Saturday 17 December 2016

big tooth, big shark


The notion that not just humans, but other animals on the planet, leave ephemera in their wake is fascinating to me. So to celebrate one of the more spectacular examples of Nature's ephemera, I photographed a fossil tooth I have of C. megalodon, the largest shark that ever lived, considered by most taxonomists to be an ancestor of today's great white shark, C. carcharias. If you want to read about Megalodon, check out this article. Why does a shark tooth count as ephemera? Because shark teeth grow in what's referred to as a "conveyer belt," each tooth that gets shed being quickly replaced by a newer, sharper one that rolls forward into place.

As for the big shark that shed this tooth, the following is a useful diagram. The red and grey sharks are the conservative and maximum estimates of Megalodon's size, the maximum being 20 meters (67 feet). (!) The violet shark is a whale shark, the largest shark extant today. The green shark is a great white, and there's a black human figure for scale.                                                                            

 

My own Megalodon tooth is not all that large: just 4 3/4" (12.1 cm) tall. They can be as tall as 7 1/2" (19.1 cm). I purposely photographed my tooth with some shadow showing, to give you a sense of what it's like in 3-D.

Rest of the collage: Background from an old map of southern India. Ephemera include advertisements, greeting cards, fortune-telling cards, Loteria cards, pharmacy labels, ration tickets, other tickets, and cancelled postage stamps. Artistamps & their cancellations: bananas by Anna Banana, bunny-cum-airplane by the fabulous C. T. Chew.

4 comments:

  1. I must say this tooth looks very impressive against that background Fi!
    And I love your background with the mentioned bunny-airplane and the rest of the funny stamps and cards and stuff!

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    1. Thanks, Jo! What's impressive about that tooth in person is how wicked is still is, as a fossil: See those tiny serrations, most visible on the left side? Before I learned to be wary while handling it, that knife-like edge cut my finger!

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  2. What a feast of information and a feast for the eyes! Excellent Fi!

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    1. Thanks! I guess it's obvious to y'all that I'm a science geek from way, way back. =laugh=

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