Nanotyrannus or Tyrannosaurus rex

[Sergiorex]

Hello, I’m thinking about buying this for my first dinosaur tooth. And I was just wondering if you guys think it’s a tyrannosaur rex or nanotyrannus tooth. It’s from hell creek formation. 

[Troodon]

My standard question with all these type of questions.  Do you have a locality where this was found.  Lots of photos but the ones needed.

Without a clear view of the base it might be difficult.. Do you have a sharp, better lit, straight in photo of the crown ?

[Sergiorex]

Unfortunately I don’t, all I know is the seller says it’s from hell creek fm

[Troodon]

Sorry but all Ill say then its indeterminate with the information, and photos provided

[Sergiorex]

Ok, I’ll ask the seller for a better picture or if they know they the locality of where it was found.

[Troodon]

The shape of the base is one of the key characteristics in this identification.   Without a good look at it, its a guess.  There appears to be matrix around it and would require exposing it a bit more if the seller wants to do it.  Unfortunately provenance is part of any tooths ID and we need to be certain its HC.

[Sergiorex]

Oh, ok… thanks for the feedback. I’ll just keep looking then. I don’t think it’s worth paying the price of a trex for a tooth that may be a trex.

[Sergiorex]

What bout this one? The base seems to be circular, so trex?

[jikohr]

22 minutes ago, Sergiorex said:

What bout this one? The base seems to be circular, so trex?

I know that tooth, I've been waffling back and forth on grabbing it myself for months!

It's from Garfield County, found in a sandy creek according to the seller.

I had always assumed it would be assigned Tyrannosaur indet. since the base is too damaged to see the necessary morphology.

[Sergiorex]

Oh that’s cool, I’m probably buying it if it’s a trex tooth, thats why I was asking Troodon. that’s weird that your seller said it was from Garfield county, mines said it is from hell creek fm.

[Sergiorex]

It’s true the base seems damage though

[jikohr]

2 minutes ago, Sergiorex said:

Oh that’s cool, I’m probably buying it if it’s a trex tooth, thats why I was asking Troodon. that’s weird that your seller said it was from Garfield county, mines said it is from hell creek fm.

What's important here is determining if it is actually from the Hell Creek formation. Many sellers erroneously list Tyrannosaur teeth from that area of the U.S. as being from the Hell Creek (sometimes by accident sometimes intentionally) when they are from an older formation that would rule out Rex. This is why you need not only the formation but the locality where it was found to verify that the formation provided is accurate.

Which I think it is since Garfield County, Montana is a known Hell Creek spot but yeah definitely wait for Troodon to issue the final ruling. Maybe he'll see something I didn't that can say Rex vs Nano.

[Troodon]

The locality definitely points to Hell Creek.   Very difficult to make a positive call on this specimen since its missing a good portion of the bottom of the tooth.   Are there even serrations on it, the photo's provided are absolutely awful .

[jikohr]

There seems to be a patch of some okay serrations on it near the base of the distal edge, the rest are worn but discernable except at the tip where they are completely worn. It is tricky to tell I know, but I've gotten pretty good at making out things like that in bad photos since that's how you find good deals.

[Sergiorex]

I’m not sure, all I see is a little serrations on one side of the tooth.