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Dromaeosaur tooth?


Rustdee

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Hi all,

 

I found this tooth in a locality where the formations of the Black Creek Group are present in Eastern North Carolina. The Black Creek Group contains the Tar Heel Formation, the Bladen Formation, and the Donoho Creek Formation. These formations are late Cretaceous and range from early Campanian to early Maastrichtian. Dinosaur fossils are known from this locality, including hadrosaurs, tyrannosaurs, and dromaeosaurs. This locality primarily preserves marine fossils, such as shark teeth and crocodile teeth and bones, but also dinosaur material.

 

There are serrations on the tooth, however, I am not sure my camera can capture those. I believe that I need a different lens for that much magnification. Would love to hear thoughts about this tooth. I would be happy to provide any additional photos or information that may be missing.

 

Thanks!

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Hi Tony,

 

Thanks for the reply and compliment!

 

I am a bit embarrassed to say that I do not have a metric ruler nearby at the moment. I will get one tomorrow. There are still serrations present. Unfortunately, they are very worn. I will give it a go at counting them. Hopefully my eyes are up for the task!

 

Best,

Dan

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Thanks. I believe that I can make out 11 or 12 serrations for the 1/8 inch scale. I will count again tomorrow and see if I get the same number.

 

For clarification, the serration count is for the serrations inside the curve of the tooth. I am not sure I will be able to count the serrations on the outside, as there seems to be too much wear.

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Excellent and rare find.

 

Its a theropod tooth. Best not to get overly diagnostic without other associated specimens.  Measuring serrations, etc. is fun to do but is tentative in confirmation. Its best to consult a list of  the theropods named in the 'published' research paper of the fauna in the formation and tentatively identify it as on of those (such as Dromeosaur).

 

Where there is one there is likely another!  In our rich Cretaceous deposits raptor teeth are usually found among specimens of turtle, croc, fish, non marine gastropods, etc. The distinct recurved teeth catch the eye among other stuff.  

 

Just a note.  We likely find a dozen shed hadrosaur and ceratopsian teeth for every raptor tooth.  These may be less than a cm in length and, unless oriented the right way, will be overlooked.  Its good to get a handle at what these look like (and not the complete teeth you often see in photos).

 

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Rustdee, great find. In NC any raptor tooth is exceptionally rare. I would call your tooth Dromadaeosauridae indet.  I do not believe there has been any ID to genus or species level for this family for finds here in North Carolina. I would also encourage you to think about donating this tooth to the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences as they do not have a Dromaeosauridae tooth from North Carolina in their collections and this could be an extremely scientifically important find for dinosaur science in our state. 

 

Again, fantastic find.

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image.png.0c956e87cee523facebb6947cb34e842.png May 2016  MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160.png.b42a25e3438348310ba19ce6852f50c1.png May 2012 IPFOTM5.png.fb4f2a268e315c58c5980ed865b39e1f.png.1721b8912c45105152ac70b0ae8303c3.png.2b6263683ee32421d97e7fa481bd418a.pngAug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png.af5065d0585e85f4accd8b291bf0cc2e.png.72a83362710033c9bdc8510be7454b66.png.9171036128e7f95de57b6a0f03c491da.png Oct 2022

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Congratulations on your find, any dinosaur material from the east coast is super.   The preservation of your tooth may make it difficult to determine exactly what it is but we may be able to put a family on it or eliminate some.   No determination can be made without careful examination of the serrations so hopfully some are present on both edges.    I would be very hesitant to put a Dromaeosaurid label on it and would lean against it at this moment without additional information.  The shape of the tooth alone does not determine family, this tooth could easily be a juvenile tyrannosaurid or other smaller theropod.   If you cannot do a serration count of both carinae hopefully you can look at the denticles and see if there is any difference in size between them that would tell us a lot.  I would like to see more closeups of the serrations in more light if that's possible.  Also, what County was this found in?

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Thanks everyone! Troodon that is probably the best I can get with my current camera equipment. I need to look into getting some better magnification tools.

 

Also, thanks for the suggestion sixgill! I will look into the NC museum; I hate to say that I haven't been there in about 10 years. 

 

This is very exciting! :dinothumb:

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Nice tooth!! Of the thousands of shark teeth that I have collected in the Cretaceous of MS, I have only found one and a half dinosaur teeth (both hadrosaurs). They are very rare here in the Southeast as most were deposited during "float and bloat" situations in the open sea.

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Right shape for dromaeosaur but without a close up of the serrations it's hard to tell. Interesting texture to the tooth, looks flutted. I wonder if that's just wear or morphology. As of right now I agree with Troodon, stick with theropod. Awesome tooth, I'm quite jealous.

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