Taxonomic Shark Displays- a work in progress

[fossilsonwheels]

The second display contains the rest of the Squaliformes teeth and I like this one. These sharks have some crazy adaptations and strange biology which makes them ideal for education programs. A couple of rarities in this one too. My favorite teeth to collect probably. 

 

 I am missing two extant families from this order, Roughsharks and Lantern Sharks. I know they are going to be extremely difficult to track down but I not giving up lol 

 

Procentrophorus from the Cretaceous Northumberland Formation 

 

Centrophorus teeth from the Miocene of France and Pliocene of Belgium. 

 

Centroscymnus from the Northumberland Formation 

 

We have some teeth from the Greta Formation of New Zealand that share affinities with extant Scymnodon teeth so that is my ID on those teeth

 

Somniosus from Belgium. 

 

Squaliodalatias from Northumberland Formation 

 

The Dalatias teeth from New Zealand are also based on affinities with other Dalatias teeth so that’s my ID. 

 

Squaliosus from Miocene of France

 

Isistius teeth from Virginia, France and Florida

 

Echinorhinus teeth Australia, Kazakhstan, Morocco and California plus the denticles from STH. Eventually the Brambles will end up in their own display. 

[Notidanodon]

Hi kurt, great stuff, I sent you a pm as I think one of the nz squaliformes was an oxynotus,  a rough shark, just thought you’d like to know though I could be wrong  

[fossilsonwheels]

I decided to change up the White Shark display. Took out praecursor and planus teeth. They have their own display now. I wanted to focus on the transition from hastalis to hubbelli to carcharias. 

 

Hastalis teeth from Pungo River, Round Mountain Silt, Antwerp Sands, Pisco Frm, and a couple of oceanic teeth. 

 

Hubbelli are from the Pisco Formation 

 

Extant GW teeth from Bahia Ingles, two Pisco Frm locations, Yorktown Frm, Oceanside Frm, Niguana Frm, Australia and South Africa. 

 

I like how this turned out. Some cool locations and pretty teeth. I think it tells the story we want it to tell. We got some help from a few TFF friends @gigantoraptor, @Untitled, @JBMugu, and @siteseer. 

[fossilsonwheels]

Another display that is done, the Mega-toothed Sharks. This is meant to explain how Megalodon evolved and I think it will do the job. I’ve never been  big on collecting Megs. Too expensive for my tastes but I enjoyed putting this together. Some nice teeth from cool locations. No restoration on any and only the Peruvian Meg has repair work, a small piece of enamel glued back on. 

 

Cretalamna from the Cretaceous of Texas and Paleocene of Maryland. 

 

The obligatory Moroccan Otodus but it’s a nice large one. 

 

Otodus aksuaticus from Kazakhstan

 

Rics from Ica Peru, Kyiv Clay and the Suwanee River. My favorite of the Otodus line. Largest one is 3.2”

 

Sokolovi from Kazakhstan 

 

Angustidens from South Carolina 

 

Chub from Lee Creek

 

Megs from STH ( fragment), Indonesia, Peru and NC. Our largest teeth aren’t in the display but the Peruvian is close to 5” and the oceanic NC tooth is just over 5”. 

[fossilsonwheels]

This a cool display that features mostly teeth found in micro searches that came from matrix provided by TFF friends. Small Carcharhiniformes teeth that now get their own display. 

 

The STH Galeorhinus, Triakis, and Mustelus came from @JBMugu. The Rhizopriodon came from matrix provided by @digit. The Calvert Mustelus teeth were provided by @sharkdoctor. Additional teeth came from @Troodon and @Untitled. 

 

The Cretaceous Galeorhinus is from Black Creek Frm. We also have quite a few Eocene teeth from Belgium. I love the two California locations. 

 

We have a nice Palaeogaleus from Texas. 

 

Scoliodon from Belgium 

 

Triakis from Belgium and STH

 

Rhizopriodon are from Cookiecutter Creek

 

Mustelus from STH and Calvert 

 

We have a few teeth that will end up in a larger display. This was the only display we had open and I just needed to get these stored. 

[digit]

Lookin' good.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[fossilsonwheels]

On 3/29/2021 at 2:33 PM, digit said:

Lookin' good.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Thank you Ken. They are looking pretty nice. 

[fossilsonwheels]

A small but really educationally important and fun display that our Member of the Month @connorp helped us put together. This one holds the oldest chondrichthyes fossils, the oldest shark fossils we have and it’s all micro matrix finds. 

