What Location, do you believe has yielded Shark Teeth with the Highest Levels of Preservation?

[Rock Hound]

Lee Creek Mine, of Aurora, NC?

 

Sharktooth Hill, of Bakersfield, CA?

 

Venice, FL?

 

Indonesia?

 

Chile?

 

Peru?

[siteseer]

2 hours ago, Rock Hound said:

Lee Creek Mine, of Aurora, NC?

 

Sharktooth Hill, of Bakersfield, CA?

 

Venice, FL?

 

Indonesia?

 

Chile?

 

Peru?

 

Interesting question.  It wouldn't be Venice because you get teeth with water-wear.  I would say it would be a phosphate deposit like Lee Creek or Bone Valley or one with slow deposition like Sharktooth Hill.  You can get some very well-preserved teeth from any of those three and of course the Moroccan phosphates.  Any deposit that allows even fragile teeth like an Echinorhinus or Hexanchus to be found complete is right up there.

 

Some of the deposits that represent deepwater environments might be even better.  They can preserve delicate organisms like starfish or a tooth like Chlamydoselachus.

 

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

1 hour ago, siteseer said:

 

Interesting question.  It wouldn't be Venice because you get teeth with water-wear.  I would say it would be a phosphate deposit like Lee Creek or Bone Valley or one with slow deposition like Sharktooth Hill.  You can get some very well-preserved teeth from any of those three and of course the Moroccan phosphates.  Any deposit that allows even fragile teeth like an Echinorhinus or Hexanchus to be found complete is right up there.

 

Some of the deposits that represent deepwater environments might be even better.  They can preserve delicate organisms like starfish or a tooth like Chlamydoselachus.

 

 

The Oulad Abdoun Basin in Morocco has some really prettily well preserved Hexanchus fossils! 

 

I'm siding with Lee Creek / Oulad Abdoun Basin. 

[siteseer]

27 minutes ago, IsaacTheFossilMan said:

 

The Oulad Abdoun Basin in Morocco has some really prettily well preserved Hexanchus fossils! 

 

I'm siding with Lee Creek / Oulad Abdoun Basin. 

 

 

Those phosphates extend across North Africa and into the Middle East.  I've seen some nice teeth from Israel and Jordan.  It's hard to rank the best ones.

[Rock Hound]

41 minutes ago, IsaacTheFossilMan said:

 

The Oulad Abdoun Basin in Morocco has some really prettily well preserved Hexanchus fossils! 

 

I'm siding with Lee Creek / Oulad Abdoun Basin. 

Good point.  I failed to mention Morocco.  The nicest examples from there, have great looking enamel.

[Meganeura]

Throwing my vote in for Bone Valley, finding some of these teeth as perfectly preserved as they are is crazy. When you can cut yourself on the serrations just picking up the tooth you know it's good.

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

1 hour ago, Meganeura said:

Throwing my vote in for Bone Valley, finding some of these teeth as perfectly preserved as they are is crazy. When you can cut yourself on the serrations just picking up the tooth you know it's good.

 

From what I've seen, Lee Creek and Bone Valley have very similar preservation levels... It's a tight call on who I prefer out of these two!

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

Let's not forget about Puglia, Italy.

 

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

Some of the UK's teeth can be pretty cool! I have a thread floating around here of a Planohybodus tooth I found in the Inferior Oolite, and here's some Hexanchus from Kent.

 

[IsaacTheFossilMan]

Found it! Tiny tooth from the Cotswolds, UK - Fossil ID - The Fossil Forum

 

[Rock Hound]

18 hours ago, IsaacTheFossilMan said:

Let's not forget about Puglia, Italy.

 

The enamel and serrations are really nice, on that tooth.

[Jared C]

I'm always mightily impressed with the preservation on the Eocene shark teeth pulled out of Kazakhstan. There are a few fossil hunters there that I follow on Instagram who often find near perfect specimens in those deserts. There's some beautiful cretaceous stuff too. With a quick google search here are some Kazakhstan specimens that match the look of the preservation I see being posted:

[Rock Hound]

A few different Mako teeth, to add to the conversation.

 

 

[ThePhysicist]

Can't believe no one's mentioned the chalk in Kansas! The Niobrara chalk produces some mighty fine Cretaceous teeth and even articulated skeletons. 

 

 

 

[erose]

Some of my best preserved teeth are from the New Jersey streams. Big Brook especially. 

[Rock Hound]

Aren't there some really nice shark teeth, from the Netherlands?