Unbroken collector-grade cow shark tooth unearthed at the Ouled Abdoun Phosphate Basin Deposit formation of Morocco. The six-gilled extinct shark's tooth has been cleaned and conserved. Every single tooth has distinct attributes on both the mesial and distal sides, leading to the archetypal comb apical crowns—good root, including cusplets.
Genus: Notorynchus cepedianus. (Cow shark) - Hexanchidae; described by Ayres, 1855
Age: Cenozoic era, late Palaeocene, approximately 50-70 million years.
Origin: Phosphate deposits of Khouribga, Ouled Abdoun Basin, Northern Sahara, Morocco.
Cow Shark tooth measurements.
Width: 3.9 cm
Height: 3.0 cm
Approximate weight: 0,008 g
Good collector-grade Cow shark tooth of attractive light colour enamel unearthed at the Ouled Abdoun Basin formation of Morocco. The six-gilled extinct shark'sth tooth has been cleaned and conserved. Every single tooth has distinct attributes on both the mesial and distal sides, leading to the archetypal comb apical crowns—good root, including cusplets.
Rare fossilised prehistoric Notorynchus Cepedianus exhibits good morphology and preservation, with the delicate tooth intact and the attractive toffee-coloured enamel. Often, these small shark teeth suffer damage in the fossil bed and during excavation, requiring conservation work, including cleaning off any attached matrix (fine fossil bed sand grains) and re-fixing where necessary. The comb-like structure of the apical crowns recognises the typical tooth. Each cusplet forms the triangular apical point. The medial cusplet, being the largest, is typified with finer serrations along the leading edge. These are referred to as coarse serrations.
The species Notorynchus Cepedianus, described by Cappetta in 1976, first appeared in the late Cretaceous period around 100 million years ago. While N.  cepedianus, Notorynchus, described by Ayres, 1855, appears around the late Palaeocene, 60 million years ago. The cow shark tooth here was discovered in Morocco in North Africa. Please take a look at the above link in our short distribution for topographical information on the fossil bed in Morocco. The range of the six-gill sharks was then and still is today, worldwide.
The ancestors of the prehistoric six-gill sharks persist in today's oceans, and the deepwater sharks belong to the family Hexanchidae. Characterised by a broad, pointed head, six pairs of gill slits, comb-like yellow lower teeth, and long tails. Six-gill sharks attain sizes of up to 8 metres in length, weighing over 600 kg (1320 lb.). Being abyssal plain scavengers with a keen sense of smell, they are among the first predators to arrive at carrion and have been found at depths of 2,500ft (760m).