008Palaeorhincodon Daouii.JPG

 

A very nice surprise to spot while picking micro-matrix. I always enjoy these tiny gifts. Excellent photography as usual as well.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

Ken

 

Probably those images and definitely the one that you posted above are of my specimens.  The fully enameled uvula-like extension on the lingual base of the tooth does not appear on all of the Eocene Paeorhincodon specimens that I have from Virginia.  I believe that I have both P. daouii and P. dartevellei specimens from Virginia.  That feature is much more prominent on the P. dartevellei.  Looking at the above specimen it definitely looks like P. dartevellei.  So you can't believe all the ids on the web.  I think I got this id wrong, but in fairness, it was made years ago before I got a copy of Noubhani and Cappetta 1997 which does help a bit with distinguishing the two species.  It is still somewhat difficult for me to distinguish them because there are a lot of similar features.  If the tooth in this post is not P. daouii then it is P. dartevellei.

 

Marco Sr.

Edited by MarcoSr
add other species as possibility
  • I found this Informative 1

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Very nice--I love it when I can learn a new bit of obscure fossil lore before lunchtime. ;)

 

If you cared about such things, I'd prompt you to enter the new little treasure in the FOTM contest. Like a diamond, it packs a lot of beauty in a small package.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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27 minutes ago, digit said:

There is a huge dynamic range with the bluish-white highlights and the darker colors in the enamel. Were you able to use HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging to make this photo?

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

Ken

 

I do have an EDR (Extended Dynamic Range) capability on my Dino-Lite microscope but I have never used it before.  Looking at it now, it takes multiple pictures.  However, if I use that feature I can't also use my EDOF capability (Extended Depth of Field) which is my software stacking which is needed to bring the entire specimen into focus.

 

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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Ah, it is one or the other--problem that.

 

It would be interesting to try to take a series of Extended Depth of Field (EDOF) images at different exposures (assuming you can manually set the exposure) and then try to combine those resultant images with external software to create a EDOF-HDR composite. It would be dozens of images (and tremendous) effort but I'm curious about what quality final image might be created by this digital trickeration.

 

I'd say the extra focus gained in the EDOF is a much more important quality to optimize than EDR for small fossils like this.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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Beautiful tooth and pics as always Marco:thumbsu:

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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Beautiful tooth Marco. Were these Nanjemoy sediments? I have a couple of Paleorhincodon wardi from Egem, this tooth is very similar. To bad the Castle Hayne is a bit younger.

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1 hour ago, jcbshark said:

Beautiful tooth and pics as always Marco:thumbsu:

 

Jeff

 

Thank you.  I haven't been posting many new fossil finds because I've been busy studying extant shark and ray teeth, jaws and skin.  So I took a short break to make this post.

 

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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1 minute ago, sixgill pete said:

Beautiful tooth Marco. Were these Nanjemoy sediments? I have a couple of Paleorhincodon wardi from Egem, this tooth is very similar. To bad the Castle Hayne is a bit younger.

 

Don

 

Yes this tooth is from the Nanjemoy Formation.  I also have a couple of P. wardi from matrix from Egem.  My problem is that all of the Palaeorhincodon look too similar to me and it is difficult for me to tell them apart.  Depending on the researcher, we have P. daouii, P. dartevellei, and P. wardi in the MD/VA Formations.

 

Marco Sr.

  • I found this Informative 1

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

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4 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

 

Luckily for the vast majority of the fossils that I find, I don't need to worry about fossil rot.  I wash my fossils in an ultrasonic cleaner with water for up to an hour (or as short as a few seconds with delicate specimens) to remove salt (from beach finds) and any chemical residues from chemicals that I used for matrix processing before storage.  However, the ultrasonic cleaner won't do much to remove mineral staining and will be more harmful than help with pyrite.  Pyrite rot will destroy your fossil over time.  If you don't want to store your pyrite fossils in a liquid which prevents or slows rot, which I don't, the best you can do is to try to dry them thoroughly and to keep them from water moisture.  I know collectors who surface coated their pyrite fossils to keep moisture out and the specimens still rotted under the coating.  I also find lignitized wood/seeds/nuts which need to be stored in a liquid like Glycerin with a bit of thymol, which is an anti fungal agent.  Unfortunately I didn't store them like this and most deteriorated at least somewhat and some did have fungus grow on them.

 

Marco Sr.

 

 

 

Marco, thanks for the thoughtful reply. I hate to admit it, but I was heartened to hear that you have damage at times and less than perfect storage solutions. I've been struggling lately with the fact that I just don't have time and attention to perfectly prep/curate/preserve everything that I find. We have such great access in Virginia, but with volume of fossil finds comes some inevitable problems of prepping, storage, curation. 

-Aaron

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Really great find! Congratulations!

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I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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