Our new Shark Education Displays

[fossilsonwheels]

Pictures first, full descriptions will follow 

 

Paleozoic Sharks and “Sharks” 

[fossilsonwheels]

The Paleozoic Sharks and "Sharks" display box is coming along quite nicely. We have room to add a few pieces and we have some Permian stuff from Kansas that is on slides and ready to be added to the display. The box is a 12x16x2 Riker so it is a fairly large display piece. Not pictured is an Edestus tooth that lives in it's own smaller Riker and the Orodus tooth we use as a touch fossil. We will also have a Campodus tooth in this display soon.

 

I am pretty happy with this display and the diversity we can cover in this part of the program. We will be spending less time on these sharks than last year so we can concentrate more on modern sharks that appear in the Mesozoic.

 

On a sad note, I accidentally destroyed one of the Cladoont micro teeth I found in the Kansas matrix. I got the tiny tooth on the slide but put my thumb directly on it after I put the cover on it and it turned to dust. Tough lesson to learn about the caution needed in handling the micro teeth. 

 

 

 

 

 

[fossilsonwheels]

Mesozoic Shark Display #1

 

Triassic and Jurassic Sharks

[fossilsonwheels]

I am really thrilled with the progress we made with this section of the program. We had ZERO Jurassic shark teeth last spring and now we have a decent overview I think. This display is far from finished. For now it is living in an 8x12x.75 Riker but will eventually move to a larger 2" deep box for continuity in the visual value of the program.

 

We will be adding several items to this display in addition to the larger box either before or shortly after our first fall programs. From the Triassic, we will soon have a Rhomphiadon spine and a Nemacanthus spine. The Nemacanthus is a good pick up because it will be our only specimen that is not a Hybodontid. These will rotate as touch fossils as well.

 

The two blank spaces with labels are awesome teeth that will be here soon. We added a Heterodontus from Weymouth and a Paracestraction. I do not know what the correct taxonomy of the "Cretorectolobrus" teeth is. There are a few species described from this location so I need to look into that ID.

[fossilsonwheels]

Mesozoic Sharks #2 

 

Cretaceous Sharks

[fossilsonwheels]

The first of our two Cretaceous period shark displays. This one contains a number of sharks that we covered last year but we added quite a few as well. This is in a 12x16x2 box and I think it looks pretty solid. My personal favorite Cretaceous shark owns the middle of the display and I am really happy with the teeth in this display. We can hit on some of the larger sharks of the time and some cool adaptations.

 

Among the sharks that were added were the Leptostyrax and Cretodus teeth plus Crow shark, Carcharias, Serratolamna, Protolamna and Paranomotodon. I love the diversity of Cretaceous we have now. This will be the focus of our shark program this year, modern sharks in the Mesozoic so these are the flashy teeth from this time.

 

I am committed to finding a Cardabiodon to add to this box but we can be patient with that one.  We may have a 2" Ginsu to add soon.

[fossilsonwheels]

Mesozoic Sharks #3 

 

Cretaceous Sharks. 

[fossilsonwheels]

my favorite project of the summer was without a doubt putting this display together. We found some really cool teeth from relatives of a good number of modern sharks here. The Squatina teeth will be heavily featured as we plan on discussing Angelsharks quite a bit. The Chiloscyllium teeth, which are incredibly tiny, and the Scyliorhinus will also get discussed. As a collector, my favorite addition is the Hexanchus. I had to dig pretty deep to find some of these while others I lucked into via a fantastic donation.

 

Some of the ID's here need some work. The Odontapsis teeth need some more in depth ID work and I am not not sure about the current taxonomy on some of the Hybodonts.

 

We do have two really cool teeth coming our way soon, a Protosqualus and a Bramble Shark ! I think we give a well rounded look at Mesozoic sharks and we can put some really cool modern shark orders/families on the timeline in this era.

 

Not pictured is a Hybodont spine from Morocco and some random teeth used for touch fossils ( Crow, Goblin, Ptychodus). We also have another 8x12 display of Mesozoic shark teeth that is used in our Dino program. Even that will eventually move into a 12x16x2 Riker.

