Megalodon Compound Fracture

[UtahBob]

I picked up this Megalodon broken tooth at a show a week ago from a tooth vendor who dives and hunts the shores in SC and MD, etc. It's 169 grams and 4 inches wide at the root which means it's probably a 5 maybe 5.5 inch tooth with a diagonal measurement?

This is the first Megalodon tooth that I've acquired although I've found some small teeth in Florida decades ago on the west coast. I also picked up some Isurus from that same vendor.

I've never had an interest in Megalodon teeth, maybe because of the price, but I though this one was interesting enough at $10. I like the color and both edges with serration's visible are there. Cheap enough that if it walks off your desk it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world but a good conversation piece nevertheless.

I spoke to the vendor and he indicated that this was a compound fracture. I searched around on the web but couldn't figure out how you would recognize a fracture that occurred while in the shark's jaw, before fossilization, or after fossilization. Does this have characteristics of having broken during the shark's life?

Thanks everyone!

[snolly50]

I am not sure what the seller meant by "compound fracture." As you know in medicine the term refers to a bone break with attendant opening of the skin.

Perhaps the seller merely meant "compound" in the sense of more than one break in the tooth???

I am ignorant as to how this would relate to pre or post-mortem damage.

In bone, scarring, signs of healing demonstrate that the animal lived on past the trauma. No such phenomenon would be observable with teeth.

[Auspex]

That sounds like 'dealer-speak' to me. About all that can be said based on the evidence is that it is broken.

An impressive paper weight nonetheless!

[fossilselachian]

A broken tooth - nothing more, nothing less.

[UtahBob]

Thanks everyone,

I forgot to check the box to follow on this topic so I'm a bit late responding. Seems like everyone jumped on it very quickly. Trying out multiquote also and we'll see how that goes. I managed to lose my last post somehow but here is a second go at it.

I'm not sure what the dealer meant when he said compound but I will have to ask him in a few weeks if I meet up with him again. We were behind schedule and just kind of rambling on the various specimens we were looking at on the table. After looking at some pics of teeth and sharks, I kind of take that term to possibly refer to a tooth broken above the gum line. I don't know where the gum line would have been on this bad boy but maybe below or at the 'bourrelet'. There's a new word for the spelling bee.

Since the teeth just fall out, it makes sense that you wouldn't have healing and wouldn't know when the tooth was damaged.

Even though it is broken, I like it very much.

[MarqusandDad]

Wow that is really cool you can see the different internal layers of the tooth and does give the appearance of being broken during use because of the angles of the enamel and how it is removed from the internal structure.