Sharks Pg 15

What a treat to document this educational feast, to be able to share with others. Dr. Hubbell has perhaps the largest and best preserved collection of rare shark jaws and rare fossil shark teeth, and associated teeth, in the world.

Assorted shark jaws, a phenomenal collection:

INTERESTING SHARK TOOTH FACTS,

COMPARISON TEETH, DEFORMED TEETH

How big do shark teeth get? Here is a 7-1/4" specimen that is among the largest known:

Shapes of different species of shark teeth: Shortfin & longfin mako, great white, Six gill, tiger, blue, sand tiger, lemon, great hammerhead, spotted Wobbegong, megamouth, bigeye thresher, bull, bigeye sand tiger, and Greenland sharks

Natural colors of fossilized shark teeth, depending on the minerals in the soil where they fossilize:

A shark's teeth are not attached with roots into sockets. They are only attached to the gums, and move forward as the front row teeth fall out. By the time this shark is 25 years old, it will have shed 20,000 or more teeth:

Fossil shark teeth from different countries:

Germany, Italy, Japan, Mariana Trench, New Caledonia, Australia, Indonesia, Malta, Morocco, France, Belgium

Panama, Peru, Chile, Argentina:

United States: VA, MD, NC, CA, FL, GA, SC:

Fossil shark teeth of Florida:

Comparison of Teeth:

PHOTO 1:T-Rex, elephant tusk, whale, antelope, chimpanzee, seal, bison, sloth, pig

PHOTO 2: Spinosaurus, Saber tooth cat, rattlesnake, bobcat, rodent, crocodile, alligator

Top row, normal shark teeth. Subsequent rows, various deformities:

Other tooth deformities:

GREAT WHITE SHARK & FOSSIL GREAT WHITE

Perfect great white shark teeth & mouth placement:

Deformed great white shark teeth:

Two magnificent great white shark jaws. The smaller is from a 16 foot male caught in Key Largo. The larger is from an 18'2" female caught near Bunbury Esperance on 7/1/91, Australia (jaw measures 32" wide x 28" tall

1987, California, Craig Rogers was on his surfboard when it was it was bitten by a great white shark that left two teeth behind:

ASSOCIATED GREAT WHITE SHARK JAW IN MATRIX

Dr. Hubbell found the only complete fossilized skull of a great white shark ever recovered (5 million year old Carcharodon carcharias), found in Sacaco Peru in 1988. Note the attached vertebrae. Photo with Dr. Hubbell (left) and Glenn (right).

Part of an associated set of fossilized great white shark teeth also found in Sacaco Peru

Modern and fossil great white shark vertebrae comparison:

Carcharocles Poseidoni, in original matrix, from Kazakhstan, the only known of its kind

MEGALODON SHARK & Chubutensis

Carcharocles (Carcharodon) Megalodon

Megatoothed shark grew to 60 feet long, and lived from 15 million to 2 million years ago. Teeth grew to 7" long. This is the most complete set of megalodon teeth every found. These are casts made from the originals.

Early Miocene Megtatooth Shark (Carcharocles chubutensis) found on the West bank of the Ica River, Peru in 1993

EXTINCT MACKEREL SHARK

Otodus obliquus

This large Lamniform shark grew to 40 feet. There are 146 teeth fully or nearly developed, 40 embryonic. Most were contained in 3 pieces of matrix, the largest piece with 64 teeth. Khourigba, Morocco.

June 2005

Associated teeth from this large fish-eating shark that lived 50 million years ago, it grew to 40 feet long.

110 teeth, 34 vertebrae. Collected in the Atlas Mountains Phosphate Pits near Khourigba, Morocco, July 2004

This set of 95 teeth comes from a shark that lived in our oceans 50 million years ago. These associated sets of shark teeth are extremely rare and very important to scientific study. They are the key to a better understanding of fossil sharks and shark evolution.

