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Over the last few weeks I have been preparing a nice xenacanth skull. Will continue to post updates as I go, but here it is so far! The nodule was huge, so we started off by removing a small chunk to see if there was anything in the cross section. It was up a fairly steep embankment, so after we rolled it down I inspected it for any signs of fossils. Surprisingly, it had something in it! The nodules from this horizon are usually empty. It is hard to see in the photo, but it was clearly the cross section of a xenacanth skull. The distinctive bubbly texture of cartilage and weird looking teeth ruled out any of the other fish from this site. Our car was already full by this point, so we decided to leave the rest of the nodule and take the smaller chunk to prepare and see if it was worth going back for more. After preparing this piece, it became clear that it was a nicely articulated (but slightly squished) skull! The nodules from this site tend to be shocking to extract and prepare since they splinter into pieces right through the fossils, but this one was surprisingly solid and nice to work on. The matrix was still incredibly hard, but good separation between the fossil and matrix made it much easier to air scribe than most others I've worked on from here. After our success on the first chunk, we decided we needed the rest! It was too heavy for one (or even two) people to lift, se we had to slide it up to the work bench on a trolley. Here it is after bulk matrix removal with the angle grinder, plus some air scribe work. Some more work over the last couple of days And here it is currently! Still lots more to do, but it is coming out well. A pleasant surprise considering how terrible some other things from here have been to prepare. The nodule is incomplete, so we only have the skull and some vertebrae, but hopefully there is enough for some pectoral fins to fit in there somewhere. Time will tell!

While preparing a large xenacanth tail from a new site south of Sydney I noticed this juvenile of the same species within the nodule. Xenacanths are very common in this horizon of the Ashfield Shale but are often poorly preserved, so this example offered a unique opportunity to photograph certain features such as the denticles. Unfortunately, both specimens are incomplete since half the nodule was missing, but that is just the nature of this site! Here is the whole nodule with the partial xenacanth tail, three poorly preserved Cleithrolepis and juvenile xenacanth towards the right: The juvenile xenacanth. Towards the top middle section is the base of the dorsal spine which never seems to preserve on adult specimens, and towards the left are impressions of denticles and the vertebrae. Towards the right, the lower jaws with teeth are preserved and there even seems to be an impression of the eye. Ammonium chloride images of a latex peel showing the whole specimen and closeups of the jaw and teeth: Closeups of denticles:

Hi all, We spent yesterday in a different section of the quarry I posted about here. This section yielded some nice fish, plants and even another temnospondyl! Phyllotheca or a different horsetail Xenacanthid pieces Various fish bits A nice nodule with a fish inside I will post some more photos of the temnospondyl once it gets excavated, but here is a loose section from the rear of the skull. After our quarry visit we went to a terrific Eocene plant locality, will post some photos from there next!

Got to work on these guys because some of these creatures were my inspiration of what they would have looked like in color and others are at an art show. Wonder what animals will you like to see when its unleashed before your very eyes?

Hello, I found this tooth in my kid’s sandbox in central Kansas. A nearby natural history museum suggested it might be a xenacanth tooth from Pennsylvania period. Just wanted to see if anybody else has any ideas about it. Thanks!