What a beautiful sight in my yard! I'm glad I stopped my yard clean up to bend down and take a closer look - what we're seeing is a dog lichen (grey and white structures) amongst mosses and grasses. The dog lichens have little rhizines (root-like veins) on their underside, that supposedly have a resemblance to dog's teeth.
Dog lichens are formed from the partnership between a fungus and cyanobacteria (or algae), and are able to harness gaseous nitrogen to help enrich soils.
The white curled up, toothy underside is what drew my eye to these beauties. How unusual!
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