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Great White Shark Tooth Dentition

The number, kind and arrangement of teeth in the shark's mouth.


Carcharocles megalodon

A,  a - Anterior      Int - Intermediate        L,  l - Lateral        P,  p - Posterior        R, r - Right          L, l - Left

This set of 46 fossil teeth represent the Front Row Dentition of a Great White Shark.  This animal lived about 3 million years ago off the coast of what is now Peru, South America.

24 teeth in the Front Row, Upper Jaw and
22 teeth in the Front Row, Lower Jaw.

If you were unfortunate enough to be a Seal lying on the shark's tongue with your tail toward the shark's stomach, this is what you would see if you looked forward.

Starting at the hinge of the upper jaw, the Great White had 4 Posteriors - (P), 5 Laterals - (L), 1 Intermediate - (Int), and 2 Anteriors - (A).   12 teeth on each side for a total of 24 upper jaw teeth.

P4,  P3,  P2  P1        L5,  L4,  L3,  L2,  L1,        Int1        AIII,  AI

From the back of the mouth, the lower jaw half had 4 posteriors - (p), 4 laterals - (l), no intermediate, and 3 anteriors - (a).  11 teeth on each side for a total of 22 lower jaw teeth.

p4,  p3,  p2,  p1        l4,  l3,  l2,  l1,        aiii,  aii,  ai

NOTES:

(1.)  The teeth in a shark's mouth, being "live" teeth, would be pure white with no coloration.

(2.)  In the discussion and drawing above there is no AII, upper jaw anterior tooth.  Most paleontologists believe that this tooth evolved out about the time that Otodus evolved into the Isurus line of sharks.  This can be a little confusing.  Just remember that the First Upper Anterior Tooth is the AI and the Second Upper Anterior Tooth is the AIII.

(3.)  In the seal-eye view from inside the mouth, he was looking at what most people call the Display Side of the teeth.  Some people erroneously call this the Front.  The Front Side of a Great White tooth is actually the Flat Side and the Back is the Display Side.   Other terms you might hear are the Lingual (Tongue) Side and the Labial (Lip) Side.

(4.)  In addition to the front row of teeth, there were 4 rows of teeth in various stages of development behind the front row for a total of 230 teeth in the shark's mouth.



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