Arg! I thought IDing shark teeth would be easier than this!

[Shamalama]

I'm a little frustrated at the moment because I've spent almost two hours surfing the interwebs and this forum to see if I could ID these shark teeth. They came in a bag labelled "Belgrade Quarry, NC" along with some Hemipristis serra teeth and some Carcharocles angustidens that I queried in an earlier ID post.

 

I think these first three are Negaprion eurybathrodon but I really can't tell. I've been to Bill Heim's Elasmo site and have done searches on here to try and narrow down the options but I am coming up clueless. Any help is appreciated!

 

Specimen 1

 

 

Specimen 2

 

 

Specimen 3

 

 

 

And I believe these are Sand Tiger shark teeth, Carcharias sp., but they are missing any cusps.

 

 

 

[sixgill pete]

The first three are Carcharhinus species possibly C. obscurus; Dusky shark. The others are sand tigers Carcharias cuspidata, a very common tooth in the Belgrade Formation.

[hokietech96]

At first glance I thought bull shark but sixgill has way more experience and expertise so I would like to change my answer to dusky. 

[Al Dente]

I don’t think these teeth are from Belgrade Quarry. The colors of the first three look like Bone Valley teeth from Florida. 

[Shamalama]

13 hours ago, sixgill pete said:

The first three are Carcharhinus species possibly C. obscurus; Dusky shark. The others are sand tigers Carcharias cuspidata, a very common tooth in the Belgrade Formation.

 

10 hours ago, hokietech96 said:

At first glance I thought bull shark but sixgill has way more experience and expertise so I would like to change my answer to dusky. 

Thank you for the help, a very different answer than what I was thinking initially!

[Shamalama]

3 hours ago, Al Dente said:

I don’t think these teeth are from Belgrade Quarry. The colors of the first three look like Bone Valley teeth from Florida. 

It's possible that the seller got teeth from different locations mixed together. The first tooth with the blue/white color is the only one from the batch in that style.

[Al Dente]

I agree with the others that the first three teeth are dusky or bull shark. Too young to be Belgrade Formation but there is Pliocene in the quarry. Usually the Pliocene teeth from there are pretty beat up and weathered.

[Shamalama]

14 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

I agree with the others that the first three teeth are dusky or bull shark. Too young to be Belgrade Formation but there is Pliocene in the quarry. Usually the Pliocene teeth from there are pretty beat up and weathered.

Maybe the seller mixed his teeth from the Belgrade Quarry and the Lee Creek Quarry? The colors of the teeth seem to match Lee Creek a little better.  In the same bag are some Hemipristis serra teeth that are mostly light colored as well so I'm thinking there was some mixing of findings at some point.  The bag had been donated to my local club for sale at the club table during the club show. I think it came from an estate of an old collector.

[siteseer]

9 hours ago, Al Dente said:

I don’t think these teeth are from Belgrade Quarry. The colors of the first three look like Bone Valley teeth from Florida. 

 

I was going to say the same thing about the first three teeth.  Earlier this year, I sorted a large lot of Bone Valley teeth for a friend.  As a rule, you shouldn't try to guess even the general locality from the color, but those are Bone Valley colors.

[Shamalama]

Well, for now I am going to leave them labelled "Belgrade Quarry or Lee Creek Quarry" only because I don't have enough knowledge or experience myself o say otherwise. I appreciate everyone's help and opinions on these teeth. It will just have to stay  mystery for now.

[siteseer]

9 hours ago, Shamalama said:

Well, for now I am going to leave them labelled "Belgrade Quarry or Lee Creek Quarry" only because I don't have enough knowledge or experience myself o say otherwise. I appreciate everyone's help and opinions on these teeth. It will just have to stay  mystery for now.

 

Okay, but you should think about what Al Dente said about the species.  They are bull sharks if not duskies and both are from the early-mid Miocene to the present.  The Belgrade deposit is late Oligocene to earliest Miocene as I recall with a different fauna even if it sounds like there isn't much of a time difference.  You don't get those colors at Belgrade nor Lee Creek though I would say there could be some overlap with the grayer teeth.  You can call it a mystery but those are distinctive Bone Valley species and colors.  Also, if Don says the sand tigers do look like Belgrade teeth, you can take that to the bank too.

 

Jess 

[Troodon]

I've got quite a few teeth from Bone Valley and the preservation match the top three.  Not from Belgrade Quarry age is all wrong like Al Dente said.

[Shamalama]

10 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

Okay, but you should think about what Al Dente said about the species.  They are bull sharks if not duskies and both are from the early-mid Miocene to the present.  The Belgrade deposit is late Oligocene to earliest Miocene as I recall with a different fauna even if it sounds like there isn't much of a time difference.  You don't get those colors at Belgrade nor Lee Creek though I would say there could be some overlap with the grayer teeth.  You can call it a mystery but those are distinctive Bone Valley species and colors.  Also, if Don says the sand tigers do look like Belgrade teeth, you can take that to the bank too.

 

Jess 

 

4 hours ago, Troodon said:

I've got quite a few teeth from Bone Valley and the preservation match the top three.  Not from Belgrade Quarry age is all wrong like Al Dente said.

 

Ok, That is convincing enough for me to change their origin to Bone Valley. Again I don't have the experience collecting shark teeth like you guys do so I will take your guidance to heart. Were these Devonian brachiopods I could reasonably make a judgement call on their origin based on their looks and matrix in the same way you guys do with these shark teeth. I'm just out of my depth here.

 

Again, thank you for the help!