Aurora Micro Matrix

[Top Trilo]

I was recently gifted some micro matrix from Aurora, North Carolina for Christmas and have been looking for tiny goodies. It is in single digit Fahrenheit temperature and it’s too dusty to search inside so can’t look today but I can hopefully receive some shark teeth IDs. There are some other unknowns but I haven’t photographed them yet and will wait to post until I am finished searching. I never knew ruining your neck could be so addictive. 

if you need more photos, I can get some.

 

1. Very strange and I have no idea

 

2. One of the bigger pieces and incomplete. Some sort of mako?

 

3. This one has quite a sharp curve and thin root.

 

4. From thin root to wide. Although it’s kind of worn can the large root be identifiable?

 

5. Strange tooth with wide root. Do these strange roots have to do with tooth position?

 

6. This one is similar to 5 only with an even wider root.

 

7. This one almost doesn’t even look like a shark tooth. Rhincodon?

 

8. The largest (proportionally) strangest root on a shark tooth I have. Looks like some big hair-do. No idea how this tooth would have been any help to the shark.

 

Thank you for any and all help.

[fossilhunter21]

 

You are correct that this is a Rhicodon typus tooth

[fossilhunter21]

 

This looks like it could be a lemon shark tooth (Negaprion brevirostris)?  

[fossilhunter21]

 

This definitely looks like a mako tooth.

[fossilhunter21]

 

Maybe a Hempristis serra tooth?

[Top Trilo]

Thanks @fossilhunter21. I noticed you recently received some of this micro matrix too, and your images and questions have helped me. Thank you for those and your replies.

[hokietech96]

I think 1 is a broken piece of the root with serrated shoulder. That is my guess. 

[Top Trilo]

15 minutes ago, hokietech96 said:

I think 1 is a broken piece of the root with serrated shoulder. That is my guess. 

I originally thought the same thing but the edge of the broken part of the serrations go pretty close to the root making me think it’s mostly complete and not missing most of the crown.

[Top Trilo]

Could #1 just be some posterior tooth?

Here's an image of a megalodon one.

[fossilhunter21]

#1 definitley llooks like a posterior tooth.

[digit]

Lee Creek matrix can be some interesting and fun stuff to pick through. Looking at micro-matrix through a camera microscope allows the image to be projected up on a large flat-screen monitor which does very much so spare you the neck strain of looking down through a magnifying lens for extended periods.  Shark Tooth Hill micro-matrix is novel in that it contains Basking Shark (Cetorhinus) teeth with good frequency. Lee Creek has its own giant shark in the faunal list--the Whale Shark (Rhincodon). As you have noticed, these teeth are quite unusual with a very bulbous roots and a rather thorn-like crown. Your #7 & #8 are nice examples of this.

 

3 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

8. The largest (proportionally) strangest root on a shark tooth I have. Looks like some big hair-do. No idea how this tooth would have been any help to the shark.

Given that both Basking Sharks and Whale Sharks are filter feeders that simply swim around with their mouths gaped open filtering plankton (and small fishes) with their gill rakers, they have no need at all for teeth. These are much reduced vestigial teeth. Mantas similarly have tiny teeth that are really pretty much functionless degenerate teeth that evolution have reduced but not yet completely eliminated.

 

3 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

5. Strange tooth with wide root. Do these strange roots have to do with tooth position?

Indeed. These oddly shaped teeth have everything to do with tooth position. These tiny teeth with a nubbin of a crown and a relatively oversized root are likely the tiny symphyseal (or parasymphyseal) teeth along the mid-line of the jaw. Here's a great post by @MarcoSr showing some extant shark jaws with symphyseal teeth highlighted.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[hokietech96]

2 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

Could #1 just be some posterior tooth?

Here's an image of a megalodon one.

I like your answer better!

[Al Dente]

#5 and 6 look like Carcharhinus symphyseal teeth and #8 looks like a Physogaleus symphyseal tooth.

[fossilhunter21]

Could #1 be a pathological tooth?

[Top Trilo]

Thank you everyone for your very helpful replies.
Regarding #8 I feel a symphyseal tooth of a “normal” shark is more likely than a Whale shark because of a characteristic I didn’t photograph well and failed to mention, my bad.

It has the triangle shaped crown typical of normal shark teeth. See below

 

For #2 is it possible to determine which Mako it’s from?

 

And number 1 looks like it’s posterior pathological or both and it obviously is serrated so I searched images of posterior Galeocerdo which didn’t quite match, Carcharhinus which also didn’t match and for a megalodon it’s very small. Are there any other likely sharks for it?

[fossilhunter21]

Maybe #2 is Carcharodon hastalis? 

 

Could #1 be Carcharocles subauriculatus?

 

-@fossilhunter21

 

 

[digit]

1 hour ago, Top Trilo said:

Regarding #8 I feel a symphyseal tooth of a “normal” shark is more likely than a Whale shark because of a characteristic I didn’t photograph well and failed to mention, my bad.

It has the triangle shaped crown typical of normal shark teeth.

Yup. The image of #7 though clearly shows the rounded bi-lobed root of Rhincodon so that's a prize!

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Top Trilo]

I found another thing today. I have no idea what it is but at the same time remember seeing it somewhere.

9.

[Al Dente]

27 minutes ago, Top Trilo said:

I found another thing today. I have no idea what it is but at the same time remember seeing it somewhere.

It is a dermal denticle.

[Top Trilo]

28 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

It is a dermal denticle.

Thank you, safe to say from a shark?

[fossilhunter21]

I would say it is probably from a shark.

[digit]

25 minutes ago, Top Trilo said:

Thank you, safe to say from a shark?

The larger ones that look like Hershey's Kisses tend to be from rays similar to the Thornback Ray.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornback_ray#/media/File:Raja_clavata_(juv).jpg

 

Most (obviously not all) shark dermal denticles tend to be smaller and more scale-like. The ones for fast swimming sharks often have fluted surfaces to help streamline water flow and reduce resistance by eddies.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

 

[sixgill pete]

I think #1 is a broken off cusplet from C. chubutensis. 

[Top Trilo]

1 hour ago, sixgill pete said:

I think #1 is a broken off cusplet from C. chubutensis. 

Never even thought about that but makes sense. Would have been a nice sized tooth if it was complete.

[fossilhunter21]

Are C. Chubutensis and C. subauriculatus the same shark?