New Lee Creek Micro's; Shark, Ray And Fish .. From A New Batch Of "old" Material

[sixgill pete]

A few months back I was able to get my hands on some "old" reject from the Lee Creek mine. This pile had been sitting on some private property for about 10 years that I know of. While I had been allowed access to search the pile numerous times, and found some very nice high quality teeth, I was never allowed to remove any of the matrix to search for micro's. I went back to the land owner, when I saw a new pile and asked about what was left of the old one and was told I could take all I wanted. Well, he did not have to tell me twice and I took all that was left.

After sifting and cleaning a good amount of it, I have finally managed to search some. I have gone through a 33.9 ounce (large size) plastic coffee container of matrix and was rather happy with what I found in it overall. While there were not any whale shark or cookie cutters in it, there was a good variety and good quality. If you put the cursor on the picture it will show my ID, scale is in MM and if you don't agree with my ID, please let me know as I am by no means an expert.

an overview of most of what I found ...

Shark:

Edited October 17, 2013 by sixgill pete

[sixgill pete]

more Shark ....

[sixgill pete]

Shark continued ..

[sixgill pete]

A tiny Porcupine Fish mouthplate ........

a small undet. fish vert ......

[sixgill pete]

Unknown Fish Teeth ......

[sixgill pete]

2 views of another unknown fish tooth, this tooth is about 1.25mm by 1 mm ...

Two of the 20 or so Barracuda teeth I found .......

Edited October 17, 2013 by sixgill pete

[sixgill pete]

What I believe is a Stingray Dorsal Scute .....

Ray Teeth ....

[sixgill pete]

Raja sp. Breeding Male ...

A very nice complete Urchin Spine ...

[sixgill pete]

and last, but not least. an unknown, anyone have any idea's on this?

[Al Dente]

and last, but not least. an unknown, anyone have any idea's on this?

indet1.JPG indet1a.JPG

It looks like the gill raker from a basking shark (Cetorhinus).

[sixgill pete]

It looks like the gill raker from a basking shark (Cetorhinus).

That crossed my mind Al Dente, but I was not sure.

[Katfish61]

These are nice finds!! Are you taking pics or are you scanning them? I still can't get good quaility pics of my micros. Tried just about everything and still trying. Ugh....

Thanks for sharing them!!

[sixgill pete]

These are nice finds!! Are you taking pics or are you scanning them? I still can't get good quaility pics of my micros. Tried just about everything and still trying. Ugh....

Thanks for sharing them!!

Kathy, I use a Kodak Easy Share M583 camera on auto setting. I then put a illuminated 30x loupe over the camera lens to take the pictures. Then I edit the pic by cropping, etc. I have done this with 2 different cameras, the other an old Cannon power shot A520 that i still use on occasion, and I generally get decent quality pictures.

[Auspex]

"To the motivated go the spoil (piles)"

Well done!

[jcbshark]

Very nice,I love the variety you get when searching for micros.As delicate as they are it's even more amazing to find so many perfect ones as compared to more robust teeth and bones.Good work.

[sixgill pete]

Auspex, persistence can pay off and you know how I do love the micro's. jcb, the variety I find is amazing. Is that a hognose snapper in your pic?

[MarcoSr]

Don

Really nice finds. The matrix that came out of the Lee Creek mine years ago seemed to have a much better concentration of micros. However, the shelly matrix from the last couple of years has had some really nice conditioned teeth and some of the rarer teeth like cookie cutters. I agree with Al Dente that your unknown specimen is a Cetorhinus gill raker. I think the three specimens in the one picture labeled Raja are Dasyatis. The roots and crowns are not right for Raja. Raja roots sit below the crown rather than protruding beyond the crown like Dasyatis roots when you view the teeth in an occlusal view. Also Dasyatis roots which tend to look similar to each other are shaped differently than Raja roots which have a large amount of variety. The individual tooth that you have labeled Raja sp. is definitely Raja. If you took a purely occlussal picture shot rather than at an angle you would see what I mean about the root being under the crown.

Marco Sr.

[jcbshark]

Auspex, persistence can pay off and you know how I do love the micro's. jcb, the variety I find is amazing. Is that a hognose snapper in your pic?

Yes Sixgillpete,that is a Hogfish,atleast that's what they go by down here.Beautiful and delicious,what a great combo lol.They're hard to get to eat a bait a lot of times but normally fairly easy when spearfishing.People who never dive wouldn't believe how common they are around here.You see them almost every dive.Take care,Jeff