John Hamilton Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 I recently saw a Riker display that identified some shark teeth as having been swallowed and digested and it has been nagging ever since. Is it possible to identify a fossil this way short of physically extracting it from a coprolite? :eat popcorn: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boneman007 Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 (edited) Very rarely, In the Dallas area, we find a ptychodus shark tooth that has no enamel. It looks kind of like a ptychodus shaped bone. It has been dicussed whether it is a unerupted tooth that has not formed the enamel, or whether it had been digested. I have always leaned towards digestion. This is because, when my friend Shawn Hamm was redescribing the genus Ptychodus as his masters thesis, I got to see most of the Ptychodus dentitions that have been found in the US. We were not able to find a single "unerupted" (enamel-free) tooth in any dentition. Edited March 26, 2012 by Boneman007 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hamilton Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 Very rarely, In the Dallas area, we find a ptychodus shark tooth that has no enamel. It looks kind of like a ptychodus shaped bone. It has been dicussed whether it is a unerupted tooth that has not formed the enamel, or whether it had been digested. I have always leaned towards digestion. This is because, when my friend Shawn Hamm was redescribing the genus Ptychodus as his masters thesis, I got to see most of the Ptychodus dentitions that have been found in the US. We were not able to find a single "unerupted" (enamel-free) tooth in any dentition. Your response seems like it would be a valid explanation but the teeth (makos and GWs) I saw still had the enamel on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Here's a previous discussion on this topic: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/18086-shark-tooth-composition-digested-teeth/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexx Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 How about recent sharks then? Has that been observed there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hamilton Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 Here's a previous discussion on this topic: http://www.thefossil...digested-teeth/ Thanks for the link. I didn't even think of searching for an old conversation prior to posting my question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boneman007 Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Sounds like my happy little enamel free ptychoduses may have been digested after all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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