A Whale with no name

[Shellseeker]

My hunting days, during South Florida's rainy season are few and far between. I wait for and really appreciate the opportunities that come my way. I was out with a friend in the sunshine today. We were finding lots of small teeth, plus sand tigers, upper/lower hemis, a few small Makos,  and I even picked up a Meg. There also were a number of sting ray teeth, denticles and broken spines.

Then , in the 2nd last sieve of the day, I found one of my favorites -- a whale tooth, but not just any whale. I have found a number of Kogiopsis .sp teeth and somewhat fewer Scaldicetus teeth, both of which are know to exist in Florida.

This one is neither Kogiopsis or Scaldicetus...

Very odd. Is that enamel on the outside with flaking horizontal bands tradition or cementum?  A little bit of a "bulb"  at the root end, and one of the oddest root terminations I have ever seen on something I think to be whale.

 

Last year I was fortunate to be "gifted" a number of Aulophyseter morrice teeth from a friend who hunts Shark Tooth Hill.  I added a photo of this newly found tooth, just to indicate that there are other whales with teeth this size, even though they do not match other characteristics.

 

I had a fantastic day. I found a high quality whale tooth that very likely can not be identified. and finding one gives me hope that I will find more like it.I decided to publish photos just in case others have found similar teeth...   Jack

[Boesse]

Question! Why do you think this is not "Kogiopsis"? There's a fair amount of variation in size in these teeth; here's a scatterplot of tooth length to width for similar teeth from the Lee Creek Mine (and it has occurred to me briefly re-reading this paper that what everyone is calling "Kogiopsis" might be better called "Physeterula"). Your specimen also appears to be missing cementum, so the tooth would have originally been somewhat thicker.

 

[Shellseeker]

22 hours ago, Boesse said:

Question! Why do you think this is not "Kogiopsis"? There's a fair amount of variation in size in these teeth; here's a scatterplot of tooth length to width for similar teeth from the Lee Creek Mine (and it has occurred to me briefly re-reading this paper that what everyone is calling "Kogiopsis" might be better called "Physeterula"). Your specimen also appears to be missing cementum, so the tooth would have originally been somewhat thicker.

Bobby,

Apology for the delay in this response.  I was out hunting Megs and Whales.

Thanks for the question.  and the chart.  I had not seen it previously.

As with many things, I get fixated on a few things that interest me, and ignore almost everything.  One of my fixations is Florida Whale teeth. I have been fortunate to find a lot of them.

One of my earliest "whale" teeth was this one: horizontal banding, enamel tip, 26 mm.  I have never found another quite like it and I have resigned myself to never knowing what mammal produced this tooth. In my mind, it is a tooth from a whale with no name.

85% of the Florida teeth I find or acquire from the mines or in the Peace River are Kogiopsis .sp,  most of the remainder is Scaldicetus. The remaining are some thing else, pretty rare. If it does not have enamel, it is Kogiopsis.

 

Almost all whale teeth I find have an open root area. and I have found some interesting teeth, I designated Kogiopsis over the last couple of years.

 

This last one I designated Physeter .indet because I was not completely sure that teh cap was not enamel.

Note the root ends.  Not jaggedly broken but smooth , open roots. So, I am thinking that the natural state for Kogiopsis in open_rooted.

In March, I found this tooth.... Small, thin, cementum over dentine, wear on the tip facet.... and closed root. It reminded me of some STH Aulophysters.

 

Then I find some other interesting small whale teeth this year.. There are a LOT of small whale teeth in the areas I hunt. Most are broken but a few are not... and the unbroken seem to have closed roots.

 

So now  I am back to this tooth I found friday... It clearly has closed roots and a pretty unusual closed root.

22 hours ago, Boesse said:

Question! Why do you think this is not "Kogiopsis"? There's a fair amount of variation in size in these teeth; here's a scatterplot of tooth length to width for similar teeth from the Lee Creek Mine (and it has occurred to me briefly re-reading this paper that what everyone is calling "Kogiopsis" might be better called "Physeterula"). Your specimen also appears to be missing cementum, so the tooth would have originally been somewhat thicker

 

So, I was basing a good part of my decision on the root area. Closed roots on juveniles versus open roots on larger teeth..  But also the size.  I had not seen/read the study you tooth this chart from... (If you provide the name, I'll go read it, hoping the authors described the characteristic of their smallest teeth.  Also likely unsound, I could see that the width of the banding seems wider proportional to the tooth,  a shared feature of that I can not identify. You have also given me a new thread to follow:  Physeterula..

 

I always come away from discussions with you with additional reading assignments:  That's a good thing.