buntingw Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Tooth identification needed for two separate finds. Found in Southport, NC (Brunswick County) near the Cape Fear inlet. Common place for bones too wash ashore. Teeth are a new find. Pictures below. Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brett Breakin' Rocks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 20 minutes ago, buntingw said: Found in Southport, NC (Brunswick County) near the Cape Fear inlet. Hi There, Welcome to the forum ! These are definitely Bovid (cow/bison), you can differentiate bovid from something like a camel because the stylid is present. One of the teeth it looks like it has worn away a bit. I'm not familiar with cow teeth (or fossil preservation) possibly found in that area and would be curious if these are modern. On the East Coast -generally- we are used to seeing phosphatized (black) Pleistocene fossils. Image Credit: Fossil Treasures Cheers, Brett 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
buntingw Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 2 minutes ago, Brett Breakin' Rocks said: Hi There, Welcome to the forum ! These are definitely Bovid (cow/bison), you can differentiate bovid from something like a camel because the stylid is present. One of the teeth it looks like it has worn away a bit. I'm not familiar with cow teeth (fossil preservation) possibly found in that area and would be curious if these are modern. Image Credit: Fossil Treasures Cheers, Brett Thanks! Cow would have been my guess. Perhaps wild cow. I believe there still exist a wild beach herd of cow in South Carolina. I found an old cow toe back following a hurricane in August. These could, too, be from that same area southward. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brett Breakin' Rocks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 8 minutes ago, buntingw said: These could, too, be from that same area southward. Yeah, and for comparison this is a Bison tooth from the Summerville area. My personal find. Cheers, Brett Quote Link to post Share on other sites
digit Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Just judging by the light coloration I'd probably guess modern cow over Pleistocene bison. If you wanted to be more sure you could apply a small flame briefly to a bit of the fossil. Modern (non-mineralized and fossilized) bone still has a protein (collagen) matrix holding the calcium phosphate together. It will smell of burning hair if heated sufficiently. This flame test is sometimes used when it is difficult to distinguish modern from fossil finds (like deer teeth or horse teeth in Florida as they are found in both fossil and modern forms). Welcome to the forum! Lots of useful fossil information and great members to be found here. Cheers. -Ken 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thomas.Dodson Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 The thin and weak stylid (note the pictures Brett posted) is a strong indicator of a cow over a Bison. Cow stylids tend to be thin walled, weak, and often fall off when the cementum is gone as opposed to the robust stylids of Bison. Because it is cow you can be sure it is modern as they weren't present in North America before domestication. The wild beach herds you have heard of are feral remnants of escaped domestic cattle. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
buntingw Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 2 hours ago, Thomas.Dodson said: The thin and weak stylid (note the pictures Brett posted) is a strong indicator of a cow over a Bison. Cow stylids tend to be thin walled, weak, and often fall off when the cementum is gone as opposed to the robust stylids of Bison. Because it is cow you can be sure it is modern as they weren't present in North America before domestication. The wild beach herds you have heard of are feral remnants of escaped domestic cattle. Thanks! I had sort of come to this conclusion poking around the internet for what its worth most days. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
buntingw Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 2 hours ago, digit said: Just judging by the light coloration I'd probably guess modern cow over Pleistocene bison. If you wanted to be more sure you could apply a small flame briefly to a bit of the fossil. Modern (non-mineralized and fossilized) bone still has a protein (collagen) matrix holding the calcium phosphate together. It will smell of burning hair if heated sufficiently. This flame test is sometimes used when it is difficult to distinguish modern from fossil finds (like deer teeth or horse teeth in Florida as they are found in both fossil and modern forms). Welcome to the forum! Lots of useful fossil information and great members to be found here. Cheers. -Ken You've intrigued my inner pyromania from childhood Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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