Jump to content

What is considered Large, for a Fossil Crocodile Tooth?


Rock Hound

Recommended Posts

At what size, do you consider fossil Crocodile teeth to be Large?  I do recognize that the answer will be dependent upon the particular species, but in general; what is a Large Croc tooth?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you asking about Extinct species,  what age?    A large late Triassic Crocodyliform tooth would be much smaller than those Cretaceous ones.  Giant Sarcosuchus teeth from Niger can be several inches long.  Same for Deinosuchus which inhabited north america had super long teeth.  While cenozoic teeth were quite a bit smaller.  All about age, location and species

  • I found this Informative 1
  • Enjoyed 1
  • Thank You 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Troodon said:

Deinosuchus

I did a quick search on these as I was curious regarding size as well.  I did find articles indicating the size to be 6-7 inches+ which is pretty neat.  Are these rare to find today? I did not find any actual ones on popular websites.

*Frank*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, FB003 said:

I did a quick search on these as I was curious regarding size as well.  I did find articles indicating the size to be 6-7 inches+ which is pretty neat.  Are these rare to find today? I did not find any actual ones on popular websites.

I dont know how big the crowns can get but they were some of the largest around, especially in North America.  Ive never seen any super large ones in the open market most are in the 1 to 2 inch range.  Seen some from the Aguja 3".  Definitely rare on the bigger ones.

  • Thank You 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ask because I don't see very big teeth for sale.  Maybe 1 inch in length, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would say anything over 2 inches is large especially if you're asking about what has been on the market.  However, as Troodon noted, croc teeth can be at least an inch bigger from certain localities.  You just don't see them for sale.  Years ago, I traded for a Deinosuchus tooth which might have been just under 2 inches.  I've also seen a croc tooth from the Pleistocene of Java that was probably 2 1/2-3 inches.

 

I have learned that a croc tooth over maybe 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 inches from the Late Paleocene Aquia Formation is considered large.  A tooth around 2 inches might be considered gigantic.  Certainly, a really nice crown that size is rare.  Maybe some Aquia collectors will offer additional comment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, siteseer said:

I've also seen a croc tooth from the Pleistocene of Java that was probably 2 1/2-3 inches.

I've seen some of those huge Sangiran croc teeth as well; the biggest I have is around 1.7". Although a lot of it has some funky resto going on with them. I think the species is, or was Crocodylus ossifragus which became synonymous with the extant Crocodylus siamensis aka the Siamese Crocodile. Not sure if Crocodylus cf. siamensis is more accurate.

 

4 hours ago, siteseer said:

I have learned that a croc tooth over maybe 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 inches from the Late Paleocene Aquia Formation is considered large.  A tooth around 2 inches might be considered gigantic.  Certainly, a really nice crown that size is rare.  Maybe some Aquia collectors will offer additional comment.

Apparently there are Planocraniidae indet. teeth from the Aquia Formation? I recall there were listing on auction a while back of, what looked like Planocraniidae teeth sold as Thecachampsa from Belvedere Beach with the compressed theropod-esque teeth. I bought like 60 of them out of curiosity, and the compressed teeth averaged 0.5-0.7", but I'm guessing they get way bigger than that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Kikokuryu said:

I've seen some of those huge Sangiran croc teeth as well; the biggest I have is around 1.7". Although a lot of it has some funky resto going on with them. I think the species is, or was Crocodylus ossifragus which became synonymous with the extant Crocodylus siamensis aka the Siamese Crocodile. Not sure if Crocodylus cf. siamensis is more accurate.

 

Apparently there are Planocraniidae indet. teeth from the Aquia Formation? I recall there were listing on auction a while back of, what looked like Planocraniidae teeth sold as Thecachampsa from Belvedere Beach with the compressed theropod-esque teeth. I bought like 60 of them out of curiosity, and the compressed teeth averaged 0.5-0.7", but I'm guessing they get way bigger than that.

 

I have a hippo tooth from there (not sure if it's an extinct genus) but it seems well-fossilized for a Pleistocene specimen.  Someone patched parts of the root with what seems like putty and putty mixed with sand.  It's not bad prep for what they might have had to work with as the contours of the crown and root seem to be preserved.

 

I'm not sure I've seen Planocraniidae teeth from there before.  Are they serrated?  I have a serrated tooth from the Eocene of France that is either a large lizard or one of those "land crocs."  Years ago, I saw a couple of odd croc teeth that may be Bottosaurus from the Paleocene of North or South Carolina.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

8 hours ago, siteseer said:

I'm not sure I've seen Planocraniidae teeth from there before.  Are they serrated?  I have a serrated tooth from the Eocene of France that is either a large lizard or one of those "land crocs."  Years ago, I saw a couple of odd croc teeth that may be Bottosaurus from the Paleocene of North or South Carolina.

