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Texas Aguja Formation Mystery Tooth...Mammal?


JamieLynn

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Found this very lovely little tooth in my Aguja Formation matrix (Brewster Co. of Texas) and while the root makes me think mammal, I'm not sure what to make of it. @ThePhysicist I saw you posted a Metatheria which looks very very similar, so am wondering if it is the same critter?

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this is certainly some kind of primitive therian tooth. very interesting and the first i have seen from texas.

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Gorgeous tooth! :wub: It's certainly a mammal, which for those who don't know, are rare finds in the Mesozoic. It doesn't look like a Metatherian or Therian, rather a Multituberculate. It compares well with an upper 4th premolar of Cimolomys or something related, but I'm hardly an expert, @jpc is your guy.

 

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^ Clemens: Fossil Mammals of the Type Lance Formation, I

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"Argumentation cannot suffice for the discovery of new work, since the subtlety of Nature is greater many times than the subtlety of argument." - Carl Sagan

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." - Richard Feynman

 

Collections: Hell Creek Microsite | Hell Creek/Lance | Dinosaurs | Sharks | SquamatesPost Oak Creek | North Sulphur RiverLee Creek | Aguja | Permian | Devonian | Triassic | Harding Sandstone

Instagram: @thephysicist_tff

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Thanks for the reference letter, Physicist. 

Great find.   Definitely a multituberculate upper 4th premolar, as The Physicist has pointed out.  The publication he pulled the illustration from is for the Maastrichtian Lance Fm (valid for Hell Creek in general as well)  I am not familiar with the TX material.  I do not know if there is anything published on them, but try a google scholar search for "Aguja multituberculate".  

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Some of you may like:

Journal of Mammalian Evolution, Vol. 12, Nos. 1/2, June 2005

 On the Occlusal Fit of Tribosphenic Molars: Are We Underestimating Species Diversity in the Mesozoic?

P. David Polly, Steven C. Le Comber, and Tamsin M. Burland

read it,by all means/heavily recommended

 

Polly, Le Comber and Burland, 2005, Occlusal fits.pdf

Edited by doushantuo

 

 

 

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51 minutes ago, doushantuo said:

Fizz,the Clemens monograph is what i'd like to call "heavily unavailable" .

You''re not going to tell me you have it,do you?

 

@ThePhysicist

Heeee heeee, I do.  : )

 

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26 minutes ago, doushantuo said:

Some of you may like:

Journal of Mammalian Evolution, Vol. 12, Nos. 1/2, June 2005

 On the Occlusal Fit of Tribosphenic Molars: Are We Underestimating Species Diversity in the Mesozoic?

P. David Polly, Steven C. Le Comber, and Tamsin M. Burland

read it,by all means/heavily recommended

 

Polly, Le Comber and Burland, 2005, Occlusal fits.pdf 564.7 kB · 0 downloads

Interesting, yes, but multis are not tribosphenic mammals.   

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59 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Missed this one but from the Aguja Fm.  F: fourth premolar

Screenshot_20230209_114534_Drive.thumb.jpg.76689b94d40c9fe39d0bc26c5cb5ee19.jpg

This (E and F) are the fourth LOWER premolar, even though the complete  paper that doushanto posted above refers us to this figure while talking about the fourth UPPER premolar.  Typo? on their part?  I think so.   

The OP is 4th UPPER premolar.  

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9 hours ago, jpc said:

Thanks for the reference letter, Physicist. 

Great find.   Definitely a multituberculate upper 4th premolar, as The Physicist has pointed out.  The publication he pulled the illustration from is for the Maastrichtian Lance Fm (valid for Hell Creek in general as well)  I am not familiar with the TX material.  I do not know if there is anything published on them, but try a google scholar search for "Aguja multituberculate".  

Haven't seen much on Aguja multi's. Cimolomys I believe has been reported from other Campanian locales. Montgomery & Clark (2016) do include it as an ID for a tooth they found in Aguja.

1171686790_Screenshot2023-02-09at7_09_08PM.thumb.png.23dee89dcfe9358e509167a87a5c2fdb.png

 

"Argumentation cannot suffice for the discovery of new work, since the subtlety of Nature is greater many times than the subtlety of argument." - Carl Sagan

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." - Richard Feynman

 

Collections: Hell Creek Microsite | Hell Creek/Lance | Dinosaurs | Sharks | SquamatesPost Oak Creek | North Sulphur RiverLee Creek | Aguja | Permian | Devonian | Triassic | Harding Sandstone

Instagram: @thephysicist_tff

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