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Looking at some of my fossilized wood and came across this 2 inch piece that was different at the ends compared to the others. Does anyone know the wood type? It has some nice colors to it. Thanks.

Hey everyone, Just a quick ID post for help in pinning down what exactly these couple of teeth are. Up first is a broken crown to a tooth I found while processing South Bosque material from Central TX for a pet project of mine. It's Turonian in age and looks similar to some small Carchariniformes teeth I've found at the Whiskey Bridge. Note that when I found this tooth, I had not yet visited the Whiskey Bridge, so I am certain this is not a product of cross contamination. Anyways, it's unlike the other specimens I have from the South Bosque and I am struggling to find a genus that matches its shape other than Galeorhinus. Carchariniformes were present in the Mesozoic and Galeorhinus is known all the way back into the Cenomanian, but ones this old are very rare so I am hesitant. I am wondering if any knows another more likely genus for this Turonian tooth? The second tooth is definitely Cretodus, but I am trying to pin down a species. It came from the Atco (Coniacian) which is known to produce Cretodus crassidens, but I have recently learned of another species, Cretodus houghtonorum, that is also in the area and a candidate. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the paper describing C. houghtonorum so it is difficult for me to figure out how to differentiate the two, but just off of secondhand knowledge I believe this one may be C. houghtonorum because of its more gracile non-ovular cusp. The wrinkling on the labial face is very pronounced and travels farther up the cusp than on my C. semiplicatus specimen from the Cenomanian. On the lingual side, the wrinkling is very short whereas they travel much farther on the C. semiplicatus. The root on the suspected C. houghtonorum is extremely pronounced and almost hangs over the cusp and cusplets. Wish I had a C. crassidens to compare to, but the C. semiplicatus is all I've got for now. Luckily they are very similar in mouth position so it's easy to spot differences. Left is tooth in question; Right is C. semiplicatus specimen Tooth in question C. semiplicatus @ThePhysicist @Al Dente @MarcoSr If you know any other shark experts who could help, feel free to ping them in the replies Thanks!

Perhaps the most definitive, lasting project I've had during my short time in paleo is the excavation and study of a basal mosasaur skeleton my step brother and I found in September of 2021 (If you missed it, it's in my blogs on my profile). The site is on a fairly inconspicuous outcrop of the Eagle Ford formation, in a zone that's atypical for the upper eagle ford, as the rock itself is very condensed compared to what is usual for the upper kef. Notably, while Mosasaur material is very, very rare in the kef (kef is an abbreviation for the Eagle Ford formation), it pokes out with greater frequency here - I have found two other Isolated Mosasaur teeth there before. Both @LSCHNELLE, a geologist who is very familiar with the Eagle Ford, and a paleontologist that I'm working with have made this observation about this atypical site. Between the three of us, we weren't sure there was another exposure like it elsewhere. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over spring break, I was in need of some good luck (after losing the transmission in my new car ), so, finding myself back using my parents car, I made a drive to spot I had scouted a year ago, expecting to see the massively steep Ozan exposure I had spotted from a distance before. Upon arrival, I was greeted with those gorgeous grey shales in all their glory. Upon closer inspection though, I was surprised to realize that things weren't as they seemed. The shales were lighter than the Ozan, and physically much harder. I was suppressing exciting pangs of recognition for a few seconds, but it soon became very clear that this massive vertical exposure was an outcrop of that same lithologically atypical zone of the Eagle Ford that produced our Mosasaur. What's more, this site is many miles away, and mapped as a completely different geologic group. It appears that through upfaulting, a cross section of this zone shot through the layers of earth above it, standing as an Island of the Turonian in a sea of much younger rocks. One feature of the Eagle Ford (or any formation for that matter) is that the bulk of the rock is barren, only interrupted by small intervals of great fossiliferous accumulation. This stood to be true at this site as well, so I set about chasing those shelly lenses that caught my eye and changed my path of life over a year ago. It didn't take long before I came to a shell lens a couple inches thick. One con of this site being a vertical cliff is that I can't peel slabs up as I can at its sister site, so I had to slowly chip into the lens, one piece at a time. Here are some finds that resulted: Small shark vertebra Fish vertebra An oddity, insitu in the middle of the shelly lens. Try your guess first Upon removal: A really lovely Ptychodus tooth that I suspect is the unpublished species also found at our mosasaur site. Since the species has not been described yet, I can't fairly quote any exact morphological features to cement my ID, but I've seen enough by now to "know the look", and have had several of these teeth confirmed by Shawn Hamm. This tooth was one of the best fossils I could find to confirm the comparison to the atypical kef mosasaur site. Here's another view: Shortly after, I distracted myself from hammering out small chunks of the lens and took a peak under the one tiny 3D protrusion of the lens that there was. Under a ledge only a few inches wide sat a fossil that made my heart skip a beat: The tip had fallen off, likely from hammer vibrations since I chiseling not far away. But, undeterred, I extracted the slab and was met with an imperfect, though still beautiful sight. To find a mosasaur tooth after removing what was in total less than a gallon bag of slabs made for an exciting day. Though broken, a basal mosasaur is a basal mosasaur, who can complain? I was especially excited that this lightning fast find came from a new site - meaning there might just be what I'll happily nickname a "Kef mosasaur lens" that transcends beyond the boundaries of our original site. Any trip where you walk away pondering those things is a good one

Hello everyone! New member, long time lurker through the forums. I recently went hunting in North Central TX, within the Woodbine formation for the first time and picked up this bone [attached]. I'm stumped and would greatly appreciate any insight you may have, understandably it's a bit degraded. Thank you for your help and time.

Hi all - any ideas on this fossil I found today? Google image search is giving me photos of snake skin. Is this coral, sponge, bone, or something else? Thanks!

I found this dark blue coating on very dark red sandstone. Is this hematite? This was found in either the Thrifty-Graham or maybe even the Markley Formation in Jack County, Texas.