Florida Tooth

[Cluros]

This was found in the Peace River. It looks like a molar to me. My father thinks it is a whale tooth. Help us resolve this. I think the long pointy part is the root. Here are three photos. You can see growth rings in the bulbous end. 

[abyssunder]

I'm going to believe that it looks more like a weathered sedimentary structure like banded chert or similar, rather than a large tooth.

[ynot]

Does not look like a tooth. Banded chert sound possible.

[calhounensis]

Kind of looks like a whale tooth to me.

[SailingAlongToo]

@Boesse

[Shellseeker]

I have not seemed anything like this texture in 10 years of hunting the Peace River. It is not dugong rib. Very difficult for me to believe this is a tooth or a tusk. Worn bone of an elephant like animal or fossilized coral would be my long shot guesses.

I would be glad to hear other opinions.

[caldigger]

A stopper for a really big whisky jug.

[ynot]

@Cluros,

Can You take some close up shots of the surface of the piece to show the patterns.

[SailingAlongToo]

41 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

I have not seemed anything like this texture in 10 years of hunting the Peace River. It is not dugong rib. Very difficult for me to believe this is a tooth or a tusk. Worn bone of an elephant like animal or fossilized coral would be my long shot guesses.

I would be glad to hear other opinions.

 

I'm really going out on a "limb" here. Get It? 

Photo 3 is only one that kept me from saying wood (on phone screen not computer screen.) The chip at the top and the "bumps" along the bottom, smaller diameter portion have me thinking bone. Which bird (maybe many, but 1 in particular) has feathers that attach to bone, turkey maybe??

 

Just a wild guess. Google, Gobble!!

[SailingAlongToo]

Given we haven't seen photo of smaller diameter end, may be hollow or partially. Be a big bird though.

Then again, could be a nice big whiskey jug like caldigger suggested. 

[Boesse]

The end with the growth rings is really reminiscent of derived sperm whales that lack tooth enamel, or perhaps an enameled tooth that has been worn all the way down to the gumline. Not a bird bone - doesn't appear to even be a bone. I tentatively agree with a sperm whale ID, but it is not well preserved and those bumps are quite strange.

[ynot]

3 minutes ago, Boesse said:

The end with the growth rings is really reminiscent of derived sperm whales that lack tooth enamel, or perhaps an enameled tooth that has been worn all the way down to the gumline. Not a bird bone - doesn't appear to even be a bone. I tentatively agree with a sperm whale ID, but it is not well preserved and those bumps are quite strange.

Even with a (almost) square cross section? (First picture.)

[Harry Pristis]

I think it is a large sperm whale tooth.  The enamel core worn even with the dentin/cementum cladding is a tell.

 

 

[Boesse]

On 8/10/2017 at 11:52 AM, ynot said:

Even with a (almost) square cross section? (First picture.)

Plenty of cetaceans with teeth that are too large end up with flattened sides; killer whales have teeth that have a rectangular cross section, for example: