Ziggycardon's exploration of the microfossil realm

[ziggycardon]

And here are some of the finds from the bag with microfossil matrix from the Bull Canyon Formation, San Miguel County, New Mexico, USA (Triassic, Norian, 227 - 208 mya)

 

This was one of the bags that I was most excited about as I have a great interest in Triassic vertebrates, by far my favorite geological era, alongside the Permian and late Cretaceous.

Most of the finds I did where (partial) teeth, as well as some fish scales and perhaps skull fragments or osteoderm fragment from Labyrinthodonts. 

I won't try to name any of the finds here as due to the lack of scientific writing on this location, it is almost impossible to ID most of the finds.

 

I'll start with some fish scales

 

A piece of Actinopterygian fish palate jaw section

 

Not really sure about this one, although it reminds me of a fish mouthplate as well

 

Some fragments of skull plates or osteoderms

 

A nice fragmented tooth

 

Some non-serrated teeth

 

A couple of non-serrated teeth with large ridges, probably belonging to an amphibian like Metoposaurus, Apachesaurus or Koskinonodon.

 

A nice and more pronouncedly ridged tooth without serrations, one of my personal favorites

 

Another of my favorite teeth is this nice blue colored one

 

Some of the wider serrated teeth, these are often sold as juvenile Pythosaur or Pseudosuchian teeth. Hard to tell what they really are, but very nice looking teeth nonetheless

 

Some teeth with very pronounced serrations, a shame they are very fragmented.

 

And for last I saved my favorite find, this beautifull serrated tooth which is the best quality tooth I found so far in the matrix

[ziggycardon]

And here are some of the finds from the very richFissure Fill material found in the Dolese Quarry in Richards Spur, Oklahoma, USA (Permian, Sakmarian, 295 - 290 mya).

 

A bunch of jaw fragments & teeth which probably all belong to Captorhinus 

 

Some pieces of bone

 

A couple of vertebrae

 

Some Captorhinus skull plate fragments

 

Some phalanges

 

According to my Richards Spur ID guide, this should be a Cacops tooth

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Glad I finally found this thread. 

Beautiful stuff. 

[ziggycardon]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Glad I finally found this thread. 

Beautiful stuff. 

Thank you, I am sure you are going to love some of the new samples I have ordered. 
One I particular is going to be right up your alley, a sample rich in tiny Silurian Brachiopods from Wren's Nest  

[Tidgy's Dad]

2 hours ago, ziggycardon said:

Thank you, I am sure you are going to love some of the new samples I have ordered. 
One I particular is going to be right up your alley, a sample rich in tiny Silurian Brachiopods from Wren's Nest  

Lovely! 

Indeed, I have a collection of these to sort through myself, after I've finished my bryozoa samples.  

[ziggycardon]

The last few days I have occasionally been going through some of my vials with microfossil matrix from the Lower Permian Wellington - Garbar Complex, Waurika, Oklahoma, USA. 

these vials were among the first micro samples I ever ordered, but for a reason I never really went through them (I think I found the material a bit to fine at the time). 
I got 3 vials of Waurika material (although all fine grained) of different grain sizes and one vial of a lot coarser material from the Archer Formation which I found more interesting at the time. 

But a couple of days ago I ordered a couple of new microfossil samples including a very coarse sample of Waurika material. So in the meantime it seemed a good idea to go through the finer material and here are some of the things I found    

 

A couple of Barbclabornia luederensis teeth

 

An Orthocanthus platypternus tooth

 

A Orthocanthus shark denticle

 

A shark or fish spine?

 

Some trimerorhachis insignis teeth

 

Some fish scales

 

Some unknowns,

fish spines? Fish/amphibian teeth? Shark denticles?

 

 

[ThePhysicist]

29 minutes ago, ziggycardon said:

Some trimerorhachis insignis teeth

An interesting thread for perusal, if you haven't seen it already:

Some of these may be fish teeth. 

