What's The Biggest Size Of Spinosaurus Tooth?

[polarbear]

what's the biggest size of Spinosaurus Tooth? Anybody can give me some pictures。

[Paleoworld-101]

Don't have pictures on hand, but i'll break it down for you based on experience.

The vast majority of teeth you see for sale are small, under 3 inches. They of course get much bigger than this. Any tooth over 4 inches long is considered big, anything over 5 inches is 'huge' but these teeth nearly always consist of just the crown and a small section of root. Unless the root is fully preserved, crown and a bit of root only teeth usually don't get much bigger than 6-7 inches.

If the root of a very large Spinosaurus tooth is preserved fully, they can easily be up and over 12 inches in length. The largest I have heard of I think was 17 inches but this might be a bit exaggerated. I didn't actually see it either.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Paleoworld-101

[Down under fossil hunter]

Here is a picture of a 9 inch tooth that sold not too long ago.....

I could believe 12 inches but 17 is something I would probably have to see to believe.

BTW the large one in your post looks like a mish mash of many Spinosaur teeth, if it is size you are chasing be very careful.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Down under fossil hunter

[sseth]

Here is a picture of a 9 inch tooth that sold not too long ago.....

9%22 INCH SPINOSAURUS.jpg

I could believe 12 inches but 17 is something I would probably have to see to believe.

BTW the large one in your post looks like a mish mash of many Spinosaur teeth, if it is size you are chasing be very careful.

I too have seen a number of 8" teeth and could believe that they could reach 12" but much over that I would also need to see. I have a large number of 6-7" teeth in my collection and know that these can be found in good condition if you are careful. There are a lot of folks out there that make frankenteeth to reach larger sizes, when you purchase these larger teeth, make sure they are not composites of other teeth.

[Carcharodontosaurus]

I too have seen a number of 8" teeth and could believe that they could reach 12" but much over that I would also need to see. I have a large number of 6-7" teeth in my collection and know that these can be found in good condition if you are careful. There are a lot of folks out there that make frankenteeth to reach larger sizes, when you purchase these larger teeth, make sure they are not composites of other teeth.

Can you show us your largest teeth?

[-Andy-]

I too have seen a number of 8" teeth and could believe that they could reach 12" but much over that I would also need to see. I have a large number of 6-7" teeth in my collection and know that these can be found in good condition if you are careful. There are a lot of folks out there that make frankenteeth to reach larger sizes, when you purchase these larger teeth, make sure they are not composites of other teeth.

How would you know if you are looking at a frankenteeth?

[Paleoworld-101]

Composites can be distinguished by a cracked or broken appearance that indicates it has been glued together (with sandy patches sometimes hiding the glued spot), often with significant colour or texture difference between different sections of the tooth. The quality of the tooth is not consistent, one part might have nice enamel and then right next to that it could be sandy and worn, then back to nice again. Many of them are obvious but some are not so be careful.

Here is an example of a composite tooth- http://www.fossilera.com/sp/2015/spinosaurus/spinosaurus-maroccanus.jpg

Edited December 21, 2013 by Paleoworld-101

[Down under fossil hunter]

How would you know if you are looking at a frankenteeth?

If in doubt Andy post a pic of it in the forums i.d. section and I am sure a lot of us will only be too happy to let you know what we think of it.

What Nathan said is spot on, any patches of sandy matrix as well as colour changes more often than not are an indication that repair/restoration or enhancement has taken place.

[Nekarius]

Hi everyone,

 

First post in here. I'm opening this thread again given that I'm particularly interested in the topic. I wish to know to what theropod the largest (i.e., highest) theropod crown belong to and the size of it. I'm not interested in the largest tooth given that the root is taken into consideration and is particularly long in some theropods such as spinosaurids and tyrannosaurids.

 

With a crown height (CH; measurements taken from the apex of the tooth to the most basal part of the crown (covered with enamel) on the distal/posterior part of the tooth; see Hendrickx et al., 2015) of 145.5 mm (5.7 inches), the highest crowns recorded in the literature appear to belong to Torvosaurus sp. from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal (Malafaia et al., 2017). However, I believe that Spinosaurus and possibly Tyrannosaurus may have borne longer crowns. Does anyone of you know a Spinosaurus  or Tyrannosaurus tooth with a crown height exceeding 5.7 inches? Photos with a scale or actual measurements of the crown would be great!!

 

Many thanks for your help,

 

Christophe

 

Hendrickx, C., Mateus, O. and Araújo, R. 2015. A proposed terminology of theropod teeth (Dinosauria, Saurischia). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35 (5): e982797.

