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Sirenian Tusk


Phoenixflood

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Just thought I'd post a picture of my newest acquisition. Found near Charleston SC.

photo.jpg

I was wondering if anyone else had any examples or knew of the rarity of such pieces.

The soul of a Fossil Hunter is one that is seeking, always.

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Wow!

I vote for really, really rare...

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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That's a pretty cool fossil! I'd love to dive that area sometime!

Here are more pictures from the auction site. And no, I did not pay the buy it now price. The seller was nice enough to work out a deal with me. :)

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=270608608101

The soul of a Fossil Hunter is one that is seeking, always.

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The soul of a Fossil Hunter is one that is seeking, always.

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That's what I was thinking. I didn't think a dugong tusk could be that large, especially with that being a piece with the tip. However, there were several genera of dugongs in the Miocene and there was apparently more than one tusk form among them.

I would check articles by Daryl Domning on sirenians, especially his eight-part series, "Fossil Sirenia of the West Atlantic and Caribbean region" in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The first one was published in 1988 (Vol. 8), second (Vol. 9) and third (also Vol. 9) in 1989, the fourth in 1990 (Vol. 10, 3), the fifth in 1994 (Vol. 14, 3), sixth (Vol. 17, 2) in 1997, seventh (Vol. 25, 3) and the eighth (Vol. 28, 2) in 2008.

Looks like the tip of a walrus tusk.

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I have seen quite a few fossil and modern sirenian tusks and the thing that really surprised me was their similarity to whale teeth.

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This is probably the walrus Ontocetus emmonsi (especially likely if this was found in Pliocene deposits). Bobby

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