Shark Tooth from Purse State Park

[bockryan]

Hi everyone! I tried this one on the FB group without any luck, hoping for some ideas here. This was found in Purse State Park (now Nanjemoy WMA, I think) on the shoreline, which I've read is Paleocene in age. This is by far the most interesting tooth I've found there so far, but I haven't seen an obvious match in any of the guides I've looked at. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Darktooth]

I believe what you have is a worn Paleocarcharadon. ( Pygmy Great white). A more rare tooth. Nice find.

[Darktooth]

Also I am not sure if I spelled it right.

[bockryan]

8 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

I believe what you have is a worn Paleocarcharadon. ( Pygmy Great white). A more rare tooth. Nice find.

Thank you! Here's hoping to find another one then

[Gareth_]

1 hour ago, Darktooth said:

I believe what you have is a worn Paleocarcharadon. ( Pygmy Great white). A more rare tooth. Nice find.

Palaeocarcharodon 

It's a name that just rolls off the tongue eh haha. Translated, it is a very fitting name!

I have to disagree though, there are no cusplets on this tooth. While this tooth looks worn, the crown and cusplets have very obvious and jagged serrations on Palaeocarcharodon orientalis teeth.

**edit - that's one in my profile pic! 

 

@bockryan Is there a chance we can get some much closer, clear photos? With a ruler for scale too. I have absolutely no idea how big that coin is

Also, welcome to TFF!

Edited September 25, 2021 by Gareth_

[Coco]

Hi,

 

The size of a fossil is a big part of its identification. For your future photos, I invite you to read my last link in my signature. If you don’t have a rule, print out the document I made available and put your fossils on it before you take your pictures

 

Coco

[bockryan]

10 hours ago, Gareth_ said:

Palaeocarcharodon 

It's a name that just rolls off the tongue eh haha. Translated, it is a very fitting name!

I have to disagree though, there are no cusplets on this tooth. While this tooth looks worn, the crown and cusplets have very obvious and jagged serrations on Palaeocarcharodon orientalis teeth.

**edit - that's one in my profile pic! 

 

@bockryan Is there a chance we can get some much closer, clear photos? With a ruler for scale too. I have absolutely no idea how big that coin is

Also, welcome to TFF!

These may be slightly better, my camera is somewhat limited - at least a scale bar should help. My other inclination suggested by one of the resources I was reading is Isistius Trituratus, it seems to have the same triangular shape with the strong line through the middle, but the cusp doesn't really match unless it's very worn.

[siteseer]

I think it's a Palaeocarcharodon tooth too.  If you can take a photo of it in profile, that would help.  Palaeocarcharodon teeth are rather flat (labiolingually compressed) so that would help differentiate them from a tooth of another age that might have ended up there.  The lateral cusplets are often rather small so they could wear away with the serrations easily with little to nothing to show that they were present.  I've seen a lot of worn teeth from there.

 

Jess

[Darktooth]

22 hours ago, bockryan said:

These may be slightly better, my camera is somewhat limited - at least a scale bar should help. My other inclination suggested by one of the resources I was reading is Isistius Trituratus, it seems to have the same triangular shape with the strong line through the middle, but the cusp doesn't really match unless it's very worn.

I can assure you that this is not an Isistius. I am confident in the ID that I gave you. Even though these teeth are considered rare I have seen enough of them overs the years from this location with different degrees of wear as well as finding my own.

[bthemoose]

I agree with @Darktooth — this is Palaeocarcharodon orientalis. It’s a nice find!

 

Here are two I found on a trip a few months ago along the Potomac (the only ones that I’ve found there) for comparison. These teeth are very delicate and you can see from my specimens that the side cusplets can sometimes be very small/not very differentiated from the main cusp. They can also easily break off or get worn down when these teeth tumble in the river.

 

Edited September 26, 2021 by bthemoose

[Gareth_]

I'm happy to admit when I'm wrong so.... I'm wrong! But I learned some things which is no bad thing
That is a very worn tooth but a very cool species to add to a collection

 

I have these two in my collection, 51mm & 37mm slant height, which look very different to @bockryan tooth. You're very lucky to be able to go out and find teeth like this! 

[bockryan]

Thank you again everyone  really appreciate the detail! Glad to finally have it logged correctly in my spreadsheet!