 

Connor gave us most of the matrix from Maple Mill that we searched which provided quite a few teeth. 

 

We have a few chondrichthyes denticles from the Harding Sandstone. Way back to the Ordovician. Pretty cool. 

 

We have Omalodus, the unidentified shark teeth ( Leonodus like was my description), plus some denticles and cartilage from the Devonian Genundewa Limestone of New York. There is a paper published from on teeth from Cairo New York that is of a similar age. That paper leads me to believe that some of the denticle clusters I have could actually be  pieces of fin spine. 

 

We have Protacrodus teeth, teeth that match up well with Deihim, denticles and a fin spine piece or two from Maple Mill formation in Iowa. I refer to these as D/C Boundary sharks. 

 

Though the teeth are micros they tell an important part of the story. I’m very fond of this one. Many hours at the scope learning to pick tiny and ancient shark teeth. 

[digit]

Given the illegibility of my handwriting I am not in a position to cast aspersions. However, I'd hope that before these displays are finished and ready to be admired by students when you are able to restart your traveling show that you'll replace the labels with ones nicely printed from your computer. Especially important for micro-fossils as the labels will be more heavily relied upon for identification.

 

@Al Dente created some displays of Lee Creek micro-fossils with the tiny specks displayed in cotton-padded gem jars with informative labels. If I remember correctly, he also printed out some highly magnified images of the micros and displayed those alongside so that folks could appreciate what the naked eye can barely see (unless you've got young eyes).

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Al Dente]

19 hours ago, digit said:

@Al Dente created some displays of Lee Creek micro-fossils with the tiny specks displayed in cotton-padded gem jars with informative labels. If I remember correctly, he also printed out some highly magnified images of the micros and displayed those alongside so that folks could appreciate what the naked eye can barely see (unless you've got young eyes).

 

Here are some examples of my tiny-teeth displays. I made the Pungo River displays almost 20 years ago. The Belgrade Formation display I made just a few weeks ago. I think these Rikers mount boxes measure 12 x 16 inches.

 

 

[digit]

Very nice!

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[fossilsonwheels]

38 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

 

Here are some examples of my tiny-teeth displays. I made the Pungo River displays almost 20 years ago. The Belgrade Formation display I made just a few weeks ago. I think these Rikers mount boxes measure 12 x 16 inches.

 

 

Nice work @Al Dente. Those are very nice looking and informative. I may borrow that blue print for some of our displays lol

[fossilsonwheels]

20 hours ago, digit said:

Given the illegibility of my handwriting I am not in a position to cast aspersions. However, I'd hope that before these displays are finished and ready to be admired by students when you are able to restart your traveling show that you'll replace the labels with ones nicely printed from your computer. Especially important for micro-fossils as the labels will be more heavily relied upon for identification.

 

@Al Dente created some displays of Lee Creek micro-fossils with the tiny specks displayed in cotton-padded gem jars with informative labels. If I remember correctly, he also printed out some highly magnified images of the micros and displayed those alongside so that folks could appreciate what the naked eye can barely see (unless you've got young eyes).

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Hi Ken

 

The plan was to make kids struggle to read my horrible handwriting but my son thinks we should type the labels lol 

 

Next phase of the project is upgrading the labels and some esthetic work. The collecting part got way ahead of storage  and presentation so I wanted to get a handle on storage before labeling. Work in progress for sure lol 

 

Kurt

 

PS thanks for tagging in Al Dente. Those displays are really good. 

[digit]

10 minutes ago, fossilsonwheels said:

The plan was to make kids struggle to read my horrible handwriting but my son thinks we should type the labels lol 

They'll certainly have to study the labels longer if you encrypt them with handwriting. My brand of handwriting is only otherwise found on doctor's prescription pads. When I scribble quickly my wife claims it looks like a 7.5 on the Richter Scale.

 

Don't forget to include some images of these displays when they are all polished and ready to present.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[fossilsonwheels]

On 4/8/2021 at 12:01 PM, digit said:

They'll certainly have to study the labels longer if you encrypt them with handwriting. My brand of handwriting is only otherwise found on doctor's prescription pads. When I scribble quickly my wife claims it looks like a 7.5 on the Richter Scale.