Didn't consider Bottosaurus. As for serrations, I'm not 100% sure. It could just be the angle I'm looking at it through the scope, but some appear to have serrations-esque things? But again, it could just be how I rotated the tooth. Others have a wrinkled cutting edge. A lot of it is only visible under a scope.

266236209_BelvedereCroc1.jpg.122e08568dedb2922a9651e0fab482c6.jpg1023669832_BelvedereCroc3.thumb.jpg.fa40edb8e791226fc613d120db1bf308.jpg

Compressed, possible Planocraniidae teeth on the top.

 

The bottom right compressed fang like teeth only have 1 prominent cutting edge, while the distal side has weak carinae, worn, or possibly nonexistant.

 

The 4 on bottom left are just standard croc teeth. Robust teeth with stirations.

620365047_BelvedereCroc4.thumb.jpg.5714584688546f45b0bf2cd20d028239.jpg867164586_BelvedereCroc2.thumb.jpg.e1f27f51427cdd4ea80d099899fe3039.jpg

  • Enjoyed 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a nice array of teeth.  I think a specialist would say that is a crenulated cutting edge rather than serrated.  Interesting.  I will have to watch for that the next time I see some Aquia croc teeth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/9/2022 at 3:55 PM, siteseer said:

I have learned that a croc tooth over maybe 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 inches from the Late Paleocene Aquia Formation is considered large.  A tooth around 2 inches might be considered gigantic.  Certainly, a really nice crown that size is rare.  Maybe some Aquia collectors will offer additional comment.

 
@MarcoSr has some huge Aquia croc teeth pictured on his website.

 

My personal best from that formation is 1.77”. It’s missing nearly all of it’s enamel, but still a nice big tooth!


C751C560-1F1E-416F-92FC-E88797ADAFFD.thumb.jpeg.afb13f2d4ad2f9fed59c1ebf9d87bfb8.jpeg

 

  • Enjoyed 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/11/2022 at 8:08 PM, bthemoose said:

 
@MarcoSr has some huge Aquia croc teeth pictured on his website.

 

My personal best from that formation is 1.77”. It’s missing nearly all of it’s enamel, but still a nice big tooth!


C751C560-1F1E-416F-92FC-E88797ADAFFD.thumb.jpeg.afb13f2d4ad2f9fed59c1ebf9d87bfb8.jpeg

 

 

The vast majority of collected fossil croc teeth are shed crowns, where the root of the tooth was broken apart by the new emerging tooth underneath.  Fossil croc teeth with full roots are not shed teeth, but were in the jaw when the croc died.  A fully rooted croc tooth can be two times or more larger than the crown size.  So when talking about large size you need to state also fully rooted or partially rooted or just a crown.  Your tooth above looks like it is partially rooted.

 

I don't remember posting any of my croc teeth to Phat-fossils, and those that are posted there are mostly Mel's with a few being Marco Jr.'s.  I just looked at my Aquia Formation croc teeth and the largest just crowns that I have are around 1.75 inches.  I have a number of croc teeth from the Aquia Formation with partial roots over 2 inches.  Mel or Marco Jr. found years ago a fully rooted Aquia Formation croc tooth that was around 3 inches.

 

Marco Sr.

 

 

 

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

image.png.9a941d70fb26446297dbc9dae7bae7ed.png image.png.41c8380882dac648c6131b5bc1377249.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/12/2022 at 10:50 PM, MarcoSr said:

Your tooth above looks like it is partially rooted.


It might very well be. There’s almost no enamel left on the tooth so it’s hard (for me at least) to tell where the transition to root might be, but somewhere above the bit of enamel that is there I suppose, and possibly right around there.

 

89D0659B-FE6B-41B7-9A1E-73EAC4D4E3F8.thumb.jpeg.bf1d30ee32ca0d673810fc04c0edc410.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I’ll say from my experince, jurassic morrison fm croc teeth are on the very small end… 3/4 inch (2cm) is huge.  Lance fm (latest cretaceous) croc teeth are a bit bigger but still, an inch and a half is big.  The early eocene ones are about the same, and the middle eocene has some much bigger teeth as well as crocs (bridger fm).  
 

yes, croc teeth vary greatly ftom one formation to another

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...