They are megalodon teeth ?

[pochoclo666]

 

 

I found these two teeth,  and I would like to know if they are small megalodon or angustidens teeth?

 

  

[Top Trilo]

Appears to be a Meg, I don’t see any cusps

[pochoclo666]

11 minutes ago, Top Trilo said:

Parece ser un Meg, no veo ninguna cúspide

 

 

Added one more photo. Is it also a megalodon?

That tooth is a little bigger.

[Praefectus]

The tooth on the right is not megalodon because it has cusps. It is one of the megalodon ancestors. Do you know the age of the tooth or where it was found?

 

I think I might see really vestigial cusps on the tooth on the left. Can you upload a close up picture of it? Thanks. 

[pochoclo666]

7 minutes ago, Praefectus said:

El diente de la derecha no es megalodon porque tiene cúspides. Es uno de los antepasados del megalodon. ¿Conoce la edad del diente o dónde se encontró?

 

Creo que podría ver cúspides realmente vestigiales en el diente de la izquierda. ¿Puedes subir una foto de él? Gracias. 

[Praefectus]

Thank you. I see cusps on both teeth. They are either O. angustidens or O. chubutensis depending on their age. 

[pochoclo666]

8 minutes ago, Praefectus said:

Thank you. I see cusps on both teeth. They are either O. angustidens or O. chubutensis depending on their age. 

 

thank you !

[Thomas.Dodson]

I would caution against using cusplets as the sole reason for identification. Juvenile Meg teeth can retain cusplets and some adult Meg teeth retain cusplets as a vestigial characteristic. I do agree that the larger tooth is not a Meg. The cusplets are too pronounced for an adult tooth and the bourlette is too small. Tooth #2 is within the range of cusplets that Meg teeth can get though. Can we get more information on the location these were found?

 

The following paragraph is from "Victor J. Perez, Stephen J. Godfrey, Bretton W. Kent, Robert E. Weems & John R. Nance (2018) The transition between Carcharocles chubutensis and Carcharocles megalodon (Otodontidae, Chondrichthyes): lateral cusplet loss through time, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 38:6, DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1546732". 

Publication Link

 

"Adult C. chubutensis teeth retain lateral cusplets (also referred to as lateral denticles or secondary cusps), whereas those of C. megalodon do not (Kent, 1994). However, this transition is confounded by the morphological variation associated with the ontogeny of C. megalodon, in which juveniles may or may not retain lateral cusplets (Applegate and Espinosa-Arrubarrena, 1996; Pimiento et al., 2010). Further, adult C. megalodon may retain lateral cusplets as a vestigial character (Perez et al., 2017). Thus, although the presence of lateral cusplets is regarded as a definitive character for C. chubutensis, this trait alone is not sufficient for distinguishing C. chubutensis from C. megalodon (Kent, 1994)."

 

"Late Miocene chondrichthyans from Lago Bayano, Panama: Functional diversity, environment and biogeography (Perez et. Al 2017)" has pictures of of a Meg specimen with vestigial cusplets. Publication Link

 

 

 

[Top Trilo]

With these closer photos it is much easier to see the small cusps on the right but like Thomas said some megalodon teeth also have these cusps so I believe its either a late chubtensis or an early megalodon. this is the problem with species names, nature doesn't have perfect boundaries between "species"