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Bore Hole in Meg Tooth


scubapro67

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My latest find while diving off SE NC in 95ft of water - clearly a good day!  The site has numerous whale & shark tooth fossils which are eroded from a Limestone ledge overlying compacted grey-blue clay.

Can anyone identify a likely candidate for what creates the perfectly round bore holes and hollows in the teeth found around this area - I was told it was some kind of boring mollusc?

I have another tooth that resembles Swiss cheese.

 

Many thanks.

 

Duncan.

6.35 Meg.jpg

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The hole could of been made by a clam or gastropod. Below is an image of a gastropod depicting the apparatus used to create the hole.

 

Best regards, Paul

 

thumbnail_aspx.jpg.6ae39fec69b94da9c2f4ec69324ab68d.jpg

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Also found previous reference to Piddock (angel wing) clams as a possible culprit.  Guess the Geoduck may be another. 

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Great Meg, congrats! Seems to me some areas almost all the large fossils have bore holes and other spots you never see them. 

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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One of the culprits identified in this thread

 

 

 

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

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Another example is this from Chris (Plantguy)'s collection: link

 

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Gastrochaenolites sp. Pelecypod borings into C. megalodon tooth

 

 

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

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Indeed, as you already mentioned, it's probably made by a pholad (Barnea candida) (also called piddock or angel-wing), which are known to often bore holes in stone.

Here is a picture of a (modern) shell of that species, that I found on the beach of Meijendel (Netherlands).

 

IMG_1843.JPG

Max Derème

 

"I feel an echo of the lightning each time I find a fossil. [...] That is why I am a hunter: to feel that bolt of lightning every day."

   - Mary Anning >< Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier

 

Instagram: @world_of_fossils

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On 6/23/2017 at 8:00 PM, Raggedy Man said:

The hole could of been made by a clam or gastropod. Below is an image of a gastropod depicting the apparatus used to create the hole.

 

Best regards, Paul

 

thumbnail_aspx.jpg.6ae39fec69b94da9c2f4ec69324ab68d.jpg

 

Gastropods (the large necklace shell, Euspira catena, is a good example of a boring gastropod) usually bore holes in other shells, and less in stone. Those gastropods are carnivorous and prey on molluscs like clams or cockles, and bore holes in the shells of those animals in order to suck the animal out of its shell. But they bore a lot less often (if at all) in stone, because that surface is slightly too hard for them. Also, they have no interest in boring in stone, as they probably won't do anything with that hole. Therefore it is more likely that the hole in this meg was made by a pholad.

 

Here is a photo showing what is left of the meal of one of those large necklace shells:

Holes bored in clams (Mactra plistoneerlandica) found on the Zandmotor, Netherlands (Pleistocene). (Note: the holes were made when the shell was still alive, and not yet fossilized.)

 

IMG_1532 (2).JPG

Max Derème

 

"I feel an echo of the lightning each time I find a fossil. [...] That is why I am a hunter: to feel that bolt of lightning every day."

   - Mary Anning >< Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier

 

Instagram: @world_of_fossils

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