Fossils of Texas
A Journey
Hunted the Ouachita River in Arkansas yesterday..
A few of my finds below...
Serratolamna serrata (Sand Tiger Shark Teeth)
Enchodus teeth above
Crow Shark Teeth below
A tooth that I thought had a tumor on the root. (see below)
Several views of the same tooth
Back view below
Just received information that the above tooth may not be not a tumor
but is a juvenile up. lat. of Carcharias serratus. My guess is that there's a small pebble cemented
with phosphate to the rt. heel of the crown, and that it's not pathological (Earl Manning)
(Picture Below)
The hook-like juvenile tooth is part of the pharyngeal "tooth comb" of the pycnodontoid bony fish
Hadrodus priscus (often identified on the East Coast as "Stephanodus).
ID and above information, Earl Manning
Rick, a fellow hunter from Hot Springs, will be opening
a rock shop on the road to Hot Springs. It is not open yet,
but when it is, stop by. He won't be selling fossils,
but plans on having his fossils on display. He has an incredible collection.
Some of Rick's finds yesterday
This coral below is scleractinian coral.
ID by JKFoam
******************************************************************************************************************
******************************************************************************************************************
A few of my finds below...
Serratolamna serrata (Sand Tiger Shark Teeth)
Enchodus teeth above
Crow Shark Teeth below
A tooth that I thought had a tumor on the root. (see below)
Several views of the same tooth
Back view below
Just received information that the above tooth may not be not a tumor
but is a juvenile up. lat. of Carcharias serratus. My guess is that there's a small pebble cemented
with phosphate to the rt. heel of the crown, and that it's not pathological (Earl Manning)
(Picture Below)
The hook-like juvenile tooth is part of the pharyngeal "tooth comb" of the pycnodontoid bony fish
Hadrodus priscus (often identified on the East Coast as "Stephanodus).
ID and above information, Earl Manning
Rick, a fellow hunter from Hot Springs, will be opening
a rock shop on the road to Hot Springs. It is not open yet,
but when it is, stop by. He won't be selling fossils,
but plans on having his fossils on display. He has an incredible collection.
Some of Rick's finds yesterday
This coral below is scleractinian coral.
ID by JKFoam
******************************************************************************************************************
******************************************************************************************************************
These are the rostral denticles
of the sclerorhynchid sawtooth fish, Schizorhiza
stromeri. The rostral denticles were arranged on
each side of the saw-like rostrum. Sclerorhynchids
aren't closely related to the modern pristid sawfish.
ID by Roger Farish
Sclerorhynchus atavus rostral denticles with poor roots. While some denticles (like the one pictured lowest), have a posterior barb at the base of the crown, others (like the one at the top) just have a flattened bulge.
Another picture of one
Note, it has more of the root intact
ID by Earl Manning
This is an Enchodus fish jaw fragment, showing the base of the fang. It is a saber-toothed fish.
It had 4 large fangs at the front of both upper, and both lower jaws. The fangs were replaced as the fish grew. The above Enchodus fangs are mostly E. gladiolus with a possible ferox thrown in the mix.
ID by Earl Manning
These are pavement teeth of Rhombodus binkhorsti.
The lowest tooth shows the basal view (roots). The one pictured on the right , shows the flat crushing surface.
ID by Earl Manning
Mosasaur tooth
ID by Earl Manning
Thanks to Enchanted Learning for the information below
(pronounced MOES-ah-SAWR) Mosasaurs were giant, serpentine (snake-like) marine reptiles. They were not dinosaurs, but were related to snakes and monitor lizards. Mosasaurs were powerful swimmers, reptiles that had adapted to living in shallow seas. These carnivores (meat-eaters) still breathed air. They were a short-lived line of reptiles that went extinct during the K-T extinction, 65 million years ago.
Some Mosasaurs include the Mosasaurus (40-59 ft. feet=12.5-17.6 m long with sharp teeth from the North Atlantic), Platecarpus, Tylosaurus (33-40 feet=10-12.3 m long with sharp teeth, from the North and South Atlantic), Plotosaurus, Clidastes, Plioplatecarpus, and Globidens (with flat teeth for crushing shellfish). The first Mosasaur discovered, Mosasaurus hoffmani, was found in the Netherlands in 1780.
These are the teeth of the sand tiger shark, Carcharias sp. A species of that genus, C. taurus, is a common shallow-water scavenger in the Gulf of Mexico today. From the U-shaped roots, short accessory cusps, and narrow primary cusp, you might argue that these are mostly lower teeth. They are very common at the Ouachita River site that I hunted.
ID by Earl Manning
Teeth of the sand tiger shark, Serratolamna serrata. Theses are very common teeth found at the Ouachita River. From the straight roots,
strong accessory cusps, and broad primary cusp, some might argue that they're mostly the upper teeth of the sand tiger-shark teeth (pictured above), and that they could both be called Carcharias serratus.
ID by Earl Manning
Mosasaur neck vert vertebra, seen from below. The ventricalpedicle
is for the conical intercentrum, lost in most reptiles.
ID by Earl Manning and Kelly Irwin
Partial tail vertebra of a mosasaurine mosasaur, and another view of the same vert.
ID by Earl Manning and Kelly Irwin
