A poison spine from a shark

[hadrosauridae]

My latests hunts to my Permian sites have been slim.  Still trying to narrow down the producing layer(s), but my test excavations have been dry so far.  If you remember in my last thread, one of my spots was almost buried by overburden from a dozer work above.  I had a strong hunch that there would be fossils in those debris pile and I just needed some rain to start washing it down.  I was right!  We have been getting quite a bit of rain lately and its helping uncover more.  Last week I found a couple pieces of an Orthocanthus texensis (Permian age shark) head spine.  I have found many pieces like this at this site, but these 2 parts went together making about a 3 inch long section.  My biggest piece yet!  Today, 2 more pieces were found.  This section had lovely denticles!  While cleaning and talking about them with my son, I got out the last section to explain the how the complete spine would look with the smooth lower, and barbed upper pieces.... AND THEY FIT TOGETHER!  What made is more amazing was that the base section was found very high on the pile, and the barbed section was at the bottom.   The break on the tip is recent, and I have hope I might still find the last 1.25 inches to make this 100% complete.  I might just try digging and sifting for it.  Its a narrow water-dug path these came from.  The base section was wedged sideways up high, maybe the tip was flushed all the way down along with the most recent find.

 

 

 

[Alex S.]

That's incredible those denticles are gorgeous

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

1 hour ago, hadrosauridae said:

The break on the tip is recent, and I have hope I might still find the last 1.25 inches to make this 100% complete.

That would be the kicker now, wouldn't it !  Fingers crossed. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

That's beautiful. 

[Doctor Mud]

8 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

I have hope I might still find the last 1.25 inches to make this 100% complete.

This is an amazing fossil! I’ve found shark spines before but nothing like this beauty. I love it when pieces fit together,

We are all cheering you on while you look for the final piece.

 

P.S. Does the bone fluoresce under UV? Worth a try. Might help locate bits of bone at night. 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by Doctor Mud

[hadrosauridae]

1 hour ago, Doctor Mud said:

This is an amazing fossil! I’ve found shark spines before but nothing like this beauty. I love it when pieces fit together,

We are all cheering you on while you look for the final piece.

 

P.S. Does the bone fluoresce under UV? Worth a try. Might help locate bits of bone at night. 

 

 

Sadly, they do not fluoresce.  That was one of the first things I checked when I began finding fossils from this site.