Otodus obliquus (not serrated)

SKU
K561
Out of stock
$250.00
Overview

A very rare, early Otodus obliquus upper jaw, anterior tooth from Aktulagay, western Kazakhstan. Otodus obliquus is the ancestor to C. auriculatus (see detailed discussion below) which leads to MegalodonThe bourlette is large and complete. Exhibits no serrations. The starting species to serrated Carcharocles teeth. These teeth exhibit very good color, gloss, and preservation. A rare, early Eocene Auriculatus transition tooth. A very challenging tooth to find when building a Megalodon evolutionary set! No repair. Authenticity guaranteed. This western Kazakhstan site is one of the few places in the world where the Otodus to Auriculatus transition can be found in adjacent layers. Note - This is my last offering of Aktluagay teeth.

K561         SIZE: 1-5/8"

Note - Adding 19 Kazakh Auriculatus or transition teeth in November 2021. -->  Link to Kazakh Auriculatus teeth.

This catalog contains excellent teeth from an extinct Otodontid shark - Carcharocles auriculatus, a precursor to the Megalodon. The early Carcharocles auriculatus is fully serrated with very large serrations and highly irregular cusps serrations. 

Aktulagay site - I will post a very limited amount of rare teeth from the original early Eocene site (Ypresian), Tolagaysor Fm., Aktulagay, western Kazakhstan. The Tolagaysor Fm. at this site contains O. obliquus (non-serrated) teeth at the lowest levels ( Level 0-2), O. auriculatus teeth at the upper levels (Level 6), and semi-serrated transition teeth found in between (Levels 3-5).It is the only place on earth that contains this evolutionary story in one hill side.I will attach the paper.

The Evolutionary Path to Megalodon - transition from the non-serrate Otodus obliquus to the fully serrated Auriculatus tooth - The Kazakhstan early Eocene sediments are one of the few places in the world where the transition to the fully serrated Auriculatus tooth can be observed and collected.  The  transition teeth representing the progression from Otodus obliquus (non serrate) to the Auriculatus are as follows.

Carcharocles mugodzharicus or Otodus mugodzharicus - has very fine serrations covering lower 2/3s of the crown (sometimes the serrations can be the wavy "Escheri-like" serrations) and little to no side cusp serrations. 

Carcharocles aksuaticus or Otodus aksuaticusa semi-serrated or finely serrated tooth that can have moderate sized serrations at the base of the crown. The side cusps will have few serrations.

Other Kazakhstan sites - These teeth are very rare, early Eocene (Ypresian) in age (approx. 55 mya) from Kzil-Orda region in western Kazakhstan (new location). Note - this location has been collected for ~3 summers and it is now exhausted. This is the last of the material from this site that made it to US. Some incredibly rare teeth are posted.