Shark Teeth - Purse State Park, MD

[racerzeke]

Good afternoon,

 

I accidentally stumbled across Purse State Park and am absolutely hooked! I didn't realize how many teeth were actually there and the different species/history of the area so I only was able to look for about an hour or so and after further inspection and research I believe I have a few different teeth (nothing special, but I would like to know) and I'm sure y'all are tired of the same ole identification questions but no matter how many pictures I look at online I can't entirely tell the differences and I start to see a cooler tooth than I may actually have. I took a few pictures below and I tried to organize similar teeth together (hope I don't embarrass myself). Thanks, I know they aren't gems but I am definitely hooked and will be going again very shortly and maybe with some help I will be able to identify and look for specific kinds when I take my next trip!

 

Thanks so much

 

 

[fifbrindacier]

HI, do you know their age and what is their size ?

I think i see some Sand Tiger shark teeth Captain Hook.

Look here.

[Macrophyseter]

Hi racerzeke! The region where Purse State Park is in is a Neogene/Quarternary formation (as most beaches are), which means that most of the species are just extinct species of modern fauna. I'm guessing that they are all just sand tiger teeth (Carcharias sp. since we don't know for sure if its the modern species or not) also. 1 and 2 are anterior teeth, which are the type of teeth in the middle of the jaw, which produces the biggest and kill-functional teeth.

 

[siteseer]

On 8/6/2017 at 5:35 PM, Macrophyseter said:

Hi racerzeke! The region where Purse State Park is in is a Neogene/Quarternary formation (as most beaches are), which means that most of the species are just extinct species of modern fauna. I'm guessing that they are all just sand tiger teeth (Carcharias sp. since we don't know for sure if its the modern species or not) also. 1 and 2 are anterior teeth, which are the type of teeth in the middle of the jaw, which produces the biggest and kill-functional teeth.

 

 

The teeth found at Purse State Park have been determined to come out of the Late Paleocene Aquia Formation.  All those teeth appear to belong to the extinct sand tiger shark, Striatolamia macrota - tough to be sure on a couple of them but they seem to be in the range for at least the genus.