Summary
This fossilised tooth was discovered by Murray Orr in 2016 at Beaumaris, near Melbourne. It belonged to an extinct species of giant sperm whale that inhabited Australian waters about five million years ago.
Unlike modern squid-eating sperm whales, these raptorial predators may have been specialised hunters of other large marine vertebrates, including sharks and smaller whales. Approximately two thirds of the tooth's length would have been strongly rooted inside the jaw, with just the conical crown exposed above the gumline. At 280 mm long and more than 100 mm wide, it is almost twice the size of modern sperm whale teeth, and is the largest single fossil tooth ever discovered in Australia.
Specimen Details
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Taxon Name
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Date Identified
/05/2016
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Identified By
Dr Erich M. Fitzgerald - Museums Victoria
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Number Of Specimens
1
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Date Collected From
17/02/2016
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Category
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Scientific Group
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Discipline
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Collecting Areas
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Type of Item
Taxonomy
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Kingdom
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Phylum
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Subphylum
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Class
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Subclass
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Order
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Suborder
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Superfamily
Geospatial Information
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Continent
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Country
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State
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District
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Town
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Era
Cenozoic
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Period
Neogene
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Epoch
Pliocene
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Stage
Cheltenhamian
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Geological group
Brighton Group
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Geological formation
Black Rock Sandstone