Great White C. carcharias with cusps?

[fossilnut]

Found an exceptional ivory colored fossil shark tooth that while it looks to be a Carcharodon carcharias it appears to have cusps. Also found a 2nd black fossil probable Great White shark tooth with cusps. Both were just found on the beach in North Myrtle Beach, SC. Neither has a bourlette and the serrations appear to me (limited experience) to be coarse vs fine in a meg. The white tooth is 1 15/16 in slant height. So it does not look like a tooth in the megalodon lineage-C. augustidens or C. auriculatus or C chubutensis. The thinness of the blade is in line with a GW.

 

In looking at the Great White lineage, I believe I saw a picture of C. hubbelli with small cusps. However this was a Pacific shark-California and Peru. Other fossils found on the beach in the general area were mouth plate from a burr fish, a number of Sea Robin skulls and a mammalian molar (will be posting that for id-horse,deer, tapir or camel), a number of great white teeth (I am pretty confidant) that do not have any cusps. I have hunted these beaches yearly for a number of years and have found fossils from the Cretaceous, Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene so cannot specify with certainty an age. It appears that the serrations are smaller near the tip of the blade.

Would appreciate any help, suggestions about this tooth. This is probably the 2nd finest tooth  (Lee Creek broad form Mako) I have ever found. A find of a lifetime!

[fossilnut]

[fossilnut]

additional pictures

[fossilnut]

[fossilnut]

[fossilnut]

[fossilnut]

[fossilnut]

[fossilnut]

[The Jersey Devil]

They all appear to be C. carcharias. Some smaller teeth will show more irregular serrations and/or cusplets.

 

C. hubbelli will show a much more dramatic decrease in serration size from the base of the crown to the tip and will have serrations that aren’t perpendicular to the crown.

[Miocene_Mason]

Nice GW! They can on rare occasion have diminished vestigial cusps, they still do today in some juveniles. 

[sharkdoctor]

Great finds! Not really seeing cusps here. Like most biological parameters, large teeth have quite a bit of of individual variation. I just see variations of normal GW teeth at the shoulders here.

[Shellseeker]

On 11/24/2019 at 12:39 PM, fossilnut said:

Very nice!!! I have saved your photos.  Megalodons have the same regressive trait,

 

[fossilnut]

Thanks to all for your responses. Cusps or biological parameters, I've only found these features in 2 out of 11 Great White shark teeth I found on this trip. To the best of my recollection, none of the GW teeth I have found over the years there have showed such an feature. I wonder how often such teeth are produced? Would others who have found GW teeth with an indication of cusplets please add to this post. lets informally get some idea of the frequency or rarity of this phenomenon. Look forward to seeing if other have found any.

Makes this tooth all the more interesting.

[fossilnut]

On 11/26/2019 at 3:42 PM, fossilnut said:

Would others who have found GW teeth with an indication of cusplets please add to this post. lets informally get some idea of the frequency or rarity of this phenomenon. Look forward to seeing if other have found any.

Makes this tooth all the more interesting.

@Shellseeker@WhodamanHD@Brett Breakin' RocksCan you help get this process started? Invite others who may have ones in their collections. Thanks

[Miocene_Mason]

35 minutes ago, fossilnut said:

@Shellseeker@WhodamanHD@Brett Breakin' RocksCan you help get this process started? Invite others who may have ones in their collections. Thanks

This might warrant a new thread.:

 

No GWs in MD. As for hastalis, I don’t happen to have any with cusps. I don’t have a huge amount of hastalis period, I haven’t been collecting long and I divide my collecting between time periods.

[Miocene_Mason]

12 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

This might warrant a new thread.:

 

No GWs in MD. As for hastalis, I don’t happen to have any with cusps. I don’t have a huge amount of hastalis period, I haven’t been collecting long and I divide my collecting between time periods.

I take it back! I looked back through and I found this tooth which I remember pulling out of the Calvert FM zone 10 (so early langhian if memory serves), and it’s got a cusps on one side only.

[FossilsAnonymous]

@WhodamanHD I have one as well very similar to that, from the Choptank formation. Transitional perhaps?

[Miocene_Mason]

13 minutes ago, FossilsAnonymous said:

 

@WhodamanHD I have one as well very similar to that, from the Choptank formation. Transitional perhaps?

 

I think the transition happened long before, but the trait still shows up as a vestige. We see completely uncusped forms in both of these formations, and then the odd cusped one. 

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

@fossilnut I picked up this transitional tooth from Chile precisely for these little cusps/nibs on the shoulders.

 

 

[fossilnut]

@Brett Breakin' RocksNice tooth. What species is it? Thanks for posting.

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

5 minutes ago, fossilnut said:

What species is it?

Hi There,

 

This is a Great White ... or rather ... a shark in transition. Though to be honest it could also just be some kind or morphological aberration. 

 

Cheers,

Brett

[fossilnut]

 

@Shark tooth hunter 2Hi Here is my post for the GW tooth I found at NMB. I also entered it in the vertebrate Fossil of the Month for 11/2019 see that listing on the right hand side of the TFF home page. Happy Hunting.

[Shellseeker]

So,

I primarily hunt the Peace River and tributaries in SW Florida. We do not have any Rics or Angys.  There are a few Chubs in the phosphate mines so I guess a Chub could have drifted from a phosphate mine to the river.  There has been no documented case of finding a Chub in the Peace River.

I add that as background -- I have found a number of Juvenile Megs (< 2 inches) that have a regressive trait for cusps. Here is 1:

 

But you asked about GWs... exceedingly rare.  I have found less than 20 GWs in a period of 12 years hunting. In that time , I have found much more than 1000 megs.

 

The one really interesting GW a friend found is described in this post....

 

[fossilnut]

@ShellseekerThanks! I am learning a lot from all on TFF and having fun doing it. I got to screen once in the Peace many years ago and found some megs and a piece of mammoth tooth. I am thinking of posting a compilation of the variety of fossils and ages that I have found at NMB: from ammonites, echinoderms and squalicdorax shark teeth from the Cretaceous to the Pleistocene mammoth and mastodon partial teeth. Even if I don't  post it, I should pull them together for a talk at my fossil club. Sorry thinking in writing. It is continuously amazing now evolution is and is not a linear process but at times old traits reassert themselves or genes don't get it exactly right. I am not a scientist nor a person with a great deal of scientific knowledge but that at least is how it seems to me. The more I know the less I really know and understand. I stand in awe of the complexity and wonderous aspects of nature. Finis