Chatham Island Shark Teeth

[moahunt1]

Well I was talking to a lady from the Chatham islands 800kms of NZs coast and I asked her about fossil teeth as they are common there.

she then sent me a package and it contained these teeth

they are every worn and all but one 4th one from left have serrations, In not sure if the largest one with the wee side bits which kinda looks like a worn Auriculatus had serrations this tooth is 1.6 inches long

the big tooth section could be a meg but its too thick to be a great white

if any one can ID any of these it would be great

here is another article showing a collection of teeth supposedly found there, I believe the ones that are not blue were not found there.

[moahunt1]

Mr. Geoffrey Nevill, Resident Commissioner to the Cook Islands, submits the following note on the Moriori use of fossil shark's teeth as ornaments, from information obtained when he was Resident Commissioner to the Chatham Islands. The accompanying plate shows, fig. A and B drilled fossil teeth of Carcharodon, and, figure C, a well preserved fossil tooth of Isurus. The general importance of the use of drilled Carcharodon teeth in the Chathams is that the Morioris shared

this custom with the Maoris of New Zealand, only in the Moa-hunter period. (Duff, Roger, 1949: “The Moa-hunter period of Maori Culture.” Canterbury Museum, Bulletin No. 1.) In immediately pre-European times the Maoris confined the use of shark's teeth ornaments to those of the mako (Lamna) worn solely as ear pendants. The normal practice, of Moa-hunter Maoris and Morioris, was to use recent Carcharodon teeth, drilled through the root and with the outer root angles squared off for convenience in stringing as necklaces. With drilled fossil teeth, recorded only for the Chathams, the angles are not squared, doubtless because of the material difficulties.

Mr. Nevill ascribes the two drilled teeth, figured, to the great white shark (Carcharodon), a genus still well known in Chatham Islands waters where it is still feared as a man-eater reaching great size.

“It is apparently more numerous as a fossil, the teeth being occasionally found below the limestone cliffs of Te Whanga Lagoon.

“During my period in the Chathams, local residents recommended to me in particular two likely sites, one on the western shores of the lagoon below limestone cliffs, varying from 20 to 50 feet high, and the second near Waitoha on the way to Chudleigh's Wharekauri Station.

“Broken teeth fragments were picked up on both sites and eventually we chipped a perfect tooth1 (Figure C) from the cliff face at the former site. The point of the tooth was noticed projecting from the cliff some fifteen feet above beach level and was reached by propping kopi logs against the cliff and balancing precariously on them to use a chisel.

“Mr. W. Jacobson presented me with one of the drilled teeth, which was found many years ago by his father at Ouenga and later, searching for Moriori artifacts amongst the sand dunes between Ouenga and Manakau Point, I picked up the second example. Both were bored and without the serrations shown on the cliff specimen.

“These bored teeth are the only specimens I have seen although doubtless others exist in museum collections.

“The colour is a deep blue veined with a fine tracery of white lines and their use could have been either as a neck ornament or ear pendant.”

[moahunt1]

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http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?irn=1070062&page=4&term=Vertebrates%C2'>

[moahunt1]

Registration Number S.045301
Class Chondrichthyes
Order Lamniformes
Family Lamnidae

Scientific Name Carcharodon auriculatus, Blainville

Identified By Keyes, Ian
Identified Date 12 Feb 1981
Country collected New Zealand
Region collected Chatham Islands
Precise locality Te Whanga Lagoon, Chatham Island
Collected By Neville, G
Date collected 1952
Section Fossil Vertebrates

[siteseer]

Moahunt1,

Years ago, someone sent me a few teeth from Chatham Island. They are quite worn like yours and were labelled as questionably from the Te Whanga Limestone, Mid-Late Eocene, which fits the age of Carcharocles auriculatus. The teeth I have appear to be from sand tiger sharks.

I hope you get a chance to go there and collect some for yourself.

Jess

Mr. Geoffrey Nevill, Resident Commissioner to the Cook Islands, submits the following note on the Moriori use of fossil shark's teeth as ornaments, from information obtained when he was Resident Commissioner to the Chatham Islands. The accompanying plate shows, fig. A and B drilled fossil teeth of Carcharodon, and, figure C, a well preserved fossil tooth of Isurus. The general importance of the use of drilled Carcharodon teeth in the Chathams is that the Morioris shared

1383496_10202284283848086_93xxxxxx2759151_n.jpg

this custom with the Maoris of New Zealand, only in the Moa-hunter period. (Duff, Roger, 1949: “The Moa-hunter period of Maori Culture.” Canterbury Museum, Bulletin No. 1.) In immediately pre-European times the Maoris confined the use of shark's teeth ornaments to those of the mako (Lamna) worn solely as ear pendants. The normal practice, of Moa-hunter Maoris and Morioris, was to use recent Carcharodon teeth, drilled through the root and with the outer root angles squared off for convenience in stringing as necklaces. With drilled fossil teeth, recorded only for the Chathams, the angles are not squared, doubtless because of the material difficulties.

Mr. Nevill ascribes the two drilled teeth, figured, to the great white shark (Carcharodon), a genus still well known in Chatham Islands waters where it is still feared as a man-eater reaching great size.

“It is apparently more numerous as a fossil, the teeth being occasionally found below the limestone cliffs of Te Whanga Lagoon.

“During my period in the Chathams, local residents recommended to me in particular two likely sites, one on the western shores of the lagoon below limestone cliffs, varying from 20 to 50 feet high, and the second near Waitoha on the way to Chudleigh's Wharekauri Station.

“Broken teeth fragments were picked up on both sites and eventually we chipped a perfect tooth1 (Figure C) from the cliff face at the former site. The point of the tooth was noticed projecting from the cliff some fifteen feet above beach level and was reached by propping kopi logs against the cliff and balancing precariously on them to use a chisel.

“Mr. W. Jacobson presented me with one of the drilled teeth, which was found many years ago by his father at Ouenga and later, searching for Moriori artifacts amongst the sand dunes between Ouenga and Manakau Point, I picked up the second example. Both were bored and without the serrations shown on the cliff specimen.

“These bored teeth are the only specimens I have seen although doubtless others exist in museum collections.

“The colour is a deep blue veined with a fine tracery of white lines and their use could have been either as a neck ornament or ear pendant.”