Shark Teeth Indentification

[Andy]

I have three shark teeth. My question is what type of shark they are? I think I know what they are, but I am double-guessing myself. The first tooth is from King George County, Virginia. It is miocene in age, I believe. I think it is a mako shark tooth, since it has no serrations on the side of the tooth. The next tooth is from Morocco and is Eocene in age. It hard to tell looking at the tooth if it has serrations or not. If it does, they are very small. I think it is a otodus obliqus, but I am not sure. The third is from a unknown location and unknown age. I suspect miocene and that it is a snaggletooth shark tooth.

Thanks-

[Northern Sharks]

You're right on the first and last teeth. The first is an upper jaw Isurus hastalis (extinct mako) and the last is an upper jaw Hemipristis serra (snaggletooth shark) With the second one, what is it's length? If it isn't too large, I suspect it's a Cretolamna appendiculata from the cretaceous to early eocene. If it's a larger tooth, say 1 1/2" or bigger, then it is likely Otodus obliquus.

[Andy]

The middle one is 1 1/8" from the uppermost tip of the tooth to the lower most tip of the tooth. What do you think? I am not even sure if it came from Morocco. It was labeled that. But, I got it from a place where many things a mislabeled. Does it look like a tooth from Morocco? I have two more pictures for identification. The first tooth is a shark tooth from Sharktooth Hill, California, it is Miocene. I think it is another mako. Its hard to tell if it has serations or just dings. I don't think it does. The second is a Sharktooth from Punta Gorda, Florida. It is a Miocene-Pliocene. Do you think it is miocene or pliocene? It was labeled Pliocene. I was told it is a Great White tooth, but I want to make sure.

Thanks-

[Northern Sharks]

The middle one is 1 1/8" from the uppermost tip of the tooth to the lower most tip of the tooth. What do you think? I am not even sure if it came from Morocco. It was labeled that. But, I got it from a place where many things a mislabeled. Does it look like a tooth from Morocco? I have two more pictures for identification. The first tooth is a shark tooth from Sharktooth Hill, California, it is Miocene. I think it is another mako. Its hard to tell if it has serations or just dings. I don't think it does. The second is a Sharktooth from Punta Gorda, Florida. It is a Miocene-Pliocene. Do you think it is miocene or pliocene? It was labeled Pliocene. I was told it is a Great White tooth, but I want to make sure.

Thanks-

The second tooth in your first post does look like a typical Moroccan tooth, and at the size you measured, it likely is Cretolamna appendiculata. The mako in your second post (from Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield CA) is Isurus planus, the "hook-tooth" mako, and that is one of the few places on the planet where they are found. The second picture does look like a Great White. I don't know the formation where it was found, so I can't say if it's miocene or pliocene. Regardless, any GW's from Florida are a rarity.

[Andy]

The second tooth in your first post does look like a typical Moroccan tooth, and at the size you measured, it likely is Cretolamna appendiculata. The mako in your second post (from Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield CA) is Isurus planus, the "hook-tooth" mako, and that is one of the few places on the planet where they are found. The second picture does look like a Great White. I don't know the formation where it was found, so I can't say if it's miocene or pliocene. Regardless, any GW's from Florida are a rarity.

Are there any Otodus Obliqus teeth under 1 1/2"? I may have a couple other fossils for you to identify. But, I gotta go right know. I may post some more photos later today. Thanks for the help so far- It has helped a lot.

Thanks-

[Northern Sharks]

Are there any Otodus Obliqus teeth under 1 1/2"? I may have a couple other fossils for you to identify. But, I gotta go right know. I may post some more photos later today. Thanks for the help so far- It has helped a lot.

Thanks-

Yes, there are small Otodus teeth out there, but at that size they are usually either posterior teeth (yours is an anterior) or they are pathologic/deformed. Almost all of the really pathologic teeth are small as I guess they were shed early.

[Northern Sharks]

I should add that the size thing applies only to the Moroccan Otodus teeth, which I believe can reach up to about 4" maximum. The ones from this side of the pond, from Maryland mostly, are almost always smaller (under 2", most under 1 1/2").

