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Angler fish


cck

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13 minutes ago, rocket said:

can you post age and place where you found it? Interesting jaw

It's listed in the headers

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46 minutes ago, Troodon said:

It's listed in the headers

Which most people don't notice. It is always a good idea to provide as much information as possible when seeking an ID and that includes possibly repeating it in the posting itself. The keywords were something added in an update to the forum software a few years back and are intended to make searches on the forum more functional. It always helps to be more verbose for the human readers. ;)

 

The jaw is rather beat-up which may limit what we can see and may hinder a certain ID. To me this resembles a gar jaw with the larger primary teeth flanked by smaller teeth on the outside--they are formidable predators. :o

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/80054-unidentified-fish-jaw-from-hell-creek-formation-nd/&do=findComment&comment=846307

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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1 hour ago, rocket said:

can you post age and place where you found it? Interesting jaw

I’d guess it was Westmoreland State Park/Stratford Hall or somewhere near there. I think those are the only Miocene exposures on the Potomac in VA.

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We have lots of gar (both Lepisosteus and Atractosteus) in the Miocene (~5.7 Ma) site called Montbrook here in north-central Florida. If the exposure the jaw in question was found in has a freshwater component then gar may be a possibility. If it is exclusively marine then gars are ruled out. The one thing for certain is that if you are thinking an anglerfish with the viciously toothy smile, these are bathypelagic living at great depths and would be quite unlikely to turn up in the fossil record. There are other members of the anglerfish family but they do not have the big scary teeth which you might be thinking you are seeing in this jaw. Actually, the teeth in the jaw in question seem to be way to robust anyway as deepsea anglers have very needle-like dentition.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish

 

Humpback_anglerfish.png

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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I was thinking gar. Definitely not an angler. Anglers tend to have very delicate bone that is almost spiderwebbed in texture. There are a range of shallower-water anglers (e.g. Lophius) but fossils are still pretty rare in large part because the bone is so poorly mineralized.

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It was indeed westmoreland county… a deep water marine environment in the Miocene…an ID of Lophius sp was given by someone I respect… just wanted to hear more opinions

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I think Hake (Merluccius) is a fairly good match. It isn't Lophius. Lophius has fluted or buttressed base to the teeth. Here is a hake jaw from Calvert Cliffs (E and F). The jaw fragment J is Lophius.

 

 

Hake1.JPG

hake2.JPG

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4 hours ago, Troodon said:

It's listed in the headers

thanks, have not seen it, do not look often in the headers..., but will do it more next time

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