Help with Some Matoaka Beach Finds

[Snaggletooth19]

I was out at Matoaka Beach (Calvert Cliffs, Choptank Formation) a couple days ago and found a small but great quality megalodon tooth, a great-looking crocodile tooth, and then what looks to me to be a small aquatic mammal tooth. I have a couple questions about them.

 

1. Can anyone tell if the megalodon tooth is from a juvenile animal or just one of the posterior teeth of an adult animal?

 

2. What is the typical genus/species of crocodiles in this formation that you typically find teeth for?

 

3. Any ideas on the smaller find? I think it could be a tooth belonging to an aquatic mammal, but pretty weathered down without much enamel. Any other thoughts?

[PaleoNoel]

I believe your meg is probably not from an adult individual, may also be a chubutensis with the little cusps. The croc teeth in this formation and others along the east coast of this age are generally referred to as Thecachampsa antiquus. While your third piece looks like a bone fragment, I wouldn't rule out heavily worn cetacean tooth.

[BellamyBlake]

I would say the Meg isn't posterior, and it would likely have been from a juvenile based on its size. Lovely finds

[Miocene_Mason]

1) Anterior juvenile meg, chubs are rare if present at all in the Choptank formation. I believe megs outcompetes chubs during the resource bottleneck of the middle Miocene disruption.

2) there are three crocodilian species currently known from the Calvert formation: Thecachampsa antiquus, Thecachampsa sericodon, and an indeterminate gator only known from a shallow water deposit in Delaware. T. sericodon is thinner and T. antiquus is more robust in terms of teeth but sometimes we get teeth which are kinda on the line. Yours is like that, I’d lean T. antiquus but I can’t be sure. The species are based off cranial traits, rather than tooth differences so telling them apart can be difficult.

3) very worn but worn dolphin tooth would be my guess as well.

[hokietech96]

Great finds!  Congratulations!

[Snaggletooth19]

Thanks everyone, for the input, I appreciate it!