Elizabeth has been making shark tooth jewelry over the past decade for both women and men, adorning these ocean treasures in silver and gold, and featuring dazzling one of a kind and small batch designs.
All of the shark teeth used in the Elizabeth Sarah Collections line are 100% real and natural.
The best way to know this is by reading our detailed product descriptions and blogs as to how we find and/or source all of the teeth, as well as the species and approximate age of the tooth or fossil.
In case you're new to our website and are viewing these products for the first time, we especially want to make it clear that we're producing the real deal, and don't use any molds of enamel, plastic or resin to emulate the original tooth design.
So the purpose of this blog is to break it down to the basics and give you the facts about our different types of shark teeth featured in the Elizabeth Sarah Collections line.
The white/off white teeth such as number #256 and #359 are Bull Shark teeth which Elizabeth sources from a private east coast based collector.
Now this might sound like a huge no-brainer, but the difference between these white teeth and the black/grey ones we find on our local shores, is that they are still considered "teeth."
What I mean is, they are much newer and haven't had the chance to fossilize, and therefore the mineral makeup of the tooth is still the same as when it's in the mouth of the shark.
The black/grey teeth that we feature, such as number #512 or #679, are mostly found by our team anywhere from our North Florida beaches to the inland creeks, and are old enough to be considered fossils.
While we may not know the exact age of each tooth, it's easy to tell it is a fossil by a few features, and one is it's size. The bigger the tooth, the older it's most likely to be. The biggest shark to have existed is the megalodon, and according to several scientific sources, megalodon sharks have not existed for the past 1.6-16 million years. So it's safe to say that their mega-sized teeth have fossilized over that time!
The shark species we know of today have evolved into smaller sharks in comparison, so their teeth are clearly newer and smaller than the prehistoric giants.
You can also tell a fossilized shark tooth apart from a new tooth by the color. As I mentioned, the white teeth are new and haven't fossilized. A tooth that is in the process of turning into a fossil will, over time, turn the color of the sediment that it rests in as its mineral components change.
For example, our beaches here in Northeast FL have rather dark sand, as it gets mixed with the sediment from the St. Johns River which flows right into our beaches. So the fossilized teeth we find on our shores are typically anywhere from a light grey or brown to a steel/black color.
In the summer of 2019, Elizabeth was traveling in Ouray, Colorado, and found fossilized shark teeth local to this area, where clearly there isn't an ocean nearby, but millions of years ago was underwater. The shark teeth from here are much lighter in color and almost look like marble, as the sediment has a much different color and mineral makeup.
Neat, huh?
Now, Elizabeth and I clearly aren't dentists or even close to marine biologists, but understanding and appreciating the materials we work with is our way of showing our care for every piece of jewelry we produce.
To provide as much knowledge as possible for our customers and to also accommodate their specific styles, we add the species of shark tooth or fossil to all of our product descriptions.
Typically we find Bull, Tiger, and Lemon Shark teeth on our beaches and label them accordingly on our website in the product description.
Since we know not everyone's style is the same, we also encourage customers to use our LiveChat or Notes option to let us know if you prefer a specific shape, color or size for your tooth when checking out.
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