Below is a minute tooth which belongs to the basking shark. The extant species, Cetorhinus maximus (GUNNERUS, 1765) is the second largest shark in the modern ocean. Only Rhincodon, the whale shark, another filter-feeder and the extinct Carcharocles grew larger. This coastal-pelagic species has unique gill-rakers which are shed seasonally and used for filtering plankton. The dentition is made up of a couple hundred files of teeth which are hook-shaped with stout, poorly defined bilobate roots.

Fossil basking shark teeth from the Miocene have been ascribed to the species C. parvus (LERICHE 1908). Additional research is required before the Lee Creek specimens can be assigned to a particular species. Teeth and gill-rakers of this animal are rare, and primarily found by fine screening tailings from the waste piles. Recovered teeth, gill-rakers and a single clasper have all come from sediments attributable to the Pungo River formation.

Special thanks to John Fitez for loan of the tooth specimen.

Fig. 1 - Cetorhinus sp, gill-raker height 2.2 mm Pungo River specimen	Fig. 2 - Cetorhinus sp lateral view, hgt 3 mm Pungo River specimen Image by Bill Heim © 1998