First shark record from the Upper Cretaceous of the Kuril Islands, Far East Russia

The first find of a Late Cretaceous shark tooth, or of any cartilaginous fish for that matter, from the Kuril Islands in the Russian Far East is recorded as Carcharias sp. (Lamniformes, Carchariidae). The specimen originates from Maastrichtian strata on the island of Shikotan that are assigned to the Malokurilsk Formation. It constitutes an extremely rare find from rocks of this age in the northwest Pacific region. External and internal dental structures have been reconstructed by the use of computed tomography. The vasculature of this lamniform tooth is first modelled by CT scanning and shown under different angles, which allows an assessment of the spatial arrangement of hierarchically organised vascular channels in this holaulacorhize tooth.