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What is this North American Megafauna Fossil Tooth?


bongysongy

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What is this fossil tooth from Dakota? Found in the 1980's, the location is not know, perhaps from near Belle Fourche, Butte County, South Dakota, USA.

 

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Edited by bongysongy
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 I may be wrong but this could be a (or part of a) entelodont molar. The occlusal surface is bunodont which is a feature found in the entelodontidae, and as far as I know South Dakota is famous for it's Oligocene mammalian faunas which include entelodonts such as Archaeotherium and Daeodon.  

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Nice tooth! 

I agree with the above, if you look at these Archaeotherium teeth for comparison I think it's a pretty close match.

Image result for entelodont tooth

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Tortoise Friend.

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yes, Archaeotherium.  Interesting that is it labeled "Dakota".  There are two Dakotas, North ans South.  The word is rarely used without the geographic specifiers.  

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Yes, I plagiarized this question from a physical geography forum because I knew the guy wouldn't find a real paleocene specialists there. I am so bad at names. In my mind right now I was thinking "why did they name a place big butte creek in America, that sounds jamaican" and actually it's butte county. Hope I can go there one day.  

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8 minutes ago, bongysongy said:

butte

A butte is a land feature, like a small Mesa. They are beautiful if you ever get a chance to see one!

Always thought entelodonts were cool, big scary pigs from the past. 

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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38 minutes ago, Troodon said:

However no buttes in Butte County, SD is pretty flat just rolling prairies.  Nice country. 

The tricksters!

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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12 minutes ago, RyanDye said:

Here's an acrotherium of my own for reference. These were found in south dakota, white river formation. 

 

 

Nice! :)

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Tortoise Friend.

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