Description

Late Paleocene

Ouled Abdoun Basin, Phosphate Deposits

Morocco

0.8 inch tooth.

Shark.

Otodus is a shark genus that appeared a few million years after the K/T extinction and became the apex marine predator of the Paleocene and Early Eocene.  It is the ancestor of Carcharocles megalodon with transitional species in between.

Deformed (or pathologic) shark teeth are found in the fossil record just as they are today.  They can be caused by genetic mutation. disease, or injury.  With this tooth it appears the crown didn’t form completely perhaps because it was damaged early in its development within the jaw.