Long smooth central cusp with small lateral cusplets on a broad compact root.
Many carpet sharks share this basic design, making species-level isolated-tooth identification difficult.
01
ORIGINAL VISUAL PLATE
Front, edge and jaw position.
02
IDENTIFICATION TRAITS
What to inspect.
- Crown shape
- Narrow dagger or Several cusps
- Cutting edge
- Smooth edge
- Side cusplets
- One on each side
- Root
- Wide / nearly flat root
- Reference tooth height
- About 4–20 mm, depending on age and jaw position
- Jaw variation
- Long central cusps with small lateral cusplets occur in both jaws.
03
ECOLOGY + SCALE
The shark behind the tooth.
- Habitat
- Temperate Australian reefs, rocky bottoms and seagrass.
- Diet
- Reef fishes, cephalopods and crustaceans taken by ambush.
- Estimated shark size
- Usually 1.5–2.4 m (5–8 ft); some records are larger.
- Bite force
- No reliable species-specific value is established; bite force changes with body size and bite point.
- Fossil occurrence
- Orectolobiform teeth occur in Cretaceous and younger deposits.
- Time range
- Living; carpet-shark fossils occur
04
FUNCTION
Form follows feeding.
The pointed teeth grip fishes and cephalopods during suction-assisted ambush feeding.
05
LOOKALIKES
Do not stop at the first match.
LivingZebra sharkSmall central cusp bordered by two smaller cusplets on a compact broad base.Compare visual profile →LivingNurse sharkSmall tooth with a central cusp flanked by several smaller cusplets on a broad base.Compare visual profile →LivingWhitetip reef sharkNarrow central cusp flanked by small side cusplets; edges are smooth to weakly serrated.Compare visual profile →
AUTHORITATIVE REFERENCE
Open source ↗Australian 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.
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