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What type of shark tooth is this?


Jenna

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I found this shark tooth at a beach near St. Augustine. I have no clue what species it came from. It kind of looks like a goblin shark, but it also looks like the front tooth of a longfin mako. I have no knowledge of fossils and stuff, I just like to collect them because they look cool. Also, is the object on the right (in the last picture) a ray mouth plate? It was found on the same beach as the shark tooth was.

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the squarish item isn't from a ray but from a porcupine fish (family Diodontidae).  It's part of their jaw.  I've pasted below a photo from elasmo.com showing the completer jaw collected in NC. They ID the species as Chilomycterus schoepfi.  Truthfully, I don't know if the ones from Florida are the same species, but they're most likely the same genus at least.

 

The shark tooth is from a sand shark. They are very, very difficult to distinguish when found together in older sediments, but in the sediments where you are collecting, the goblin sharks with these style of teeth are extinct, so no more confusion. The tooth is  from the sand shark genera Carcharias, either the species C. cuspidata or C. taurus (the latter is the current, extant species). I can't tell by the photos--take a close look: if you observe raised lineations on the lingual face (the right side of the tooth in both photos), then it is C. taurus. If they are missing, then either they've been worn away or the tooth is C. cuspidataC. taurus anterior teeth are also narrower, like yours. It's probably C. taurus.

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'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

George Santayana

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