Tongue Stones
An Evolution Story Told
by Patrick Staley
Presentation Outline
• Legend to Science
• Why Use Tongue Stones to Study
Evolution
• Parts and Features
• Environment
• Specific Evolutionary Lines
Magical Properties
• Counter-Act Toxins
• Snake Bite
• Dip in Wine
Folklore
• Eerily well-polished when dug up
• Petrified tongues of serpents, a
creature associated with the devil.
• Medieval practice to dip a
tonguestone in a glass of wine.
Japanese Legend
• Thumbnails of Tengu Man, a mythical
mountain goblin with a Pinnochio-like
long nose.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
More Legends
• Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), a great
Roman naturalist, believed that they fell
from the sky during lunar eclipses.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Saint Paul on Malta
•
•
•
•
Many tongue stones on Malta
Saint Paul shipwrecked on Malta in AD60.
Saint Paul was bitten by a snake.
Turned the tongues of serpents into stone.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Nicholas Steno
• In 1666 fishermen caught a giant
shark.
• The local duke ordered that this
curiosity be sent to Ncholas Steno.
• Steno is an anatomist.
• Steno dissected the shark.
• The shark teeth resembled tongue
stones.
• Paleontology is Born.
Steno’s Shark Head Drawing
QuickT i me™ and a
decom pressor
are needed to see this picture.
In 1666 Who Thought
• Living matter could be turned to
stone
• Encased in solid rock
• Rocks well above sea level
• Marine organisms on dry land
Abundance of Sharks’ Teeth
Fossils?
•
•
•
•
Soft Tissue vs. Bone
Getting Buried
Time (400 million years)
Opportunity (35,000 teeth per shark)
Teeth per Shark
• Sharks continually shed their
teeth, and some can shed as many
as 35,000 teeth in a lifetime.
Shark Dentition
• Embedded in Flesh
• Constant Replacement
• Files and Rows of Teeth
Parts of a Shark’s Tooth
•
•
•
•
•
•
Root
Crown
Dental Band
Cusplets
Serrations
Striations
Other Features
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nutrient Grove
Nutrient Foramen
Longitudinal Ridges
Crown Tip
Crown Notch
Crown Shoulder
Sides of a Shark’s Tooth
•
•
•
•
Lingual
Labial
Mesial
Distal
Dentition by Location
•
•
•
•
•
•
Upper or Lower
Anterior
Lateral
Posterior
Intermediate
Symphseal
Cenozoic Evolution of the
Large Sharks
• Climatic Context
• Geographic Context
Cenozoic Global Temperature
Polar Ice Earth
Global Geography
• Cretaceous
• Eocene
• Recurring Ice Ages
Great White Line
•
•
•
•
Carcharodon carcharias
Isurus hastalis
Isurus planus
Isurus desori
Carcharocles megalodon
•
•
•
•
•
Cretolamna appendiculata
Odotus obliquus
Carcharocles auriculatus
Carcharocles angustidens
Carcharocles megalodon
megalodon intermediates
• Odotus aksuaticus
• Odotus chubutensis
megalodon side branches
• Paleocarcharodon orientalis
• Carcharocles sokolovi
• Parodotus benedeni