Isurus retroflexus from Bakersfield? Stumped..

[dinoshark]

hey folks, happy 4th to those of us here in the states.

 

i had recently gone back to the ernst quarries in bakersfield, ca, and found a good haul of shark teeth. but there is one of them that's sort of throwing me out for a loop, but hopefully a heavyweight here on the forum can knock this id out of the park. 

 

this tooth looks to me like a lower tooth, but what's preventing me from saying hastalis is how broad, vertically-proportional and short the blade is. the tooth is also quite flat. could this be an isurus retroflexus? it's like a pretty balanced triangle of a tooth. the size of the tooth along the longest side(s) is 0.75 inches, or 3/4". do correct me if im wrong and it is indeed a hastalis, though would appreciate a tooth location id for reference if possible!

 

thanks guys, hope to hear some thoughts.

 

 

 

[Fin Lover]

Can you take a close-up picture of the labial side?  A defining characteristic of retroflexus is on the labial side.

 

Edited July 4 by Fin Lover
Grammer

[dinoshark]

4 hours ago, Fin Lover said:

Can you take a close-up picture of the labial side?  A defining characteristic of retroflexus is on the labial side.

 

 

sure thing! thank you. i also added some angle views of the tooth to the best of my abilities - hope it helps.

 

[dinoshark]

guess it's not quite as flat as i recalled...  quite a curve turning lingually

[Fin Lover]

Looks like a retroflexus to me

[Fin Lover]

It's not always this pronounced, but retroflexus have an enamel "ledge" or "shelf" on the labial side where the root and crown come together.

[dinoshark]

9 minutes ago, Fin Lover said:

It's not always this pronounced, but retroflexus have an enamel "ledge" or "shelf" on the labial side where the root and crown come together.

 

awesome! thank you for the id and insights. yes, i notice there is a small upward curve between the middle of the crown and root of the labial side, like a subtle 'smile', if i'm interpreting the ledge correctly.

 

by the way, that's a gorgeous tooth - how do you preserve the colors on teeth like that to prevent bleaching or loss of color over time? 

[Fin Lover]

Don't know, I haven't been doing this long enough.    I used Paraloid B72 on the root and I keep it in a riker mount away from direct sunlight.  Hopefully, that's sufficient.

[dinoshark]

3 minutes ago, Fin Lover said:

Don't know, I haven't been doing this long enough.    I used Paraloid B72 on the root and I keep it in a riker mount away from direct sunlight.  Hopefully, that's sufficient.

 

ooh, i'll give paraloid a try - thanks for the tip! right now i'm on elmer's glue with water mixture as a stabilizer for the root and nothing on the crown.. these guys are like vampires, so sensitive to the sun haha 

 

 

[siteseer]

I don't think that's a retroflexus.  The thing I always focus on is whether the crown looks unusually flattened.

 

I'm not sure I've ever seen a retroflexus from STH although I think Marcel or Bob Ernst found one.

Edited July 24 by siteseer

[Fin Lover]

8 minutes ago, siteseer said:

The thing I always focus on is whether the crown looks unusually flattened.

"Flattened" as in thin?  Or straight?  

[siteseer]

On 7/23/2024 at 11:22 PM, Fin Lover said:

"Flattened" as in thin?  Or straight?  

 

Flattened as in a smaller measurement from the lingual face to the lingual face.  The term scientists use is "labiolingually compressed" when they refer to the flatness of a crown rather than referring to the slenderness of a crown which is a mesial edge to distal edge measurement.