Bones With Bites

[Foshunter]

I will collect anything that will stand still long enough so my wife says. While collecting the Sulphur River, I came across bones that had been scavanged by sharks and mosasaur and found that to be interesting and a snap shot of the not so peaceful Cretaceous sea. The first bone is from a mosasaur that was scavanged by a shark, probably Squalicorax Kaupi that left three deep gouges in the bone . The gouge on the left has a broken piece of tooth embedded in the bone. The tan unknown bone, maybe mosasaur, has been scavanged by a shark and last two are from the bottom plate of a sea turtle that didn't end well when it encountered a mosasaur and also shows shark bites. I just thought they were interesting and wanted to share some of my collection.--Tom

[Foshunter]

Need to research a way to minimize my picture file size. This picture goes with my other post on bone bites,sorry for the way it turned out,--Tom

Edited September 9, 2010 by Foshunter

[Nandomas]

Congrats Foshunter, I really like your chewed bones :D

[bear-dog]

Nice.I have only 2 bitten bones in my collection.One is a whale rib with shark bites[no broken teeth though].The other is a three toed horse hoof core wirh a bear-dog bite.Wouldn't part with either.

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

What neat fossils. I can just barely see the tooth piece in the first pic. Can you take a closer shot? I would love to find a bone with a shark tooth embedded in it, and I don't mean like this: http://www.stonesbones.com/073010c.jpg (but it looks so real!! Ha Ha)

[Auspex]

The "smoking gun" with the embedded tooth shard is awesome!

[Foshunter]

What neat fossils. I can just barely see the tooth piece in the first pic. Can you take a closer shot? I would love to find a bone with a shark tooth embedded in it, and I don't mean like this: http://www.stonesbones.com/073010c.jpg (but it looks so real!! Ha Ha)

Hope this turns out also posting another mosasaur bitten turtle plate, most likely the same turtle, that was to large for original post.--Tom

[Shellseeker]

Found back in June, did not originally think much of it, Just over 2 inches in length

[Foshunter]

Found back in June, did not originally think much of it, Just over 2 inches in length

Nice bone--Wow what a bite.--Tom

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

Thanks for the enlargement. I bet it is possible to determine the mouth size of the shark based on the bite marks it left. Would be neat to know. Wonder if that turtle survived the attack.

[Shellseeker]

Thanks to both replies:

NOW you are getting me curious. What things are possible to determine? The distance between bite marks is a little less than 1/2 inch. It seems like deep gouges to me. So the shark bit through flesh into the bone. Would such marks be similar on any shark bite (say of a mammal limb, like a leg?)

NAL_Hunter -- what says "turtle" to you? or are you just a good storyteller, like my Dad?

Edited September 9, 2010 by Shellseeker

[tracer]

i didn't realize anybody but me bit on their fossils. as far as picture resizing, almost any image editing application, even the ones that come "free" with most computers, have a scaling or resizing function. i usually use as my "target" size around a thousand pixels on the longest/widest dimension. i usually just use a quickie program where i select a percentage of current size that i figure will give close to the right dimension, and it always works ok. i almost always crop in on the pictures and also occasionally brighten and adjust contrast a bit.

[Ramo]

When this topic shows up, I have to show off mine.

One of my first "big" finds. Two different fish species, and two shark species represented in one big old pile o' bone and teeth.

[Foshunter]

i didn't realize anybody but me bit on their fossils. as far as picture resizing, almost any image editing application, even the ones that come "free" with most computers, have a scaling or resizing function. i usually use as my "target" size around a thousand pixels on the longest/widest dimension. i usually just use a quickie program where i select a percentage of current size that i figure will give close to the right dimension, and it always works ok. i almost always crop in on the pictures and also occasionally brighten and adjust contrast a bit.

Thanks Tracer I will look into it.--Tom

[Foshunter]

When this topic shows up, I have to show off mine.

One of my first "big" finds. Two different fish species, and two shark species represented in one big old pile o' bone and teeth.

I envy anyone who lives where they can hunt the Cretaceous Chalk, has always been a place I wanted to visit but seem to keep moving farther away. Great pix thanks for posting them.--Tom

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

Great stuff Bowkill!! Usually I don't pay much attention to pieces of bone, but now I will look them over very carefully.

I am not sure it is turtle, but it sure does look like cretaceous aged turtle shell to me, but I am NOT well versed in their details.