Looking to identify this beach find! A tooth perhaps?

[HaidaGwaiiBeachFinds]

Hi All! 
 

I’m new, and so very grateful for this group. I often find fossils, cool rocks and gems on my walks and it kills me to not know what they are!

 

Take this one for instance- what is it? It looks and feels like a ginormous tooth (large as in bigger than a humans). However, I’d love to be proved wrong all in the name of solving this mystery.

 

Thanks! Glad I came here. 

Edited January 27, 2020 by HaidaGwaiiBeachFinds
More descriptive

[Huntonia]

Sorry to say but it looks geological to me. I'm not sure what exactly it is, some of the experts will know, but I'm not seeing any enamel, bone texture, crisp details, organic shapes or otherwise anything that would point to this being a tooth or other fossil. 

[Fossildude19]

I agree, not a tooth.

To me, this looks like a water worn quartzite or chert rock.

[digit]

7 hours ago, HaidaGwaiiBeachFinds said:

However, I’d love to be proved wrong all in the name of solving this mystery.

 

Thanks! Glad I came here. 

Agreed that this is geological and not biological. Welcome to the forum--we've got a lot of fossil information stored here on the forum to browse through and a great group of members with lots of additional knowledge stored away in their minds. I'm glad that you have found this forum with both a curious rock to ID and more importantly something that will serve you well--an open mind.

 

Mother Nature likes to scatter interesting rocks about for us to find. Many of them have interesting and unusual shapes and colorations. Our brains are extremely adept at pattern recognition so much so that it often works overtime. The phenomenon of Pareidolia is what is responsible for us seeing bunny rabbits (or dragons) in cloud formations or facial profiles, elephants, or other familiar shapes in mountains and rock formations. When we find a curious rock our minds work to try to match that item to something we know already. The coloration and overall shape of your item definitely are suggestive of an oversized human molar (sorely in need of the attentions of a dentist). Having a keen eye for interesting shapes, patterns and colors is an essential skill in hunting fossils. In fact, those who have developed the "search image" for the fossils in a particular area are able to spot hidden fossils with only a portion peeking out.

 

The other key skill to successful fossil hunting is rational thought. You need to think like a scientist and ask yourself what makes you believe your find is what you think it to be. Test assumptions, do research, learn about the age of fossils exposed in your area. Of course, becoming a member of TFF is a great way of learning from others. I've never been fossil hunting on the Pacific beaches of British Columbia but I've seen some items posted here that include crab concretions and ammonites. I'm not sure what might have a large tooth that I could find on your beach but would start going internet image searches using keywords that might describe your find. If I didn't find similar matching images I might suspect I was following a dead lead. I might search for images of "fossil teeth" to see what other fossil teeth look like and see if my item shared any characteristics. You'd pretty quickly find that fossilized teeth usually have a smooth shiny surface from the fossilized enamel coating. You'd see that the shaped are usually pretty well defined and "tooth-like" and that very few only have a passing resemblance to a somewhat toothy shape.

 

A big part of learning about fossils is learning what are not fossils. I'm planning a rockhounding trip to Michigan and one of the things we will be hunting for on the rocky beaches of the Great Lakes is agates. I've purchased a book to learn about how to identify them and where they may be found. The first section covers all the things that are not agates and how to distinguish them from true agates. For me, a great part of the enjoyment of fossil hunting is learning about the fossils I'm finding and gaining the knowledge on how to spot interesting fossils and how to determine what is not.

 

I hope you found this forum because you have an interest in fossils (and other interesting rocks). Search through this forum for "British Columbia" or terms more close to where you live. You may find other trip reports or discussions of fossils in your area and that may lead you to spots where you may be able to find some fossils of your own. If you do find some other items, please show them here.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[daves64]

Yeah... what @digit said.. And also