[ziggycardon]

On 12-10-2020 at 4:57 PM, ThePhysicist said:

An interesting thread for perusal, if you haven't seen it already:

Some of these may be fish teeth. 

Thank you for sharing, very interesting read. 
I always thought they looked an awful lot like fish teeth but I kept seeing them being labeled as amphibian. 
But it after reading this it kinda makes sense.  

[ziggycardon]

Yesterday I recieved some samples of microfossil matrix!

 

The first is a small sample with very fine material found in Wrens Nest, Wenlock Series, Dudley, UK (Silurian, 433 - 427 mya)

The Sample is rich in Ostracods, Brachiopods & Bryozoans.

 

A vial of Cretaceous Mesaverde limestone matrix found in the Mesaverde Group, Rollings Sandstone Member, Crawford, Delta County, Colorado, USA (Campanian? 84 - 72 mya)

This material is very rich in shark teeth as can be seen in this fraction of the sample.

 

A bag with coarse material found the Ryan Formation, Waurika, Oklahoma, USA (Permian, 295 - 272 mya)

This is by far the richest material I have ever had, even richer than the Richards Spur bag, I've only been quickly going through the material and this was what I found just in the first evening!

Some Orthacanthus compressus & Orthacanthus platypternus teeth

Some Orthacanthus texensis teeth

Some unsorted material

 

A bag with matrix found in Lee Creek Mine, Yorktown Formation, Aurora, North Carolina, USA (Miocene, 14,5 mya)

The sample is rich in shark teeth, fish verts, gastropods, bivalves, corals, Byrozoans, etc...

Been going through this material and found around 90 shark teeth in the matrix

Also a lot of bivalves, gastropods, corals, fish verts & teeth and some ray teeth were present in the material

[ziggycardon]

Here are a couple of the shark teeth I found in the Lee Creek material. 

Lee Creek Mine, Yorktown Formation, Aurora, North Carolina, USA (Miocene, 14,5 mya)

I have tried to ID some of them, but I am not 100 % sure whether I did so correctly

 

A Sphyrna zygaena tooth

 

 

A chunk of Galeocerdo tooth

 

A Galeocerdo tooth

 

Physogaleus? Sphyrna? Loxodon?

 

Not sure about this one

 

Carcharhinus sp.

 

Negaprion sp?

 

Not sure about this one either

 

Scyliorhinus sp.?

 

Megachasma sp.?

 

Megachasma sp.?

[ziggycardon]

I've been mostly busy with the Lee Creek material, but in between when I got bored of going through the Lee Creek material I went through some other samples and I also aqcuired some new stuff which I forgot to share here  

The rest of the Lee Creek finds I posted in a seperate topic, which is linked below for anyone that is interested

 

I sorted most of the Barbclabornia luederensis and placed then in a gemstone box (I recently aqcuired a bunch of these to display all my smaller shark, ray & fish teeth in one of my  archive drawers, I'll probably post a photo of them in the coming weeks)

 

A Helodus sp. tooth which also comes from the Permian of the Ryan Formation, Waurika, Okhlahoma

 

I also acquired some Doleserpeton annectens jaws like this one here, found in the Dolese Quarry, Richards Spur, Oklahoma (Permian, 295 mya)

 

And I also aqcuired this Lissodus minimus found in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium (Triassic, 208 - 201 mya)

 

I also acquired a sample of foraminifera & bivalve rich material from the Lede Sand Formation, Oosterzele, Belgium (Eocene, 44 mya)

 

And to my surprise I found a small shark teeth in it  

A small Abdounia sp.

 

And I also acquired a sample of Maple Mill material found in Kalona, Iowa (Devonian/Carboniferous border)

 

A Cladoides sp. which I acquired

 

A Protacrodus sp. which I aqcuired

 

A couple of Phoebodus sp. teeth I found in the sample

 

 

[ziggycardon]

As promised a photo of my shark tooth drawer where I keep my small shark teeth along with some ray and fish material  
I kinda like the look of all those small square gem boxes