Looking for stomatopod (mantis shrimp) fossils from Shark Tooth Hill

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At the moment I happen to be picking through some micro-matrix fines from Shark Tooth Hill that @ynot graciously sent to me some time ago. All sorts of interesting micro-chondrichthyan fossils are plentiful in the really fine matrix (2 mm down to 0.5 mm). I'm also finding bits of the dactyl claws of stomatopods (mantis shrimps).

 

There are two main types of mantis shrimps--the smashers and the slashers. The smashers have front claws ending in a hardened rounded "hammer" that they use to smash through the exoskeletons of crustaceans and mollusks (with the force of a .22 caliber bullet). The slasher types hide in burrows and wait for prey (mainly fishes) to swim overhead. They dart out of their burrows and with a very praying mantis style motion impale their prey upon these spiny dactyl claws.

 

We also find both dactyl claw parts and the rounded ends of the smasher's "hammers" at sites in Florida and this has Roger Portell at the FLMNH interested in fossil stomatopods. I recently let him know that while I haven't yet found any "hammers" in the STH matrix, I have found smaller fragments of the slashing dactyl claws which are turning up in my matrix picking.

 

It would be really useful to have some specimens of larger fragments of these dactyl claws from STH for our research. I'm wondering if any member out there who has picked STH micro-matrix has noticed these stomatopod dactyl claw fragments and more importantly saved them with the rest of the diverse micro-fossils from this wondrous locality? If you have some stomatopod material from STH I'd love to hear about it. You can reply here or drop me a PM. Thanks in advance.

 

Here are some images of really nice stomatopod dactyl bits from the Montbrook site as well as the more usual smaller fragments from Cookiecutter Creek.  Also, a link to a great page about stomatopods and an image of the two types of claws to help you envision how these fit into the larger picture.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

 

 

 

https://arthropoda.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/why-stomatopods-are-awesome-i-super-strength/