Fish Teeth

[Mike from North Queensland]

I sieve a fair amount of matrix to extend my fossicking
trips and as such get a lot of small fish teeth. Most teeth are broken off from
the jaw but some are still attached. The material I collect is Albian in age
and I get the occasional tooth that has a root. My question is are these going
to still be fish as I was under the impression that fish teeth were part of the
jaw and not in sockets or does this vary on the species.

Mike

[mako-mama]

Fish teeth are in sockets--all that I know of anyway. In many fish, there is a thick layer of cartilage-like material in the root socket surrounding the tooth root. As it decays, the teeth fall out, retaining the root. But some fish teeth have fairly soft roots and dont hold up to the fossilization process very well.