An Interesting Question On Shark Size.

[Gray Ghost 27]

I've heard that you can take a sharks tooth and measure from the tip to a corner root and for every inch the sharks would be 8 to 10 foot shark. I also have a book that shows if you measure from the tip up through the middle and where the horizontial line hits the enamel at the side (in cm) and multiply by 3.63 cm equals the length in feet that the shark is. And after looking at pictures of shark jaws with front teeth being longer than the back teeth, it depends on what part of the mouth the tooth came from. So it the tooth came from the back of the mouth it wouldn't give you the correct size of the shark.

Some people are saying soooooo. I was just thinking out loud. Seems like a logical question to me. And I really don't care just as long as I can go back down to the beach and find some more.

[DeloiVarden]

There has been a lot of dabate and many formulas proposed regarding approximating a sharks size from its teeth. Most do say close to 10 feet per inch. You make a good point regarding trying to approximate the size of a shark from just one tooth, which may not even be one of the bigger teeth in the mouth. But you can say that the shark was at least that big or more. However, some folks are pretty good at identifying the tooth location from the shape of the tooth and therefore can approximate the size of the bigger teeth in the jaw. For example, a 4" posterior tooth could mean a jaw containing 5 1/2 to 6" teeth toward the front. But the safest estimate is to say that the shark was likely at least 35 to 40'.

Edited December 15, 2011 by DeloiVarden

[Northern Sharks]

The formulas are based on anterior teeth and as far as I know do not apply to all species. As they were the largest and most often debated, I've only heard the formula applied to megalodon teeth, based on similar results from modern great whites.