These microvertebrate remains are from Late Cretaceous freshwater sediment, their size varies from 1 to 4 mm. Did anyone see anything similar like these before? Any ideas are appreciated :)
An interest, but not my specialty, but some looked similar to barnacles on the fourth down. You might find papers interesting, and I could see some similarities. You may have found something worth documenting and need a specialist with the skill to identify them. However working in a natural history museum, perhaps you are in a position and would be given the time to develop this expertise and expand the information available on your exploration areas.
The idea of the barnacles would be interesting, but the material is from a strictly freshwater-sediment. As far as I know, barnacles occur only in saltwater. However, it'd worth to check the crustacean material from other parts of the world, from the same era. Who knows? :-)
I am mostly interested in fish, this is why I decided to show these pics here, maybe someone, who is more experted than me, could give me a line on some remains, a line worth to catch and follow, or just I can start with.
"THE BUDURONE MICROVERTEBRATE SITE FROM THE MAASTRICHTIAN OF THE HAŢEG BASIN - FLORA, FAUNA, TAPHONOMY AND PALEOENVIRONMENT" (CSIKI & al., 2008). In the laste page (66), the specimen N°10 is similar than your first assemblage fossils . Hope this helps
Stephen Mars: aftr I wrote that barnacles are saltwater animals, I've immediately regret it :D I also found reports of freshwater-keeping, so I was totally wrong.
Hakima Belkhattab: Thank You very much for the idea! I already saw this paper a few months ago, and I saved it for the case of a possible matching :)
Most all of these appear to be teeth, some showing typical wear patterns, of multiple types of vertebrates. It seems that both cutting/grinding and crushing types are included. The larger fragment on your last plate (figs A, B, C perhaps G) are perhaps jaw fragments or something else. Have you tried to identify their composition? I can't specify what they belong to -- fish are suggested by many of the morphologies -- but identities will have to come from context of other fossils, macrofossils?, in the fauna I imagine. Very interesting. Are there mollusks among the biota?
For me looks like teeth. some of them resemble "conodonts" especielly those on fig 4 and 6 (but beyond the scope). Maybe the owner should be look for amongst primitive river lampreys. Just look at google >>> graphic >>> it is only suggestion.
Wow, I am surprised by how many people are interested in mysteries :)!
Thank You for everyone!
J. Mark Erickson: They do not seem to be jaw fragments for me, but anyway, who knows? :) There are molluscs in the fauna, bivalves and gastropods too. All specimens are bones for sure, I checked their cross-section surface for safety. They are not shell-fragments, or something like that - as far as I can tell.
Zbyszek Remin: up to now no conodonts have been reported from the locality (I am not an expert, but did they even exist in the Late Cretaceous? or did they go extinct in the Triassic maybe?). But the idea on lampreys is very interesting! However, I cannot find a paper with isolated, Mesozoic lamprey fossil material in it.
Of course, like I said conodont is not the case - they are all extinct by the end of Triassic and you have freshwater sediments. I just said that they slighlty resemble some of them as in case of the overall morphology, that is why I suggest look for some primitive animals...
I dont even know if the lampreys teeth has ever been described. What is the mineralogy of your "things" and chack what is the mineralogy of the lampreys teeth.
to me specimens in figs 1,2,3, and 5, most probably are different types of fish teeth, especially in fig.5(A) it is very clear and you can see the jagged pattern at the edges of the tooth. Fig. 6 specimens are very similar to fish bones, but one should see under binocular microscope. And I think specimens of fig.4, are pharyngeal teeth of fish, but as I mentioned one should have look them under microscope in detail.
Habib Alimohammadian: I agree with You on those teeth, I determined them as actinopterygian teeth. I maybe see the figures I posted in different ordering, for me the fourth plate includes tooth-bearing elements. Maybe coronoid elements, and stuff. Specimens on the figure 5th for me, are more like pharyngeals for me, earlier I tentatively listed them as pharyngeals. I thought, that maybe someone already saw some remains closely match in morphology to ours. Anyway, micormaterial is always filled with surprises :)
Som Nath Kundal: fig 5A and B are similar to some cyrpinid pharyngeals, indeed :)
Although I'm not a specialist I would say that they look like teeth and agree with J. Mark Erickson that the specimens in the last plate seem to be jaw fragments. Probably belonging to several fish species.
Almost any terrestrial vertebrate tooth (except mammalian molars, probably) can be matched in crown morphology and attachment type by some actinopterygian fish. So, good luck!