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Mammal tooth from eastern NC ID help


JJT3

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Hi Everyone,

 

Had this tooth pop up in my screen while creek hunting sharks teeth in eastern NC. The area does produce ice age materials. It’s not all cleaned up yet but here are some shots.

 

Tanks,

John

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Like everyone else has said, horse tooth - specifically a molar from the lower jaw. 

4 hours ago, JJT3 said:

Thanks for the quick ID guys. Is this a modern day horse?

It's difficult to say for sure but there's several ways you can try and find out. One way is to tap something made of metal against it - if there's a high-pitched "tink," the tooth is mineralized to at least some degree and could be a fossil. Unfortunately this test only works in regions where one can expect the Pleistocene material to be thoroughly fossilized as this isn't always the case everywhere. Because the Pleistocene was so recent (geologically-speaking) many bones from that time period just aren't fossilized yet. 

Another test is to burn a small portion of the tooth. If there's smoke or a smell that's produced, the tooth is likely modern. Both the smoke and the smell are the result of collagen still being present in the tooth. 

Hopefully this helps!

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