HUBBELL TEETH

Juvenile Carcharocles megalodon teeth from the Bone Valley phosphate of Florida. These heart-shaped teeth, often with root and cusp abnormalities, are sometimes referred to as "Hubbell teeth" after Gordon Hubbell.

My personal theory is that all Hubbell teeth, by definition, are deformed, probably as a result of nutritional deficiency as young sharks. The large majority of juvenile megalodon teeth are normal, miniatures more or less of the adult teeth.

There is some lag time involved between the deformation as a germ tooth and its development and deployment as a useful (though deformed) tooth. A nutritional deficiency could occur shortly after birth, resulting in Hubbell teeth weeks or months later.

The disorder that affects a small proportion of these juvenile sharks may arise from an ultimately fatal genetic problem (they don't eat enough because there is a birth defect). Or, it may be something that these young sharks survive when they find sufficient prey items (they stop producing deformed teeth when nutrition is adequate). For one reason or the other, we don't find large Hubbell teeth.

For a discussion of Hubbell teeth, see MEGALODON, HUNTING THE HUNTER by Mark Renz (2002).