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A head scratcher of a shark tooth from Egem Belgium


fossilsonwheels

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I’ve had this tiny 1mm shark tooth in my collection for 3 or 4 years and am no closer to knowing what it is than when I got it. The person I got it from had no idea either. I don’t believe it’s batoid, looks shark to me. 

 

Again its tiny, roughly 1mm. It stretched the limits on the micro eye it’s so small.  It is from the Ampe Clay Pit, Egem. It has some odd asymmetry going on. I have thought perhaps it was an odd Catshark of some sort but I don’t know about that now. Could it be a weird Orectolobiformes of some sort ? 

 

I don’t like admitting when I’m clueless but I really have no idea on this one lol Any ideas or suggestions are welcome ! 

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I'm thinking Palaeorhincodon.  It looks like it would fit in the size range.  It's rare there so it would be unfamiliar.

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46 minutes ago, siteseer said:

I'm thinking Palaeorhincodon.  It looks like it would fit in the size range.  It's rare there so it would be unfamiliar.

I like your thoughts Jess lol I saw a paper on Egem teeth that included Pararhincodon and I’ve seen Palaeorhincodon teeth from Egem too. I thought weird Carpet Shark was a possibility. Very interesting. 

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  • 10 months later...

It looks like a Scyliorhinus woodwardi (Cappetta, 1976) tooth. They weren't so rare in the basal layer of the quarry (layer iv from Steurbaut). At the base of the cusp there are usually small folds (labial view)

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I’ll look into that suggestion. I explored Catshark as a possible ID. There no folds though and it doesn’t match well with other Catsharks in my collection.

 I spent a good bit of time researching this one. To me, Pararhincodon fits best so that’s been the working ID. 

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Both were found in this layer at Egem, that doesn'tmake it easy.

 

Folds may fade or disapper on larger teeth of S. woodwardi.

Probably the best to be sure, most of S. woodwardi are symmetrical, for Pararhincodon this is not the case.

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I’m not sure it would qualify as a larger S. woodwardi lol It is tiny. It is 1mm and possibly even slightly smaller than that. I can’t remember the exact size. 

 

I have not been able to find a photo of an S. woodwardi for reference but I’ll keep looking. 

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