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Feeding damage on a mosasaurus tooth?


aplomado

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I bought this Moroccan mosasaurus tooth in matrix some time ago.  As you can see, it has a long scrape down the side.

 

When I got it, I assumed it the tooth was damaged when it was discovered or prepared in Morocco.

 

However, I saw a tooth for sale the other day on a website with a similar mark described as "feeding damage."

 

What do you all think?  Anyone seen this sort of thing before?  Is there any way to tell feeding damage versus a more mundane type of damage?

DSCN0035.JPG

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I see this exact type of wear on more than half of Prognathodon teeth that I have seen.

I think it's a type of wear that happens where the upper and lower teeth move up against each other. But I'm not sure.

It's very common to see this though.

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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There was a paper that examined wear facets on tyrannosaur teeth and suggested it was caused by regular contact between the lingual surfaces of maxillary teeth and the labial surfaces of dentary teeth not feeding.  So LordTrilobite conclusion sounds reasonable.

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The wear facet is also always in the same place with the same general shape.

I made a thread about this a while back.

 

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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