Associated 180 Echinorhinus shark teeth, an extinct Bramble shark, from Northern Chile, the only associated set known

Vertebrae that are associated with one of the Fossil Mackerel Shark (Moroccan Otodus obliquus) tooth sets above, still in protective plaster, under Dr. Hubbell's display table:

MAKO SHARK

Miocene Mako, Isurus hastalis

This large Lamniform shark grew to 28' and was the precursor to the modern Great white shark. 165 teeth in this associated set, one of the most complete ever found (near Sacaco Peru)

OTHER WEIRD SHARKS

Megamouth Shark. The only known set of associated teeth from this rare Miocene shark, found in Copiapo, Chile (5 million years old)

Basking Shark - Cetorhinus maximus, 2nd largest living shark species that grows up to 30' long, eats plankton, has 1200 teeth in its jaw, caught off the coast of Mexico:

Whale shark jaw

Rhincodon typus, largest living shark, up to 47 feet long, eats plankton, jaw has 5000 teeth. This is from a 10' juvenile

(Tiny) whale shark teeth under a magnifying glass:

Eocene Sand Tiger associated vertebrae

Jaekelotodus trigonalis

Found in Western Kazakhstan

Frilled shark jaw

Chlamydoselachus anguincus

New Zealand

Nursehound shark

Scyliorhinus stellaris

Whiskery shark

Furgaleus macki

Pencil shark

Hypogaleus hyogaensis, Australia

Gummy shark

Mustelus antarticus, Australia

Roughskin spurdog shark

squalus asper

Australian Swellshark

Cephaloscyllium laticeps

Kitefin shark

Leopard shark

Triakis semifasciata

Plunket shark

Centrasayminus plunketi

Centropheass Niauvang

Cookie cutter shark

Isistius brasiliensis

New Zealand Lantern shark

Etmopterus baxteri

Birdbeak dogfish shark

Deania calcea

Cretaceous Sawshark

Sawshark mount

Bigeye Sand tiger

Goblin shark jaw

(still a favorite of Heidi's)

Smaltooth sand tiger shark teeth

(Odontaspis ferox)

Fossil blind shark teeth

(Brachaelarus species)

Whorl-toothed shark (Helicoprion bessonowi) found in Russia and in the Western U.S. but no other part of the jaw or shark has ever been found, so they do not know how it fits into the jaw

Snaggletooth (Hemipristis serra) modern & Miocene fossil associated shark teeth. Fossil shark grew to 16 feet, modern counterpart grows to half that length. Fossil teeth found near Ica, Peru

Edestus Heinrichi

300 million years old, Pennsylvania.

This is 9 teeth in one section:

Xenacanthus texensis shark teeth (Oklahoma)

Crusher-toothed shark (pychodus mortoni), upper teeth

Lane County, Kansas, 90 million years old

Cladont Shark

Cladoselache fyleri, Devonian shark, Ohio

Fossil shark tooth in matrix

Petalodus alleghenensis, Elkville IL

Teeth in matrix

Petalodus species, Coleman TX, and

Paleozoic Sharks:

Symmorium sp (Indiana) and

Fossil Symmorid shark (Kentucky)

Fossil shark tooth in matrix,

Orodus sp. , (Indiana)

Shark tooth in matrix.

Ctenoptychius Species. From the Coleman Clay pit, Coleman TX. 345 million years old.

Crusher-toothed shark (upper teeth)

Ptychodus mortoni, Niobrara Formation, Smoky Hill Member, Upper Cretaceous (90 million years old), from Lane County, Kansas

Gordon completed a model of the Winghead Shark, Eusphyra blochii

This species of hammerhead shark has the widest head of any shark, equaling 50% of the length of the shark. Found throughout the South Pacific and Indian Ocean

Small Megamouth shark skull being prepped by Gordon

Update from Gordon 8/11/11 -I haven't done a whole lot of prep work on it. According to Jose Castro the jaw is from a male. He based this on the size of the teeth. I would guess that it is from a fairly large specimen - in the neighborhood of 15 feet total length. It was caught in the southern Philippines in March of 2009.

Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Associated fossil teeth. This large predatory shark grew to 20+ feet. An adult specimen, 110 teeth and a few pieces of cartilage

(Kansas) May 2006