Extreme Budget Exotic Meg/Shark Teeth Collection

[Kurufossils]

Hello everyone, I'd like to share my extreme budget collection of exotic megs/shark teeth so far, I've have been collecting shark teeth and other for a little over a year and a half now on an extremely tight budget and have been surprised by what I was able to get a hold of so far. Condition doesn't bother me hence the budget but I have been able to find some megs from from interesting locations over the short period of time I've been collecting with a little bit of luck. Locations include Puerto Rico, Cuba, Japan, Hawaii, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, and The Phillipines.

 

Anyone else out there with extreme budget rare finds especially shark teeth (or from generally exotic locations), feel free to share and I'd love to see!

 

In order of pictures:

 

1) Two megs and a hemi from Isabella, Puerto Rico

2) meg from Hawaii (Restored)

3) great white from Japan

4) meg from Morocco

5) meg from Cuba (unfortunately stuck on a wood plate but still a lovely display piece)

6) meg from the Phillipines

7) cubutensis from Peru

8) 2 Makos from Mexico

9 & 10) Heavily and horribly restored 5.9 inch Chilean meg (funny story with this one had an even worse restoration on it with made it look no different from a replica, was suspicious and bought it and when attempting a horrible derestoration process and a few slight touch ups of my own a large chilean meg was hiding under the mess, still needs a tad bit of work but I still love I was able to snag a large one cheap in this day and age )

 

 

@WhodamanHD Here we go uploaded !

[Macrophyseter]

What a collection of megs you got there! Exotic ones too. I still really like your 6 (almost!!!!!!) inch meg too!

[ynot]

Nice group of teeth.

Thanks for sharing.

[Kurufossils]

@Macrophyseter Thank you! Its so funny with that one cause the tooth originally was almost completely covered with some mess and unrecognizable, the guy I bought it from sold it for ultra cheap after getting it long ago on vacation in chile from a market and messaged me sarcastically saying 'Whoops my loss will be your gain ' little did he know it was haha.

@ynot Thank you!

[Angie]

Nice collection! I especially like that chubutensis from Peru, it's gorgeous 

[WhodamanHD]

Thanks for tagging me, those are real nice! From 'round the world to! Seeing all these megs makes it hard for me to wait till I find one (which I assume is gonna be a long time) so I might just jump on grimy 5 incher I just saw.....

good luck expanding that meg collection!

[aplomado]

Some Amazing color on the bottom tooth!

[snolly50]

WHAT?!?! No iconic black or gray Carolina teeth!?!

 

Just kidding, it's a very nice assemblage. (But you do need a classic Carolina tooth).  The SC Lowcountry is about as exotic a locale as you will find. There are places there that are otherworldly beautiful. 

[Kurufossils]

@Angie Thank you! I love it to, only missing a few serrations but the ones there are crisp.

@WhodamanHD Thanks! Same here actually I would love to actually find a meg myself, calvert is the closest place that its possible even though its still very far so until I maybe move down south it'll be a long time till I find one as well 

@aplomado Thank you!

[Kurufossils]

@snolly50 Haha thanks I sure do have them this is only a small part of my whole collection, I can make a part 2 of this featuring those kind of megs, also I have alot of bone valleys I could show as well. Yeah I agree I wish I could maybe move down there in the future or visit long enough to find one myself.

[ynot]

2 hours ago, Ryann10006 said:

I sure do have them this is only a small part of my whole collection, I can make a part 2 of this featuring those kind of megs, also I have alot of bone valleys I could show as well

You should add them to this thread.

I, for one, would like to see them.

[CBOB]

There's meg teeth found in Hawaii??

[WhodamanHD]

Just now, CBOB said:

There's meg teeth found in Hawaii??

Any place with oceanic Miocene rocks is meg country, I have herd of one being found in the marianas trench once. Quite a successful species for a short time,

[CBOB]

2 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

Any place with oceanic Miocene rocks is meg country, I have herd of one being found in the marianas trench once. Quite a successful species for a short time,

Wow.  I have never heard of Hawaiian meg teeth.  But your explanation makes sense.  I'm heading to Hawaii with the family in November so now I have some fossil research to do!

