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bthemoose

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I recently bought some fossil shark teeth from the St. Johns River in Florida (recovered by a diver), which includes some megs and makos. A couple of the teeth--pictured below--also look like they could possibly be great white teeth, but I'm not sure.

 

These are approximately the same size--the tooth on the left measures 2.3" and 2.1" along its slants and the other measures 2.1" on both sides. I think the one on the right is probably a meg as it looks like there may be thin bourlette. The one on the left doesn't appear to have a bourlette; however it obviously has some root wear, so it's possible a bourlette has eroded away. I've included additional photos below. What do you think about these? Any help in ID'ing them is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

5f2ccc90a8113_MegorGW.jpg.beca0d4e7d31f2603d30caab12706609.jpg

 

More pictures of the tooth on the left:

 

5f2ccc9db9164_Tooth1.jpg.cac91215d3be8cf422d4fd03cccacf67.jpg

 

More pictures of the tooth on the right:

 

5f2ccca64fda8_Tooth2.jpg.94f701eef6c5d999e96ce253a36e4485.jpg

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Yup both great whites you can tell as the serrations are much larger and there is no bourlette and the root has a flatter shape

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@Praefectus and @will stevenson, what do you think about this one? It's from the same lot, and I've been assuming it's a Meg based on the triangular wear on the labial side (which sure looks like where the bourlette would be if it weren't entirely gone). It's a similar size to the other two, but a bit thicker/more robust at the root as you can see from the profile view, and the blade is also proportionally wider/doesn't taper as sharply to the tip.

 

5f2dd3254f3a0_Tooth3.jpg.598776427e690c66e950c33bc9a40105.jpg

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That is a megalodon. You can see where the bourlette was before it wore away. Nice photography, by the way. 

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Yes I would agree, it’s a meg^_^ the line between the root and the blade is much more v shaped

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13 hours ago, bthemoose said:

It's from the same lot, and I've been assuming it's a Meg based on the triangular wear on the labial side (which sure looks like where the bourlette would be if it weren't entirely gone). It's a similar size to the other two, but a bit thicker/more robust at the root as you can see from the profile view, and the blade is also proportionally wider/doesn't taper as sharply to the tip.

 

Sometimes I feel these are the easier calls with most of the tooth present. Many times I get the question: What do you think this is?

and I only have the shard... you get to decide on the serrations... Depending on wear raises the degree of difficulty.

SerrationsMerge.jpg.cf475d7426b3d0742f9626a272427273.jpg

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The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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23 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

Sometimes I feel these are the easier calls with most of the tooth present. Many times I get the question: What do you think this is?

and I only have the shard... you get to decide on the serrations... Depending on wear raises the degree of difficulty.

SerrationsMerge.jpg.cf475d7426b3d0742f9626a272427273.jpg

 

Thanks, that's helpful to put my pictures side by side! You, @Praefectus, and @will stevenson have provided some great pointers. In my brief start to shark tooth collecting, I've found that once I see a few properly identified teeth in person and can figure out the diagnostic characteristics from those, it gets to be a lot easier. Up until this point, the best examples I had in my collection were one Meg with the serrations worn off and a couple of much smaller GW teeth, so I didn't have much to go on.

 

The next step is to find some of these myself in the wild. I'll have to travel to find a great white, but there's at least the possibility of finding a Meg around here. I did find the shard below, which I'm fairly certain is from a Meg, a couple of months ago, but I'm hoping my next one will be a bit more impressive. :ighappy:

 

5f2e999d96a88_MegShard.jpg.b1dbebe7fd68027f814f0fcf93f872ed.jpg

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