[Andy]

One question about the Otodus. Kind of a collecting question. I know Otodus are must abundant in Morocco. But, for the US, is maryland or virginia (the aquia formation), the best bet for Otodus teeth? Do they occur in Florida? I am not sure if know of it, but the place I go in Maryland is Purse State Park in Charles County on the Potomac River. The Aquia Formation is exposed there. I have been there once, but only found Sand Tiger Shark Teeth. Anyways, here are four more pics. The first pic is a Miocene Shark Tooth from Florida. It measures an inch and a quarter in length. I am pretty sure it is a megaloden. But, great whites and another shark can have teeth like this. So, I am just making sure it is a megaloden. The second is a whale or pourpise vertebrate from Aurora, NC. It is either Miocene or Pliocene. Do you think it is pourpise or whale? It is 2 inches tall and 1 1/2 inch in diameter. The third pic is 6 shark teeth from the Miocene Calvert Formation in Maryland. The longest is a inch (the fragment) and the second largest (largest complete tooth) is 5/8". My guesses from left to right are Tiger Shark, have no clue (not the bump in the root of the tooth), Sand Tiger Shark, part of a snaggletoothed shark, grey shark, and part of a megaloden tooth. The fourth pic is of 4 shark teeth. The first one on the left is from the Calvert Formation. The last three are from either the Choptank or St. Mary's Formations. My guesses from left to right are Lemon Shark, have no clue (again note the bump), small mako, tiger shark. The largest one in this pic is 1/2".

Thanks again-

[Harry Pristis]

One question about the Otodus. Kind of a collecting question. I know Otodus are must abundant in Morocco. But, for the US, is maryland or virginia (the aquia formation), the best bet for Otodus teeth? Do they occur in Florida? I am not sure if know of it, but the place I go in Maryland is Purse State Park in Charles County on the Potomac River. The Aquia Formation is exposed there. I have been there once, but only found Sand Tiger Shark Teeth. Anyways, here are four more pics. The first pic is a Miocene Shark Tooth from Florida. It measures an inch and a quarter in length. I am pretty sure it is a megaloden. But, great whites and another shark can have teeth like this. So, I am just making sure it is a megaloden. The second is a whale or pourpise vertebrate from Aurora, NC. It is either Miocene or Pliocene. Do you think it is pourpise or whale? It is 2 inches tall and 1 1/2 inch in diameter. The third pic is 6 shark teeth from the Miocene Calvert Formation in Maryland. The longest is a inch (the fragment) and the second largest (largest complete tooth) is 5/8". My guesses from left to right are Tiger Shark, have no clue (not the bump in the root of the tooth), Sand Tiger Shark, part of a snaggletoothed shark, grey shark, and part of a megaloden tooth. The fourth pic is of 4 shark teeth. The first one on the left is from the Calvert Formation. The last three are from either the Choptank or St. Mary's Formations. My guesses from left to right are Lemon Shark, have no clue (again note the bump), small mako, tiger shark. The largest one in this pic is 1/2".

Thanks again-

I sure wish I could help you with your ID question, Andy, but I cannot fully open your very large image.

A portion of the image does open verrry slowly, but not the full image. Nor can I simply scroll left or right, up or down, to see the image -- the image is just too large for my 17-inch monitor.

When I make a SHQ or HQ image with my six megapixel camera, the resulting image is as large as 39 inches wide by 29 inches high. I have to reduce the image size with my editing software to even work with it conveniently.

You can produce excellent photos with the Standard Quality (SQ) setting on your camera. (See some of Worthy's or Mike Owens' recent posts.) If you are going to post images that are not edited, that is, images directly from your camera, SQ is the camera setting you should be using.

I'd like to see your pix. I hope you can post some images that are accessible to everyone on the forum.

-------Harry Pristis

[Harry Pristis]

Yes, there are small Otodus teeth out there, but at that size they are usually either posterior teeth (yours is an anterior) or they are pathologic/deformed. Almost all of the really pathologic teeth are small as I guess they were shed early.

Kevin . . .

I am really confused by that remark about early-shed teeth. How does that happen?

Shark teeth can't be shed from within the tooth whorl inside the jaw. The teeth are fully formed, fully grown, by the time they are functional. If a deformed tooth were lost immediately upon coming into battery, that would have nothing to do with the size of the tooth.

I think I disagree that "almost all" of the "really pathological"(?) teeth are small, but I'm not sure what you mean by "really pathological." I suspect the percentage of true pathologies doesn't vary much within the normal size distribution in any homogeneous group of shark teeth.

If a tooth is deformed and/or stunted in growth, that condtion occurs early in the tooth development, deep in the tooth whorl. The germ tooth is damaged in some way, often by a sting ray barb (in modern sharks, anyway). I would expect a higher percentage of pathologies of all sizes among sharks which prey on sting-rays.

What did you have in mind?

-------Harry Pristis

[Northern Sharks]

Andy: I'll find out more about the Otodus locations when I get home from work. As for your new pics, the first one IS a megalodon. the giveaway is the bourrelet, the chevron shaped enamel between the root and the blade (in your case, black). This is not found on GW's. The next photo looks like a bull shark, something too damaged to call, a sand tiger but I can't say what species exactly, an upper Hemipristis and a Physogaleus (formerly Galeocerdo) contortus. The last photo looks to be a hammerhead with that deep root groove, a lower jaw Hemipristis (they look nothing like the uppers), another one too far gone for ID and maybe another P.contortus.

