2.2" Fossil "Mako" Tooth - Lee Creek (Aurora), NC

This is a gorgeous, glossy fossil broad-toothed Mako tooth from the Lee Creek Mine in Aurora, North Carolina. This famous site has been closed to collecting for many years now, so good fossil shark teeth are getting harder to come by.

This shark, whose teeth can be found in deposits worldwide, lived from the Eocene to the Pleistocene. It has been historically classified as a broad-toothed mako shark ,(Isurus hastalis). It was then reclassified as Cosmopolitodus hastalis, making it a type of extinct mackerel shark.

More recent research has reclassified it as part of the white shark lineage, which would rename the species to Carcharodon hastalis. You can read more about this here. What classification is correct is still under debate, leading to lots of different labels for these teeth. We prefer the most recent interpretation and label them as Carcharodon hastalis.

Teeth of this shark have been found up to 3 1/2 inches in length but teeth over 2 1/2 inches are uncommon and very rare over 3 inches.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Carcharodon (Isurus) hastalis
LOCATION
Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina
FORMATION
Pungo River Formation
SIZE
2.2" long
ITEM
#179842
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