Lee Creek Giant Thresher Shark Teeth

[cowsharks]

Of all the teeth I've seen come out of Lee Creek (Aurora) over the years when it was open to collecting, I never saw a Giant Thresher shark tooth (Alopias grandis) be found.  I know there are pics of a couple on elasmo.com, and recently I saw online (FB) where a young child actually found one in one of the spoil piles in front of the museum.  I'm sure more have been found over all the years in Lee Creek, quite possibly with some folks not really knowing what they were.  A good friend of mine found one at Calvert Cliffs many many years ago, before I had ever heard of them.  I was at the beach that day when he found it and showed it to me.  We both figured it was either a pathological mako, or perhaps an odd position of a regular mako that we hadn't seen before.  I've seen/heard of other collectors going back into their collections and discovering that they actually had one among their collection of "makos".

 

The particular type of Giant Thresher shark tooth that I've seen is the Alopias Grandis, the non-serrated version.  There is also a serrated version of the Giant Thresher shark tooth, found in MD and VA, and I think NC?

 

Just curious to see pics or stories of any other Giant Threshers found in Lee Creek.

[Troodon]

Yes there are serrated ones in those faunas.  Here is a poster that might interest you

 

Alopias 2015 poster (2).pdf

 

Here is a serrated and non-serrated from calvert cliffs

 

 

[SailingAlongToo]

cowsharks,

 

Here is the link to photos I posted of a serrated one I found on the Potomac last year which came out of Calvert Formation strata. Obviously, not from Lee Creek but my first Alopias grandis none the less.

 

@MarcoSr or @powelli1 can probably help you with Lee Creek versions. If Alopias grandis were there, they would know.

 

Cheers,

SA2

[cowsharks]

Very nice specimens.  Thanks a bunch for the pics and the generous sharing of the poster!

Some folks claim that there's also a third variant of these teeth that is "semi-serrated" with very small/reduced serrations.  I have one of these myself, and your serrated specimen has serrations similar in size to the one I have.  Some of the serrated giant threshers have really large jagged serrations; those are my favorite.

 

[MarcoSr]

Daryl

 

I have a non-serrated giant thresher tooth from the Lee Creek mine itself.  The root is pretty beat up (see below).  I was surprised that the white hats that I showed the tooth to had not seen one from Lee Creek before.

 

 

Marco Sr.

[SailingAlongToo]

Dr. Kent (autbor of "Fossil Shark Teeth of Chesapeake Bay" and recently retired from Univ. of Maryland) just published a book on Aolpias grandis. You might Google it.

[siteseer]

3 hours ago, Troodon said:

Yes there are serrated ones in those faunas.  Here is a poster that might interest you

 

Alopias 2015 poster (2).pdf

 

Here is a serrated and non-serrated from calvert cliffs

 

 

 

 

Hi Troodon,

 

Do you know if those two teeth came out of the same layer within the Calvert?  My assumption is that they didn't.  From what I've seen the non-serrated form is found in Early Miocene layers while the serrated one comes from the Middle Miocene.  The serrated form is known from the Sharktooth Hill Bonebed.  I know of two specimens from there: Bob Ernst found one maybe 20-25 years ago; another collector dug one up in the 60's.  I don't know of an occurrence younger than the STH Bonebed (about 15 million years old).

 

Jess

 

 

 

 

 

[cowsharks]

28 minutes ago, MarcoSr said:

Daryl

 

I have a non-serrated giant thresher tooth from the Lee Creek mine itself.  The root is pretty beat up (see below).  I was surprised that the white hats that I showed the tooth to had not seen one from Lee Creek before.

 

 

Marco Sr.

Thanks for that pic Marco.  Any idea as to which formation your specimen came from? 

[Troodon]

26 minutes ago, siteseer said:

 

 

Hi Troodon,

 

Do you know if those two teeth came out of the same layer within the Calvert?  My assumption is that they didn't.  From what I've seen the non-serrated form is found in Early Miocene layers while the serrated one comes from the Middle Miocene.  The serrated form is known from the Sharktooth Hill Bonebed.  I know of two specimens from there: Bob Ernst found one maybe 20-25 years ago; another collector dug one up in the 60's.  I don't know of an occurrence younger than the STH Bonebed (about 15 million years old).

 

Jess

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were at Brownies Beach.  No idea which zone maybe 10 which would put it around 16 myo Calvert Fm

[Troodon]

Here is mine from Lee Creek but it's not serrated - Pungo River Fm Belhaven member.  

 

[siteseer]

1 hour ago, cowsharks said:

Thanks for that pic Marco.  Any idea as to which formation your specimen came from? 

 

 

Hi Daryl,

 

Probably the Pungo River Formation.

 

Jess

[MarcoSr]

9 hours ago, cowsharks said:

Thanks for that pic Marco.  Any idea as to which formation your specimen came from? 

 

7 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

 

Hi Daryl,

 

Probably the Pungo River Formation.

 

Jess

 

I don't remember for sure but it has a greenish Pungo River color and giant threshers were extinct by the Pliocene (Yorktown).

 

Marco Sr.

[cowsharks]

16 hours ago, Troodon said:

Here is mine from Lee Creek but it's not serrated - Pungo River Fm Belhaven member.  

 

Very nice.  Thanks for posting this pic.  The Lee Creek specimens of the non-serrated giant thresher shark teeth appear to be similar in size/shape to the Calvert ones.

 

Daryl.

[RickNC]

I have one that I found in VA. Funny you mention mako because when I found it I thought it was a funny looking mako and my buddy knew what it was immediately. He still likes to tease me about that.