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Small Unerupted Tooth


Shellseeker

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Personally I only found normal stuff today, but in the last sieve, one of my hunting partners found an odd tooth -- We were all confused at the river, but looking at it now, it seems obvious -- it is unerupted and lacks roots. Mammoth, Mastodon, tapir, and Peccary baby teeth might have this characteristic.

You can see it is very small -- about 15 mm high and from 11 to 13 mm in the oval diameter. All suggestions appreciated. SS

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The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Metaxytherium?

One of the real possibilities. It seems we are dealing with a deciduous un_erupted tooth. I think we can eliminated Mammoth & Mastodon based on size. If we are to get an ID, it likely will come from someone who has seen a tooth or photo that looks the same.

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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You wrote that the fauna had mammoths, so I assume it's Pleistocene. In that case, the modern manatee, Trichechus manatus, is more likely than the lt. Miocene Metaxytherium. There are some worn manatee teeth in this FF photo:

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/image/19694-manatee-teeth/ . It's hard to get pics of unworn teeth, because of a quirk in manatee tooth replacement - the molariform cheek teeth (the premolars look like molars) all move forward during the life of the animal, and are spit out the mouth (they don't even have pillows to put them under). This also happens in elephants and kangaroos. Why good-old adult-teeth-replacing-baby-teeth wasn't good enough for the manatees, I just don't know. In any case, to get an unerupted manatee tooth, you have to go way to the back of the jaw, just as the last tooth moves forward, and the new one pops up (or down, in upper teeth) in the space behind that tooth.

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I think it's too small to be a dugongid, or even a manatee tooth. It doesn't seem to be an adult tooth of anything I can think of . . . So, my best guess is that this is a suid (or possibly tayassuid) unerupted deciduous tooth.

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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Harry,

My question would be, "Would the cusps be close together like that in a dugong?" I've seen an unworn Metaxytherium lower molar before. The cusps were more separated. There is a small dugong that comes out of Bone Valley. I think it is more likely a peccary as you offered.

Jess

I think it's too small to be a dugongid, or even a manatee tooth. It doesn't seem to be an adult tooth of anything I can think of . . . So, my best guess is that this is a suid (or possibly tayassuid) unerupted deciduous tooth.

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I guess peccary as well

" We're all puppets, I'm just a puppet who can see the strings. "

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You wrote that the fauna had mammoths, so I assume it's Pleistocene. In that case, the modern manatee, Trichechus manatus, is more likely than the lt. Miocene Metaxytherium. .........................

I am fortunate to have Hawthorne Group, Peace River Formation as my primary hunting ground. It is a heterogeneous mix of Miocene and Pleistocene materials. You can and frequently do find Mammoth and Megalodon material in the same shovel full of gravel.

Based on the comments of Jess & Harry, I now think this is Peccary. Both Metaxytherium and Tayassuid teeth are rare finds based on experience. I performed a burn test and believe this find to be fossil. Thanks to all who commented. Jack

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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