Squalodon in Lee Creek/Aurora

[PaleoNoel]

Hi everyone, I was looking online to see if definitive remains of Squalodon have been found in sediments from the Lee Creek mine in Aurora. What I found from older posts on the forum is that similar looking teeth have been found but belong to different toothed whale species. Also fossilguy.com shows several teeth which are labeled as Squalodon.

I was interested in learning more about this as a Squalodon tooth is definitely on my bucket list and I plan on revisiting the spoil piles at Aurora within the next few years.

[fossilsonwheels]

4 hours ago, PaleoNoel said:

Hi everyone, I was looking online to see if definitive remains of Squalodon have been found in sediments from the Lee Creek mine in Aurora. What I found from older posts on the forum is that similar looking teeth have been found but belong to different toothed whale species. Also fossilguy.com shows several teeth which are labeled as Squalodon.

I was interested in learning more about this as a Squalodon tooth is definitely on my bucket list and I plan on revisiting the spoil piles at Aurora within the next few years.

I would check out the Coastal Paleontologist Blog that @Boesse does. He covers this topic very well in one of his posts.

[fossilsonwheels]

I should say he covers Squalodon fossils very well though I do not recall him mentioning Lee Creek.

[Al Dente]

The publication “Geology and Paleontology of the Lee Creek Mine, vol. 4 “ has 3 species of Squalodon from the Pungo River Formation. They are Squalodon cf. Squalodon whitmorei, Squalodon calvertensis, and Squalodon sp. Squalodon calvertensis teeth are fairly common from the mine.

[PaleoNoel]

7 hours ago, fossilsonwheels said:

I should say he covers Squalodon fossils very well though I do not recall him mentioning Lee Creek.

 

7 hours ago, Al Dente said:

The publication “Geology and Paleontology of the Lee Creek Mine, vol. 4 “ has 3 species of Squalodon from the Pungo River Formation. They are Squalodon cf. Squalodon whitmorei, Squalodon calvertensis, and Squalodon sp. Squalodon calvertensis teeth are fairly common from the mine.

Thanks guys!

[Boesse]

Hey all - furthering @Al Dente's comments - certainly Squalodon calvertensis, and I am a bit skeptical of the S. whitmorei identification. There is a larger Squalodon, but it is so fragmentary that the species ID is perhaps too precise.

 

[DD1991]

On 8/26/2019 at 8:42 AM, PaleoNoel said:

 

Thanks guys!

The listing of the tooth USNM 25286 by Whitmore and Kaltenbach as Squalodon sp. could be tenuous as this tooth might belong to a non-Squalodon odontocete (Whitmore and Kaltenbach assigned five tympanic bullae from the Lee Creek Mine to Plesiocetus sp., not knowing that Plesiocetus was restricted to the type species P. garopi by van Beneden [1872] and Kellogg [1931]).

[Boesse]

There are some remains described in Whitmore and Kaltenbach (2008) as belonging to small squalodontids, and at least one specimen - a mandible fragment with double rooted teeth and embrasure pits for the upper teeth to fit into - is clearly from an Oligocene xenorophid dolphin, and another is a double rooted cheek teeth with smooth enamel and no accessory denticles, which appears to be from a "spear-toothed" waipatiid dolphin (also Oligocene).

[Harry Pristis]

These are a few that Boesse suggested were xenophorid teeth: