Shark From The "wilson Clay Pit"

[BobWill]

Here are some drawings of shark skulls sent by John Maisey for comparison with the pennsylvanian piece I found at Jacksboro. It would be at the rear of the bottom side. He recently asked if anyone knows any genus names for Pennsylvanian shark parts to help ID mine for the paper. Hope this helps your prep work.

Wow! I didn't notice the post by Dr. Maisey until I posted this. I wonder if we found the same creature.

Edited December 3, 2011 by BobWill

[thair]

Hello, I was led to this site by Roz Morgan. Let me introduce myself. John Maisey, Curator at the American Museum of Natiural History. My research involves the skeletons of early sharks.

Congratulations, this is a very significant discovery. It is the first record of skeletal remain of Cladodus elegans in North America. A few years ago I described some bits of Cladodus elegans skeleton from Scotland, with Dr. Michal Ginter. Those pieces were the first to be discovered. Cladodus elegans is scientifically very important because it is very similar to Cladodus mirabilis, which is the type species of the genus (described by Louis Agassiz in 1843 on the basis of an isolated tooth).

For over 150 years the genus Cladodus was a mystery. We now think it is a ctenacanth shark, (perhaps even Ctenacanthus itself. Unfortunately, the material we discovered in Scotland was not associated with a fin spine. If you can find even a small part of a fin spine associated with this material, it would be a major scientific discovery.

Can you tell what kind of rock encloses the fossil cartilage? Is it limestone? If so, the specimen should be prepared using dilute ORGANIC acid (not hydrochloric or sulfuric, these are mineral acids that will destroy the fossil). Acetic acid or formic acid would be required. I have prepared shark cartilage from the St Louis Limestone this way.

This fossil deserves to be studied by paleontologists, and I strongly recommend that you deposit it in a recognized scientific institution (museum or university) so it will be available for future scientists to study.

Dr Maisey,

Thank you for your interest. I actually corresponded with you and Michal Ginter back in 2009 but that was before I found the additional blocks of matrix. From the pictures I sent, you thought it might just be pieces of the jaw. I will take some more photos as I clean it further. Maybe after more is revealed you could take a look again.

I have attempted to contact the University of Texas at Austin several times and did get a response from Ann Molineux however she is in the non-vertebrate lab. I have not been able to have any direct contact with the vertebrate lab people. Austin is about 2.5 hours from here and I was planing to take and show it to them if I ever got a response.

Again thank you for your interest. If you have any other contacts that are within reasonable driving distance let me know. I would like someone who could confirm its importance so that it could be treated properly.

Tully