Malafaia, E., Escaso, F., Mocho, P., Serrano-Martínez, A., Torices, A., Cachão, M. and Ortega, F. 2017. Analysis of diversity, stratigraphic and geographical distribution of isolated theropod teeth from the Upper Jurassic of the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal. Journal of Iberian Geology 43 (2): 257–291.
 

   

[Down under fossil hunter]

Without doing any research the only other crown exceeding 5 inches that I have seen is Carcharodontosaurus. While it's not impossible a Rex crown over 5.7 inches is not something I have ever heard of.

it would make sense that other giant theropods Giganotosaurus etc could have crows in the range you describe.

[LordTrilobite]

Not the largest but a decent size. Tip is missing. 9 cm or 3.5 inches long

 

[Nekarius]

Thanks a lot to Dawn and LordTrilobite, appreciated! Lord, 9 cm just for the crown of this Spinosaurus tooth, not the whole tooth? If this is the case, then the crown likely exceeded 14.5 cm I would say, which is great. Would you mind taking measurements of the crown width and length at the cervix, i.e., the limit between the crown and the root please?

 

Dawn, I have taken measurements of the crowns of Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Mapusaurus and other large carcharodontosaurids that I had the chance to examine first hand, and none has a crown height exceeding 12 cm. The largest Tyrannosaurus crown I measured was that from the dentary of Sue, with almost 14 cm for the third left dentary tooth. Smith et al.'s (2005) measurements reveal that CH never exceeds that height in any of the numerous specimens of Trex he personally examined. But I would not be surprised that some Spinosaurus teeth had a crown exceeding 14.5 cm. With a crown width of 5 cm at the base crown, the fourth left maxillary tooth of the Milan specimen of Spinosaurus (MSNM V4047) is huge. Sadly enough, only the base of the crown is preserved and, therefore, no measurements can be provided for CH (same for your tooth, LordTrilobite).

 

I was hoping someone on this forum had/knew a Spinosaurus tooth with a crown exceeding 14.5 cm because Spinosaurus teeth are extremely abundant on the fossil markets of the Kem Kem and those teeth must have been purchased for a particularly high price. In any event, if anyone in the future reads this thread and possesses particularly large theropod teeth, please measure the crown height because the record so far is of 145 mm as far as I know.

 

Christophe 

Edited January 22, 2018 by Nekarius

[LordTrilobite]

 

On 1/22/2018 at 6:41 PM, Nekarius said:

Thanks a lot to Dawn and LordTrilobite, appreciated! Lord, 9 cm just for the crown of this Spinosaurus tooth, not the whole tooth? If this is the case, then the crown likely exceeded 14.5 cm I would say, which is great. Would you mind taking measurements of the crown width and length at the cervix, i.e., the limit between the crown and the root please?

 

Dawn, I have taken measurements of the crowns of Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Mapusaurus and other large carcharodontosaurids that I had the chance to examine first hand, and none has a crown height exceeding 12 cm. The largest Tyrannosaurus crown I measured was that from the dentary of Sue, with almost 14 cm for the third left dentary tooth. Smith et al.'s (2005) measurements reveal that CH never exceeds that height in any of the numerous specimens of Trex he personally examined. But I would not be surprised that some Spinosaurus teeth had a crown exceeding 14.5 cm. With a crown width of 5 cm at the base crown, the fourth left maxillary tooth of the Milan specimen of Spinosaurus (MSNM V4047) is huge. Sadly enough, only the base of the crown is preserved and, therefore, no measurements can be provided for CH (same for your tooth, LordTrilobite).

 

I was hoping someone on this forum had/knew a Spinosaurus tooth with a crown exceeding 14.5 cm because Spinosaurus teeth are extremely abundant on the fossil markets of the Kem Kem and those teeth must have been purchased for a particularly high price. In any event, if anyone in the future reads this thread and possesses particularly large theropod teeth, please measure the crown height because the record so far is of 145 mm as far as I know.

 

Christophe 

The 9 cm is for the whole specimen. That includes the small part of the root that is preserved. The preserved part of the crown 5.6 cm long. My guess is that the complete crown would have been some 7 to 8 cm long.

At the base/cervix of the crown, the tooth is 3 cm from the anterior carina to the posterior carina. And it is 2.4 cm wide there.

 

 

I do also have two Carcharodontosaurid teeth. One of which has a complete crown and the whole specimen is 6.5 cm long. So not particularly large.

 

 

This other Carcharodontosaurid tooth, while incomplete is much larger. This specimen is 4.1 cm long. And judging from the curve, and based on my more complete tooth, this is less than half of the crown. So it may have been somewhere around 9 or possibly slightly larger.