[El_Hueso]

This is both amazing, gorgeous, and educational! Thank you so much for taking the time to photograph and detail everything about the displays. They truly look fantastic, and I can envision myself staring down at that in a museum

[siteseer]

On 8/4/2019 at 2:16 AM, fossilsonwheels said:

Mesozoic Sharks #3 

 

Cretaceous Sharks. 

 

 

Hi Kurt,

 

In the lower right corner you have "Rhombus" binkhorsti.  That is Rhombodus.

 

Those displays are great.

 

Jess

On 8/4/2019 at 1:46 AM, fossilsonwheels said:

I am really thrilled with the progress we made with this section of the program. We had ZERO Jurassic shark teeth last spring and now we have a decent overview I think. This display is far from finished. For now it is living in an 8x12x.75 Riker but will eventually move to a larger 2" deep box for continuity in the visual value of the program.

 

We will be adding several items to this display in addition to the larger box either before or shortly after our first fall programs. From the Triassic, we will soon have a Rhomphiadon spine and a Nemacanthus spine. The Nemacanthus is a good pick up because it will be our only specimen that is not a Hybodontid. These will rotate as touch fossils as well.

 

The two blank spaces with labels are awesome teeth that will be here soon. We added a Heterodontus from Weymouth and a Paracestraction. I do not know what the correct taxonomy of the "Cretorectolobrus" teeth is. There are a few species described from this location so I need to look into that ID.

 

Cretorectolobus is an orectolobiform (carpet sharks - related to nurse sharks).

 

Jess

 

[fossilsonwheels]

9 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

 

Hi Kurt,

 

In the lower right corner you have "Rhombus" binkhorsti.  That is Rhombodus.

 

Those displays are great.

 

Jess

 

Cretorectolobus is an orectolobiform (carpet sharks - related to nurse sharks).

 

Jess

 

Hi Jess

 

Thank you. I am glad you got the Rhombodus mistake. I did not obviously lol Feel free to point out any other misspellings you see. Another set of eyes is always appreciated. I knew Cretorectolobrus was a Carpet Shark but I searched FossilWorks and there were no Jurassic occurrences listed, only Cretaceous. I am more than content to bring up carpet sharks during the Jurassic though. One of our goals was to get as many modern shark families into the Mesozoic as we could. I am pretty proud that we have 7 of 8 living orders of sharks before we even get to the modern era plus some modern shark relatives too.

 

I am actually surprised how well we did in our upgrade. Plus we can still improve it and that is the most fun part for me lol

 

Kurt

[fossilsonwheels]

On 8/4/2019 at 2:00 PM, El_Hueso said:

This is both amazing, gorgeous, and educational! Thank you so much for taking the time to photograph and detail everything about the displays. They truly look fantastic, and I can envision myself staring down at that in a museum

Thank you very much. I am really happy with our shark program. This was so much fun to put together. I thought about getting into more about the educational component but I get long winded when I actually talk shark biology lol

[fossilsonwheels]

Cenozoic Sharks

 

This display is not yet finished but will be important as these are the Sharks most familiar to kids. 

 

I am not sure how I will label these. We may go with general common names instead of scientific names. 

 

Top row

Various Hammerhead teeth, Mako (Desori and Planus), Hastalis, Great White, various Thresher sharks

 

Second Row

Snaggletooth, Tiger, Bull, Lemon, Dusky?, Sand Tigers, Anomotodon, Cretalamna? 

 

Third Row

Saw Shark, Nurse Sharks, various Cow Shark, Basking Shark

 

Fourth Row

Cookiecutter, Squalus, Angel Shark, and a variety of Ray teeth. 

 

Eventually we will have a second display. I am still going through what we have and we will be picking up a lot of teeth for the fossil give away program and some of those will end up in displays. I would like to at some point do a separate STH display but for now this gets us ready for classroom fun !

[fossilsonwheels]

Our “big” shark teeth. Pretty humble by TFF standards but these get the attention of the kids for sure. 

 

The largest is a 5” Meg, there is a 3” Meg, a 2.9” Auriculatus, 2.5” Angie, 2.54” Hastalis, and a 2.5” GW. 

