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Carcharhinus altimus tooth?


hemipristis

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South Florida Beach Find.  Pretty sure it's genus Carcharhinus. Elongate, curved blade, singular notch and root configuration has me thinking C. altimus (bignose shark). C. acronotus  was also similar, but that species tends to be small (<5 ft), apparently. The tooth is 13-14mm in vertical height, which seems a bit large for a 5-foot Carcharhinid.

 

Thoughts?

A.jpg

B.jpg

C.jpg

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'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

George Santayana

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16 hours ago, PODIGGER said:

I can't opine on the genus, but NICE find!

thanks!

 

If my guess is correct, it's only the second one that I have ID'd out of thousands of collected teeth.  Indeed, I cannot seem to find C. altimus teeth listed in the usual, go-to fossil pubs of teeth from the SE U.S.  I do see numerous references to fossil teeth of that species from the Caribbean and South America though

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

George Santayana

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3 hours ago, hemipristis said:

thanks!

 

If my guess is correct, it's only the second one that I have ID'd out of thousands of collected teeth.  Indeed, I cannot seem to find C. altimus teeth listed in the usual, go-to fossil pubs of teeth from the SE U.S.  I do see numerous references to fossil teeth of that species from the Caribbean and South America though

 

Kent discusses C. altimus in this publication:

 

https://scholarlypress.si.edu/store/life-sciences-biodiversity/geology-and-vertebrate-paleontology-calvert-cliffs/

 

I think C. altimus has finer serrations and a more tapering crown.  Not knowing where you are collecting, I would say that tooth could belong to C. brachyurus, or at least I would look at modern teeth of that species.  The serration type (coarse or fine) seems to be variable in that species but let us know what you find.  Identifying isolated teeth is often tough with a tooth like that because there may be two other species with very similar teeth in certain parts of the jaw.

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