Moderately oblique triangular crown with fine serrations and a deeply notched two-lobed root.
Species-level hammerhead identification from one tooth is usually tentative.
01
ORIGINAL VISUAL PLATE
Front, edge and jaw position.
02
IDENTIFICATION TRAITS
What to inspect.
- Crown shape
- Hooked blade or Broad triangle
- Cutting edge
- Fine serrations
- Side cusplets
- No side cusplets
- Root
- Two distinct root lobes
- Reference tooth height
- About 6–25 mm, depending on age and jaw position
- Jaw variation
- Small oblique serrated teeth; laterals lean increasingly backward.
03
ECOLOGY + SCALE
The shark behind the tooth.
- Habitat
- Warm coastal and offshore waters; adults may form large schools.
- Diet
- Fishes, squid, rays and crustaceans.
- Estimated shark size
- Usually 2.5–3.5 m (8–11.5 ft); large females can exceed 4 m.
- Bite force
- No reliable species-specific value is established; bite force changes with body size and bite point.
- Fossil occurrence
- Hammerhead teeth occur in Neogene deposits but are often not species-diagnostic.
- Time range
- Living; fossil teeth occur
04
FUNCTION
Form follows feeding.
Compared with great hammerhead, teeth tend to be smaller and less coarsely serrated, but overlap is substantial.
05
LOOKALIKES
Do not stop at the first match.
LivingGreat hammerheadTriangular, strongly serrated crown that becomes increasingly oblique toward the jaw corners.Compare visual profile →LivingBonnetheadSmall front teeth with short cusps grade into broader, flatter crushing teeth toward the jaw corners.Compare visual profile →RELATED FORMSmall requiem 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 ↗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.
HAVE A TOOTH TO CHECK?
Start a ranked identification →