Tiny (1cm) fossil ID help

[ano33]

Found this very small possible fossil on a beach near Charleston, SC.  The island where it was found is a former dredge spoils site with contents from the bottom of Charleston Harbor.  Would love some help to ID this curious little thing.  Thank you!

[Al Dente]

It is a fish tooth, most likely a pharyngeal tooth from a drum.

[MarcoSr]

Your tooth is a fossil bony fish tooth.  I agree with Eric that the tooth is most likely a pharyngeal tooth from a drum fish.

 

Marco Sr.

[ano33]

24 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

It is a fish tooth, most likely a pharyngeal tooth from a drum.

Thank you so much!  

 

[ano33]

10 minutes ago, MarcoSr said:

Your tooth is a fossil bony fish tooth.  I agree with Eric that the tooth is most likely a pharyngeal tooth from a drum fish.

 

Marco Sr.

Thank you very much Marco!  Learned something new today

[digit]

Yup. They look like tiny chocolate covered donuts. The black polished side is the occlusal side and the textured side is the root.

 

12 minutes ago, ano33 said:

Learned something new today

Any day I learn something new is a great day.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[ano33]

1 minute ago, digit said:

Yup. They look like tiny chocolate covered donuts. The black polished side is the occlusal side and the textured side is the root.

 

Any day I learn something new is a great day.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Thank you very much for the explanation Ken! I'm honestly surprised this is the first one I've found.  I assume they are more difficult to find due to their size.

 

[digit]

Indeed. There is a whole other world of interesting micro-fossils. If you hunt with a sifting screen to find larger shark teeth and fossils you might consider stacking 2 screens one on top of the other and putting a loose piece of window screen material in the lower screen. An upper screen with 1/4" mesh will hold back any of the larger fossils/gravel and the finer window screen (~1/16") lets through the finer sand but retains the micro-matrix gravel (between 1/4" and 1/16"). You can pour that gravel into a 5-gallon bucket and take it home to dry. Picking through the micro-matrix under minimal magnification (lighted desktop magnifier) can reveal a whole world of novel fossils that you miss when just looking for the bigger stuff.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[ano33]

27 minutes ago, digit said:

Indeed. There is a whole other world of interesting micro-fossils. If you hunt with a sifting screen to find larger shark teeth and fossils you might consider stacking 2 screens one on top of the other and putting a loose piece of window screen material in the lower screen. An upper screen with 1/4" mesh will hold back any of the larger fossils/gravel and the finer window screen (~1/16") lets through the finer sand but retains the micro-matrix gravel (between 1/4" and 1/16"). You can pour that gravel into a 5-gallon bucket and take it home to dry. Picking through the micro-matrix under minimal magnification (lighted desktop magnifier) can reveal a whole world of novel fossils that you miss when just looking for the bigger stuff.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

This is why I love this forum! Thank you for this idea Ken!  Cheers!

[Mark Kmiecik]

38 minutes ago, ano33 said:

Thank you very much for the explanation Ken! I'm honestly surprised this is the first one I've found.  I assume they are more difficult to find due to their size.

 

Now that you know how they look, you'll probably find them more frequently. Things are always easier to overlook when you're not looking for them.