Is this Sand Shark Tooth Modern or Fossil?

[Bronzviking]

Hi, I found this awesome sand shark tooth on Indian Rocks beach, west coast of Florida. Usually the fossilized teeth I find in the Venice area are black and very worn and broken. It has a light blue gray color and a light brown root. It's the best looking tooth I ever found and was wondering if it is modern or fossil? Also if it is fossilized can you tell if it is an extinct sand shark tooth? Thanks!

[ynot]

I would call it fossil, but can not help with id.

[Al Dente]

I think it is fairly recent. I have found a similar one here in North Carolina. I've seen ones that divers have picked up around wrecks that have a light brown root. It is Carcharias taurus, commonly called a Sand Tiger in the US. 

[Bronzviking]

@Shellseeker You have found many beautiful teeth in Florida, what do you think on this one?

[Rockwood]

Wouldn't a little tap of shark root on human enamel give a quick answer to that one ? Bone rings quite different than rock against the teeth. 

[Shellseeker]

24 minutes ago, Bronzviking said:

@Shellseeker You have found many beautiful teeth in Florida, what do you think on this one?

Here are some land finds from Bone Valley:

They seem to look a lot like yours.  If a shark like Carcharias taurus exists currently and also existed in the Miocene,  how do you differentiate?  Modern Sand Tiger teeth are white or slightly yellow... Fossilized shark teeth have some wear and tear.

Your tooth seems relatively pristine and closed to original colors.

@Al Dente knows light years more about Shark teeth than you or I; I think the odds are better that he is right than wrong.

I myself have not seen a modern Sand tiger tooth.  

 

[Bronzviking]

I have a modern tiger shark tooth I bought below. In hand its an off white color.

[Bronzviking]

1 hour ago, Rockwood said:

Wouldn't a little tap of shark root on human enamel give a quick answer to that one ? Bone rings quite different than rock against the teeth. 

I gently tried the modern one and mine but don't hear much difference. I want to save my teeth for my old age because I like to eat, Lol.

[Bronzviking]

1 hour ago, Shellseeker said:

 If a shark like Carcharias taurus exists currently and also existed in the Miocene,  how do you differentiate?  Modern Sand Tiger teeth are white or slightly yellow... Fossilized shark teeth have some wear and tear.

 

In my Florida's Fossil Book by Robin C. Brown it says the Odontaspis cuspidata --extinct sand shark-- 1 1/2 x 3/4 inches

(4x2 cm) Lee County--Oligocene to Miocene.

O. cuspidata is difficult to distinguish from Odontaspis Taurus, the sand tiger shark, which spans Miocene to recent. Here is the scanned picture below.

[Rockwood]

24 minutes ago, Bronzviking said:

I gently tried the modern one and mine but don't hear much difference.

Comes as no surprise.

The experiment could a control, but dental work is a pain. 

[Shellseeker]

1 hour ago, Bronzviking said:

In my Florida's Fossil Book by Robin C. Brown it says the Odontaspis cuspidata --extinct sand shark-- 1 1/2 x 3/4 inches

(4x2 cm) Lee County--Oligocene to Miocene.

O. cuspidata is difficult to distinguish from Odontaspis Taurus, the sand tiger shark, which spans Miocene to recent. Here is the scanned picture below

Sounds correct. I think that I tend to find Cuspidata in the Peace River watershed, very slight teeth with not double cusplets.  Taurus seems to be what you have found. 

Now , compare those to ones I usually find...

[Shellseeker]

Just adding, a Peace River Sand Tiger (generally black) as an indicator of what I normally call a sand tiger.. They are rare in the Peace River but slender rather than robust.  The one on the bottom is a BV land find.

 

[Darktooth]

Definitely a nice find!

[Bronzviking]

1 hour ago, Darktooth said:

Definitely a nice find!

Thanks! I thought it was an awesome color and a pristine tooth. Do you think it is modern?

[Bronzviking]

9 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

Just adding, a Peace River Sand Tiger (generally black) as an indicator of what I normally call a sand tiger.. They are rare in the Peace River but slender rather than robust.  The one on the bottom is a BV land find.

That bottom one is a real beauty and looks like the Extinct Sand Shark tooth!

