Broken mammal tooth

[Shellseeker]

Found a week ago in an area that produces a mix of miocene - pleistocene fossils. I thought of at least 3 animals for this half tooth.  Hopefully someone will recognize a distinctive feature. 

 

[PaleoNoel]

I'm thinking dugong, but I could be wrong. Dugong and tapir teeth i've seen online sometimes have similar wear patterns

[Shellseeker]

9 hours ago, PaleoNoel said:

I'm thinking dugong, but I could be wrong. Dugong and tapir teeth i've seen online sometimes have similar wear patterns

Thanks for the reply.

One thing it could be is a Tapir premolar. But it is very small, significantly worn???, and a "merge" root. I have been unable to find a photo of that root,  YET

Here is some of @Harry Pristis great photos, from this TFF 10 year old thread...

[old bones]

I don't know that the ridged texture is significant or indicative of a species, but I thought of the similarity to my Tapir tooth. There is no root on my find unfortunately, but what do you think?

 

[Shellseeker]

2 hours ago, old bones said:

I don't know that the ridged texture is significant or indicative of a species, but I thought of the similarity to my Tapir tooth. There is no root on my find unfortunately, but what do you think?

 

 

 

Yes, Yes... a distinctive feature. Surprises me a little that we can not detect these lines in all tapir teeth.

I am a little surprised also at the combination of size and wear... significant wear and small size for the species. Do tapir have juvenile premolars replaced by adult teeth? Possibly like mastodon....

Thanks for the ID.