briman Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 This shark tooth resembles a Megalodon tooth; found on a Brazos River gravel bar near Bryan, Texas. The surrounding formations are all too old and it would be a long swim from the bay. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briman Posted June 16, 2012 Author Share Posted June 16, 2012 (edited) Photo? I hope...OK... not attaching... file not too large... well... I am more or less computer illiterate. Sorry but for now no photo. But the question still remains- is recovering a Megalodon tooth unusual for the Brazos? Edited June 16, 2012 by briman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharks of SC Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 I don't think I've ever heard of megalodon being found in Texas, as far as I can remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briman Posted June 16, 2012 Author Share Posted June 16, 2012 Thanks CBK that is my impression also. My limited computer skills don't allow for link posting but the tooth is posted on Arrowheadology under the fossil section- Brazos River thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 You're gonna' hafta' find a way to get a picture of this tooth up! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmo Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Here're the pics. Definitely a Meg. I'm guessing dropped (or planted ) recently or an indian trade long ago. Any evidence it was used as a tool, scrape marks, gouges etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briman Posted June 16, 2012 Author Share Posted June 16, 2012 (edited) I suspect it's not dropped or planted. It doesn't really show any river polish. Even with no tool or use wear marking it as such it is probably an Indian trade item. A camp was being disturbed just a short distance upstream just prior to recovery and artifacts were stranding on the same gravel bar in larger than normal numbers. How close to Texas are Megalodon teeth found? Thanks for the help Gizmo. Edited June 16, 2012 by briman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powelli1 Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Hi Yes it is a Meg tooth and yes indans did trade with other indans and used them as tools. Nice find good luck getting more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Extraordinary! How it got to where it was found will be the subject of much debate, probably for years to come. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruitbat Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 That IS extraordinary! Nobody that I know of has ever even HEARD of C. megalodon being found anywhere in Texas. -Joe 1 Illigitimati non carborundum Fruitbat's PDF Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sward Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Wow! Make me a little embarassed about the shark teeth I post. Nice find! SWardSoutheast Missouri (formerly Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX) USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 got an in situ shot? Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 Yes, a friend once gave me a sample of the gastropods from a Brazos River locality near Bryan. They came out of the Stone City Formation, Middle Eocene age. I think he said it was one of the youngest marine formations in the area. I've never heard of a Miocene-Pliocene marine formation being exposed in that area or even to the south. The formation would not only have to be that age but also represent an environment deep enough for a shark large enough to lose that tooth there. When I look at a series of paleogeographical maps of the area across the Cenozoic, I see that even by the Oligocene, the shoreline was not far from where it is now and by the Middle Miocene, it was already approximately where it is now. Of course, maps can be generalized and can not be expected to reflect any short interval when the shoreline might have moved unusually farther inland but Bryan is deep enough into Texas that it is unlikely the tooth came from there. Furthermore, when you look at the tooth, it shows a lot of damage apparently from knocking around the river bottom. That means if it came from the Brazos, it washed out from even farther north and ended up around Bryan. It would appear even less likely that the tooth came from the region given even the most optimistic proposed shoreline reconstruction. I thought there was another FF thread about a reported Texas megalodon (maybe a couple of years ago) but couldn't dig it up in a search. This shark tooth resembles a Megalodon tooth; found on a Brazos River gravel bar near Bryan, Texas. The surrounding formations are all too old and it would be a long swim from the bay. Any thoughts? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briman Posted June 16, 2012 Author Share Posted June 16, 2012 This meg tooth was found almost 30 years ago; sorry, no in situ shot. It was found by a good friend who I met just a couple of years after he found it. The details of its recovery have remained consistant with the passing of time; I am sure he didn't plant it. I do need to ask if he was in the company of his brother that day. The finder's brother is fully capable of chicanery of this nature- but three things rule him out already. He lives near Denver and would only come to Bryan to visit his brother rarely. To make himself more important the planter would have to make the discovery not his brother and he would find it necessary to talk ad infinitum about it and ID the tooth; the finder still only knows it's a shark- I will call him later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megalodon1 Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Everything is bigger in Texas even applies to Shark teeth now!