Sharks Tooth

[GuyF]

Hi everyone,
When I was very young I found this tooth on a beach somewhere in Hampshire (forgotton where now!). It looks pretty formidable, each square on the paper is 8mm by 8mm (each small line is 2mm) so that makes the tooth 34mm in height, so the shark that lost it must've been pretty large! Plus the tip is chipped off so it must've been larger (and sharper!) when it was in good condition.

I expect that if I wanted to find out which species it came from, or how old it is, I'd have to take it to a museum, but has anyone here got any ideas?
Thanks,
Guy

[Lance Morgan]

Originally Posted by GuyF

Hi everyone,
When I was very young I found this tooth on a beach somewhere in Hampshire (forgotton where now!). It looks pretty formidable, each square on the paper is 8mm by 8mm (each small line is 2mm) so that makes the tooth 34mm in height, so the shark that lost it must've been pretty large! Plus the tip is chipped off so it must've been larger (and sharper!) when it was in good condition.

I expect that if I wanted to find out which species it came from, or how old it is, I'd have to take it to a museum, but has anyone here got any ideas?
Thanks,
Guy

certainly a fossil shark's tooth of some sort. There were so many of them from cretacious period it would need an expert. I don't think we have megalodon teeth occurring here, but i could be wrong.

[GuyF]

Thanks for that info Lance, I hadn't realised that it is so old! I will try and do a bit more research, and if I'm ever near the Natural History Museum I will give them a try!
Thanks again,
Guy

[Ukwildlifeo]

That looks like some of the fossils teeth I collected from Walton Naze in Essex, while doing my dissertation - the layers from which they orginate is of a similar age to alot of the hampshire coast (Eocene). I believe I identified them as Isurus which include the Mako sharks today. But Im not expert so they could be the teeth from further back in the jaw of Carcharius of Stratiolamia macrota both types of sand tiger sharks. To be honest I dont think the identifications were upto much in my disseration but Im confident yours is of one of those three, and definately one of the laminid sharks

Theres pictures and details on sharks teeth this site elasmo.com

[Wild-Woman]

Nice one. A good place for sharks teeth is in the gault clay at Folkestone. Not as big as your sharks tooth, they're usually quite tiny but easy to get out with some careful scrapping.It's also a good spot for Belemnites and very tiny Ammonites.

[demicav]

That was a nice find, it certainly looks very old.

[GuyF]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

That looks like some of the fossils teeth I collected from Walton Naze in Essex, while doing my dissertation - the layers from which they orginate is of a similar age to alot of the hampshire coast (Eocene). I believe I identified them as Isurus which include the Mako sharks today. But Im not expert so they could be the teeth from further back in the jaw of Carcharius of Stratiolamia macrota both types of sand tiger sharks. To be honest I dont think the identifications were upto much in my disseration but Im confident yours is of one of those three, and definately one of the laminid sharks

Theres pictures and details on sharks teeth this site elasmo.com

Thanks very much for that information, it's all very interesting, and that website looks good too. I tried googling some of your suggestions and the teeth look very similar to mine.
And thanks for the replies WW and Demicav, I haven't been fossil hunting for a while now, I should try and do it more often!
Thanks,
Guy