[Northern Sharks]

Kevin . . .

I am really confused by that remark about early-shed teeth. How does that happen?

Shark teeth can't be shed from within the tooth whorl inside the jaw. The teeth are fully formed, fully grown, by the time they are functional. If a deformed tooth were lost immediately upon coming into battery, that would have nothing to do with the size of the tooth.

I think I disagree that "almost all" of the "really pathological"(?) teeth are small, but I'm not sure what you mean by "really pathological." I suspect the percentage of true pathologies doesn't vary much within the normal size distribution in any homogeneous group of shark teeth.

If a tooth is deformed and/or stunted in growth, that condtion occurs early in the tooth development, deep in the tooth whorl. The germ tooth is damaged in some way, often by a sting ray barb (in modern sharks, anyway). I would expect a higher percentage of pathologies of all sizes among sharks which prey on sting-rays.

What did you have in mind?

-------Harry Pristis

Harry: You're right about fully formed teeth being the only ones shed. My wording was wrong. From my observations, and strictly speaking about Otodus teeth, the ones with the worst (or best if you're a collector) deformities all tend to be on the small side, 1 1/2" or less. I can't say that I've ever seen a 2 1/2" Otodus with the "melted blade" look or even a nice split tip for example. Maybe it's just that if they are out there, people aren't willing to part with them. I have a sandbar shark jaw and all the teeth in 1 file have a split tip, but they aren't all the same. Some have 2 tips, some have 3. As well, for whatever reason, Otodus teeth seem much more prone to deformities than any other species. I've seen dozens of messed up Otodus teeth, but maybe only a few of any other given species.

[Northern Sharks]

One question about the Otodus. Kind of a collecting question. I know Otodus are must abundant in Morocco. But, for the US, is maryland or virginia (the aquia formation), the best bet for Otodus teeth? Do they occur in Florida? I am not sure if know of it, but the place I go in Maryland is Purse State Park in Charles County on the Potomac River. The Aquia Formation is exposed there. I have been there once, but only found Sand Tiger Shark Teeth. Anyways, here are four more pics. The first pic is a Miocene Shark Tooth from Florida. It measures an inch and a quarter in length. I am pretty sure it is a megaloden. But, great whites and another shark can have teeth like this. So, I am just making sure it is a megaloden. The second is a whale or pourpise vertebrate from Aurora, NC. It is either Miocene or Pliocene. Do you think it is pourpise or whale? It is 2 inches tall and 1 1/2 inch in diameter. The third pic is 6 shark teeth from the Miocene Calvert Formation in Maryland. The longest is a inch (the fragment) and the second largest (largest complete tooth) is 5/8". My guesses from left to right are Tiger Shark, have no clue (not the bump in the root of the tooth), Sand Tiger Shark, part of a snaggletoothed shark, grey shark, and part of a megaloden tooth. The fourth pic is of 4 shark teeth. The first one on the left is from the Calvert Formation. The last three are from either the Choptank or St. Mary's Formations. My guesses from left to right are Lemon Shark, have no clue (again note the bump), small mako, tiger shark. The largest one in this pic is 1/2".

Thanks again-

Andy: Otodus obliquus teeth are known from the Aquia, Vincentown and Nanjemoy formations according to B.Kent's book, Fossil Sharks of the Chesapeake Bay Region. I have another source that says they can be found up and down the Eastern US from NJ to FL. If that is true, I haven't seen any nor heard of any. I think in the US, Maryland is probably your best bet.

[Andy]

Andy: Otodus obliquus teeth are known from the Aquia, Vincentown and Nanjemoy formations according to B.Kent's book, Fossil Sharks of the Chesapeake Bay Region. I have another source that says they can be found up and down the Eastern US from NJ to FL. If that is true, I haven't seen any nor heard of any. I think in the US, Maryland is probably your best bet.

So, the Aquia formation is probably the best? Because I think the Nanjemoy formation runs through maryland also. But, no public collecting areas that I know of where that formation is exposed.

Thanks-

[Andy]

In addition to that, I got some of those shark teeth from a rock store like the mako and the one from Morocco. I plan to go back there. They have other teeth from Morocco. What are the things to looks for to identify a moroccan otodus?

Thanks-

[Andy]

Read this and the last two posts. What did you say this shark tooth was? What type of vertebrate do you think that pic was?

