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Unid. Florida Shark Teeth


Harry Pristis

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Here is a pic of four (two anterior, two lateral) lamniform shark teeth out of the Late Eocene Ocala Group Limestone (ca. 39 Ma). What should I label these?

They are currently labeled Cretolamna twiggsensis, after similar teeth from the Twiggs site in Georgia. I'm not sure that I could find the paper now.

In THE FOSSIL VERTEBRATES OF FLORIDA by Hulbert (Ed.), these are identified as juvenile Otodus obliquus teeth. Hulbert is no dummy, but I'm having a difficult time accepting that ID. If these are juveniles, where are the adults? I have yet to see a larger one of these teeth from Florida.

The notion that these teeth are Otodus is not a new one at the Florida State Museum. I have a 1969 UF Master's thesis by Norm Tessman in which these teeth are identified as Otodus obliquus, though the taxonomy is not discussed.

So, anyone here know what the current ID for these teeth is?

--------Harry Pristis

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http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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Again, nice teeth Harry. I'm going to put my vote in for Serratolamna (formerly Carcharias) Koerti. Elasmo states that Lamna Twiggsensis is identical and is just a junior synonym.

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Again, nice teeth Harry. I'm going to put my vote in for Serratolamna (formerly Carcharias) Koerti. Elasmo states that Lamna Twiggsensis is identical and is just a junior synonym.

That's great! Thanks for pointing me to Serratolamna. I spent some time on elasmo, but never got to that genus.

These teeth are not rare in Florida, and I am surprised that they are not better represented in the non-technical or collector publications about fossils in Florida.

-------Harry Pristis

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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