Cretodus sp., Kef-Kau Transition

compared to the Cretodus that came before this in your album, I see a lot of differences. I wonder if the the early Coniacian has two species...

@Jared C I agree that the other Cretodus is pretty different. It actually took me a long time to settle on the genus because it stands out from most of my other Kau/Kef Cretodus specimens especially in terms of root morphology. It seems reminiscent of C. semiplicatus from the Cenomanian, but also shares many characteristics with the co-occurring teeth, so it's hard to make sense of it all. I think at the end of the day, this tooth is from the upper jaw and the previous tooth is from the lower of the same species.

There were definitely two species as the very least, given that C. crassidens and C. houghtonorum lived together!

Beyond those species, Cretodus, I think, could be the taxonomically messiest large Cretaceous shark genus in TX. Shimada did some good work separating them into 3 grades, but I have some hesitancy on the validity of those categorizations...

All I can say for sure is that all of these Cretodus teeth have the strongest affinities with C. houghtonorum, but I doubt they are the same species!