Brazos river scale/scute/bark???

[jtangandgorditi1994]

Hi everyone.  Today I had this surface find on a Brazos River mound.  Striated face looked like wood, but turned around and looked similar to bone(?).  The cross section is whitish.  [LxWxT] 1.250” x 0.500” x 0.125”.

 

Could it be a scale/scute or actually wood?  Thank you.

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

21 minutes ago, jtangandgorditi1994 said:

Striated face looked like wood, but turned around and looked similar to bone(?).

It texture resembles a really worn mammoth tooth fragment but it feels small for that (?) Maybe someone with more experience on that river will speak up ..

 

Cheers,

Brett

[garyc]

I would go with mastodon tooth fragment because of the very light colored edge. I’ve found many pieces like that

[Pemphix]

Chert/Flint ? The broken parts points into that direction, however i am not familiar with the finds in this region...

[Brandy Cole]

I'm a novice here, so take it with a grain of salt, but I agree on the mastodon tooth.  The vertical patterns on your first picture look like the ones on the tooth fragment I have and the others I've seen on the site.

 

Also, in your side view, it looks like there are two darker plates on the outside with a smooth lighter colored center between them.  That's also more like the mammoth teeth.  All the osteoderms/scutes I've found on the river don't really have that oreo cookie type side view, but teeth do.

[jtangandgorditi1994]

Thank you all didn’t think of a tooth fragment.  It’d be my first mastodon piece!

[JohnJ]

I'll respectfully disagree with mastodon tooth fragment.  The longitudinal wrinkling and relative flatness both suggest mammoth tooth fragment to me. 

[Brandy Cole]

21 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

I'll respectfully disagree with mastodon tooth fragment.  The longitudinal wrinkling and relative flatness both suggest mammoth tooth fragment to me. 

  

JohnJ, 

Thank you for the info.  I didn't realize there was such a big difference between mammoth and mastodon teeth!

[jtangandgorditi1994]

@JohnJ I see what you’re saying about the flatness. Thank you also for posting that picture, it’s a beautiful specimen and I see the similarities especially with the white cross section.

 

It’d be my first Mammoth find too anyhow!