Identifying Ray Teeth

[Shellseeker]

This ought to be easy. Go to Elasmo, recognize your tooth ... 2 steps

http://www.elasmo.com/frameMe.html?file=leecreek/sp_shrk1.html&menu=bin/menu_leecreek-alt.html

Here is a ray tooth that I have seen before frequently on TFF and found a few times, but this is my largest fragment. Eagle, Sting, Bonnet, and Bullnose Ray teeth on Elasmo all look different than my piece.

Which Ray has teeth like this one?

[MarcoSr]

Looks like a fragment of an Aetobatus, Bonnet ray.

Marco Sr.

[Shellseeker]

This is the image on Elasmo for Bonnet Ray Teeth...

I have seen & found numerous examples of the the tooth on the top and lower right. Pretty common, but seem very different.

I also looked on the web and found Bonnet Ray teeth that look very much like mine.

It would be interesting to see a photo of a complete well persevered tooth. THANKS for the ID

[Coco]

Hi,

Your tooth looks like Aetobatus arcuatus (from french Miocene), see here : http://austria-forum.org/af/Wissenssammlungen/Fossilien/Aetobatus

It isn't the same species that Shellseeker shows. The part root is bigger on the fossil.

Coco

[ghost1066]

It isn't the same species that Shellseeker shows.

Coco

Say that three times fast.

[Coco]

I suppose it is easier to write that than to say ! But I say it well (excepted your pen name) !

Coco

[Shellseeker]

Wow!! Thank you I am confused but THANK you.

Here are related TFF links

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/image/6280-aetobatus-arcuatus-dental-plate/

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/image/2211-aetobatus-arcuatus-1jpg/

I want to say "Duckbill" Ray but I am still confused with Bonnet Ray...

These are relatively uncommon in the Peace River...

[siteseer]

Hi Coco and Shellseeker,,

Aetobatus arcuatus teeth tend to be found incomplete so photos of complete ones are not easy to find even in the age of search engines..

Teeth are also figured in Leriche (1942; Plate IV, figs 10-15)) and Cappetta (1970; Plate 24, figs 6-9 and 6'-9').

Jess

Cappetta, H. 1970.

Les selaciens du miocene de la region de Montpellier. Palaeovertebrata. mem. ext. 139 pages. 22 fig. 27 plates.

*This is an article every shark tooth collector should have even if you don't speak French because the plates show many Miocene species found elsewhere (more than one jaw position figured as well). This is one of Cappetta's first works.

Leriche, M. 1942.

Contribution a l'etude des faunes ichthyologiques marines des terrains tertiaires de la plaine cotiere atlantique et du centre des Etats-Unis. Mem. Soc. geol. France. Nouvelle serie. 45. 110 pages.

* This article reviews the known fish fossils of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Gulf Coast, and central part of the United States. Leriche offered corrections of many identifications of earlier authors. He was among the first paleontologists, if not the first, who stressed understanding the dentitions of modern sharks and rays to help identify isolated fossil teeth. That sounds obvious now but many extinct species were named before his time simply because they differed slightly in some character or were found on a different continent from an already-described species Furthermore, the already-described species was often based on only a few teeth or one tooth (and not always well-preserved). I believe this article was published posthumously - another one every shark tooth collector should have..

Hi,

Your tooth looks like Aetobatus arcuatus (from french Miocene), see here : http://austria-forum.org/af/Wissenssammlungen/Fossilien/Aetobatus

It isn't the same species that Shellseeker shows. The part root is bigger on the fossil.

Coco