Pretty sure it's a tooth- found in a playground

[Fishkeeper]

I found this in a playground in Dallas when I was 7. It was mixed in with the gravel, which was polished "river rock" that I imagine had probably been dug from a quarry and run through an industrial rock tumbler. As a result, I have absolutely no idea where it originated. It's about 15mm long, feels smooth, and definitely isn't serrated. 

I know an exact ID is pretty much impossible, but I'd like a general idea of what it might have come from, even if it's something as broad as "shark". It looks a bit like some of the teeth in a box of assorted fossil shark teeth (you know, the gift shop kind) that I have, so that's my current guess.

I can try to find a better camera if better pics would be helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Plax]

I suspect your shark tooth was just tumbled in the stream along with the rocks. When gravel is mined it's from placer deposits. These are concentrated in former or current river channels along with sand and other sediments. They may get screened to make them all the same size but they wouldn't polish them industrially.

[Fishkeeper]

If it is probably a shark, is there a way to tell roughly what it would have been? I don't mean as in species, I mean as in niche. Small, shallow-water reef raider? Fast ocean-going predator?

The tooth doesn't look like it's meant to rip, so I'm guessing this would have been a shark that captured small organisms on spearing teeth and swallowed them whole, rather than something that ripped larger prey apart with slicing teeth. 

[Fossildude19]

1 hour ago, Fishkeeper said:

If it is probably a shark, is there a way to tell roughly what it would have been? I don't mean as in species, I mean as in niche. Small, shallow-water reef raider? Fast ocean-going predator?

The tooth doesn't look like it's meant to rip, so I'm guessing this would have been a shark that captured small organisms on spearing teeth and swallowed them whole, rather than something that ripped larger prey apart with slicing teeth. 

 

 

Very worn, ... maybe too worn to identify properly, but I would say it looks very similar to Scapanorhyncus texanus. 

Also known as a goblin shark. 

More images HERE.

Regards,

[Fishkeeper]

Ah, cool, thank you! I love goblin sharks, they have such ridiculous-but-effective faces. And it's good to have a probable ID. 

[frankh8147]

On 1/19/2017 at 1:18 PM, Fossildude19 said:

 

 

Very worn, ... maybe too worn to identify properly, but I would say it looks very similar to Scapanorhyncus texanus. 

Also known as a goblin shark. 

More images HERE.

Regards,

Agreed. Looks very similar to goblin shark teeth we find in New Jersey.

Also, if we are correct, which I suspect we are, this tooth is Cretaceous.

[cfin1974]

Worn Goblin shark?

[bone2stone]

On 1/20/2017 at 4:49 PM, frankh8147 said:

Agreed. Looks very similar to goblin shark teeth we find in New Jersey.

Also, if we are correct, which I suspect we are, this tooth is Cretaceous.

Looks like some of the Post Oak Creek Scaph material.

Not surprising if it is.

Playground gravel,

you just never know when opportunity is gonna knock!

Jess B.

[Fishkeeper]

Thanks for the surprising amount of detail! I was really just expecting "yeah, that looks like a shark, but it's too worn to tell more". 

At the time, I was looking for those nice shiny bits of quartz that show up among river rock sometimes and are awesome to small children. This, of course, was way better. I spent awhile looking for more teeth, went through quite a lot of gravel, but there weren't any more that I could find and there was a limit to how long my mom would stay at the playground for me to dig in rocks.