 

[fossilsonwheels]

[fossilsonwheels]

Finally, the interactive fossils. Or at least a few of them. I did not want to dig them all out lol A variety of broken/partial Megs, an Angie or two, a GW, some Otodus teeth, Squalicorax, a few verts, and a Hybodont spine

 

 

[fossilsonwheels]

Haven’t updated this in a while. We have made a bit of progress on these shark displays. 

 

First picture is the updated Paleozoic collection. We acquired a beautiful Permian Ctenacanthus tooth from @Troodon and moved our Edestus tooth to this display. Top to bottom, left to right

 

Glikmanius, Cladodus, Edestus, Caseodus

 

Lissodus, Listracanthus, Venustodus, Stethacanthus, Undescribed Symmorium or Ctenacanthidae

 

Barbclabornia, Orthacanthus, Helodus, Ctenacanthus, micro shark denticle 

 

After Christmas we are probably going to work on splitting the Permian stuff into it’s own display. We’ll have new labels 

[fossilsonwheels]

I am quite proud of the improvements we have made to our Triassic/Jurassic collection. When we started Fossils on Wheels a year ago, we had the Lissodus minimus and that was it. Now we can fill out a large display box 

 

Top row, the Triassic 

Nemacanthus partial spine, Reticulodus, Acrodus, Lissodus

 

Jurassic 

Protospinax, Sphenodus, Asteracanthus, Hybodus, Lissodus 

 

Paraorthacodus, Synechodus, Cretorectolobrus, Paracestracion, Heterodontus, Spathobatis

 

I messed up the Paraorthacodus label lol outside of that, I am pretty happy with this  

[fossilsonwheels]

Cretaceous Display 1 

 

We have done pretty well with our Cretaceous collection. This display is at maximum capacity lol 

 

Top row down 

A variety of Ptychodus teeth

 

Cretoxyrhina (we have a C. vraconensis and a variety C. mantelli ) and Cretodus

 

a variety of Squalicorax teeth

 

Cretalamna, Serratolamna, Protolamna, Carcharias, Leptostyrax

 

Cretalamna, a variety of Scapanorhynchus, Notidanodon, Paranomotodon

 

 

 

[fossilsonwheels]

Cretaceous Display 2 

 

The small teeth and ray fossils. Another very full display case  

 

Hybodus, Lissodus, Meristodonoides, Planohybodus, Paleogaleus, Pseudocorax, Protosqualus

 

Odontapsis, Carcharias, Squatina, Hexanchus, Galeorhinus, Scapanorhynchus, Cederstroemia

 

Synechodus, Scyliorhinus, Chiloscyllium, Echinorhinus

 

Ischyrhiza, Myledaphus, Onchopristis, Rhombodus, Protoplatyrhina

 

I think we do a pretty good job of showing shark diversity and covering sharks from a variety locations worldwide. 

[siteseer]

Hi Kurt,

 

I'm looking at your latest displays figuring out if I can send you anything useful.  I noticed that you have Galeorhinus ypresiensis in Cretaceous Display 2.  That species is known from the Early Eocene.  If it's from a Cretaceous site, it's just a misidentification.  If it's actually a G. ypresiensis tooth, it should be in your Cenozoic display.  

 

One thing you might consider is grouping the teeth taxonomically: oldest groups down to those that appeared more recently.  In that case you would group them by order.  However, I also see the practicality of grouping them in a display roughly by size.  Doing it taxonomically does illustrate the level of diversity, and to some extent, the size range within an order, family, and genus.  You did group all the batoids together on the bottom row of Display 2.

 

Jess 

[fossilsonwheels]

Hi Jess

 

The Galeorhinus is supposed to be Cretaceous and I want to say North Carolina according to the seller though I’m at work so can’t check the records. 

 

I am am going to rearrange the displays sometime in February or March. We present the information on a timeline and that is why they are arranged this currently but I think taxonomically makes sense as we acquire more stuff. 

 

We we started with little so doing it as they are made sense but we’ve picked up enough stuff to possibly change things around. I’ve discussed it with Carter too and we’re leaning that direction. 

 

Kurt