 

Don't forget to include some images of these displays when they are all polished and ready to present.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Hi Ken 

 

I can relate to that lol We are going to photograph the micros at some point. I’m considering a photographic microscope. I’m 90% certain that I’m headed back to school. The museum I work for is part of CSU Chico and I’ve made some good connections in the Geology Dept. My kids, my mom and my coworkers are all supportive so I’m going to be a Paleontologist in a few years. My kids are both in College too now and staying local. We’ll all be at Chico State together in a couple of years. I’m going to a be a professional fossil shark dude in the near future  

 

Thats part of the reason I’m hustling to finish these displays. By next fall I have homework to do in addition to working and parenting lol 

 

Kurt

[Notidanodon]

@fossilsonwheels nice collections once again, I look forward to seeing the new and improved labels  I can provide two new species of Rhizoprionodon (careful with the spelling on your label there you missed the no) let me know if you’re interested as I noticed space around the cookie cutter creek teeth

[digit]

6 hours ago, fossilsonwheels said:

I’m going to a be a professional fossil shark dude in the near future  

Congratulations! (Not on receiving your diploma but on making a bold decision to follow your passion.)

 

I know several people who have taken the leap and made a major course change when they've discovered later in life where their passion lies. We look forward to a time when you change your forum name to "Prof Shark Dude".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Macrophyseter]

Loving how the "museum" is growing out!

 

A suggestion, perhaps you could also take a shot with artificial dental sets for another display? 

[fossilsonwheels]

4 hours ago, Macrophyseter said:

Loving how the "museum" is growing out!

 

A suggestion, perhaps you could also take a shot with artificial dental sets for another display? 

Thank you. It’s grown quite a bit. I am sure eventually I will try to do an artificial dentition but for the moment I am just finishing these up and then I’m taking a bit of a collecting break. My wallet requested the break and I’m granting it lol 

[fossilsonwheels]

11 hours ago, will stevenson said:

@fossilsonwheels nice collections once again, I look forward to seeing the new and improved labels  I can provide two new species of Rhizoprionodon (careful with the spelling on your label there you missed the no) let me know if you’re interested as I noticed space around the cookie cutter creek teeth

Hi Will

 

At the moment I am working on storage and organizing what I have but yeah eventually some more Rhizoprionodon would be cool. The small Carcharhiniformes stuff will end up in a 12x16 display at some point most likely. 

 

Kurt

[fossilsonwheels]

Not going to do many more updates until the labels get done but this is a fun display. It’s not taxonomic. It’s a specific to ecological niche, the Filter Feeding Sharks. We added a Cretomanta via micro search and switched out the Palaeorhincodon for a LC Rhincodon tooth. 

 

We have two examples of Cretaceous filter feeders, Cretomanta from Colorado and Pseudomegachasma from Russia. 

 

Our Megachasma teeth come from California and Chile. One from @Troodon and one from @siteseer. 

 

The aforementioned Rhincodon from Lee Creek

 

Cetorhinus teeth are from STH. The gill rakers come from STH and the Netherlands. 

 

Not a bad representation. Pretty happy with it. 

[Nchapman]

Amazing shark tooth collection.  Shark teeth is what got me interested and how I became a member of this community!  Thanks for sharing.  I have something to strive for as my collection is really just what we've found along the beach a couple weeks ago on vacation with the family.  What I enjoyed the most was seeing the kids face when they would find one.  Pure joy. 

[Nchapman]

On 8/19/2021 at 3:44 PM, Nchapman said:

Amazing shark tooth collection.  Shark teeth is what got me interested and how I became a member of this community!  Thanks for sharing.  I have something to strive for as my collection is really just what we've found along the beach a couple weeks ago on vacation with the family.  What I enjoyed the most was seeing the kids face when they would find one.  Pure joy. 

Here is what my collections looks like.  Just starting so nothing like most here.  In not quite 5 days we found 62 shark teeth while vacation in Florida a few weeks back.

[fossilsonwheels]

On 8/23/2021 at 8:11 AM, Nchapman said:

Here is what my collections looks like.  Just starting so nothing like most here.  In not quite 5 days we found 62 shark teeth while vacation in Florida a few weeks back.

Thank you for the kind words. Nice finds. Good start you are off to. 

Typewritten labels are happening lol 

 

The Angelshark display is looking pretty full and happy. We added some cool teeth from a few new locations ( Ural Mountains Russia, two Ukrainian locations, two new California locations, France ). 

[Coco]

Squatina is from Bordeaux (Salles)

 

Coco