Gainesville incredibly tiny deer tooth?

[Meganeura]

Hey everyone! Posting on behalf of a friend who isn’t on TFF - he found this very small jaw section with a tooth in it in the Gainesville area. It looks like a deer tooth to me - but I’ve never seen a deer tooth this small. The crown length is 0.25”/6mm. 

 

@Shellseeker @Harry Pristis

 

[Shellseeker]

Daniel,  Can not help much.  I  have never found a cervid tooth this small. I agree that it is similar to a mandibular premolar (but not p1) of a white tail deer.  I tend to NOT research my deer fossils,  and I do not hunt North Florida which has different and earlier fauna than I find in SW Florida.

 

Here is a white_tailed pre_molar1,  about twice the size of your tooth....

 

I will watch with interest....

[fossillarry]

I checked Fossil Vertebrates of  Florida edited by Dr. Hulbert  for help on this one.  There  are three possible groups this specimen could belong to. The least likely,I believe, is a late surviving member of Leptomerycide. A member of which is present form the Late Oligocene or Early Miocene of Florid, but is not well enough known to be named. Second, it could be a member of Gelocoidae with Pseudoceras and Floridocers being well known, with a possible third unnamed new genus not well enough known to be named. I believe the tooth belongs to Superfamily Cervoidae,Family Moschidide,Subfamily Blastomerycinae.  the genera Parablastomeryx and Machaeromeryx are known from the Thomas Farm Site and similar (or identeclical) forms occur at the Miller Site. I believe the specimen is Machaeromeryx sp. mainly based on size and crown pattern . It.s not an Antilocaprid, Protoceratid,Hypertragulid,Dromercid ,Cervid or camelid  (the specimen is to small, not hypsodont enough, plus many more reasons) Very nice and rare specimen (go there again and look foe more fossils)

[Meganeura]

3 minutes ago, fossillarry said:

I checked Fossil Vertebrates of  Florida edited by Dr. Hulbert  for help on this one.  There  are three possible groups this specimen could belong to. The least likely,I believe, is a late surviving member of Leptomerycide. A member of which is present form the Late Oligocene or Early Miocene of Florid, but is not well enough known to be named. Second, it could be a member of Gelocoidae with Pseudoceras and Floridocers being well known, with a possible third unnamed new genus not well enough known to be named. I believe the tooth belongs to Superfamily Cervoidae,Family Moschidide,Subfamily Blastomerycinae.  the genera Parablastomeryx and Machaeromeryx are known from the Thomas Farm Site and similar (or identeclical) forms occur at the Miller Site. I believe the specimen is Machaeromeryx sp. mainly based on size and crown pattern . It.s not an Antilocaprid, Protoceratid,Hypertragulid,Dromercid ,Cervid or camelid  (the specimen is to small, not hypsodont enough, plus many more reasons) Very nice and rare specimen (go there again and look foe more fossils)

Thank you Larry! I actually looked in my Fossil Verts book and didn’t find anything that stood out to me - I must’ve missed it. I really appreciate the help, I’ll let my friend know he needs to keep looking!

[fossillarry]

Unfortunately there are no good pictures of this tiny "deer" in Hulberts' publication.  I have many publications and fossils I've collected over the years that I use for my research into fossil mammals and  are helpful for identifying such odd and rare fossils.

[Meganeura]

8 hours ago, fossillarry said:

Unfortunately there are no good pictures of this tiny "deer" in Hulberts' publication.  I have many publications and fossils I've collected over the years that I use for my research into fossil mammals and  are helpful for identifying such odd and rare fossils.

I need to start something similar, really - there’s so many strange fossils to be found!