Found a deer(?) tooth. Ice age fossil, or modern?

[Alex_S]

Hi all,

 

First of all, I am not a big fossil hunter, so please forgive me if this is a rookie mistake! This summer I started going for walks along creeks and rivers in central Ohio to get out of the house during all of this COVID-19 craziness! I usually try to look at my feet just in case I’ll stumble on a cool fossil or an arrowhead! So far, I haven’t found much!

 

Tonight though, I noticed something odd in between two large rocks, and when I pulled it out, it was a tooth! The bottom feels and looks exactly like rock, and the top looks like enamel. The tooth is about the size of a dime.

 

I’ve had some people online tell me it’s a modern deer and others say it is an ice age deer (both said Odocoileus virginianus), so I thought I would get additional opinions to try and get to the bottom of things!

 

Thanks so much for your expertise, and apologies if the photos aren’t the best! I can try to take better ones in the morning when it isn’t dark out.

[Rockwood]

There is a test that involves the smell of the substance when burned which is used to determine this question. I sort of doubt this will work well here though.

My gut feeling as a lifelong outdoor Mainer is that this one is most likely a fossil.

[PrehistoricWonders]

It looks like a fossil t ok me, but it was found in Ohio and I haven’t heard of any vertebrate fossil in Ohio, interesting.

[Harry Pristis]

The white tail deer has been here for the whole of the Pleistocene.  There is no easily-accessible test for age, but I agree with Rockwood, it does appear to be a fossil.

[Alex_S]

Thank you all so much for the info! Happy to hear it’s a fossil after all! The dark part on the bottom feels exactly like stone so I was hoping that’s what it was. Definitely better than picking up a recent tooth!! 

[Rockwood]

57 minutes ago, Alex_S said:

Definitely better than picking up a recent tooth!! 

If indeed a fossil (seems most likely) it is a fairly to very rare find in that area I think.

[ClearLake]

On 7/5/2020 at 11:35 PM, Familyroadtrip said:

but it was found in Ohio and I haven’t heard of any vertebrate fossil in Ohio

Ohio has both Devonian vertebrates (very famous for some of its fish) and a Pleistocene vertebrate fauna.  Almost the entire state is covered by Pleistocene deposits and the book "Fossils of Ohio" has a whole chapter on vertebrate fossils (birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and lots of different mammals, including deer).  Fossil, modern or something in between is pretty difficult to tell for something like the find in question.