Carboniferous shark tooth Id help

[westcoast]

I have waited a very long time to find a Carboniferous shark tooth. Found this today. It's 2cm x 2cm or 3/4 inch. Could it be Cladodus, Stethacanthus or something else?

[Vieira]

I don't have very experience in Carboniferous shark teeth, but looks like a Hybodus sp.

 

Wait for more comments.

[jpc]

I have no experience in these either, but is it very small?  

[Fossildude19]

Maybe Sam @Archie can have a look at this. 

Great find!

Regards,

 

 

EDIT:  It does look similar to some of the Figures of Claddodus in this PDF.

[sixgill pete]

It has the shape of what I would at least be thinking Cladodus, however I have zero experience in teeth of this age. 

[Darktooth]

Congratulations on the find! Awesome!

[BobWill]

Very nice tooth. It has the general look of the Glikmanius occidentalis we see in North Texas Pennsylvanian so you may be right with a cladodont-type tooth.

[Ridgehiker]

Congrats.  These are the gems of shark tooth collecting.

 

I've collected several Carboniferous teeth and helped prepare a batch for a research paper. However, most specimens are enigmatic. Unless there is some other elements, they are usually given a general identification such as 'Cladodus' or some genus mentioned above. Most important is the locale.  If trying to identify off a photo...how was the specimen in the photo identified?  Anyways, good to try and ID the specimen but not get locked into that identification

 

A note.  That is a really nice specimen. Lots of detail. 

 

Re the location. This will provide the stage of the Carboniferous...especially in your part of the world where there is such good stratigraphy. There is quite a variation of shark teeth over that Late Devonian into through to the Permian. 95% of which is still not really studied that much.

 

 

[westcoast]

Thanks for all the great comments.

[Archie]

Fantastic tooth congratulations! I'm leaning towards a Stethacanthus sp. on this one, was it found in a freshwater or marine deposit? And can you be more specific regarding the age?

Regards,

Sam 

 

 

[Archimedes]

Nice tooth, I general refer this type to Stethacanthus

[siteseer]

On 1/26/2017 at 8:20 AM, westcoast said:

I have waited a very long time to find a Carboniferous shark tooth. Found this today. It's 2cm x 2cm or 3/4 inch. Could it be Cladodus, Stethacanthus or something else?

 

 

You need to provide some locality information (site and formation - level within the formation, if possible).  I assume it's from a site in Ireland.  Knowing the site eliminates some possibilities and provides a starting point in finding technical articles about what is found at the site or the layer.  In the 90's it would have been called "Cladodus" (or cladodont-type) but that has been used as a catch-all for teeth of the general form (one long main cusp and at least one pair of lateral cusplets).  Your tooth in particular resembles but is not identical to forms found in the Late Carboniferous of Nebraska.  There's a photo of one in Gerard Case's "Fossil Sharks: A Pictorial Review" from 1973 (p. 9, fig. 18).  It also has a tall main cusp and a pair of curved lateral cusplets though the main cusp appears flatter in the Nebraska specimen.

 

There is a photo of a tooth identified as Stethacanthus in the first edition of Chondrichthyes 1 (Zangerl, 1981: p. 75).  That tooth has a tall main cusp but also has a pair of straight lateral cusplets nearly as tall and the tooth is only 2mm high.  I know that there has been some name-changing in the world of Paleozoic cartilaginous fishes over the past 30-35 years so I don't really have a genus to feel confident about, especially since I'm more of a Cretaceous-Recent kind of shark collector.  However, I think it's safe to say it's the cladodont form as others have suggested.  There might be a genus and species for your tooth but you might have to track down a researcher who knows the latest literature or find those articles yourself.