BobC Posted October 23, 2012 Posted October 23, 2012 Hey guys--here's a weird one from Glen Rose, Texas. He is the exact size of a quarter, and was found in what looked like Walnut formation. I haven't a clue what it is. Thanks!
surfergirlatx Posted October 23, 2012 Posted October 23, 2012 Hummm....well whatever it is Congrats on the cool find! Cant wait to hear what it is!!!! "The road to success is always under construction." Author Unknown.
BobC Posted October 23, 2012 Author Posted October 23, 2012 Thanks SG! When I first saw it, I thought it looked like reptile skin but who knows? This is ouhtta my league!
piranha Posted October 23, 2012 Posted October 23, 2012 I'd guess they are ostracods This book might be useful for an ID: LINK
Carl Posted October 23, 2012 Posted October 23, 2012 (edited) It definitely looks like a fish tooth plate to me. Something like a pycnodont or phyllodont or the genus Eodiaphyodus. Very cool! Edited October 23, 2012 by Carl
BobC Posted October 23, 2012 Author Posted October 23, 2012 A fish tooth plate? really? I would never have guessed that.
piranha Posted October 23, 2012 Posted October 23, 2012 Hi Carl, I'm not very familiar with the morphology or taphonomy... can you explain the jumble in the first photo?
BobC Posted October 23, 2012 Author Posted October 23, 2012 Yeah that's what I don't get--if you look closely at shot 1, there seems to be three tiers of those knobs.
Auspex Posted October 23, 2012 Posted October 23, 2012 Looks similar to Paralbula. Very. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease!
Harry Pristis Posted October 23, 2012 Posted October 23, 2012 For comparison: http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest
erose Posted October 23, 2012 Posted October 23, 2012 Bob, I'm with Carl! I've found individual little teeth, or maybe two or three together, but that piece has bone on the back side. Excellent find. I've tried to figure out some of my Lower Cretaceous fish fossils (odd teeth and bone bits) and it has not been easy. Lots of good literature on Upr K but not so much or the Trinity and Fredericksburg. Cool find.
Roz Posted October 24, 2012 Posted October 24, 2012 What a fantastic find! Great color and condition too.. Congratulations, Bob! Welcome to the forum!
JohnJ Posted October 24, 2012 Posted October 24, 2012 Excellent find, Bob. Congrats. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Do while you can because the day will come when you cannot...and you would give much to do it one more time. - JJ
BobC Posted October 24, 2012 Author Posted October 24, 2012 Thanks everybody! I have to say I'm a little shocked that this is something pretty rare--I wasn't even fossil hunting! I was going to visit friends in Lewisville and just happened to spot a big development area on the way there so I stopped for a quick look. I parked and stepped no more than two feet and there it was!
Roz Posted October 24, 2012 Posted October 24, 2012 Thanks everybody! I have to say I'm a little shocked that this is something pretty rare--I wasn't even fossil hunting! I was going to visit friends in Lewisville and just happened to spot a big development area on the way there so I stopped for a quick look. I parked and stepped no more than two feet and there it was! I think another trip is in order! Welcome to the forum!
Carl Posted October 24, 2012 Posted October 24, 2012 There are a bunch of fish with pharyngeal tooth plates similar to this where small, bead-like teeth present a crushing pavement. In many, these teeth are stacked and presumably replenish at the wear out. Hi Carl, I'm not very familiar with the morphology or taphonomy... can you explain the jumble in the first photo?
Bullsnake Posted October 24, 2012 Posted October 24, 2012 Isn't it cool when something 'weird' turns out to be something awesome? Congratulations, BobC! Steve
BobC Posted October 24, 2012 Author Posted October 24, 2012 YES!!! I had no idea a tooth could look like this
Diceros Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 I don't know if people ever go back and read older posts, like this 2012 one, but I know what it is, so I thought I'd better post it anyway. It's a rare toothplate of the early Cretaceous bony fish Casierius heckelli (Costa). It's only known from the Albian, but besides the Texas Commanchean, it's also in England, France, and Italy. Carl's right that it's related to the phyllodontid fish Paralbula, though that's a Late Cret. form. Casierius is likely a primitive member of the Fam. Phyllodontidae. It's an upper (basibranchial) toothplate, and as Estes showed, it's from the branchial cavity, not the pharyngeal cavity, at the back of a fish's mouth. A word about the odd-looking phyllodont (it means "leaf-tooth") teeth. Unlike the toothplates with rooted teeth, like bonefish (albulids) or drums (sciaenids), phyllodont teeth have no roots, and the cup-like tooth crowns are stacked one on top of the other (it's a way of having long wear without having high-crowned teeth). They can be in individual stacks (like a stack of upside-down plates)as in Phyllodus), or alternating ones (like Casierius or Paralbula). Beside the extinct phyllodontids, several modern groups of fish also have them (wrasse, parrotfish, etc.) Here are three relevant papers: Johnson, G. D., 1972. Phyllodont tooth plate from the Lower Cretaceous of texas. Texas Journal of Science. vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 67-74. Estes, R.. 1969b. Studies on fossil phyllodont fishes: Casierius, a new genus of albulid from the Cretaceous of Europe and North America. Eclogae geol. Helv., vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 751-755. Estes, R., 1969a. Studies on phyllodont fishes: interrelationships and evolution in the Phyllodontidae (Albuloidei). Copeia, no. 2, pp. 317-331. 3
abyssunder Posted May 19, 2015 Posted May 19, 2015 Yes,Diceros,I think you are right.Looks like Casierius heckelli tooth plate.Here is a document recently appeared in pdf format:http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCMQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fretro.seals.ch%2Fcntmng%3Fpid%3Degh-001%3A1969%3A62%3A%3A1009&ei=nj1bVY_eEOKBywP_uYGIBw&usg=AFQjCNGoB1Vsaw1bYXjCCsFGlIopDYEZYA&bvm=bv.93564037,d.bGQ 1 " We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. " Thomas Mann My Library
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