SantaFe River ID

[RCFL]

Hello! I found this while diving the santafe river last week and can't put an ID to it.  I do most of my hunting in the peace river and can't say this matches anything I have dug up in the past. May look a little whale toothy but hard to say. Any help or hints would be greatly appreciated!

 

[digit]

Have you considered a (rare) baby proboscidean tusk (worn)? I seem to remember Jack @Shellseeker or one of the other chronic Peace River hunters coming across one of these recently.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[tmaier]

In the first photo, at the top of the specimen, I see a checkerboard pattern that reminds me of proboscid ivory.

[Shellseeker]

 

Many times I have dreamed of finding a Juvenile tusk in the Peace River and spent years misidentifying all sort of random teeth and bones. But sometimes dreams to come thru... In July of 2015 I found a juvenile Mastodon tusk and provided some photos in this TFF thread

yours is one also...

[digit]

I found several hundred juvenile mastodon tusks in the Peace River on Saturday--but somehow they always transformed into dugong rib bones upon being lifted from the water (funny that).

 

I did pull some hose-nose bone frags (broken and unidentifiable other than being too big to be anything else) from the river but have yet to glean more than small fragments of tusk from the river. I'm sure it's in there somewhere--just gotta find it.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[caldigger]

You can't find many because the Pleistocene ivory poachers got most of them. There weren't too many fish and wildlife officers around at that time, so they ran unchecked most of the time.

[RCFL]

Thanks for the suggestions! Now that you say that it does have some similarities but something I am wondering about, it's not completely round, more oval... is this the shap of baby Proboscidian tusk material? Or maybe just the shape of the inner core? 

[ynot]

2 hours ago, RCFL said:

Thanks for the suggestions! Now that you say that it does have some similarities but something I am wondering about, it's not completely round, more oval... is this the shap of baby Proboscidian tusk material? Or maybe just the shape of the inner core? 

Or caused by compression during fossilization?

[Shellseeker]

4 hours ago, RCFL said:

Thanks for the suggestions! Now that you say that it does have some similarities but something I am wondering about, it's not completely round, more oval... is this the shap of baby Proboscidian tusk material? Or maybe just the shape of the inner core? 

Let's take a look at some photos. From the one above . FingerLakesFarms, you see a 3 inch lower mastodon tusk, which has an oval slanting tip and is more circular at the non-tip end. Here is a photo of a Mammut Americanus mandible which shows these lower tusks.

 

I found a 5.5 inch tusk in the Peace River that I believe is a juvenile Mammut Americanus lower tusk.  Note that is has an oval shape with a slanting tip.

It is circular at the other end. I think that slightly oval slanted tip lower tusks are likely characteristic of Mammut Americanus. I do not know if such characteristics also apply to tusks of other Probiscidians that might be found in the Peace River. 

 

NOTE to Ken. Prior to finding this tusk, the largest tusk fragment I has ever found was 2x3 inches that could only be Identified by the Schreger lines. In this case, there were associated Mastodon materials (multiple intact vertebrae) that would inply the animal died in this location and was preserved in a mixture of sand,mud,clay and only 25% gravel. Most tusks would not survive the heavy action in wet seasons.  Just another reason to bless my lucky stars.

[digit]

2 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

Just another reason to bless my lucky stars.

 

Never underestimate lucky stars as an important part of your fossil hunting gear--or Lucky Charms as part of your complete breakfast (circa 1960's).

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[RCFL]

Thanks for all of the help guys! Very happy to add this to my collection