![]() chubutensis (which lived 28 million to 13 million years ago) and its descendant O. Based on the size and spacing of the bite marks and serrations, the only possible culprits are the megatoothed shark O. ![]() Three gouge marks on the tooth show that whatever took a bite out of it had evenly spaced, serrated teeth. Today's sperm whales can reach lengths of over 50 feet (15 m), Godfrey noted. By using an equation that compares extinct sperm whale tooth size with body size, the researchers estimate this particular whale was small, only about 13 feet (4 meters) long. The size and shape of the curved 4.5-inch-long (11.6 centimeters) tooth clearly indicates that it belongs to an extinct sperm whale species, Godfrey said. (Image credit: Photos by Stephen Godfrey Acta Palaeontologica Polonica (2021) CC BY 4.0) Shark versus whale "These marine waters teemed with abundant sea life."ĭifferent views of the ancient sperm whale tooth that show the three gouge marks from the megatoothed shark. That's why "coastal North Carolina was covered by a vast shallow arm of the Atlantic Ocean," Godfrey said. During the Neogene, the Earth's climate was warmer than it is today and, as a result, the North and South Poles had less ice, so sea levels were higher. The different rock layers - which get laid down over time and so are used to date objects in the layers - got mixed up because of the mixing, the scientists don't know if the tooth comes from the older sedimentary beds, which would date it to the Miocene epoch, 14 million years ago, or the younger fossils beds, which would date it to the Pliocene epoch, about 5 million years ago.Įither way, the tooth falls into the Neogene period (23 million to 2.5 million years ago), he noted. To reach the older phosphate-rich beds, mine workers removed bucketloads of overlying sedimentary rock and dumped them nearby, where fossil collectors could scour them, Godfrey said. The researchers aren't sure when this shark-whale brawl occurred.
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