Please Help With Id....maybe Fish Mouth Plate?

[Taffie]

Found in a reworked environment in Berkeley County, SC. The first 3 pics may be some sort of fish mouth plate, I think I've seen it somewhere before but I could not find it again to help with the id. I don't know what the item is in the second 3 pics and the third set of pics look like some sort of seed or bean, it's 4 mm long. I've been finding several kinds of different seed/beans lately. They are very hard and sound like stone when I tap them on my teeth. Thanks in advance for the help.

Taffie

[Coco]

Hi,

4th, 5th & 6th pics seems to be little species of sea urchin. Perhpas Echinocyamus, but they are broken, because there should be no hole above.

[Taffie]

Thanks, Coco. Looks like the match the tiny spine I found the other day.

[TqB]

The first one looks rather like a rhyncholite - nautilus beak.

[Plax]

TqB is correct about shape but the few Rhyncholites I've seen (at least here in NC eocene) are white (I know color doesn't matter much) and have no horizontal plates. Can't imagine what fish it could be either. White mini echinoid looks like juvie Protoscutella which are found in the local (to you) Martin Marrietta quarries. Could also be a crushed Echinocyamus as Coco observes. The last two are real mysteries. Am supposing that you've eliminated modern weevil bored seed

[Al Dente]

The first item looks similar to some Diodontid (Burrfish, Porcupine fish) mouth plates but yours has a sharper angle than any I've seen. I agree with juvenile echinoid for the second, most likely a sand dollar which would indicate Eocene or younger. The last is a modern seed.

[Sharks of SC]

TqB is correct about shape but the few Rhyncholites I've seen (at least here in NC eocene) are white (I know color doesn't matter much) and have no horizontal plates. Can't imagine what fish it could be either. White mini echinoid looks like juvie Protoscutella which are found in the local (to you) Martin Marrietta quarries. Could also be a crushed Echinocyamus as Coco observes. The last two are real mysteries. Am supposing that you've eliminated modern weevil bored seed

I don't think nautilus is an option, this site is at oldest oligocene.

[sixgill pete]

It sure resembles a mouth plate, but I have never seen one so sharp. Very interesting find, hopefully someone can give it a positive ID for you.

[TqB]

I don't think nautilus is an option, this site is at oldest oligocene.

The age is OK, nautili aren't extinct (yet!) - I'm by no means sure this is one though.

[Sharks of SC]

The age is OK, nautili aren't extinct (yet!) - I'm by no means sure this is one though.

I guess not! I guess I just always associate nautiloids with the Cretaceous deposits with ammonites and such. Considering deep-water environments hosting six gill shark remains in the Pliocene are present in Dorchester Co. (nautiloids live in a benthic environment, right?), nautilus remains may just show up, though I've never seen any in local collections.