[WhodamanHD]

Just now, CBOB said:

Wow.  I have never heard of Hawaiian meg teeth.  But your explanation makes sense.  I'm heading to Hawaii with the family in November so now I have some fossil research to do!

Neither had I, but I knew Hawaii was old. May the shark gods rain many megs upon you...

[Kurufossils]

@CBOB Yes, apparently only fragments have been heard to been found there and this is a restored one from there, thought I'd never see let alone own a Hawiian meg at all. Yeah you never know, though highly rare and virtually unheard of they are there. Heres a short report that mentions ones http://www.blackriverfossils.org/Hawaii/TripReports/tabid/54/pt/1/Filter/488/Category/488/Default.aspx

 

 

[sixgill pete]

@Ryann10006 @CBOB @WhodamanHD

 

 

 

All of the fossils I have heard of from Hawaii have been Pleistocene or Holocene in age. Shark teeth, mollusks and avian (bird) bones. I have never heard of a meg from Hawaii, but who knows. However myself, I would be very leery about someone claiming a meg from Hawaii. Did the seller include any provenance with the tooth? The shark teeth  have come from Oahu. Bird material from Oahu and Kauai. 

 

The bird material has been published " A LATE PLEISTOCENE AVIFAUNA FROM THE ISLAND OF OAHU, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Helen F. JAMES " 

 

All of the shark teeth I have seen (and actually own) from there, are from extant species; Galeocerdo and Carcharhinus.

[sixgill pete]

Let me add that the Hawaiin Islands are extremely young Geographically. The oldest being Kauai about 5.1 mya then Oahu about 2.6 to 3.7 mya with the youngest being the big island of Hawaii at about 0.4 mya. That said it is estimated that megalodon went extinct about 2.6 mya. Not saying it is not possible.  

[Kurufossils]

@sixgill pete I have only heard rumors of partials being found there but never seen one, but as the story goes behind this tooth I received it from someone (an average woman, not hardcore collector or fossil seller) not seemingly yo well versed in fossils/shark material but enough to know its a meg and selling it at a normal price not to warrant much suspicion, talking to the seller to get some info about the tooth she said it was part of her grandmothers large collection who past away(as she was also selling shells and etc from it as well), who was a beachcomber for many years, born in north korea, escaped to south korea, and immigrated from south korea (I don't consider that much of a possibility of locality) to Hawaii. She said her grandmothers collection was a majority of personal finds from beachcombing and looking around the island for many years and also from friends and family around the islands, I can only guess that this tooth is likely from what I've been told from Hawaii.

 

Heres where I heard one of the rumor from http://www.blackriverfossils.org/Hawaii/TripReports/tabid/54/pt/1/Filter/488/Category/488/Default.aspx

[sixgill pete]

7 hours ago, Ryann10006 said:

@sixgill pete I have only heard rumors of partials being found there but never seen one, but as the story goes behind this tooth I received it from someone (an average woman, not hardcore collector or fossil seller) not seemingly yo well versed in fossils/shark material but enough to know its a meg and selling it at a normal price not to warrant much suspicion, talking to the seller to get some info about the tooth she said it was part of her grandmothers large collection who past away(as she was also selling shells and etc from it as well), who was a beachcomber for many years, born in north korea, escaped to south korea, and immigrated from south korea (I don't consider that much of a possibility of locality) to Hawaii. She said her grandmothers collection was a majority of personal finds from beachcombing and looking around the island for many years and also from friends and family around the islands, I can only guess that this tooth is likely from what I've been told from Hawaii.

 

Heres where I heard one of the rumor from http://www.blackriverfossils.org/Hawaii/TripReports/tabid/54/pt/1/Filter/488/Category/488/Default.aspx

 

Yes all of those reports from there are from Holocene exposures on Oahu.To my knowledge there have been no verified reports of any Pliocene locations on Oahu or Kauai. There are definitely no Miocene locations there as the Islands are to young geologically. 

