Xiphactinus Tooth?

[TNCollector]

I found this tooth on a recent collecting trip to the Cretaceous of North Mississippi, which would have been part of the Mississippi Embayment during the time. I found many enchodus and shark's teeth, but this one is different then both of them. It does not have the striations that the encodes teeth have, and it is a completely different shape than the shark's teeth, so the only thing I can think of is Xiphactinus. Particularly it looks like X. vetus to me, but I thought that audax was the only species I should see in this area.

I am not a fish expert, so I thought I would post here and get some further opinions. The pictures I posted have a couple of encodes and sharks teeth in the mix as well for comparison.

Edited April 5, 2015 by TNCollector

[TNCollector]

And here are a few more.

[Al Dente]

Both of the fish teeth in your first post are Enchodus.

[njfossilhunter]

I agree with Al Dente that both are fish.....Enchodus.sp Nice finds

[TNCollector]

Thanks for the replies, disappointed its not a xiphactinus. But maybe someday ill find one!

[njfossilhunter]

Thanks for the replies, disappointed its not a xiphactinus. But maybe someday ill find one!

Don't give up hope .....I found one last week.....Here is a picture...It was exactly 2 inches long.

[TNCollector]

Don't give up hope .....I found one last week.....Here is a picture...It was exactly 2 inches long.

Thats an awesome specimen. Would love to see that in my sifter!

[Paleoc]

Looking down the tooth from the ends as in your last image, an Xiphactinus vetus tooth has faceted sides. X. vetus is a younger species than X. audax and is what one would find in Georgia.

[Diceros]

Al's right (as he usually is), all of the bony fish teeth are Enchodus - specifically, all are isolated upper (palatine) fangs of E. petrosus Cope, 1874. If you look closely, you can see the longitudinal ridges in the two teeth in the three upper photos. There's a huge size variation in Enchodus, from tiny to huge, as they have indeterminate growth (while they feed, they grow). Honestly, I'm surprised that, in six Enchodus fangs, not one is a lower (ant. dentary) fang (they should be flatter, and more S-shaped than straight like these). I wonder if you might be calling them something else. The shark tooth is a nice lateral tooth of the goblin shark Scapanorhynchus texanus, seen in labial view (it's a bit unusual to see the short ridges at the base of the crown on that side - they show up well in this tooth). As to Xiphactinus teeth, they're really not that rare, but they do tend it split into splinters really easily. N. Miss. has both X. audax audax and X. a. vetus (to me, vetus is just a late subspecies of audax) - X. a. a. in the lt. Santonian, and X. a. v. in the lt. Campanian (yours look lt. Camp.)

[njfossilhunter]

Looking down the tooth from the ends as in your last image, an Xiphactinus vetus tooth has faceted sides. X. vetus is a younger species than X. audax and is what one would find in Georgia.

Thats a nice looking tooth.. Here is what the faceted end looks like.

Edited April 19, 2015 by njfossilhunter

[TNCollector]

Al's right (as he usually is), all of the bony fish teeth are Enchodus - specifically, all are isolated upper (palatine) fangs of E. petrosus Cope, 1874. If you look closely, you can see the longitudinal ridges in the two teeth in the three upper photos. There's a huge size variation in Enchodus, from tiny to huge, as they have indeterminate growth (while they feed, they grow). Honestly, I'm surprised that, in six Enchodus fangs, not one is a lower (ant. dentary) fang (they should be flatter, and more S-shaped than straight like these). I wonder if you might be calling them something else. The shark tooth is a nice lateral tooth of the goblin shark Scapanorhynchus texanus, seen in labial view (it's a bit unusual to see the short ridges at the base of the crown on that side - they show up well in this tooth). As to Xiphactinus teeth, they're really not that rare, but they do tend it split into splinters really easily. N. Miss. has both X. audax audax and X. a. vetus (to me, vetus is just a late subspecies of audax) - X. a. a. in the lt. Santonian, and X. a. v. in the lt. Campanian (yours look lt. Camp.)

It is quite strange that all I have found is the upper Enchodus teeth. I have more of them that I have found here other than that ones I showed in pictures, and they are all upper teeth as well.