Otodus auriculatus - Kazakhstan

SKU
K511
Out of stock
$295.00
Overview

A very rare, early Auriculatus upper jaw, lateral tooth from Kzil-Orda region, Kazakhstan. The bourlette is complete. Excellent coarse serrations and killer, extra large side cusps with very irregular serrations. These teeth exhibit fantastic color, gloss, and preservation. A rare early Eocene Auriculatus tooth (Ypresian age - 55 MYA)! No repair or restoration. Authenticity guaranteed. A true early Eocene Auriculatus tooth!

K511            SIZE: 1-3/4"

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

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

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 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.

Kazakhstan site - 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 (as of 2008). This is the last of the material from this site that made it to US. Some incredibly rare teeth are posted.