Tongue Stones

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Tongue Stones

• An Evolution Story Told
• by Patrick Staley

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Presentation Outline

• Legend to Science
• Why Use Tongue Stones to Study Evolution
• Parts and Features
• Environment
• Specific Evolutionary Lines

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Magical Properties

• Counter-Act Toxins
• Snake Bite
• Dip in Wine

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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.

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Japanese Legend

• Thumbnails of Tengu Man, a mythical mountain
  goblin with a Pinnochio-like long nose.

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More Legends

• Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), a great Roman
  naturalist, believed that they fell from the sky
  during lunar eclipses.

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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.

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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.

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Stenos Shark Head Drawing
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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

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Abundance of Sharks Teeth Fossils?

• Soft Tissue vs. Bone
• Getting Buried
• Time (400 million years)
• Opportunity (35,000 teeth per shark)

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Teeth per Shark

• Sharks continually shed their teeth, and some can
  shed as many as 35,000 teeth in a lifetime.

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Shark Dentition

• Embedded in Flesh
• Constant Replacement
• Files and Rows of Teeth

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Parts of a Sharks Tooth

• Root
• Crown
• Dental Band
• Cusplets
• Serrations
• Striations

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Other Features

• Nutrient Grove
• Nutrient Foramen
• Longitudinal Ridges
• Crown Tip
• Crown Notch
• Crown Shoulder

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Sides of a Sharks Tooth

• Lingual
• Labial
• Mesial
• Distal

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Dentition by Location

• Upper or Lower
• Anterior
• Lateral
• Posterior
• Intermediate
• Symphseal

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Cenozoic Evolution of the Large Sharks

• Climatic Context
• Geographic Context

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Cenozoic Global Temperature
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Polar Ice Earth
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Global Geography

• Cretaceous
• Eocene
• Recurring Ice Ages

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Great White Line

• Carcharodon carcharias
• Isurus hastalis
• Isurus planus
• Isurus desori

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Carcharocles megalodon

• Cretolamna appendiculata
• Odotus obliquus
• Carcharocles auriculatus
• Carcharocles angustidens
• Carcharocles megalodon

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megalodon intermediates

• Odotus aksuaticus
• Odotus chubutensis

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megalodon side branches

• Paleocarcharodon orientalis
• Carcharocles sokolovi
• Parodotus benedeni