Otodus Obliquus Vertebrae

[smokeriderdon]

I do believe Ron found all of those teeth pictured. He Found a partial tooth on a trip there he and I took that could likely have been at least as big as the largest one there.

Haizhan, you are making me want to get back out there and soon. LOL

[Paleoc]

From the associated Moroccan blocks with both centrums and teeth I have seen (I have a couple myself with a couple of teeth and a couple of verts), the diameter of the centrums is about the same size as the full slant length of the largest tooth. Two reasons they are probably more common in Morocco. Preservation is better and they were fully grown adult sharks with age mortality. In the Potomac, they are juveniles with the rare subadult, so no age mortality. .

[Haizahnjager]

Thanks for the response Paleoc! smokeriderdon, maybe I'll see you on the Potomac soon

-HZJ

[smokeriderdon]

Paleoc, is the age difference in the sharks related to deep water vs shallow or something along those lines? Can't remember offhand, but is the Potomac stuff shallower water?

[Paleoc]

The shoreline at the Potomac was probably no more than 5 miles away (maybe even closer). The fact that there are no Paleocene deposits west of I-95/I-395 and large amount of plant material in the formation indicates that. Combine that with the low slope of the formation and nearby terrain all point to relatively shallow water. Small juvenile sharks usually stay closer to shore to prevent being eaten by big adult sharks.

[smokeriderdon]

And I am guessing the exact opposite of that is true for Morocco.

[fossil26]

Interesting post...I was wondering about tooth size to centrum size. We found forty associated shark verts in the Round mountain silt Sharktooth Hill area in Bakersfield, California ranging in size from 2 to 2 1/2". There were some Isurus Hastalis teeth next to them around 2 1/2" as well. This is one of 2 jackets and is now on display at the Buena Vista Museum in Bakersfield.