Unknown Fossilised Teeth

[nsismey]

Hi,

I am new to this forum. About 15 years ago my grandmothers brother gave me a fossil, he said he found it in a mine when he was a miner. Since then it has been stored in a cool dry place but I occasionally admire the fossil. There are two fossils, both consist of 5 parralel rows of small blunt teeth that are in very good condition.

I have always wanted to know exactly what they are, any help is appreciated.

Cheers

[nsismey]

I forgot to mention I have two different pieces which are very similar.

[Auspex]

From this image, I get the impression that it may be a weathered partial mammoth tooth (they are made up of a series of 'plates').

[uscedisto]

I was thinking the same thing.

[nsismey]

Are they a rare find? They were found in the uk

[Taogan]

There are one or two things about this that don't convince me about this specimen. Mammoths here tend to be found in gravel pits not mines, and the banding doesn't look right to be the laminations of a mammoth tooth. Where was it found? Could you show us another angle, the picture only shows a laminated object which may be a fragment of tooth?

[garyc]

Maybe it's just the picture, but it looks like it has been polished.

[mammothhunter]

It's for sure a mammoth molar. I've seen many of them and if you look at the breakage of the dentine (Ivory) between the enamel plates, it shows typical dentine formation for mammoth.

Additionally, you can see the wavey pattern in the enamel that has been flattened off by cutting.

[nsismey]

The teeth have never been polished, the flash on the camera may be giving that effect. the small teeth on the fossil look almost like miniature human teeth. I'm not sure whether it was a mine or gravel pit as I was quite young at the time and unfortunately the relative who gave me the fossils has passed away some time ago.

[Taogan]

The fossil is a fragment of mammoth tooth, as a fragment not particularly rare, whole ones are more sought after. Being made of plates mammoth teeth in this country tend to be fragmentary and the gravel pits gave us a lot when things were still done by hand