Megalodon Fossil Shark Tooth with Polished Enamel on Custom Stand

Ancient Seas, Middle Miocene to end of Pliocene eras. A fossil tooth of Otodus megalodon, the largest predatory shark known, shown on a custom black metal stand. The broad triangular crown has had its enamel polished to a glassy finish in deep chocolate-black, so the light runs down the face like water off slate. The blade edges grade to pale gray and tan, and the dark chevron of the bourlette, the textured band between crown and root, frames the polished surface above. The heavy, deeply lobed root keeps its natural matte, rough-grained surface, a clear contrast to the worked enamel. Its color comes from minerals taken up during fossilization in marine and riverine sediments. The tooth was once one of several rows in a constantly replaced battery, built for slicing through whale blubber and bone. Otodus megalodon (long classified as Carcharodon or Carcharocles megalodon) ranged through the world's warm and temperate oceans from the early Miocene until it disappeared in the Pliocene, about 3.6 million years ago. Sharks have cartilaginous skeletons that rarely fossilize, so the species is known mainly from its teeth and a few vertebral columns. Every body-length estimate for the animal comes from scaling up its teeth, and most current reconstructions put large adults well beyond 15 meters. Like modern sharks, megalodon shed and replaced its teeth throughout its life, possibly tens of thousands over a lifetime. That explains why fossil teeth survive in good numbers, while complete, well-preserved crowns with intact enamel remain far scarcer. The bourlette, a band of thinner enamel-free tissue between root and crown, is a hallmark of the genus Otodus. It separates megalodon teeth from those of the great white, whose relatives it was once thought to share. Polishing a megalodon tooth removes the outermost surface of the enameloid to reveal the dense, color-saturated layer underneath. Fossil teeth take their hues from the sediments that buried them. Phosphate- and iron-rich deposits such as the rivers and coastal beds of the southeastern United States tend to produce the dark blacks, grays, and browns seen here. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 204955

Estimate:$500

View all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorJewelry & Gems