Small Cretaceous Tooth

[Grace Bartunek]

Hello! I am having a lot of difficulty identifying a tooth I found in Big Brook Preserve in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Any insight on what it could be would be greatly appreciated. 

[siteseer]

It doesn't look like a tooth.  At first glance I thought it was a crab claw tip.

[Fossildude19]

I agree with Jess, ... it's a crab claw. 

[Trevor]

Yes, this is piece of a crab claw, probably ghost shrimp.

 

Here are pieces from where the claw broke off of.

Notice that the piece you have is one of the two pinchers:

 

[siteseer]

13 hours ago, Trevor said:

Yes, this is piece of a crab claw, probably ghost shrimp.

 

Here are pieces from where the claw broke off of.

Notice that the piece you have is one of the two pinchers:

 

 

Hi Trevor,

 

Have crabs ever been found there?  I've seen only reports of the shrimp.

 

Jess

[Trevor]

7 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

Hi Trevor,

 

Have crabs ever been found there?  I've seen only reports of the shrimp.

 

Jess

 

Crabs have indeed been found in the Late Cretaceous deposits of NJ.

 

 

I also know of a few others who have crab material, mostly carapaces.

I have a piece of the claw of a crab from the Necrocarcinidae family, specifically Necrocarcinus sp.

 

 

 

I am also unsure whether you are asking if I ID'd this find as a crab. I ID'd it as a ghost shrimp, specifically Mesostylus mortoni but did say "crab" in a general sense. I should have used crustacean. Thank you for asking.