Help With A Variety Of Cretaceous Vertebrates....sulphur River

[John S.]

Found these today..any help would be great thanks!

1.

[John S.]

1.

[John S.]

1.

[John S.]

2.

[John S.]

2.

[John S.]

3.

[John S.]

4.

[John S.]

4.

[John S.]

This is from northeast Texas, Ozan Formation- 75-80 mya. Btw, 1. And 2. We're found within a few hundred yards of one another.

[Auspex]

#3 may be a sawfish rostral tooth.

[amour 25]

1 is nice so is that a toe bone or part of a Vert?

[dbcart]

The larger bone fragments are more than likely Mammoth in nature.

The teeth and claws could be from three different large cats (Felidae) from the same time frame.

Panthera onca augusta went extinct 11,000 years ago. It's teeth were segregated like a sharks. So we can rule that one out.

Then, there was Homotherium (Scimitar Cat) 10,000 years ago, could gets up to 882 lbs. Hunted mammoths in packs.

Or we have the American Lion (huge) could get up to 1036 lbs, and of course hunted mammoths.

Last but not, least, we have the Smilodon (Saber Tooth Tiger) lived at the same time as the American Lion (10,000 years ago) Got up to 661 lbs and fed on Mammoths and such.

The longer cylinder shaped object, not sure. Perhaps dates a bit farther back when the oceans were farther inland?

The truth is, unless you find a complete skeleton, it's anybody's guess.

Edited March 29, 2015 by dbcart

[John S.]

Thanks for the replies. The bones I find are usually Mosasaur but these look different than anything I've found. I have found a dinasaur bone their as well. They look much older than mammoth time to me. The tooth is a first as well.

[fossilized6s]

Cool finds! Sorry i can't help with IDs.

[finderskeepers]

I think #4 could be a portion of Saurodon jaw, a predatory Cretaceous fish.

Check out northtexasfossils.com/fish.htm and keystonegallery.com/fossils/bony_fish.html

Edited March 29, 2015 by finderskeepers

[jpc]

Wow... Looks like a great day of fossil finding. The jaw certainly look fishy.

[bone2stone]

#3 may be a sawfish rostral tooth.

Agreed, and specimen #1 appears to be vertebrate broken off of turtle.

[John S.]

You guys are good thanks!

[Carl]

If #3 were found in the Cretaceous of NJ it would be IDed as Xiphactinus.

[Diceros]

M. Campanian marine vertebrates of the Ozan Fm., lw. Taylor Grp., of the Sulphur River area, NE Texas. All of these forms are better known from the upper Niobrara Chalk and lower Pierre Shale of western Kansas. As you say, all are fairly rare in Texas.

Bone2stone was right with turtle vertebra on #1. From the fairly large size, I'd guess the vertebral centrum (the rest is attached to the carapace of the shell)of a large sea turtle, like Protostega or Archelon.

No clue on #2.

Carl is correct that #3 is a Xiphactinus tooth crown. Because there are no evident longitudinal facets, and the ant. carinum (ridge) is incomplete, I'd say it's the giant bony fish X. audax, and not the more derived (mostly lt. Campanian) X. vetus. Pristid sawfish don't appear till the early Tertiary.

Finderskeepers is close with Saurodon, for #4. It's the post. pt. of the rt. dentary (lw. jaw)of the saurodontine ichthyodectid bony fish Saurocephalus lanciformis Harlan, 1834 (the type is a historic specimen, found by the Lewis & Clark Expedition in the Niobrara Chalk of western Iowa). Saurocephalus differs from Saurodon in that it has a continuous groove just below the upper edge of the inside of the lower jaw, while Saurodon just has a series of individual holes here.

[KansasFossilHunter]

In regards to tooth #3: The highly flattened nature of the tooth is more reminiscent of the genus Protosphyraena. Even with the usual distortion Xiphactinus teeth wouldn't be flattened to such a degree. Just do a search for "Texas Protosphyraena teeth" and compare.

-KansasFossilHunter

[KansasFossilHunter]

Here is a comparison from the same (or reasonable similar) locality:

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/20723-nsr-protosphyraena-teeth/

S/O to Foshunter for the topic in the link.

[KansasFossilHunter]

As for #4 (I'm drawing off my local Smoky Hill Chalk compairables) without further skull material such as a predentiary (chin spike) I'd agree that it either belongs to an Ichthyodecthys or Saurodon.

[John S.]

Wow very detailed info thanks alot!

[Diceros]

John S - I've been to see your North Sulphur River fossil gallery - a very nice fauna (although not all of it needed figuring). I wanted to point out a few items. #67 is likely a prox. costal (in vent. view) from the same sort of giant sea turtle as the earlier lg. centrum, as the sides are emarginated, as you often get in protostegids. The central vertical part is the proximal rib (the carapace of a turtle shell is formed by dermal scutes fusing to the upper side of the ribs).#'s 163 and 127 make up an informative pair of mosasaur caudal vertebrae, both seen in ventral view. #163 (vert. #1)has an unfused chevron (a V-shaped bone below each vertebra of a mosasaur's tail), and #127 (vert. #2) has a fused chevron (a shared-derived character of the Subfam. Mosasaurinae. #1 is likely Platecarpus (although Tylosaurus also has an unfused chevron, it'd be larger), and #2 likely Mosasaurus. Photo # 119, more specifically, is a lg. isolated upper (palatine) fang of the sabre-toothed fish Enchodus petrosus. In a general way, Mosasaurus is a shallower-water form than the other two.