[siteseer]

Referring to the original tooth in question, it's a tough call.  It could be a tooth that's not that old - maybe Pleistocene at most.  It could be a tooth that's lost a lot of its color for some reason but it doesn't look weathered/bleached.  I would say it's likely not that old.  It hasn't been bouncing around too much but has picked up a little color.

 

I once saw a tooth from a large aquarium in Las Vegas that had at least one sand tiger shark in it.  The maintenance people find teeth on the bottom and they tend to have green crowns - the result of the mix of what they're fed.  They look like fossil teeth because of it.

[Darko]

Looks like a fossil

[Darktooth]

16 hours ago, Bronzviking said:

Thanks! I thought it was an awesome color and a pristine tooth. Do you think it is modern?

Initially I would have said fossil because of the darker root. But it has been pointed out that some modern teeth can have a darker root, by those with more experience then I. So I would go with that. And in my opinion the blade does not look mineralized at all. 

[Bronzviking]

14 hours ago, siteseer said:

Referring to the original tooth in question, it's a tough call.  It could be a tooth that's not that old - maybe Pleistocene at most.  It could be a tooth that's lost a lot of its color for some reason but it doesn't look weathered/bleached.  I would say it's likely not that old.  It hasn't been bouncing around too much but has picked up a little color.

 

I once saw a tooth from a large aquarium in Las Vegas that had at least one sand tiger shark in it.  The maintenance people find teeth on the bottom and they tend to have green crowns - the result of the mix of what they're fed.  They look like fossil teeth because of it.

That's interesting, but I read that it's the minerals in the sediment that determine the color of the fossilized tooth.

[Bronzviking]

I guess we will not know for sure modern vs fossil but here's an interesting fact I just read. @ynot @Al Dente @Rockwood @Shellseeker @Darktooth @siteseer @Darko Thanks everyone for your input.

 

If a fossilized shark tooth is in sediment has ground water running through, the water will leach the minerals back out of the fossil and cause color changes, making the colors lighter. Sometimes only part of the fossil is leached. In some cases, a fossil can look white again, like a modern tooth.

 

https://www.fossilguy.com/topics/shark-teeth-colors/index.htm

 

 

[Wolf89]

I would definitely say modern 

[Darktooth]

1 hour ago, Bronzviking said:

I guess we will not know for sure modern vs fossil but here's an interesting fact I just read. @ynot @Al Dente @Rockwood @Shellseeker @Darktooth @siteseer @Darko Thanks everyone for your input.

 

If a fossilized shark tooth is in sediment has ground water running through, the water will leach the minerals back out of the fossil and cause color changes, making the colors lighter. Sometimes only part of the fossil is leached. In some cases, a fossil can look white again, like a modern tooth.

 

https://www.fossilguy.com/topics/shark-teeth-colors/index.htm

 

 

Interesting read, thanks for sharing that link.

[Coco]

4 hours ago, Darktooth said:

Initially I would have said fossil because of the darker root. But it has been pointed out that some modern teeth can have a darker root, by those with more experience then I. So I would go with that. And in my opinion the blade does not look mineralized at all. 

The first time I wanted to prepare a recent shark jaw I didn’t know how to do it. I buried it in my garden for a few months. When I wanted to get the jaw back, I understood my first mistake : the cartilage had disappeared, and my second mistake : the ants had carried most of the teeth, but I found a dozen.

 

The teeth had remained white but the roots had become a pretty brown color. So it really doesn’t take long for a shark root to be tinted in the ground.

 

Coco

[siteseer]

1 hour ago, Bronzviking said:

That's interesting, but I read that it's the minerals in the sediment that determine the color of the fossilized tooth.

 

Yes, but that's for fossils.  I was talking about teeth that had fallen out of the mouth of a sand tiger living in an artificial environment.  In the old days when flamingos were brought to a zoo with inexperienced personnel, they fed them with nutritious food but were surprised when their feathers lost that pink color and turned white.  Zookeepers learned to feed them what they eat in the wild to maintain the color visitors expect.  It's the same kind of thing with the sand tigers.  They were being fed properly but the food was different from what they ate in the wild and that had one unintended yet harmless consequence.

[Bronzviking]

Brett, what do you think, fossil or modern? Thanks! @Brett Breakin' Rocks