Heterodonty and ontogenetic shift dynamics in the dentition of the tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier (Chondrichthyes, Galeocerdidae)

Abstract

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Rostral and body shape analyses reveal cryptic diversity of Late Jurassic batomorphs (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii) from Europe

“…2020; Türtscher et al . 2021, 2022), meaning that knowledge of the tooth morphology of individual specimens offers only a small glimpse at the big picture of dental variety of a species. Future quantitative studies on the teeth of more holomorphic spathobatids should be conducted to augment our understanding of the diversity and dental disparity of Late Jurassic batomorphs and to confidently assign isolated teeth to a specific genus or species.…”

Are shark teeth proxies for functional traits? A framework to infer ecology from the fossil record

“…Nonetheless, whereas monognathic and dignathic heterodonty are known in many shark species, gynandric and ontogenetic heterodonty are more poorly studied in sharks and better studied in rays (Cappetta, 2012). Of the studies that have been conducted, gynandric and ontogenetic heterodonty have been described in only a few species ( e.g ., C. carcharias , Carcharhinus leucas , Scyliorhinus stellaris , Etmopterus spinax and G. cuvier ; Berio et al ., 2020; Cullen & Marshall, 2019; French et al ., 2017; Straube & Pollerspöck, 2020; Turtscher et al ., 2022). Nonetheless, because the aim of this research was to apply resulting dental character–functional trait relationships to isolated fossil teeth (from which life stage and sex are often unknown), the authors contend that the absence of gynandric and ontogenetic heterodonty from their analyses should not distort the interpretation and application of the resulting framework to fossils.…”

Fossil marine vertebrates (Chondrichthyes, Actinopterygii, Reptilia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Akkermanovka (Orenburg Oblast, Southern Urals, Russia)

“…It was previously suggested that the diagnostic characters used to distinguish between P. granti and P. laevis were weakly founded and that both species could be regarded as conspecific ( Hamm and Shimada, 2007 ). Quantitative methods like geometric morphometrics and traditional morphometrics have recently been applied to explore intra- and interspecific variations in shark teeth and to test species validity ( Marramà and Kriwet, 2017 ; Türtscher et al, 2021 , 2022 ). A similar approach could shed light on the validity of P. granti , which is tentatively considered a separate species here.…”