MarcoSr Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 (edited) Some of my fossil hunting trips take place at home breaking down and looking through matrix obtained from collectors worldwide. I want to thank Keith for sending me matrix from the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) Hosta Tongue of the Point Lookout Sandstone, central New Mexico. Most specimens that I found in this matrix were in the .5mm to 4 or 5mm size range. I am posting below pictures of a small number of the nicer and more unusual specimens which I found. If you place your cursor on a JPEG image you will see the file name which will have the specimen id as best that I can determine. The wide diversity of micros in many formations is one of the reasons that I am an avid micro tooth collector. If anyone has or can collect good matrix with shark, ray, and fish micros please send me a PM. Marco Sr. Edited April 28, 2013 by MarcoSr 2 "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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Beautiful! Both the fossils, and the presentation...what a showcase "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hamilton Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Excellent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Govinn Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 (edited) micro-EPIC!!! Thanks for sharing!!! Edited April 27, 2013 by Govinn History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. ~Sir Winston Churchill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zachj Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 great organization skills! like the cusp on those teeth! one day i will find a tooth over 3 inches in good conditon haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 (edited) Very nice, as usual from you Marco Sr. I believe the one listed as "fish tooth" that has the piece of bone attached is Enchodus. Ramo Edited April 27, 2013 by Ramo For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comfowler Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeDOTB Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Wow excellent presentation and amazing fossils! Thanks for sharing! DO, or do not. There is no try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mako-mama Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Marco, Excellent collection! Thanks for showing those. But I didnt see any id's attached Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 (edited) Marco, Excellent collection! Thanks for showing those. But I didnt see any id's attached Pat Pat Thank you for mentioning ids. I just edited my post. I forgot to mention in my post that if you place your cursor on a JPEG image you will see the file name which will have the specimen id as best that I can determine. Some are to the species level. Some are to the genus level. Some just say shark tooth, ray tooth, fish tooth or unknown. Marco Sr. Edited April 28, 2013 by MarcoSr "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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snolly50 Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Thanks for the interesting post. Would you post a little about the photography involved - equipment, settings, technique, any tips? Your photos do a great job of presenting the fossils, so I am curious as to your approach. Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 Very nice, as usual from you Marco Sr. I believe the one listed as "fish tooth" that has the piece of bone attached is Enchodus. Ramo Ramo Thank you for the id. I have many articles, publications, books etc. on Cretaceous shark and ray teeth. But very little on Cretaceous fish teeth. Most of the fossil site or formation publications describing the faunas don't even mention fish teeth and I am not aware of any good books on Cretaceous fish teeth. Can anyone suggest a good book, some publications, or even some good websites for Cretaceous fish teeth? I have used elasmo.com which is excellent for Lee Creek (Miocene/Pliocene) fish fossil ids. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 Thanks for the interesting post. Would you post a little about the photography involved - equipment, settings, technique, any tips? Your photos do a great job of presenting the fossils, so I am curious as to your approach. Not a lot that I can say about the photography. I use a dino-lite digital microscope to take the pictures. I just place the specimens on a white paper plate and take the pictures. It took around an hour or so to take all of the pictures in my post. I have additional lighting, colored paper backgrounds, wax and clay for positioning etc. but didn't use any of that for these pictures. I spent another 1/2 hr. or so cropping the images and rotating some of them. I did not do any layering. Although the depth of vision can be a problem with a digital microscope (focusing the entire specimen) and layering would help that. I have used expensive cameras, scanners and other microscopes in the past, but the dino-lite definitely is the easiest to use and seems to produce nice pictures. I can take several hundred pictures a week for use on our website or just to document a fauna from a site (I receive and search a lot of matrix from sites all over the world) so I do spend a lot of time and have a lot of practice taking pictures of shark, ray and fish micros. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 MarcoSr, Yeah, you don't see articles just on Cretaceous fish teeth. You have to take some time to go through articles on marine faunas and there will be some fish stuff mixed in but it never seems to be a lot. Even then, there's often just a listing but sometimes a couple of oddball teeth are figured too. Here is one that figures a few bony fish teeth: Cumbaa, S.L., C. Schoeder-Adams, R.G. Day, and A.J. Phillips. 2006. Cenomanian Bonebed Faunas from the Northeastern Margin, Western Interior Seaway, Canada. In Lucas, S.G and R.M. Sullivan (eds.). Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Bulletin 35. If you don't have that volume, you should pick it up because it has shark articles too. Jess Ramo Thank you for the id. I have many articles, publications, books etc. on Cretaceous shark and ray teeth. But very little on Cretaceous fish teeth. Most of the fossil site or formation publications describing the faunas don't even mention fish teeth and I am not aware of any good books on Cretaceous fish teeth. Can anyone suggest a good book, some publications, or even some good websites for Cretaceous fish teeth? I have used elasmo.com which is excellent for Lee Creek (Miocene/Pliocene) fish fossil ids. Marco Sr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike from North Queensland Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Nice finds and presentation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 MarcoSr, Yeah, you don't see articles just on Cretaceous fish teeth. You have to take some time to go through articles on marine faunas and there will be some fish stuff mixed in but it never seems to be a lot. Even then, there's often just a listing but sometimes a couple of oddball teeth are figured too. Here is one that figures a few bony fish teeth: Cumbaa, S.L., C. Schoeder-Adams, R.G. Day, and A.J. Phillips. 2006. Cenomanian Bonebed Faunas from the Northeastern Margin, Western Interior Seaway, Canada. In Lucas, S.G and R.M. Sullivan (eds.). Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Bulletin 35. If you don't have that volume, you should pick it up because it has shark articles too. Jess Jess Thank you for the reference. I just went to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science website and downloaded a PDF of the article from Bulletin 35. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mako-mama Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 Marco, Thanks for tip. I was using Opera to view and the scroll over doesnt show. Maybe I need to tweak my settings? Or use another browser? Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted April 29, 2013 Author Share Posted April 29, 2013 Marco, Thanks for tip. I was using Opera to view and the scroll over doesnt show. Maybe I need to tweak my settings? Or use another browser? Pat Pat I use Firefox as my browser and the JPEG file names show when I scroll over the pictures. I just tried Internet Explorer and I couldn't log into the Fossil Forum. So I have some setting issue with Internet Explorer. Opera is used by over 300 million people worldwide so it is a major browser. It is probably just a setting issue. Maybe a real savvy computer person on the Forum can tell you how to tweak your settings? 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry739 Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Wow. I would love to see how you do this. I can go get stuff for you. I live in NM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted May 2, 2013 Author Share Posted May 2, 2013 (edited) Wow. I would love to see how you do this. I can go get stuff for you. I live in NM. Thank you for your kind offer. However I wouldn’t have the knowledge to direct you to the site where the matrix is found. I only know that the site is about 35 km NNW of metropolitan Albuquerque. I do know the site is a long difficult drive to get to (over dessert with little good road) and then you have to dig overburden just to get to the sandstone formation. Then it is difficult to break the sandstone out of the formation. I do know that the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science has a large number of cataloged fossil site locations. However, I don't know if they make that information available to the public. All of the specimens in the post came from what was originally a gallon baggie containing unprocessed sandstone pieces which was sent to me by a collector in New Mexico. The sandstone had to be broken down using 10% vinegar. After four breakdown cycles I got to almost two cups of broken down matrix that I could look through. Sometimes you just can't break down all of the sandstone. The matrix is loaded with nice teeth especially ray teeth. I found almost 200 nice ray teeth and only posted a few of each species. The shark teeth tend to have some damage especially to a cusp or root lobe. Even after breakdown most of the teeth have some sandstone on them and must be cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner for a while to clean them up. Sometimes the cleaner damages the teeth especially some of the shark teeth. Marco Sr. Edited May 2, 2013 by MarcoSr 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Bob Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Awesome fossils! Great pic's too. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donckey Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Great collection and great pictures! Send you a pm, hope it did work. plz let me know Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creto Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 It looks to me like the first Leptostyrax image is that of a Squalicorax symphyseal. Does it have the exaggerated lingual boss typical of Leptostyrax? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted July 3, 2013 Author Share Posted July 3, 2013 It looks to me like the first Leptostyrax image is that of a Squalicorax symphyseal. Does it have the exaggerated lingual boss typical of Leptostyrax? I was unsure of the tooth id and sent images to a friend in New Mexico for help who thought it was Leptostyrax. The tooth does not have an exaggerated boss which definitely makes the current id suspect. The crown of the tooth is not serrated. One of the cusplets may have serrations but they could also be small nicks. These teeth come right from the sandstone and don't show any water wear or reworking that could wear off serrations. Plus the tooth does have two distinct cusplets. I haven't seen a Squalicorax before with cusplets, only heals/shoulders, but I may not have seen a symphyseal before. Can you point to a picture or illustration of a Squalicorax symphyseal? 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creto Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Marco, Now I am convinced that it is a Squalicorax symphyseal. Search Squalicorax symphyseal in general fossil discussion and you will see an image of a similar tooth from the same site. That site produces a fair number of synphyseal Squalicorax. The first one I found from that site had zero serrations on the main blade-only the side cusps were serrated. Since Squalicorax is the only serrated tooth in that fauna I knew what it belonged to could only be Squalicorax. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now