New Jersey Cretaceous tooth (croc?)

[frankh8147]

Hello,

 

I found this little tooth yesterday in Monmouth County New Jersey. It has two really well defined cutting edges and is heavily faceted. It doesn't look anything like the other Xiphactinus teeth I've found so I was thinking croc (not Thoracosaur)?

It really looks like an enchodus tooth but the root says differently.

As always, all help is greatly appreciated!

[frankh8147]

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[frankh8147]

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[frankh8147]

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[The Jersey Devil]

Is it hollow all the way through? If so I know what that is

[The Jersey Devil]

7 minutes ago, The Jersey Devil said:

Is it hollow all the way through? If so I know what that is

I’m confident it’s one of the pincers from a ghost shrimp feeder claw.

[frankh8147]

38 minutes ago, The Jersey Devil said:

I’m confident it’s one of the pincers from a ghost shrimp feeder claw.

That was on my radar. The reason I went away from that was the fact that under magnification, there are a bunch of vertical lines which is what I'm used to seeing on teeth but I have to admit, I don't think I've ever looked at a ghost shrimp claw under magnification Haha! 

This id seems about right.

[frankh8147]

@The Jersey Devil I compared but my examples aren't doing me any good in this case. It actually compares decently to a tooth looked at by the NJSM as a reptile (probable croc) tooth. 

[frankh8147]

Middle tooth in this picture..

[The Jersey Devil]

The new tooth looks interesting. Pretty unique croc tooth.

Could you please take a picture of the bases of the two teeth side by side?

[frankh8147]

20 hours ago, The Jersey Devil said:

The new tooth looks interesting. Pretty unique croc tooth.

Could you please take a picture of the bases of the two teeth side by side?

I thought so too - never found a croc tooth that looked like that. Obviously, they didnt want to attempt to id a croc species by a single tooth but this looked similar enough that I figured if everyone thought it was croc, I could send some pictures over.

 

Again, I'm not saying this new one is croc, just that I saw some good similarities.

[The Jersey Devil]

There is a chance the new one is Croc. The old one is interesting.

[frankh8147]

12 hours ago, The Jersey Devil said:

There is a chance the new one is Croc. The old one is interesting.

I'll try to get you a better picture of that one after I get home from work today. Its actually a really pretty tooth - I've just been struggling to photograph it well enough to show the colors.

[frankh8147]

@The Jersey Devil Here's a decent picture..

 

[The Jersey Devil]

Another fossil hunter on the fossil forum suggested that they might be Enchodus.

[Indagator]

I am quite sure that this is a bone fish tooth. I find a lot of them similar to yours in Maastricht. Most people ID them as enchodus sp. but they forget about species such as cimolichthys sp. This species has some similarities to enchodus sp. but has a hook on the tip that i don't see at this tooth so this is quite surely an enchodus sp. tooth. 

[frankh8147]

5 hours ago, Indagator said:

I am quite sure that this is a bone fish tooth. I find a lot of them similar to yours in Maastricht. Most people ID them as enchodus sp. but they forget about species such as cimolichthys sp. This species has some similarities to enchodus sp. but has a hook on the tip that i don't see at this tooth so this is quite surely an enchodus sp. tooth. 

 

It does have a shape similar to enchodus but what led me to think differently was the root and the faceted aspect of it. 

I've found a few hundred enchodus teeth in New Jersey and they all have a similar weirdly shaped base with a pin sized cavity (like my examples below in the first two pictures). This one, like the other example I showed, has a very hollow, conical shaped base (last picture), and is also faceted in a way I haven't seen on any enchodus tooth. 

 

That's not saying it definitely isn't enchodus, but if it is, it's a type of enchodus tooth I haven't seen here before. It would be really interesting because the roots of Enchodus teeth have been specifically used to distinguish them from other species like Xiphactinus (but from what I've seen, these root cavities are way too conical and wide to consider Xiphactinus as a possibility).

 

[The Jersey Devil]

The cavity might have been caused by erosion 

[non-remanié]

21 hours ago, The Jersey Devil said:

Another fossil hunter on the fossil forum suggested that they might be Enchodus.

Aka me.  Indagator gives a more complete explanation.  

[The Jersey Devil]

@non-remanié @Indagator

 

On 1/1/2020 at 7:42 AM, Indagator said:

I am quite sure that this is a bone fish tooth. I find a lot of them similar to yours in Maastricht. Most people ID them as enchodus sp. but they forget about species such as cimolichthys sp. This species has some similarities to enchodus sp. but has a hook on the tip that i don't see at this tooth so this is quite surely an enchodus sp. tooth. 

 

I have an abraded tooth that appears to have a “barb” at the tip. It is probably just Enchodus, but what do you think? Could it be another type of bonefish?

[Al Dente]

58 minutes ago, The Jersey Devil said:

I have an abraded tooth that appears to have a “barb” at the tip.

I have a couple small Cretaceous fish teeth with barbed tips that are not Enchodus. I’ll try to find photos tomorrow.

[Al Dente]

13 hours ago, Al Dente said:

I have a couple small Cretaceous fish teeth with barbed tips that are not Enchodus. I’ll try to find photos tomorrow.

Here's one of my small fish teeth. If I remember correctly, it is around 3 mm long. The cross section is round and was found in the Maastrichtian Peedee Formation.

 

 

[The Jersey Devil]

3 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Here's one of my small fish teeth. If I remember correctly, it is around 3 mm long. The cross section is round and was found in the Maastrichtian Peedee Formation.

Nice tooth. My tooth is around 13 mm long. Do you have any barbed fish teeth of that size? I’m thinking mine simply has enamel missing below the tip, making it appear to have a “barb”.

[Al Dente]

36 minutes ago, The Jersey Devil said:

Nice tooth. My tooth is around 13 mm long. Do you have any barbed fish teeth of that size? I’m thinking mine simply has enamel missing below the tip, making it appear to have a “barb”.

I’ve seen a lot of fish teeth that have been eroded that way. The tips are dense and resist erosion more than the rest of the tooth. I have found only a few of these barbed teeth and all are small.