Help With Sharks Teeth?

[jgj1120789]

Hello all,

I live on the coast of North Carolina, a town called Surf City on Topsail Island.  Hunting for shark’s teeth is a huge hobby I’ve taken up...but I’m struggling with the ones pictured here.

 

The one in the middle, I’m about 99% sure it’s not a tooth (but the shape and bi-coloration have led me to hang on to it for a while now)

 

I’d like to think I found a great white tooth fossil (left), but it seems too small (at slightly over 1 inch).

 

any help ID’ing these would be awesome.  If the middle one is a rock, I can finally part with it!  Thanks in advance!

 

[ynot]

All three are shark teeth.

Left is a great white.

Right is a snaggletooth.

Not sure of the center tooth, it is very worn.

[jgj1120789]

1 minute ago, ynot said:

All three are shark teeth.

Left is a great white.

Right is a snaggletooth.

Not sure of the center tooth, it is very worn.

Thank you so much!

[digit]

Like Tony said above. The (worn down) serrations on the left tooth are what distinguish it as a Great White as opposed to what we used to call makos (but with recent changes the current belief is that similar unserrated teeth are now called white shark teeth). The "snaggletooth" you will find more images of using the scientific name: Hemipristis serra. The middle one is a very worn and tumbled megalodon tooth or one of its ancestors). Down here in South Florida we generally only have the more modern Carcharocles megalodon but up in your neck of the woods you can find the ancestors to this lineage C. chubutensis and older still C. angustidens. Both of these predecessors can be identified by smaller side cusps on either side of the main blade. Evidence of these may very well be worn away in such a smoothed specimen but likely the middle on is an artistically tumbled meg tooth.

 

You are lucky to be in a great location for recovering some nice fossil shark teeth. Looking forward to seeing your future finds.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[jgj1120789]

3 hours ago, digit said:

Like Tony said above. The (worn down) serrations on the left tooth are what distinguish it as a Great White as opposed to what we used to call makos (but with recent changes the current belief is that similar unserrated teeth are now called white shark teeth). The "snaggletooth" you will find more images of using the scientific name: Hemipristis serra. The middle one is a very worn and tumbled megalodon tooth or one of its ancestors). Down here in South Florida we generally only have the more modern Carcharocles megalodon but up in your neck of the woods you can find the ancestors to this lineage C. chubutensis and older still C. angustidens. Both of these predecessors can be identified by smaller side cusps on either side of the main blade. Evidence of these may very well be worn away in such a smoothed specimen but likely the middle on is an artistically tumbled meg tooth.

 

You are lucky to be in a great location for recovering some nice fossil shark teeth. Looking forward to seeing your future finds.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Wow thank you!!  It’s definitely not too tough to find a dozen or so teeth on a 10 minute walk on the beach here.  I’m dying to find a nice meg tooth, so it totally surprises me that the middle one may be that of a meg or its ancestors...so cool.  I really appreciate your input!  If I find any great finds, I will be sure to post them!

[sixgill pete]

Not bad finds for beach teeth. Especially the Hemipristis, it's a beauty. Do you ever go up to North Topsail and hunt?

[digit]

Since you are in the area, you really need to go to the Aurora Fossil Festival (this weekend). I'm sure a number of local TFF members will be in attendance.

 

http://aurorafossilmuseum.org/post/41/Fossil_Festival.html

 

I've been to the museum (which is great) and had fun helping a bunch of kids find shark teeth in the spoil piles across the street. Timing hasn't been right yet to make it to the festival but I'm crossing my fingers (which makes typing difficult ) and hoping that the stars will align for a trip to next year's festival.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[jgj1120789]

4 hours ago, sixgill pete said:

Not bad finds for beach teeth. Especially the Hemipristis, it's a beauty. Do you ever go up to North Topsail and hunt?

I’ve been a few times.  Haven’t found anything major yet!

[jgj1120789]

4 hours ago, digit said:

Since you are in the area, you really need to go to the Aurora Fossil Festival (this weekend). I'm sure a number of local TFF members will be in attendance.

 

http://aurorafossilmuseum.org/post/41/Fossil_Festival.html

 

I've been to the museum (which is great) and had fun helping a bunch of kids find shark teeth in the spoil piles across the street. Timing hasn't been right yet to make it to the festival but I'm crossing my fingers (which makes typing difficult ) and hoping that the stars will align for a trip to next year's festival.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Oh I’d love to, but unfortunately I have to work.  I’ll look into it next year though for sure, I’ve heard it’s a great time

[caldigger]

18 hours ago, jgj1120789 said:

I’d like to think I found a great white tooth fossil (left), but it seems too small (at slightly over 1 inch).

Not all teeth in the jaws are big. They get smaller the further back in the jaw ( posterior ) in order to facilitate the closing of the mouth.

[digit]

And we are so used to seeing big teeth--especially from the chronospecies in the mega tooth shark lineage that 1 inch teeth seem small. The general rule of thumb is to keep your thumbs away from shark's mouths and that an approximate length of a shark can be estimated by using the 10 feet per inch of tooth. There are obviously lots of caveats in this very general size estimation which does not take into account differences in species or in the tooth position but it does give a number (for what it's worth). Modern Great White Sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) top out at 15-16 feet for the larger females while the "puny" males seldom exceed the 11-13 foot range. This means that modern GW teeth tend to top out at 1.5 inches so I wouldn't really consider a 1" GW a runt. I have only found 2 GW teeth in Florida over the years (not really common down here) and both of them are just a bit over an inch (diagonally measured). I found them more common in the teeth recovered while meg tooth diving offshore from North Carolina though the roots were often well worn and were mainly represented by nice blades with just a hint of root attached. They were a bit larger even without the root.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[sixgill pete]

 

18 hours ago, jgj1120789 said:

I’d like to think I found a great white tooth fossil (left), but it seems too small (at slightly over 1 inch).

 

 

 

I have great whites less than 1/2 inch up to 2 3/4/ inch. I have seen a few at 3 inches. Remember sharks shed thousands of teeth over their lifetime. 

 

Here is a meg for you to show that size does not always identify the owner.

 

[digit]

Yup. Even the biggest of the big had to start somewhere. While picking micro-matrix I found a Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) tooth that is less than 3mm wide. Juveniles of this small size are not particularly common and so Dr. Hulbert has agreed that it would be an interesting addition to the FLMNH collection--it's heading up there this weekend. There are a lot of shark tooth topics on this forum over the years. I do seem to remember one featuring photos of a variety of smaller posterior teeth and one dedicated to the (sometimes) odd symphyseal teeth from the center of the jaws. I believe we also had one featuring the tiniest teeth in folks collections. I think I posted a photo with several teeth lined up along a penny (a fun yet imprecise background for such a display).

 

I think the above tooth may be the smallest meg I've yet seen.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken