Fossil Cretodus Shark Teeth

[siteseer]

Here is a Cretodus tooth I bought as part of lot back in the 90's.

Late Cretaceous

Cenomanian

Bluebonnet Formation

Temple, Bell County, Texas

[fossilselachian]

Alright Fossilselachian, here is one oddball tooth that I think is a Cretodus. It has additional lateral cusplets but they are small. It is easily the largest Cretaceous tooth in my collection.

The info that came with this tooth is as follows:

Late Cretaceous

Woodbine Formation

near Grand Prairie, Dallas County, Texas.

JD (siteseer)

I agree with a Cretodus ID. Not a lot of options for a tooth of that size. Cretoxyrhina can exceed 2" but this genus would not

appear as an option in this case.

[fossilselachian]

Here is a Cretodus tooth I bought as part of lot back in the 90's.

Late Cretaceous

Cenomanian

Bluebonnet Formation

Temple, Bell County, Texas

Very nice tooth! Great color.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

thanks again richard

name='vertman' timestamp='1308800274' post='242038']

Man, there are some really nice teeth shown in this thread. Cretodus teeth have been a nemesis of mine. I have only found a very few complete or near complete ones. I always seem to be a step slow. I remember going with Dan out to a shark tooth site a few years ago, one that I had visited probably a dozen times. Within a few minutes of our arrival he nails a nice example. Oh, well! Nice job to those of you that have successfully collected these.

[Tony Eaton]

Jess (Siteseer), thanks for citing the Schwimmer article. Elasmo cites more recent work from Cappetta that mantains the differentiation of the two species. For such giant shark teeth it is interesting how only 3 teeth are known to exist in the Santonian.

[siteseer]

Here's another recent article on Cretodus:

Tomita, T., and K. Kurihara. 2011.

First record of a large lamniform shark Cretodus semiplicatus in the Pacific region, from the Mikasa Formation (Lower Cenomanian), Hokkaido, Japan. Paleontological Research 15 (3): 181-184.

Jess (Siteseer), thanks for citing the Schwimmer article. Elasmo cites more recent work from Cappetta that mantains the differentiation of the two species. For such giant shark teeth it is interesting how only 3 teeth are known to exist in the Santonian.

[Foshunter]

Years ago I paid my one and only visit to P.O. Creek and found a couple of broken examples of Cretodus, they were broken, narley, wrinkled and twisted but they would have been large---Tom

[Boneman007]

I have a few Cretoduses, but they are hard to come by!

These puppies got big! I have a partial root of Cretodus that is as big around as my thumb. There is one side cusp and it is almost 1/2 inch tall. I would bet that somewhere there is a 4 incher running around. I suspect that this partial would have been that big.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Boneman007

[LSCHNELLE]

Monster Cretodus sp. from Eagle Ford Bouldin Flags (KefBF), Travis County, Texas, USA.  42 mm root width and 47 mm diagonal in near perfect condition on this back side. The front has started to mineralize on top of the root.  I still need to figure out if I want to clean up that side. In 2016, I previously found a smaller KefBF tooth with broken cusp/root. In 2017, my daughter and I found one in Atco 26mm x 22mm. Largest prior Kef tooth was 40mm x 32 mm Cretoxyrhina sp. 

[siteseer]

On 4/12/2011 at 4:49 PM, fossilselachian said:

Paleoc:

There may be other areas but the two I know about are:

(1)Keewatin, MN in the iron ore areas

(2)Bellingham, MN in the granite quarry areas.

A somewhat typical Cretaceous fossil shark fauna including Paranomotodon, Cretalamna, Squalicorax, Scapanorhyncus, Cretoxyrhina(?), Ptychodus, etc. are found in these sites. Many (all?) of the teeth found in the MN granite quarries is also found just across the MN

state border in SD where the granite is also mined.

I've not seen much material from MN for quite a few years. My material was obtained from a MN collector years ago.

There is a brief paper describing the shark teeth in the Keewatin area which I recall is from the Coleraine fm. However, at

the moment I can't locate the paper for a more definitive description.

hope this helps

FS

FS

 

Fossilselachian,

 

I found the paper:

 

Case, G.R.  2001.

A new selachian fauna from the Coleraine Formation (Upper Cretaceous/Cenomanian) of Minnesota.  Palaeontographica.  Abteilung A.  261. pp. 103-112.

 

You sent me the copy back around 1990.

 

With the USGS libraries virtually shut down (Menlo Park is gone) it will be tough to find a place that carries a decent run of Palaeontographica, an expensive journal to subscribe to, but those libraries that do, might have a partial run from that long ago.

 

Jess

 

 

[Untitled]

I have what looks like a Cretodus sp. from Morocco, would y'all agree with this classification?  I know they are SUPER rare in Morocco, but they do exist, and I was wondering if this is one of them.  

[Al Dente]

3 hours ago, Untitled said:

 

I have what looks like a Cretodus sp. from Morocco, would y'all agree with this classification?  I k

 

I think the phosphate deposits in Morocco are too young to have Cretodus. Is this tooth from a different deposit in Morocco?

[Untitled]

4 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

I think the phosphate deposits in Morocco are too young to have Cretodus. Is this tooth from a different deposit in Morocco?

The wholesaler who I picked this tooth up from had Serratolamna Serrata and Cretolamna Maroccana teeth with it, which are both Cretaceous species, along with the standard Cretolamna appendiculata, Serratolamna ascheroni, etc.

[Al Dente]

17 minutes ago, Untitled said:

The wholesaler who I picked this tooth up from had Serratolamna Serrata and Cretolamna Maroccana teeth with it, which are both Cretaceous species, along with the standard Cretolamna appendiculata, Serratolamna ascheroni, etc.

The teeth you just mentioned are Maastrichtian which is the oldest of the phosphate deposits. I think Cretodus went extinct before the Campanian. 

[fossilselachian]

Can't say they don't exist but have never heard of Cretodus from Morocco. Your tooth looks like an Otodus.

[Untitled]

5 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

The teeth you just mentioned are Maastrichtian which is the oldest of the phosphate deposits. I think Cretodus went extinct before the Campanian. 

What would you classify this tooth as?  It doesn't match the root structure of the Cretolamna teeth I've seen, and it doesn't look like any other species that I've encountered from Morocco

[Untitled]

http://users.telenet.be/sharkteethcollection/sharkteeth list totaal/sharkteeth list.htm

 

It says on this list of a Cretodus sp. but it doesn't give any images of them, and I can't find any pictures of the species from anywhere on the web

[ynot]

4 hours ago, Untitled said:

It says on this list of a Cretodus sp. but it doesn't give any images of them, and I can't find any pictures of the species from anywhere on the web

http://naka.na.coocan.jp/a3otodus.html Or http://elasmo.com/

[Untitled]

17 hours ago, fossilselachian said:

Can't say they don't exist but have never heard of Cretodus from Morocco. Your tooth looks like an Otodus.

12 hours ago, ynot said:

http://naka.na.coocan.jp/a3otodus.html Or http://elasmo.com

My primary reasoning for this as not being Otodus is because the root structure is much different than all otodus teeth I've seen.  The bulbous part in the center is proportionately much taller, leading sharply down to the bourlette, whereas the otodus teeth in those links, as well as in my experience, are much more rounded, flatter with a small central bulge, and less girthy, as well as much proportionately much smaller.  It is still of course possible (and also likely) to be an otodus, but it definately has a few interesting features to it.

[siteseer]

Cretodus does come from the Cenomanian of Morocco, Taouz area where the Carcharodontosaurus, Onchopristis, lungfish teeth, and hybodont spines come from.  Cretodus is rare in that deposit.  I assume the site would be near the mouth of a river where you'd get some mix of species/those with a tolerance to freshwater.

 

I think I've seen a Leptostyrax from there as well.

 

The tooth in question is not a Cretodus.  It would have vertical folds (= ridges) at the base of the crown.  It looks like a Cretalamna appendiculata first upper anterior.

[Untitled]

1 hour ago, siteseer said:

Cretodus does come from the Cenomanian of Morocco, Taouz area where the Carcharodontosaurus, Onchopristis, lungfish teeth, and hybodont spines come from.  Cretodus is rare in that deposit.  I assume the site would be near the mouth of a river where you'd get some mix of species/those with a tolerance to freshwater.

 

I think I've seen a Leptostyrax from there as well.

 

The tooth in question is not a Cretodus.  It would have vertical folds (= ridges) at the base of the crown.  It looks like a Cretalamna appendiculata first upper anterior.

Okay, thank you for clarification!

[MikaelS]

First or second upper anterior of Cretalamna ex gr. borealis.

This was, btw, the dominant Cretalamna group in the Paleocene with several undescribed species. Maastrichtian Cretalamna are poorly known (apart from C. lata).

Cretalamna appendiculata sensu stricto appears to be restricted to the Turonian of northwest Europe as far as I can tell.

[Untitled]

 

8 hours ago, MikaelS said:

First or second upper anterior of Cretalamna ex gr. borealis.

This was, btw, the dominant Cretalamna group in the Paleocene with several undescribed species. Maastrichtian Cretalamna are poorly known (apart from C. lata).

Cretalamna appendiculata sensu stricto appears to be restricted to the Turonian of northwest Europe as far as I can tell.

Thank you for this insight!  I know that Cretalamna Appendiculata used to be a waste-bucket of sorts for several similar species, but how does one identify these similar species from each other; what traits would separate this species from these other ones?  Based on Moroccan teeth alone, it seems that there are a few different 'styles' that would all likely be considered Cretalamna, but how would you classify these- as different forms of that same species, or as different ones entirely?  

[Anomotodon]

13 hours ago, MikaelS said:

First or second upper anterior of Cretalamna ex gr. borealis.

This was, btw, the dominant Cretalamna group in the Paleocene with several undescribed species. Maastrichtian Cretalamna are poorly known (apart from C. lata).

Cretalamna appendiculata sensu stricto appears to be restricted to the Turonian of northwest Europe as far as I can tell.

Dr. Siversson, what do you think about the validity of Otodus minor/Otodus obliquus var. minor occasionally mentioned in the Russian literature compared to O. obliquus and Cretalamna sp.? (e.g., Paleocene of Kazakhstan or Volgograd (see pictures below) Is it a separate species or just a mix of Cretalamna and Otodus?

EDIT: Here is one of the papers mentioning O. obliquus var. minor https://www.jstor.org/stable/1307027?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

 

 

[MikaelS]

They are poorly defined and therefore nomina dubia in my opinion. There were several large otodontids in the Danian (with anterior teeth exceeding 40 mm in height). The O. aff. obliquus teeth from the NP3 Zone of the Limhamn Quarry (middle Danian) are almost invariably preserved with the cutting edges preserved intact, indicating non-abrasive prey. This is in complete contrast to the other two.