hokietech96 Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 Hope everyone is doing well. I miss being in a creek or on the beach, but all in due time. Every night I have been relaxing going through different types of matrix. Last week I started seperating ray teeth from Bakersfield matrix that I went through last week. I believe the these are three shark teeth that are not ray teeth. All measurements are in MM. Any feedback (as always) is much appreciated!! 1. This tooth has a little white nub sticking out. I was thinking something pathological like a smoothhound? 2. I am pretty confident this is a smoothound, mustelus lateral tooth. If it is, pretty excited because it will be a first of this type for me. Also it fell off my tweezers when I was putting it back in the gem jar. I am absolutely shocked that I found the little 1mm piece of.... happiness! 2. 3. For the last tooth I am stumped. It has a crazy perfect circle on top of the tooth. I was thinking something like a basking or whale shark. But what I have learned over the past year and half on the forum is, when in doubt... it pathological something something. Any feedback on this would be great. I hope this post helps future people looking at similar teeth! Everyone on this forum is amazing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 3 minutes ago, hokietech96 said: 2. I am pretty confident this is a smoothound, mustelus lateral tooth. If it is, pretty excited because it will be a first of this type for me. Also it fell off my tweezers when I was putting it back in the gem jar. I am absolutely shocked that I found the little 1mm piece of.... happiness! Could very well be a Mustelus sp. tooth (though I don't know about tooth positions as they have crushing teeth where all of the positions look much the same). They have a uvula where the enamel "drips" down which is similar to wedgefish teeth (which this might also be). Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus sp.) do tend to have the pointy root tips and distinct uvula as seems to be present on your specimen--don't think I can commit from these images. The smoothhound shark teeth that I'm familiar with tend to have wrinkles around the base of the enamel. Looking on Elasmo.com I can see that the Sharktooth Hill faunal list shows Mustelus and "Rhinobatos" (guitarfish) which seemed tentative and may in fact be Rhynchobatus. @ynot has picked a lot of micros from STH and @Al Dente is the person who taught me to recognize Mustelus so they may have more to say on your specimen. Here are images of both genera from the Montbrook locality here in Florida. Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 19 minutes ago, hokietech96 said: 3. For the last tooth I am stumped. It has a crazy perfect circle on top of the tooth. I was thinking something like a basking or whale shark. But what I have learned over the past year and half on the forum is, when in doubt... it pathological something something. Any feedback on this would be great. Oh, and I think this may not be a tooth as much as it might be a shark (or ray) dermal denticle from which all (tetropod) teeth are derived. Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hokietech96 Posted January 25, 2022 Author Share Posted January 25, 2022 (edited) 6 minutes ago, digit said: Oh, and I think this may not be a tooth as much as it might be a shark (or ray) dermal denticle from which all (tetropod) teeth are derived. Cheers. -Ken That is very interesting because the reason I was going through the ray teeth was to seperate all the dermal denticles that I threw in the pile not knowing what they were at the time. Thanks to everyone on the forum, I know now and I can add this one to the pile. Thanks! Edited January 25, 2022 by hokietech96 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 Basing my identification on the wide base and fluted enameled surface found on shark dermal denticles like this: The overall shape of your specimen much more resembles one found by @old bones while working on Montbrook matrix: Cheers. -Ken 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 11 hours ago, hokietech96 said: 1. This tooth has a little white nub sticking out. I was thinking something pathological like a smoothhound? I think this is Heterodontus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old bones Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 This is a better match for the dermal denticle. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 2 hours ago, Al Dente said: I think this is Heterodontus. I had that thought as well. Are there intermediate teeth between the anterior cusped grasping teeth and the lateral/posterior crushing teeth? Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Agree, Heterodontus anterior Neogene ‘Horn Sharks’ Heterodontus (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii) from the Southeastern Pacific and Their Paleoenvironmental Significance Jaime A. Villafaña et al 2018 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Very nice! I'm familiar with the posterior/lateral forms and the cusped anterior forms but have not yet encountered these transitional forms that bridge the two forms that the genus is named for (Heterodontus). I do enjoy mornings when I can add to my fossil knowledge just a bit. Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hokietech96 Posted January 26, 2022 Author Share Posted January 26, 2022 7 hours ago, Al Dente said: I think this is Heterodontus. Thanks for the feedback. Is that white nub normal on this tooth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hokietech96 Posted January 26, 2022 Author Share Posted January 26, 2022 @digit @Troodon Thanks for the feedback! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hokietech96 Posted January 26, 2022 Author Share Posted January 26, 2022 5 hours ago, old bones said: This is a better match for the dermal denticle. That is almost an identical match! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old bones Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 12 minutes ago, hokietech96 said: That is almost an identical match! Thanks! You're welcome! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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