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Post by amygdule on Mar 5, 2022 22:22:38 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Does anyone around here know fossil shark teeth ? RickB I found this piece in the beach gravel yesterday. I think it is a shark tooth. It's hard and heavy like a rock, maybe agatized. Size of the fragment is 1.25" wide x 2" long. Shark teeth aren't very common around here. The local bedrock is the Nye Mudstone which is up to 20 million years old. Can anybody guesstimate how big the whole tooth was. Thank you
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Post by jasoninsd on Mar 5, 2022 22:33:30 GMT -5
Nice find 'Dule! To me, it looks like a Megalodon tooth fragment...
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Post by amygdule on Mar 5, 2022 23:47:19 GMT -5
Nice find 'Dule! To me, it looks like a Megalodon tooth fragment... That's what I was thinking Jason. I don't know anything about shark teeth. I have only seen pictures of them. When I first saw it, I thought it was just another bone fragment, which is common around here. I found several today. They're having a fossil exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium right now. I will have to go check that out this week. Fossilman aquarium.org/exhibits/cruisin-the-fossil-coastline/
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Post by jasoninsd on Mar 5, 2022 23:56:50 GMT -5
Nice find 'Dule! To me, it looks like a Megalodon tooth fragment... That's what I was thinking Jason. I don't know anything about shark teeth. I have only seen pictures of them. When I first saw it, I thought it was just another bone fragment, which is common around here. I found several today. They're having a fossil exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium right now. I will have to go check that out this week. fossilman aquarium.org/exhibits/cruisin-the-fossil-coastline/I went to that website...that would be a really awesome experience! I like how they promote "beach cleanups"... I know jamesp was doing some shark tooth hunting...so I don't know if he might have an opinion. The reason I said it looked like Megalodon is due to the size of the fragment...and the reason I think it's a tooth is due to those lengthwise striations. I remember seeing a Discovery special where they were showing the comparison between Great Whites and Megalodon teeth. I think you just have the "tip" off the tooth as they can reach 7"!
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 6, 2022 0:19:13 GMT -5
Definitely looks like part of a shark tooth from the Carcharodon genus, most likely megladon. Could also be plicatilis or hastalis, but there is not enough of the tooth to give an exact ID on the species.
I am a shark fanatic and have been researching them for 46 years having wanted to be a marine biologist most of my life, and I wanted to specialize in shark research. Ended up in a career of medicine instead due to the Navy cutting all shark research funding, which was about 95% of the jobs in the field, just as I was getting out of high school. Continued my studies though on sharks.
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Post by amygdule on Mar 6, 2022 1:41:50 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies jasoninsd vegasjames Beach Cleanup is a big deal around here, especially after storms. Hopefully the fossil exhibit will have some specimens that are worth taking pictures of. I found an article in the "Ore Bin" from 1972 that has a report on the "Fossil sharks in Oregon" www.oregongeology.org/pubs/og/OBv34n10.pdf
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 6, 2022 1:57:14 GMT -5
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Post by amygdule on Mar 6, 2022 8:16:40 GMT -5
I saw that post when I was searching the internet. That would be a very exciting find. Years ago when I was hounding north of Newport, OR, there was some beach that was stripped of sand, exposing a large area of the Astoria Formation. I found a shark vertebrae exposed in the bedrock. Unfortunately, it was split in half and came out in 2 pieces when I dug it out. It is about 4" in diameter. From what I have read, that would have come from a shark at least 20' long.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 6, 2022 9:17:19 GMT -5
Nice find amygdule. Looks like a meg but hard to say as James mentioned. Most Great White teeth are under 2.25", but can go to 3". 2.5" is rarely found, 1.5" to 2" is average size. This fellow is selling some 2"+ whites and they bring a pretty penny even in fair shape.(overpriced) And this may not mean anything but Megs usually have a rounded tip and whites are sharp tipped. jtssharksteeth.com/fossilgreatwhite/This guy has a nice ID chart for your future finds. Bet you find more. I'll bore you guys with another short story lol. I found these snorkeling downstream in 6' of cold fast flowing water at Juniper Springs Florida. A 6 mile public canoe trip. A week later a 17 year old girl from my neighborhood got killed a quarter mile from this site when she got out of the canoe to relieve herself a 100 feet from a gator nest back on the floodplain. Very sad. Always be aware of nests in late summer. Mother gators protecting their nests are psycho. Two whites at upper left, a few smaller ones across the top. The short fin Makos and tigers are easy to ID. Included are sandbar, hammerhead, lemon, bull, etc. Most of these sharks still around. Bulls are the most violent, then Tigers. Makos the fastest. No need for a dentist, they grow new teeth regularly. Up to 20,000 teeth in a lifetime.
