Please help identify

[cstockton]

These were a surface find in SW Kansas. Doing an image search, most of the teeth suggest young mosasaur, but the last photo with the 2 shark-like teeth kinda throws a wrench in that line of thought.

Any help would be appreciated. 

[Fossildude19]

@pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon  @Jared C @LSCHNELLE

 

@JohnJ @BrennanThePaleoDude  @Praefectus  @jnoun11

 

Can we get all sides views of the last item - Top, bottom, front, back, right side, left side?

[cstockton]

I am no longer on site, but I will upload

more pictures as soon as I can

[Jared C]

Not much diagnostic material to go off of apart from the premaxilla and the verts 

1 hour ago, cstockton said:

but the last photo with the 2 shark-like teeth kinda throws a wrench in that line of thought.

 

Those look like zygosphene processes of the vertebra to me, not teeth. The existence of those would eliminate two sub-families off the bat, since Halisaurinae and Tylosaurinae lack zygosphenes and zygantra.

 

That leaves the Mosasaurines and Plioplatecarpines. WIth not much more to go off of apart from the pre-maxilla, I can't help but notice the premax is very broad, and quite suggestive of a well known species in the Kansas chalk, Platecarpus tympaniticus (below). Note that P. ictericus has been synonymized with P. tympaniticus, so don't be confused by the labeling. 

 

[cstockton]

It looked similar to the others I have circled here, but they looked different enough that I thought they might be teeth. 

Platecarpus had come up in my searches, so that makes perfect sense.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I've never found anything like this before, and only rinsed the majority of the mud off before grabbing my phone, which had been left behind. This wasn't what I went out looking for.

[val horn]

What you have found is marvelous.  To me is seems like a remarkable amount of associated bones.  You may want to take your finds to a museum.  Often vertebrae on mosasaurs can be identified  to species/ genus by ratios of length and condyle width and depth.  Somebody from the museum or university might want to go out with you and see if there are any more associated bones to be found.  

[cstockton]

I found them on my brother in law's property. I left everything there for he and his wife to look at, along with directions to where I found it. Not far from there, I found what I believe to be enchodus vertebrae. I went out looking for agates and petrified wood, I was extremely surprised by what I found. I have walked that area quite a few times over the last few years and usually ended up finding a handful of "pretty rocks" for my grandkids.

[val horn]

if your brother in law is willing I really would ask if a paleontologist can come looking with you.  Even if fossils are found they belong to the land owner and he can do or not do what he wants with them (human remains are a different story) so he need not fear losing control of his land.  But reasonably intact mosasaurs are often scientifically valuable and you have found almost a dozen vertebrae and a large part of the jaws so this fossil may mean something.  The enchodus would be expected in that same time period (Late Cretaceous).

[Coco]

I agree that you have made some beautiful and interesting discoveries. The jaw deserves to be restored, by you or by someone more competent if necessary. If I were you, I would try to search again in the same place because I think you can make other discoveries, even if I noticed that this is not what interests you

 

Coco

[cstockton]

I have always loved rocks and fossils, I just wasn't expecting to find anything like this. My father used to take us hunting for dinosaur bone in central Utah and I had a pretty good mineral collection as a child.

My brother in law has found arrowheads and other small artifacts in his fields, usually after tilling the soil. 

[Praefectus]

+1 for cf. Platecarpus based on the premaxilla and tooth root shape. Nice find. 

 

On 7/8/2024 at 7:58 PM, val horn said:

But reasonably intact mosasaurs are often scientifically valuable and you have found almost a dozen vertebrae and a large part of the jaws so this fossil may mean something. 

ehhh, plioplatecarpines are a dime a dozen in Late Cretaceous marine strata. Without a frontal or quadrate, I doubt any mosasaur researcher would bother to look at the piece.