Shark, Ray, Fish, Onychite And Other Micros From The Jurassic Kellaways Clay From The United Kingdom Part 2

[DE&i]

Hi MarcoSr,

Ostracods are proving to be a bit tricky:

The matrix I sent you as you know is from the Kellaways, Lower Oxford Clay. And I know Ostracods are common in the Middle and Upper Oxford Clay, but are surprisingly infrequent in the Lower Oxford Clay. This might in part be due to reduced oxygen levels within the basin, or due to the soft nature of the substrate. Callovian and Oxfordian ostracod faunas have been examined by Whatley ( 1964, 1970), but most of the important work remains unpublished ( Whatley, 1965).

Also as far as I’m aware an Ostracod biozone has not been erected for the base of the Lower Oxford Clay.

So at present I think we have ourselves something Very Interesting indeed..!

Here are our contenders :

Ostracods of the Oxford Clay drawn from Kilenyi (1978)

A Glabellacythere nuda Wienholz, right valve, female, x 75.

B Nophrecythere cruciata intermedia (Lutze), right valve, male, x 95.

C Lophocythere interrupta Triebel, right valve, male, x 50.

D Terquemula flexicosta lutzei (Whatley), left valve, male, x 56.

E Pseudoperissocytheridea parahieroglyphia Whatley, left valve, x 115.

F Praeschuleridea batei Whatley, right valve, x 70.

G Pedicythere anterodentina Whatley, left valve, x 140.

H Cytherella fullonica (Jones & Sherborn), right valve, x 70.

[Macrocephale]

Hi, I'm new here, registered purely because of finding this post. I'm a masters student at Portsmouth University working on microvertebrates (mostly the fish/shark teeth and otoliths but also the hooklets) of the Peterborough Member of the Oxford Clay- what was known as the Lower Oxford Clay before it was reclassified (the Kellaways Formation is directly below the Peterborough Member IIRC).

Those shark teeth mostly look like Palaeobrachaelurus (picture 1 definitely is) and Orectoloboides (2,3,7), I've found plenty of those myself. They both tend to have ~5 cusps, Orectoloboides is generally a little smaller- the main cusp is less pronounced and there are ridges along the back of the main body (can see them in picture 7 quite well). You may also have (picture 8) an angelshark tooth of Pseudorhina (formerally a species of Squatina), but it's hard to tell. They have only one cusp, and the side parts (can't remember what they're called atm) look a little like wings.

There are no dermal denticles in your first post, they're all teeth. That last one is definitely Protospinax, had plenty of those myself as well, although I did confuse them for a while with the guitarfish (Rhinobatidae) Spathbatis.

The paper you want is Thies, D. (1983) Jurazeitliche Neoselachier aus Deutschland und S-England.

[MarcoSr]

Hi, I'm new here, registered purely because of finding this post. I'm a masters student at Portsmouth University working on microvertebrates (mostly the fish/shark teeth and otoliths but also the hooklets) of the Peterborough Member of the Oxford Clay- what was known as the Lower Oxford Clay before it was reclassified (the Kellaways Formation is directly below the Peterborough Member IIRC).

Those shark teeth mostly look like Palaeobrachaelurus (picture 1 definitely is) and Orectoloboides (2,3,7), I've found plenty of those myself. They both tend to have ~5 cusps, Orectoloboides is generally a little smaller- the main cusp is less pronounced and there are ridges along the back of the main body (can see them in picture 7 quite well). You may also have (picture 8) an angelshark tooth of Pseudorhina (formerally a species of Squatina), but it's hard to tell. They have only one cusp, and the side parts (can't remember what they're called atm) look a little like wings.

There are no dermal denticles in your first post, they're all teeth. That last one is definitely Protospinax, had plenty of those myself as well, although I did confuse them for a while with the guitarfish (Rhinobatidae) Spathbatis.

The paper you want is Thies, D. (1983) Jurazeitliche Neoselachier aus Deutschland und S-England.

Thank you for your id help and the reference. In case you didn't see it, here is a link to my Part 3 post. Can you help with the id of the last two shark teeth? Is the id of the other shark teeth correct?

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/46167-shark-onychite-belemnites-and-other-micros-from-the-jurassic-kellaways-clay-from-the-united-kingdom-part-3/

I only posted a few of the hooklets that I found. I sent a good number of them back to Darren in the UK who had sent the matrix to me. Darren brought them to his museum and is waiting to get a further id.

Marco Sr.