 

This is the opening paragraph; the Abstract, from the paper on the avian fauna on Oahu.

 

"Fossils from an eroding sea cliff on the Mokapu Peninsula of the island of Oahu constitute the
oldest vertebrate fauna known from the Hawaiian Islands. These bones apparently accumulated in a
lake that once occupied the crater of the Ulupau Head tuff cone, probably during the Illinoian Glacial.
The fossil avifauna from this locality comprises an ecologically diverse assortment of birds, including
seabirds, shorebirds, waterfowl, and large and small land birds. At least two species of seabirds from
Ulupau Head are not known historically or in Holocene fossil deposits from the Hawaiian Archipelago.
The presence of migratory shorebirds and waterbirds is evidence that migratory routes of these species
over the Pacific Ocean have endured for more than 120,000 years. Preliminary morphological comparisons
of the land and fresh water birds from Ulupau Head with a Holocene fossil avifauna from Barber's
Point, Oahu, suggest that many, if not all, of the major adaptations found in  the endemic Hawaiian species
had already evolved at the time the Ulupau Head fossils were deposited."

 

If you read this it states that these fossils are the oldest vertebrate fauna known from the Hawaiin Islands. The age according to the title is late Pleistocene. Megalodon was extinct by that time. Not saying it is not possible.

 

Let me add though, you have a great collection of megs and it seems at a great price compared to what many others pay. I do agree with snolly though, you really should try to add some from the Carolina's. 

 

 

 

[Kurufossils]

@sixgill pete Yeah its a mystery, I think it may of came from the sea and not a land site, found offshore or some body of water as the wear on it reminds me more of an ocean or river tooth rather that one found on land. Thanks! I do have them I just haven't got around to sharing them yet there will be a part 2 of this thread for the m sometime soon.

[sixgill pete]

@Ryann10006 this thread was brought up in another thread I was posting in. The oceanic waters around the Hawaiian Islands are extremely deep. The Molokai channel between the Islands of Molakai and Oahu plunges to around 2300 feet. The Maui / Molokai / Lanai / Kahoolawe channel is shallow averaging 235 feet. Depths where diving is out of the question. The shallowest waters surrounding the islands would be the same max age as the islands. 

 

While still possible I guess. I have very serious doubt about any meg tooth claimed to be from Hawaii.

 

[siteseer]

On 9/12/2020 at 3:39 PM, sixgill pete said:

@Ryann10006 this thread was brought up in another thread I was posting in. The oceanic waters around the Hawaiian Islands are extremely deep. The Molokai channel between the Islands of Molakai and Oahu plunges to around 2300 feet. The Maui / Molokai / Lanai / Kahoolawe channel is shallow averaging 235 feet. Depths where diving is out of the question. The shallowest waters surrounding the islands would be the same max age as the islands. 

 

While still possible I guess. I have very serious doubt about any meg tooth claimed to be from Hawaii.

 

 

Don,

 

I would also be very wary of any claim of a meg from Hawaii or around Hawaii.  When I was a member of MAPS in the 90's, there was one member from Hawaii.  He found fossils there and they were Pleistocene.  I believe he came out and said that there are no older fossils that can be found given the age of the islands and the fact that much of the rock of those islands is volcanic.  If a meg were collected on or near one of the Hawaiian islands, it would be the youngest tooth known from the fossil record by a few million years.  While that doesn't seem like a big deal given the depth of geologic time, it is quite a chasm to be bridged given the great richness of the Pliocene-Pleistocene fossil record and given that there have been no other credible reports of megs from even the Early Pleistocene.  All the late Pliocene reports were debunked in that recent paper by Bobby and his co-authors (Boessenecker et al., 2019). @Boesse

 

Jess

 

P.S.  With all that said, it's always fun to see teeth from oddball locations.

 

Boessenecker RW, Ehret DJ, Long DJ, Churchill M, Marin E, Boessenecker SJ.  2019. 

The Early Pliocene extinction of the mega-toothed shark Otodus megalodon: a view from the eastern North Pacific. PeerJ 6:6088.