TOOTH PROFILE / LIVING

Basking sharktooth identification

Very small, smooth, curved teeth with variable hooked or conical crowns.

LivingCetorhinus maximusLiving; fossil teeth occur
FIELD VERDICT

Very small, smooth, curved teeth with variable hooked or conical crowns.

Minute basking-shark teeth are variable and easily confused with other small fossil shark teeth.

01

ORIGINAL VISUAL PLATE

Front, edge and jaw position.

FRONT / LABIAL VIEWEDGE / PROFILESMOOTH EDGEPOSITION CHANGES SHAPE● ANTERIOR● LATERALTUFFSHARK ORIGINAL TOOTH PLATEDIAGRAMMATIC · NOT TO SCALE
Original TuffShark vector illustration. Trait emphasis is diagrammatic; it is not a specimen photograph or a substitute for an associated jaw.
02

IDENTIFICATION TRAITS

What to inspect.

Crown shape
Hooked blade or Several cusps
Cutting edge
Smooth edge
Side cusplets
No side cusplets
Root
Wide / nearly flat root
Reference tooth height
About 2–7 mm, depending on age and jaw position
Jaw variation
Numerous minute curved teeth vary along the jaw.
03

ECOLOGY + SCALE

The shark behind the tooth.

Habitat
Temperate and cool coastal and offshore waters.
Diet
Zooplankton captured by ram filter feeding.
Estimated shark size
Commonly 6–8 m (20–26 ft); exceptional animals may be larger.
Bite force
Not established and not ecologically central to filter feeding.
Fossil occurrence
Small teeth and gill-raker remains occur in Cenozoic deposits.
Time range
Living; fossil teeth occur
04

FUNCTION

Form follows feeding.

Like the whale shark, the basking shark filters plankton and does not rely on its teeth for cutting large prey.

05

LOOKALIKES

Do not stop at the first match.

LivingWhale sharkMinute, simple, backward-curving teeth arranged in hundreds of rows—tiny relative to the shark.Compare visual profile →LivingMegamouth sharkTiny, strongly curved hook-like teeth with a broad base, repeated in many rows.Compare visual profile →
06

DIRECT COMPARISONS

Put it beside its closest rival.

TOOTH VS TOOTHWhale shark versus Basking sharkOpen comparison →
AUTHORITATIVE REFERENCE

NOAA Fisheries

The visual plate is original TuffShark artwork and is not copied from the reference. Use the source alongside formation age, locality and associated material.

Open source ↗
HAVE A TOOTH TO CHECK?

Put these traits into the identification flow.

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