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Post by amygdule on Mar 6, 2022 10:53:13 GMT -5
That's a nice collection of teeth jamesp . Are they from the Ocala limestone ? After checking out a geologic map, I see the there is also the Hawthorne Formation and the Citronelle Formation in the area.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 6, 2022 11:57:26 GMT -5
That's a nice collection of teeth jamesp . Are they from the Ocala limestone ? After checking out a geologic map, I see the there is also the Hawthorne Formation and the Citronelle Formation in the area. The way fossil hunting in Florida works is all about sand removal. Remove the sand from the limestone bedrock and you will find a layer of fossils about anywhere in Florida. It can be as simple as tree fall in a stream causing a down flow of water current that scallops the sand off the limestone bottom of a creek can be all it takes. Fast flowing creeks and rivers removing the sand layer are similar situations exposing the fossil layer. Or an acidic river dissolved a canyon thru the lime bedrock and left all the fossils sitting upon the bedrock down in the river. Plus the older fossils that were dissolved out of the older limestone. Divers score big in this case. Surface collectors can collect off the original limestone 'shelf' up higher on the river bank. If there is a depression in the limestone the fossils(solids)can be piled deep up there. Over the years the ancient storms and other currents had moved the fine sand back and forth allowing the solids to settle on the older limestone bedrock. However the sand layer can be 1" to 600 feet deep. When drilling a well fossils arise out with the well borings as the drill is hitting the limestone bedrock at great sand depths. The limestone bedrock was formed by settlements of a much older ocean(and/or older oceans plural). I believe the bedrock it is Ocala limestone but it may not be that simple. It has caverns, some with artesian flows, these flows bring older fossils to the surface as they were dissolved out by the acidic water flows in the old limestone. Juniper Springs run has many artesian up flows(as most of the spring runs do) in the 20 to 50 foot wide creek that flows out of it. They often blow sand away from the solids in the creek bottom exposing old to ice age fossils. These blow outs move around exiting 20 feet this way or 20 feet that way exposing new fossil deposits. These spring breaches that clear the sand away are fossil gold mines. Let me get back on which limestone bedrock is in central Florida, I believe you are right about it being the Ocala aquifer.
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 6, 2022 20:11:19 GMT -5
I saw that post when I was searching the internet. That would be a very exciting find. Years ago when I was hounding north of Newport, OR, there was some beach that was stripped of sand, exposing a large area of the Astoria Formation. I found a shark vertebrae exposed in the bedrock. Unfortunately, it was split in half and came out in 2 pieces when I dug it out. It is about 4" in diameter. From what I have read, that would have come from a shark at least 20' long. Are you sure it was shark? Sharks do not contain bony skeletons. Sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras all have cartilaginous skeletons, which is why they are not considered true fish. And from I recall cartilage does not fossilize. May have been vertebrae from something like a dolphin or whale.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Mar 6, 2022 20:28:08 GMT -5
That's a pretty cool find if it is a tooth. And it certainly looks like it is.
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Post by liveoak on Mar 7, 2022 7:14:44 GMT -5
When we had our well drilled ( 280 feet deep) a couple of years ago,here in NW Florida, they hit what we described as a fossilized coral reef, as everything coming up out of the well drilling pipe was filled with ancient fossils.
In fact one large one got stuck in their pump that they had to shut the drilling down to remove it.
We got a nice collection @ $7000 :-(
Patty
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Post by amygdule on Mar 7, 2022 10:57:30 GMT -5
Are you sure it was shark? Sharks do not contain bony skeletons. Sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras all have cartilaginous skeletons, which is why they are not considered true fish. And from I recall cartilage does not fossilize. May have been vertebrae from something like a dolphin or whale. I'm not 100% sure it's from a shark. I've never shown it to a paleontologist. I'm reasonably sure it's not from any marine mammals. The area where I found it produces a lot of bone fossils and the vert that I found is totally different. It doesn't have any cellular structure like you see in mammal bones. It looks like fossil cartilage. I need to dig through my collection to see if I can find it. There are many references to fossil shark vertebrae on the internet. From what I've read, teeth and vertebrae are about the only fossils recovered from sharks. Here's a video from Youtube showing the prep of some shark vertebrae. Mine is about the same size.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 7, 2022 11:12:15 GMT -5
vegasjames amygduleDitchwalker finds shark V when arrowhead hunting in N. MS. Not sure the fossilization process. This is in north Mississippi. They are also found in N. Alabama and SW Tennessee. Most finds here are older than much of Florida. Fossil shark vertebrae in Florida are not common as far as I know. Vertebrae found in first seconds of video.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 7, 2022 11:18:06 GMT -5
When we had our well drilled ( 280 feet deep) a couple of years ago,here in NW Florida, they hit what we described as a fossilized coral reef, as everything coming up out of the well drilling pipe was filled with ancient fossils.
In fact one large one got stuck in their pump that they had to shut the drilling down to remove it.
We got a nice collection @ $7000 :-( Patty
The two wells I had drilled on west side of Lake George brought shark's teeth up Patty. One hit limestone at 125', the other at 220'. Silicified coral is rare around Ocala to Salt Springs. If near the Suwannee River expect silicified coral.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 7, 2022 11:25:08 GMT -5
That's a nice collection of teeth jamesp . Are they from the Ocala limestone ? After checking out a geologic map, I see the there is also the Hawthorne Formation and the Citronelle Formation in the area. I had to look up the formation amygdule. Florida ain't geologically simple ! note Ocala formation exposed to west(blue To). Is it possible that the Ocala limestone was just below the formations listed below ?(I don't do geological maps well) Juniper Springs flows thru these. My cousin and I found mammoth tusk sections 6" dia. at a spring boil on bottom of run when we were kids.: Miocene - Thc - Hawthorne, Coosawatchee formation Pliocene/Holocene - Qdb - Beach Ridge and Dune Tertiary Pliocene - Tc - Cypresshead formation see circled area, my camp of 20 years was 6 miles north:
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Post by rmf on Mar 8, 2022 4:30:30 GMT -5
amygdule The images that jamesp supplied have some good examples of carcharodon teeth. What the paleontologist do to estimate the length is look at the ratio of the tooth fragment like yours and draw in the tip. Then use the ratio of length to width from a complete tooth to compare your fragment. Yours is probably in the 4" to 6" range but that will not be certain since you have no root to constrain the width. This is a nice tooth fragment. Good find.
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 15, 2022 13:43:21 GMT -5
Nice broken tooth .. I have a few in my collection, some broke, some whole... Yours is a keeper...
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