Carcharhinus or Carcharocles or Carcharodon?

[Ludwigia]

I've been going through my shark tooth collection recently trying to refine my ids. This one here has me somewhat stumped. I had identified it as Carcharhinus priscus, but I'm not at all sure any more and am now starting to wonder if it may be a chub or great white. The first photo, which I think is the labial view, seems to fit, but what I believe to be the lingual view (2nd photo) has me confused. The tooth is from the southern German Miocene Burdigalian. Slant length 15mm. Any advice here would be appreciated.

 

 

[Al Dente]

It’s Carcharhinus. You can see an eroded nutrient groove.

[digit]

And the megatooth sharks have the distinctive bourlette at the gumline.

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Megalodon_Tooth_Label_grande.webp

[Ludwigia]

42 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

It’s Carcharhinus. You can see an eroded nutrient groove.

Thanks. That nutrient groove was giving me some doubt.

[siteseer]

Hi Roger,

 

It's tough enough to identify a lot of Carcharhinus teeth to species when they are late Miocene-Pleistocene age but at least you can see how they compare to a modern species that dates back that for.  For early Miocene teeth, it's unlikely a given tooth is from even an early representative of a modern species so you are left with comparing it to named species of that time.  I think the bull shark and C. macloti go back that far - not sure. 

 

I have seen C. priscus referred to as an invalid species and I have seen it used as a valid species by researchers.  

 

Jess

[Ludwigia]

1 hour ago, siteseer said:

 

I have seen C. priscus referred to as an invalid species and I have seen it used as a valid species by researchers in both cases.  

 

Jess

The German researchers seem to have no problem with the name. Most finds here are assigned to that species.