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South Carolina Fossil: ID Needed!


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Hello everyone,

 

I need a little help figuring out what this fossil is. It was found at a dive site off South Carolina.

 

I'm guessing some kind of whale tooth?

 

Thanks a bunch,

 

Jay

 

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I have a hunch folks are going to want a good close look at the blunt end. I doubt it is a whale tooth.

It's just a guess, but I'm thinking more like tusk. 

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Reminds me of an entelodontid  (Daeodon sp. from Florida) lower canine.  I say lower because of the notch worn into the lower portion believed to be a result of digging up roots.  Roots? you wonder . . . what did it eat?  And the best guess is:  Anything it darn-well pleased!

 

In this image, the notch or groove is located in the black band with the asterism just below the enamel.

EdontB.JPG

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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Entelodonts ("Hell Pigs" or "Devil Pigs") are so cool--but I wouldn't have wanted to be around when they were roaming Florida. They make our feral wild boars (Sus scrofa) look like puppies.

 

Both specimens pictured above are really awesome finds.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 
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I'm going with cetacean considering it was found at a dive site off South Carolina.

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Well, first we can eliminate whale because of the absence of enamel growth rings.

 

Then, we can ignore the logic, "marine find must be a marine animal."  Lots of land mammal fossils are to be found in coastal waters.

 

Personally, I've no doubt it's an entelodont lower canine . . . I recognize the delamination pattern and the groove at mid-body is diagnostic.  The speculation is that these grooves result from digging when gritty roots slide along the base of the tooth.  Upper teeth don't have these grooves.

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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Thanks everyone for the input! I'm fairly convinced that it is an entelodont's canine now. The matching position of the notch between the entelodont teeth is pretty good evidence that it is from an entelodont.

 

Then again, it could have been from a whale which coincidentally damaged its tooth at the same spot as the notch and which had the growth rings weathered away so we don't see them anymore...

 

Still leaning towards entelodont though!

 

Jay

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Not all sperm whales have growth rings - and more importantly, the growth rings are located under the cementum. Land mammals are found frequently in the rivers here in SC, but they're almost all Pleistocene, or Pliocene at the oldest. In most of the South Carolina lowcountry, the sediments are mostly marine deposits. Sperm whale teeth have an enormous amount of variation which this fits within. Those wear facets also characterize sperm whales, including wearing down of the entire crown. To gain an appreciation of just how much variation is present within a single sperm whale individual, check out this publication by my colleague Oliver Hampe: www.foss-rec.net/9/61/2006/fr-9-61-2006.pdf   LINK

 

Compare for example this tooth with teeth #s 20, 1, 5, 4, and 18 among others.

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I may have mis-spoken about the growth rings . . . I agree that growth rings are not evident on these larger whale teeth.  I did go to that PDF file to see the illustrations.  Only one of the 13 teeth illustrated is 6 inches tall, with the typical diminutive cone of enamel for a crown.  The entelodont lower canine is more like a canid canine. 

 

I hadn't paid any attention to these teeth for years.  I made some images this afternoon, and I came away with some impressions.  These sperm whale teeth are shaped like sweet potatoes with a small knob on the end.  The entelodont lower canine is like a banana with one end dipped in caramel.  Just my impressions.  :)

 

So, here are some image to help readers decide for themselves

whale_daeodon_A.JPG

whale_daeodon_B.JPG

whale_daeodon_C.JPG

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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