Fossil Question

[duadar8]

I have some questions about a couple of marine fossils that I have. I am not sure if this is the proper place or site to post this question; so for now I will refrain from putting any pictures on this post. Anyhow, I am curious to find out what these fossils are. I have looked all over the internet to try to identify them, but I am not having any luck. I have various teeth found along the Eastern Coast of the U.S. and a few bones. I am not sure, but I think a few of them are from a Mosasaur. Another one is maybe from a whale. Two I have absolutley no idea. And I have five bones of some sort. If someone thinks they can help me figure this out, I will be more then happy to post the pictures or email them. If this is not the right place to post this question and someone knows where I can, could you please tell me where to go. I know very little about marine fossils, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Phil]

Hi Duadar,

Welcome to the site. Well, this is really a cephalopod website as opposed to a general fossil website, but I'm sure if you post a picture or two we'd like to see them. It would help if you could let us know where exactly they were found as that would help date these fossils. They do sound most intriguing though!

Phil

 

[bigGdelta]

since this is a little off ceph topic anyway and i'm not a supporter got to share my mullusc news.


I bought a $1 can of smoked oysters (chicken of the sea) and beleive it or not i found a freakin pearl. a baby pearl but a pearl nonethaless.



Phil anything about your speculation that the new ceph beak may be a described sp

 

[Phil]

I bought a $1 can of smoked oysters (chicken of the sea) and beleive it or not i found a freakin pearl. a baby pearl but a pearl nonethaless.

Wow! What are the chances of that? I wonder what the pearl is worth?

Phil anything about your speculation that the new ceph beak may be a described sp

Well not really, I've only got the one paper to go on, the one describing the Yezoteuthis jaw. Until one finds a jaw associated with Tusoteuthis or a gladius of Yezoteuthis and compares them directly, we'll never know if they were same animal or not.

Having said that, the authors who published the jaw tentatively conclude that Yezoteuthis resembles the modern squid sub-order Oegopsina, whereas the gladius of Tusoteuthis resembles a large vampyromorph, so maybe it is not so likely that they are the same animal. However I think that the evolutionary relationships of the non-belemnoid coleoids is so poorly understood that almost anything is possible!

 

[duadar8]

Pictures

Here are a few pictures. I cut the first two and just shrunk the last one.

 

[duadar8]

I have more pictures of the individual pieces, but I did not want to overload this forum with them. Anyway, if there is someone who knows what these teeth and fossils are from, could you please let me know. I believe these fossils came from either the beaches of Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, and/or Florida. I am not exactly sure of these locations; since these where collected by my late grandparents.

 

[Phil]

Hi Duadar, apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what these teeth are. My suspicion is that these could be fossilised crocodile teeth, as according to the quote below mosasaur teeth have a characteristic carinae, or 'knife edge'. I could not see this in any of your specimens. Again though, please don't take this as correct, as it's only my suspicion.

Mosasaur teeth are distinguished from the teeth of the gavil-like "crocodile" by size and prismatic nature. "Crocodile" teeth are purely conical and usually less then 1 cm (about .75 in) in length while mosasaur teeth are larger. "Crocodile" teeth also usually lack prominent carinae. The teeth of the mosasaurs can also be confused with the teeth of the plesiosaurs, which are more slender and lack carinae all together. Since mosasaur teeth along with "crocodile" and plesiosaur teeth display a wide range of forms and characteristics, so some teeth may not fit any of these descriptions.

From: Big Brook Mosasaur Page

That long tapering tooth in your third picture is most intriguing.

Any second opinions anyone?

 

[fossilkid25]

hey duadar8
ok the longest teeth in the 1st picture are from a crocodile of some sort. the rest in that picture are mosasaur. the teeth in the 2nd picture are mostly mosasaur but the 4th tooth from the right is a crocodile. now in the 3rd picture the fossils are : 1 crocodile tooth , 1 jaw bone , 2 roarus teeth , 1 beaver incisor and 1 unknown mammal moaler. Im an to be expert in vert fossils IDer. i hope it helps.