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Ammonites
Miscellaneous Teeth
Inoceramus
Invertebrates
Many invertebrate animals left feeding or burrowing trails in the soft sediment at the bottom of the seaway.
The ammonite is an extinct cephaopod that jettisoned through the continental sea in search of moolusks and fis to eat. It resembled its closest modern relative, the chambered nautilus. It was food for sharks, mosasaurs and large fish.
Teeth are common because they are hard enough to withstand the chemical and physical changes that occur to sediment as it becomes rock. Below are teeth from sharks, fish, and a possible mosasaur. All are specimens in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum collections.
Prionocyclus is the most common species we documented
Shark tooth Squalicorax sp. Notice serrated edges still visible after 68 million years.
Shark tooth Squalicorax sp
Ptychodus sp. shell-crushing shark. This shark preferred eating clams and developed teeth suitable for cracking the tough shells.
Photo by Michael Poltenovage.
Possible mosasaur palatine tooth.
Photo by Michael Poltenovage.
Pycnodont fish tooth.
Photo by Michael Poltenovage.
Inoceramus was a giant clam. Some species grew up to a meter in diameter. Many shells are covered by small oysters, (Pseudoperna congesta). Clam shell provided the only hard surface for oysters to attach themselves on the muddy seafloor.
Oysters encrusting clam shell
During the late Cretaceous Period Colorado Springs was submerged 200 meters under the Western Interior Seaway. The environment was one of warm, tropical to subtropical water temperatures as indicated by the fossil evidence.
DMNS re-creation of late Cretaceous landscape
Photo by Mark Izold. Specimen also contains ripples of sea floor.
Fish Tail
Tail rays of a large predatory fish, possibly Ichthyodectes sp.
Red Rock Canyon marine fossils; The story of Colorado Springs parks and open spaces as told by the rocks; the paleontology and geology. Copyright 2008, Sharon Milito. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without written consent.
