petoskeypicker Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 Hi, I recently got this cretaceous mammal tooth from the Hell Creek formation, and I was wondering if you may help me find the scientific name of the species that it belonged to. I've done some research and learned that it was the premolar of a Multituberculate mammal. This order of mammals was diverse and there were many species. I think it might be one of the members of the Genus, Mesodma, Yet I could be wrong. I tried to narrow it down to the exact species, yet there are few examples to help me pinpoint to a certain Id. This tiny tooth is from Garfield County, Montana. it is from the late cretaceous period (~67 - 66 Ma). It measures approximately at 3/16" long by 3/16" wide (5 mm x 5 mm). It is thin and blade-like towards the top of the crown. The enamel has a grooved texture on the surface. The overall shape of crown resembles a saw blade. Hopefully I would be able to id. this specimen and to learn more about it. Feel free to ask me for better images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 Not always a slam dunk to ID this morphology of tooth. I've provided some illustrations to let you compare against to be sure. The profile at the bottom right compares several. All about the shape. Mesodma a good candidate. A few more candidates Cimolodon, dont believe its this one. Another view of Parikimys Paracimexomys 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 If its Mesodma here is a paper that helps to ID which species. Its not simple. May be best to call it Mesodma spp. smith2016.pdf 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 Thanks for posting this paper, troodon. I was not familiar with it. This lower 4th premolar may be too big for Mesodma, but then, I have not read this paper yet. In any case, petoskeypicker... nice little fossil. I personally love these things... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmerlin Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 That's a very nice tooth and a very interesting specimen And thanks Troodon for posting the pdf just had a very enjoyable read of it 1 "A man who stares at a rock must have a lot on his mind... or nothing at all' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petoskeypicker Posted January 14, 2022 Author Share Posted January 14, 2022 (edited) Thank you Troodon for uploading the paper! This looks very informative and I will continue to look into it. Edited January 14, 2022 by petoskeypicker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petoskeypicker Posted January 14, 2022 Author Share Posted January 14, 2022 39 minutes ago, ckmerlin said: That's a very nice tooth and a very interesting specimen And thanks Troodon for posting the pdf just had a very enjoyable read of it Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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