Alligator/Crocodile Tooth Fossil?

[BellamyBlake]

I have here a 25mm long tooth from Bone Valley, Polk County, Florida. It is from the Miocene. The seller advertises this as a crocodile tooth. To me, it looks alligator. I could be wrong; how might one differentiate?

 

 

[Shellseeker]

Each fossil hunter  have their own differentiators..  I find LOTS of gator teeth, few croc teeth:

In the photo below, the ridgeline going north_south is called a carina.  Mostly gators have carinas , crocs do not.

 

I also tend to think that gator teeth are short and fat compared to smaller long and skinny croc teeth.  Finally, Croc has longitudinal lines.  2nd from the left is what I think of as a proto_typical Croc tooth.

 

If I had to choose on your tooth one or the other, it is probably Croc,  but not a particularily good example of one.  Wait for one of those prototypical Croc teeth come up  for sale....

[BellamyBlake]

1 hour ago, Shellseeker said:

Each fossil hunter  have their own differentiators..  I find LOTS of gator teeth, few croc teeth:

In the photo below, the ridgeline going north_south is called a carina.  Mostly gators have carinas , crocs do not.

 

I also tend to think that gator teeth are short and fat compared to smaller long and skinny croc teeth.  Finally, Croc has longitudinal lines.  2nd from the left is what I think of as a proto_typical Croc tooth.

 

If I had to choose on your tooth one or the other, it is probably Croc,  but not a particularily good example of one.  Wait for one of those prototypical Croc teeth come up  for sale....

Thank you, your analysis is always much obliged. I may well wait; 25 mm is a little smaller than I'd like, or simply search for one on sale from the Potomac because those look a good bit more sizeable.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

19 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

Mostly gators have carinas , crocs do not.

 

I also tend to think that gator teeth are short and fat compared to smaller long and skinny croc teeth.  Finally, Croc has longitudinal lines.

From my experience with Mesozoic reptile teeth, crocodile teeth typically do have carinae, or cutting edges, while this is a very uncommon feature in marine reptile teeth - to the extent that if a tooth has carinae, you can basically be certain it's croc. Though I'm aware crocodile teeth sometimes lack the carinae, I'm a bit surprised by your attributing such teeth to alligators...

 

Though I admittedly have but a few gator teeth in my collection, I think a much better way of differentiating is on shape and tooth ornamentation. Crocodile teeth (excluding those of shell-crushing crocodiles) are more slender, taper into a point, and often bear striations running the length of the crown in parallel (as opposed to interdigitating), from root to tip. Gator teeth, on the other hand, are more robust, in the sense that they're stubbier, have a more overall rounded appearance, and may have rugose ornamentation.

 

As such, I would classify OP's specimen as a crocodile tooth based on smooth surface - though probably resulting from the rolled and worn condition the tooth is in - and extrapolation of the tooth's shape into a pointed tip. Your own example specimen I'd still class as an alligator as well, though (even though it has a smooth surface), primarily due to the area of rugose ornamentation near the rounded tip of tbe tooth...

[Shellseeker]

6 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

Crocodile teeth (excluding those of shell-crushing crocodiles) are more slender, taper into a point, and often bear striations running the length of the crown in parallel (as opposed to interdigitating), from root to tip. Gator teeth, on the other hand, are more robust, in the sense that they're stubbier, have a more overall rounded appearance, and may have rugose ornamentation.

 

I think this is a great way to describe the differences in the teeth.... I could not phrase it better.

 

I find maybe 100 gator teeth for each identifiable croc tooth.  Like my example above, the carina can be distinctive on 80% of those gator teeth.. In comparison, when I find  a Croc tooth , it looks almost exactly like this.  The carina is very hard to isolate between the striations.. It may be that I do not see the same great variety and number of Croc teeth in my hunting areas ...

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

3 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

I find maybe 100 gator teeth for each identifiable croc tooth.  Like my example above, the carina can be distinctive on 80% of those gator teeth.. In comparison, when I find  a Croc tooth , it looks almost exactly like this.  The carina is very hard to isolate between the striations.. It may be that I do not see the same great variety and number of Croc teeth in my hunting areas ...

It's true that the carinae on crocodile teeth kind of disappear amongst the striations, as in the case of the tooth above. But they're still there, though.

 

The easiest way to identify them is to look at the tip of the tooth, and trace them down the sides of the crown - although they might not reach all the way down to the root. The carinae will be thicker than regular striations, however, and/or may mark a difference in the tooth's degree of cross-sectional curvature (i.e., the shape in the horizontal plane, or "bulginess" of the tooth).

[grandpa]

See also an earlier thread on the topic:

 

 

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

5 hours ago, grandpa said:

See also an earlier thread on the topic:

 

 

Great guide and can definitely recommend it. Shares a lot of ideas with my own observations, but also uses excellent wording to express these.