A Chubutensis shark tooth?

[Brad s.]

I thought there were no chubs in summerville, so I concluded it was a meg.
 

[jikohr]

Nice one dude!

Yeah I'm leaning toward meg as well since I'm not seeing and sign of the "residual cusps" that chubbs are supposed to have.

[digit]

Yup. Matches my concept of a meg. Nice one!

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[SawTooth]

How, exactly, do you tell the difference between a meg and a chub? 

[digit]

Fine question! Megatooth shark teeth are a common topic here in Florida (a consolation prize for not having any dinosaur fossils). Sometimes, we forget to be more forthcoming with information as it is a topic we (wrongly) assume others are up to speed on. Here is a good page that shows the proposed evolution of this series of species showing the increase in size and the gradual loss of the side cusps:

 

https://www.fossilguy.com/topics/megshark/megshark.htm

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Gareth_]

I'd call that a Otodus megalodon tooth.
The tooth in the pic below I'd call Otodus chubutensis (unfortunately one cusplet has broken off), not just because the cusplets are almost swallowed by the crown, it's very broad vs Otodus angustidens which seem to have a narrower crown and well defined cusplets. 

I see a lot call a tooth Otodus chubutensis with bumps at the bottom of the crown, no defined cusplets. I'd be more inclined to call this a transitional shark between O. chubutensis and O. megalodon. I found a tooth which I'd put in to this category in a shop the other day, so I bought it! 

I think a lot of people forget this shark didn't live in specifically defined times as one species then suddenly become another species. It evolved over 60 million years

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Gareth_