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A curious Mammoth Tooth


Shellseeker

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Back on January 29th, in a Peace River location that has had a huge amount of digging activity, a fossil buddy and I were finding a few isolated undug pockets and small shark teeth that were introduced in the last floods.

Around 11am, he shouted loudly and lifted up this extraordinary find, which both of us later agreed should not have been there.. it was on the clay layer below a gravel , sand, mud mix of approximately 18 inches. This tooth had not moved for 100s (1000s) of year and since the area was well dug, should have been found years ago.

Since his children are completely uninterested in any fossil finds, he sells 99% of everything/anything he finds and friends get a 25% discount over wholesales prices ( that which a dealer will offer him). 

I saw him and the tooth again at our fossil club meeting last night, and decided to buy it  -- so you all get to see it. Questions below:IMG_2118.thumb.JPG.a0a1e431a32a67c107a528957d8627f5.JPGIMG_2119.thumb.JPG.20a5631824621af16b4b17c5c9cf19d7.JPGIMG_2120.thumb.JPG.32408927f3f6a4bbe745aca4034a4f6d.JPG

 

I like the fact that it has some of the root, shown in the last photo. I believe this to be a lower jaw tooth based on size,  and someone in the Fossil club indicated Imperial rather than Columbian Mammoth.

Question #1 -- It seems pathological -- is it? It does not seem that the chewing surface laid flat in the lower jaw. Look at the amazing steep slope on the chewing running straight into the top of the roots.  It is hard to understand how this tooth "fit" into the jaw.

Question #2 -  size is 6 inches x 6 inches x5.5 inches (last is length of chewing surface).  From my experience this is a rather small mammoth tooth even for a lower.  Does that mean juvenile?

 

I am pretty pleased with this new acquisition, even though I did not find it myself..   SS

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

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Maybe I don't understand what I'm seeing.  Your first two images show the root end of the tooth.  The third shows the occlusal surface with a substantial chunk of that surface missing.  I am having trouble relating your questions to what I see . . . can you explain?

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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1 hour ago, Harry Pristis said:

Maybe I don't understand what I'm seeing.  Your first two images show the root end of the tooth.  The third shows the occlusal surface with a substantial chunk of that surface missing.  I am having trouble relating your questions to what I see . . . can you explain?

 

Harry,

In this next photo, I have picked up the tooth and I am looking directly down at (what I believe to be ) the occlusal surface. This is the same side that you see directly in photo #1 and photo #2 above.

IMG_2499a.thumb.jpg.af23c13a85cdff5b2e8af5d155781dc9.jpg

Note that there is zero chewing wear on what I had perceived as the remaining root area in the photo below.

IMG_2477.thumb.JPG.c91200c7dae28db68db8bf68619e94ae.JPG

 

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

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Okay.  Occlusal surface, check!  Why is it notable that there is zero chewing wear on the root area?  I'm still looking for the novelty of this tooth.  The quality of your images is good.  Why not try doing less with the views you are posting.  The old left, right, and occlusal views perpendicular to the tooth are always useful.   You can augment those basic views with other views that tell your visual story.  Sorry, I don't mean to be difficult . . . I'm just trying to understand.

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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I think you are topsy-turvy, Jack (no offense intended :P)

 

As I understand it (and that is based on a small sample size of collected mammoth teeth and fragments), the layers of enamel and cementum run perpendicular to the occlusal surface. As the tooth is pushed forward in the jaw by the slow and steady conveyor belt that is the odd (for us) method of dentition replacement, the tooth is also slowly raised up to compensate for the wear on the occlusal surface. Thus (as I understand) the forward side of the tooth below would be to the left in the photo. Picture the top (occlusal) surface slowly being removed so that in the end only the bottom right corner of the tooth is left at the very end before it is ejected and the following tooth replaces it.

 

P5200017.jpg.5bac7134415e35f646e03d74c26c0e54.jpg

 

If you orient your new tooth to the same position as mine things might become clear.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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Apologies Harry, Not well thought out.

Apologies to all for delay in responding , a day of artifacts, bone valley expensive Megs and a few pristine fossils owned by others,  Thus the wait until I got home.

Ken, thanks for the suggestion and photo , It is the way I should have set up this thread to indicate why this seems like a curious or pathologiocal tooth.

1st photo -- leading edge on right more to the vertical,

2nd photo -- occlusal surface horizontal

 

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IMG_2530.JPG

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

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The plates run perpendicular (not at an angle) to the occlusal surface so I believe your hand is holding the occlusal side in both photos above. The occlusal surface does look oddly broken up as I remember from furthers further up this topic.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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20 minutes ago, digit said:

The plates run perpendicular (not at an angle) to the occlusal surface so I believe your hand is holding the occlusal side in both photos above. The occlusal surface does look oddly broken up as I remember from furthers further up this topic.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Ken, On this tooth the plates run perpendicular to the roots. In the next picture, I have placed my hand over the occlusal surface to show perpendicular plates,  In the next photo, I turned the tooth a 1/4 turn so you could see roots and occlusal surface in same photo.

 

IMG_2531x.JPG

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

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This photo 1/4 twist of tooth showing the occlusal surface under my palm..

IMG_2532x.JPG

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

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