Deinosuchus

[BellamyBlake]

I have here a tooth alleged to be Deinosuchus from the Aguja of Brewester County, Texas. It's 1" long. Does it appear to be so? And how would this be differentiated from other crocodile teeth in that formation?

 

Thank you,

Bellamy

[PaleoNoel]

Generally it's difficult to truly diagnose a genus of croc based on an isolated tooth. However, for Deinosuchus, size would be an indicator and after I re-read the wikipedia page I found that some of the first teeth discovered from Deinosuchus in NC (originally assigned to the dubious genus of Pliosaur Polyptychodon) were noted for their vertically grooved enamel, however that's not a particularly unique trait among crocodilians. 

[Thomas.Dodson]

Croc teeth are difficult to ID when multiple described species are present. There are crocs assigned to Leidyosuchus, Brachychampsa, Deinosuchus, and a Goniophylid from the Aguja. Aguja Fauna

 

We recently discussed some issues with these Cretaceous Croc teeth in this thread. In a nutshell this one will be difficult since size is often the best factor for differentiating Deinosuchus from Leidyosuchus and Brachychampsa and this one isn't large enough to rule out others. Unfortunately a lot of teeth just end up identified as "Crocodillian" in cases like this.

 

[BellamyBlake]

35 minutes ago, PaleoNoel said:

Generally it's difficult to truly diagnose a genus of croc based on an isolated tooth. However, for Deinosuchus, size would be an indicator and after I re-read the wikipedia page I found that some of the first teeth discovered from Deinosuchus in NC (originally assigned to the dubious genus of Pliosaur Polyptychodon) were noted for their vertically grooved enamel, however that's not a particularly unique trait among crocodilians. 

 

33 minutes ago, Thomas.Dodson said:

Croc teeth are difficult to ID when multiple described species are present. There are crocs assigned to Leidyosuchus, Brachychampsa, Deinosuchus, and a Goniophylid from the Aguja. Aguja Fauna

 

We recently discussed some issues with these Cretaceous Croc teeth in this thread. In a nutshell this one will be difficult since size is often the best factor for differentiating Deinosuchus from Leidyosuchus and Brachychampsa and this one isn't large enough to rule out others. Unfortunately a lot of teeth just end up identified as "Crocodillian" in cases like this.

 

Thank you both. I'm a shark guy; crocs aren't my area and I'm just getting into them. That's why I was so confused about how there are some very reputable sellers identifying some teeth from Aguja as Crocodilian, and others as Deinosuchus when they're the same size. I was thinking surely there must be some way people can tell.

 

Nevertheless, it seems my hunch was correct and it may well not be possible to rule out the others, given that 1" isn't particularly huge and I have seen Leidyosuchus and Goniopholis that exceed it like you said Thomas.

[-Andy-]

I will echo what the others said. While Deinosuchus teeth are known for being wrinkly or strialated, so too are Goniopholis teeth

 

Your best bet is to get a crown at least 1.5 inch or bigger