Thanks-

[Northern Sharks]

Andy: That tooth is a bit too worn to be real accurate, but it looks like it had serrations so it could be another Hemipristis. Sorry, but I can't help you with the vert, it's not my area of expertise. As far as what to look for in Moroccan Otodus, BE CAREFUL. A lot of them have repairs, anything from a bad putty job to gluing side cusps back on. I would recommend you look at some dealer sites such as Steve Alter's megalodonteeth.com, buriedtreasurefossils.com or lowcountrygeologic. com. You may end up paying a bit more than what you would at the rock shop, but you'd probably get a better tooth for your bucks. I've dealt with the people at each of those sites and they are more than willing to answer any questions you may have. They also picture dozens if not hundreds of examples of all kinds of teeth.

[Andy]

Andy: That tooth is a bit too worn to be real accurate, but it looks like it had serrations so it could be another Hemipristis. Sorry, but I can't help you with the vert, it's not my area of expertise. As far as what to look for in Moroccan Otodus, BE CAREFUL. A lot of them have repairs, anything from a bad putty job to gluing side cusps back on. I would recommend you look at some dealer sites such as Steve Alter's megalodonteeth.com, buriedtreasurefossils.com or lowcountrygeologic. com. You may end up paying a bit more than what you would at the rock shop, but you'd probably get a better tooth for your bucks. I've dealt with the people at each of those sites and they are more than willing to answer any questions you may have. They also picture dozens if not hundreds of examples of all kinds of teeth.

Does that first Moroccan shark tooth look like it was repaired? I looked at the Moroccan teeth in the rock shop and none of them looked repaired. I didn't look real closely, though. What are some signs of repaired teeth? How do you tell which ones are Otodus Obliqus? Those last set of pictures, do you know what kind of vertebrate that was?

Thanks-

[Northern Sharks]

Andy: Here's a photo of some typical large Moroccan Otodus teeth. The small tooth is a Cretolamna appendiculata like I suspect yours is. It measures about 1 1/4 inches. The differences should be pretty obvious. Your tooth has considerable damage so it's safe to say that there probably is no repair. The repairs that the Moroccans do is fairly obvious, you should see it right away. If you're serious abut buying one, I would HIGHLY recommend a dealer that knows his stuff. You get what you pay for; a $2 junker tooth will always be a $2 junker tooth. A high quality example is always the better buy. I'd take a nice 2" tooth over a banged up 3" tooth any day of the week.

[Andy]

Andy: Here's a photo of some typical large Moroccan Otodus teeth. The small tooth is a Cretolamna appendiculata like I suspect yours is. It measures about 1 1/4 inches. The differences should be pretty obvious. Your tooth has considerable damage so it's safe to say that there probably is no repair. The repairs that the Moroccans do is fairly obvious, you should see it right away. If you're serious abut buying one, I would HIGHLY recommend a dealer that knows his stuff. You get what you pay for; a $2 junker tooth will always be a $2 junker tooth. A high quality example is always the better buy. I'd take a nice 2" tooth over a banged up 3" tooth any day of the week.

I don't notice much damage on the moroccan tooth. Except the two points on the side, it is missing it on the right side. Tell me more. I will get a nice moroccan otodus tooth and I will see if I can go collecting and get a maryland otodus tooth also.

Thanks again-

[Uncle Paleo]

Andy: Here's a photo of a genuine Purse State Park Odotus obliquus found on the shores of the mighty Potomac River. As you can see, it's not as large as the Moroccan teeth for sale on the internet, but at least it's American!!! Note the difference in color from the Moroccan teeth. Virtually every shark's tooth found in the Potomac River bears the mark of 50 million years of water. I'd say this tooth is in the mid-range as far as sizes go. On any given day you can easily find a half-incher. The biggest that I have in my collection is about an inch and a half. Several colleagues who have been collecting for years have found two-inchers.

[Andy]

Andy: Here's a photo of a genuine Purse State Park Odotus obliquus found on the shores of the mighty Potomac River. As you can see, it's not as large as the Moroccan teeth for sale on the internet, but at least it's American!!! Note the difference in color from the Moroccan teeth. Virtually every shark's tooth found in the Potomac River bears the mark of 50 million years of water. I'd say this tooth is in the mid-range as far as sizes go. On any given day you can easily find a half-incher. The biggest that I have in my collection is about an inch and a half. Several colleagues who have been collecting for years have found two-inchers.

I have been there once and only found sand tiger teeth. But, I plan to collect there again when the weather is warmer. I would even be happy with a 1/2 inch one if it didin't have a lot of damage. They are found other places in the US, but I think this place is the best bet for US otodus teeth and it is covienient to me.

Thanks-