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Yes, with your added info about the discovered camp the Native American trade item explanation seems to be the most plausible. I was trying to think of the closest meg locality to Texas and I think it would be southern Georgia or northern Florida. I know little about Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi geology but the youngest marine vertebrate localities appear to be Oligocene-age as well. I'd like to know if anyone has found even Miocene sand dollars or mollusks (or any surf zone animals) from Texas to the Florida panhandle. I suspect it's not dropped or planted. It doesn't really show any river polish. Even with no tool or use wear marking it as such it is probably an Indian trade item. A camp was being disturbed just a short distance upstream just prior to recovery and artifacts were stranding on the same gravel bar in larger than normal numbers. How close to Texas are Megalodon teeth found? Thanks for the help Gizmo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 ...I was trying to think of the closest meg locality to Texas and I think it would be southern Georgia or northern Florida. I know little about Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi geology but the youngest marine vertebrate localities appear to be Oligocene-age as well... The pale "clouds" on the labial enamel reminds me of some North Carolina teeth. Not definitive, just a thought. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 The pale "clouds" on the labial enamel reminds me of some North Carolina teeth. Not definitive, just a thought. True Auspex, it almost has the look of a GMR tooth. Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 True Auspex, it almost has the look of a GMR tooth. Thats what I thought when I saw it. Either it was planted by his brother as a joke or it was from a native I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briman Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 Update: The Meg tooth mystery has been narrowed considerably: a faint remnant of what looks like a catalog number was found on the tooth. Unfortunately it does little to put to rest the actual circumstance of its arrival on the gravel bar. The prankster/brother was not along and it is inconceivable that a tooth was planted for the finder. Upstream not very far is a famous Eocene fossil locale known as Whiskey Bridge. I think it possible that someone "salted" the meg tooth there. It went unrecovered and subsequently flood washed down to, and stranded on the gravel bar where it was found. Either that or someone out of fear or malice threw it off of the highway bridge at Whiskey Bridge. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I went through some boxes and found my copy of "Fossil Vertebrates from Alabama" (Thurmond, J.T. and D.E. Jones, 1981). On page 56 the question of whether megaldodon is documented from the state is addressed directly within a discussion of C. angustidens (the genus was considered "Carcharodon" at the time) : "Early reports of the even larger Carcharodon megalodon from Alabama are based either on this species or are properly identified specimens that were mislabeled. For example, Woodward's (1889D, p. 418)) specimens of C. megalodon, though labeled "Alabama" were shown by White (1956, p. 126) to be from Malta." I was trying to think of the closest meg locality to Texas and I think it would be southern Georgia or northern Florida. I know little about Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi geology but the youngest marine vertebrate localities appear to be Oligocene-age as well. I'd like to know if anyone has found even Miocene sand dollars or mollusks (or any surf zone animals) from Texas to the Florida panhandle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSRhunter Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I recently went to a show where a guy was selling a meg from a lake in Texas. His theory and another professor's one is that people back in the 90's ( when megs were very cheap) bought them and planted them or accidentally lost one. The professor has found part of a ptychodus tooth before in a pennsylvanian age site due to someone dropping it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swisslemur Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 This is all really quite bizarre, but fascinating. Did (do) people go around salting sites with fossils? I know there are a few famous fossil fakes - Piltdown man, Beringer's fake fossils...oh and Cope and Marsh (if one believes what one reads) but nowadays...it seems a bit mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 ...Did (do) people go around salting sites with fossils?... It happens, but most instances are (though short-sighted) of innocent intentions: to make it easier for 'the kids' to find something. To an informed collector, all "float" (loose items not positively of a specific formation) is suspect; if it seems out of place, it is until proven otherwise. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 The other thing that happens at a site is one collector brings fossils from another site to show to a friend. If the specimens are small, one might fall on the ground unnoticed and get lost in the dust, or sometimes in the thrill of the hunt, an "out-of-site" fossil is left on a rock and forgotten. It happens, but most instances are (though short-sighted) of innocent intentions: to make it easier for 'the kids' to find something. To an informed collector, all "float" (loose items not positively of a specific formation) is suspect; if it seems out of place, it is until proven otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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