Small Texas tooth

[johnnyvaldez7.jv]

Found this small tooth here in SE Texas. It's missing part of its root and appears to be worn at the chewing surface.  I couldn't find horse or cow to match up with it nor deer which is what I usually find.  Any thoughts?

[Jared C]

@GPayton

[Brandy Cole]

@Shellseeker

By the size and external appearance I might think senile deer, but something about the occlusal surface looks horsey to me.  It's tough since it's so worn that there's little occlusal detail to go by.

Edited December 10, 2022 by Brandy Cole
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[Coco]

@ShellseekerLook at the outline of the worn part in photo 3, didn’t you once talk about these striations on a genre ?

 

Coco

[Shellseeker]

2 hours ago, Brandy Cole said:

@Shellseeker

By the size and external appearance I might think senile deer, but something about the occlusal surface looks horsey to me.  It's tough since it's so worn that there's little occlusal detail to go by.

 

2 hours ago, Coco said:

@ShellseekerLook at the outline of the worn part in photo 3, didn’t you once talk about these striations on a genre ?

 

Coco

Thanks for thinking of me...

In this thread, @Harry Pristis shows us a p3 deer premolar of an old individual. It is 11.5 mm.  Our subject tooth is 17 or 18 mm..  Maybe Texas has very large deer...

 

 

@Coco

The HSB lines relate to 3 mammals in Florida,  Rhino, Tapir,  and Horse. Horse has Traverse HSBs across the facing of the enamel, not the chewing surface..

Also , the tooth you point me to,  has scratches on half the surface....  not across the chewing band, like this one from Rhino...

Here is a good thread with examples

I do not like taking  a position before Harry,  because I am usually incorrect.  But I am thinking cow/bison premolar

[johnnyvaldez7.jv]

I just read an article about a phenomenon called LEH (Linear Enamel Hypoplasia) in the cheek teeth of cattle and other bovid species. I wonder if this tooth qualifies as such as case due to these horizontal (waveform) lines. 

[Harry Pristis]

Well, I wasn't able to make a confident ID.  We know the tooth has some residual cementum, so we can say that the tooth may be from a bovid, though horses and cervids have some cementum over the enamel.  I don't have a good image of mule deer teeth, so can't rule it out.