Khyssa Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 I recently found a number of pretty sharks teeth in a creek in southwest Florida that I'd like to identify. I've looked in books but so many of the teeth look similar that it's hard to settle on the IDs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've taken pictures of both sides of the teeth, keeping in the same order when I turned them over. The pictures didn't come out as sharp as I would have liked so let me know if you need better ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 1- Galeocerdo cuvier 2- Carcharodon carcharias 3- lower Carcharhinus leucas 4- Carcharias taurus -lateral 5- Galeocerdo cuvier - symphyseal 6- Carcharhinus plumbeus? These are some nice looking teeth. I think some of the remaining teeth are Carcharhinus leucas, maybe all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khyssa Posted April 15, 2016 Author Share Posted April 15, 2016 Thank you! That is my first great white shark tooth so that is fantastic. When I first saw #2 I thought is was a small meg but once I got home I realized that wasn't quite right. I was thinking that the tooth next to #5 was a bull shark but wasn't sure and hadn't considered bull for #3. I really need better reference material for sharks teeth. The odd shape of #5 was really throwing me off. I hadn't even considered that it could be a symphyseal tooth. I really like the colors of these teeth and the pictures really don't do them justice. I have a riker mount with jewel boxes that I use to display my more colorful or unusal sharks teeth and some of these will be going into it. Or maybe I'll just start a second one since that one is already full. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 I agree with Eric's id of teeth number 1, 2 and 4. After looking at many extant Carcharhinus jaws over the last six months and extensively looking through the literature on the Carcharhinus genus, I can say with certainty that there is too much tooth variation within each Carcharhinus species and too much similarity between teeth of different Carcharhinus species to be able to accurately id most individual Carcharhinus teeth to a specific species especially from pictures. As an example, Carcharhinus leucas (bull shark) and Carcharhinus amboinensis (pig eye shark)have almost identical teeth. The pig eye shark has normally one less tooth on each side of the upper jaw 12-medial teeth-12 than a bull which normally has 13-medial teeth-13 and one less tooth on each side of the lower jaw 11-medial teeth-11 than a bull shark which normally has 12-medial teeth-12. However normal variation within the species allow a percentage of pig eye sharks to have a larger number of teeth in each jaw that matches the standard bull shark number and allow a percentage of bull sharks to have a smaller number of teeth in each jaw that matches a standard pig eye number. Because the other physical characteristics of the two sharks are also so similar (there is a difference in the relative heights of the dorsal fins which can distinguish the species) the only sure way to tell the two species apart is to count their vertebrae and although the number of vertebrae also varies in both species there isn't an overlap of the vertebrae count where bulls have over 100 precaudal vertebrae, usually over 110 and pig eyes have less than 100 (Bass 1973). Bottom line is to be happy with an id of Carcharhinus sp. for an individual tooth. Marco Sr. "Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day." My family fossil website Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros My Extant Shark Jaw Collection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 They sure are pretty! Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khyssa Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 Wow, MarcoSr, that is a lot of information! I hadn't even been aware that there was a shark species named pig eye much less that they so closely resembled the bull that you have to count the verts to tell them apart. I am content to label the teeth as Carcharhinus sp. and leave it as that. Although when I show they to family or friends I'll refer to them as bull sharks since when I start trying to say the scientific names I get either blank looks or laughed at because of my horrible attempts as pronouncing them! Kara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuggyBren Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Wow! These are some great finds and beautiful!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Wow, MarcoSr, that is a lot of information! I hadn't even been aware that there was a shark species named pig eye much less that they so closely resembled the bull that you have to count the verts to tell them apart. I am content to label the teeth as Carcharhinus sp. and leave it as that. Although when I show they to family or friends I'll refer to them as bull sharks since when I start trying to say the scientific names I get either blank looks or laughed at because of my horrible attempts as pronouncing them! Kara Kara There are a large number of misidentified jaws and teeth on the web. People selling jaws and teeth on ebay use standard names like bull, dusky, great white, hammerhead etc. because people recognize those names. Not many folks recognize the scientific names and a lot of those for well known fossil sharks have changed over the years. There are 32 named species of Carcharhinus currently and there are not many folks at all who can identify correctly the individual teeth. So you should be OK calling your teeth "bull shark" teeth. Marco Sr. "Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day." My family fossil website Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros My Extant Shark Jaw Collection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paleoc Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 1- Galeocerdo cuvier - yes 2- Carcharodon carcharias - yes 3- lower Carcharhinus leucas - yes, tooth above it and above it to the right are upper C. leucas 4- Carcharias taurus -lateral - yes 5- Galeocerdo cuvier - symphyseal - probably (under magnification, are there small serrations on the large serrations?) 6- Carcharhinus plumbeus? - yes, tooth to the left is another C. leucas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 Nice finds with great colors!! Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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