Polar Bear Tooth

[BellamyBlake]

I have here a tooth that a merchant claims to be a fossilized polar bear tooth, found on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. To me, it looks like it could be sea lion. Any idea?

 

 

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Then again, here's a (replica) grizzly bear tooth that looks similar to me, too:

 

[Mahnmut]

Hi,

 

bears and pinnipeds are relatively closely related, and some of the big pinnipedia are similar in their feeding also.

As far as I understand it, Polar bear, Grizzly and Brown bear teeth should be extremely similar, nearly indistinguishable except for size.

It looks as if your specimen was a little more "hooked" in the tip, with a less smooth transition from root to tip in comparison to the grizzly replica.

that would fit what i have seen in Pinnipedia teeth.

Lets hear the experts though.

Best Regards,

J

[gigantoraptor]

I'm in the bear camp. Pictures below are a bear tooth from the Drachenhöhle in Austria. Not sure what species your tooth might be, but this looks fairly recent. This darker shade of white also occurs on recent teeth after a few decennia. I'm not 100% this is not a fossil however.

 

[BellamyBlake]

3 hours ago, Mahnmut said:

Hi,

 

bears and pinnipeds are relatively closely related, and some of the big pinnipedia are similar in their feeding also.

As far as I understand it, Polar bear, Grizzly and Brown bear teeth should be extremely similar, nearly indistinguishable except for size.

It looks as if your specimen was a little more "hooked" in the tip, with a less smooth transition from root to tip in comparison to the grizzly replica.

that would fit what i have seen in Pinnipedia teeth.

Lets hear the experts though.

Best Regards,

J

Thank you for your analysis. My main concern is the same as yours - that looked tip. I'll wait for others to chime in and suspend the transaction in the meantime.

1 hour ago, gigantoraptor said:

I'm in the bear camp. Pictures below are a bear tooth from the Drachenhöhle in Austria. Not sure what species your tooth might be, but this looks fairly recent. This darker shade of white also occurs on recent teeth after a few decennia. I'm not 100% this is not a fossil however.

 

So that hooked tip is pretty normal for bears? It does seem that this characteristic matches which is reassuring. The merchant also has modern polar bear teeth on offer so they do seem to differentiate. I'll double-check that with them. Thank you for your advice.