Small tooth with a central cusp flanked by several smaller cusplets on a broad base.
Small teeth are easily damaged or mismeasured; a close macro photograph is especially important.
01
ORIGINAL VISUAL PLATE
Front, edge and jaw position.
02
IDENTIFICATION TRAITS
What to inspect.
- Crown shape
- Several cusps or Flat / crushing
- Cutting edge
- Smooth edge
- Side cusplets
- Several smaller cusps
- Root
- Wide / nearly flat root
- Reference tooth height
- About 3–14 mm, depending on age and jaw position
- Jaw variation
- Similar small multi-cusped teeth occur in both jaws and form gripping-crushing rows.
03
ECOLOGY + SCALE
The shark behind the tooth.
- Habitat
- Warm shallow reefs, ledges, seagrass and sandy bottoms.
- Diet
- Crustaceans, mollusks, fishes and rays taken by suction.
- Estimated shark size
- Commonly 2.2–3 m (7–10 ft).
- Bite force
- No reliable species-specific value is established; bite force changes with body size and bite point.
- Fossil occurrence
- Fossil teeth are reported, but isolated teeth may only be identifiable to genus or family.
- Time range
- Living; fossil teeth also occur
04
FUNCTION
Form follows feeding.
The teeth form a pavement suited to gripping and crushing small prey rather than slicing large prey.
05
LOOKALIKES
Do not stop at the first match.
ExtinctHybodusOne central cusp with several smaller lateral cusps arranged on a broad base.Compare visual profile →RELATED FORMOther carpet sharksUse jaw position, locality, age and associated teeth to test this lookalike.
06
DIRECT COMPARISONS
Put it beside its closest rival.
AUTHORITATIVE REFERENCE
Open source ↗Florida Museum
The visual plate is original TuffShark artwork and is not copied from the reference. Use the source alongside formation age, locality and associated material.
HAVE A TOOTH TO CHECK?
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