Tooth or claw?

[Brondonh]

I have two different pieces I was wondering about. 

I have my assumptions, maybe whale tooth on the 1st one and the 2nd barracuda, but there's a grove on the inside of it. 

 

I found them in Venice Florida in a shell pile. There was a lot of marine life there, whale, manatee ect and petrified wood.

Thanks

 

PS can sucks from abuse

[Brondonh]

2nd

[digit]

Pics are a bit fuzzy. You might try re-imaging these outside in bright light. That should help the camera focus better and the lighting might bring out some detail.

 

Not sure on the first one--it may be a geologic "faker" in the shape of a tooth. I'm not seeing any definite enameled surface from the images. Better photos will help.

 

The second item has kind of a barracuda tooth shape from the first photo. It would be a really big 'cuda tooth if that is what it is. The backside doesn't resemble any barracuda tooth that I've seen. These teeth are pretty flat (nearly two dimensional). A photo from the side showing its thickness will help.

 

Let's see some new photos outside in bright light and see what we can see.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Brondonh]

Yeah I'm going to have to just borrow a camera. I don't think it's a fakey. 

The lens on my cam got crushed from a pocket full of fossils coincidentally lol.

 

Stand by

[Peat Burns]

*Could* be a shard of mastodont tooth cusp.  Would need much better pics of the broken edge.

[digit]

33 minutes ago, Brondonh said:

The lens on my cam got crushed from a pocket full of fossils coincidentally lol.

Ouch!

 

Will standby for further photos.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Brondonh]

[Brondonh]

[digit]

The camera is still struggling to gain focus. I expect these are small items and you are trying to zoom in to fill the frame by moving closer. Lenses have a minimum focus distance and it appears you are trying to make these images from within that minimum distance and thus sharp images are eluding you. You'd probably end up with better results if you backed off a bit and checked to see that the image was in focus (even if it filled a smaller portion of the image).

 

With the lighting, it now appears that the second mystery item is a fragment of probably an alligator rooth. The hollow cone inside the tooth leads me to believe that. The image of the outside of the tooth seems to show a faint (possibly worn) ridge running from the tip down. Gator teeth have two of these ridges (carinae) running down from the tip on opposite sides.

 

 

I'm still sticking with a very suggestive geologic item for the first one. I've found some really unusual (and sometimes beautiful) forms for these bits that we rightly or wrongly call "phosphate nodules". It looks like some sort of layered concretion to me. The outer surface does seem a bit to resemble bone and the one angle of the interior makes it look like a rough surface that could have been where the spongy cancellous bone material might have worn away. Definitely not showing signs of enamel on the outer surface so I'd say tooth seems to be removed from the possibilities. I cannot remember finding any bone that looked similar to this one so unless someone else recognizes the first item as something biological I'm in the geologic camp on this one.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Brondonh]

Thank I will see what I can do

[Brondonh]

Ok used a different cam. Sorry my fingers are so mangled... 

[digit]

Gator tooth fragment is still my best guess for the small piece. The large mystery piece is definitely not a cusp of a mastodon tooth since there is no sign of enamel visible in cross section on the broken end. If it is bone of any kind, I cannot think of what would have that shape--doesn't match any tooth or claw that I'm familiar with. Definitely a curious piece. I'd hold onto that till you can show it in person to someone familiar with fossils from the area. Identifications of pieces that are difficult to figure out online through photos are often quite easy once someone has the piece in hand.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Brondonh]

Thanks Ken