N. Sulphur River ID

[Jakuzi]

Found this interesting piece over the weekend in the North Sulphur River.  What has me curious is the tube on what I’m calling ‘the back’ that has calcified. Any ideas on what it is and what it came from?

[Fruitbat]

Looks like a piece of mammoth molar.  The brownish-colored material appears to be enamel.  The 'tube' appears to be bit of one of the dentine plate tubercles of the next plate of the tooth.

 

-Joe

[Jakuzi]

3 minutes ago, Fruitbat said:

Looks like a piece of mammoth molar.  The brownish-colored material appears to be enamel.  The 'tube' appears to be bit of one of the dentine plate tubercles of the next plate of the tooth.

 

-Joe

Thanks.  I wouldn’t have thought that.  I’m use to seeing mammoth teeth/enamel with the ridges.  Have you ever seen a complete mammoth tooth come out of NSR?

[Fruitbat]

No...I haven't.  I've seen a lot of broken pieces of tooth but the only reasonably-complete Pleistocene beastie I've ever personally seen come out of the NSR was the skeleton (minus the skull) of Bison antiquus that came out of the river bank near the Hwy.24 bridge.

 

-Joe

[Auspex]

I never would have come up with that!

Raise your hand if your first thought was "pizza crust"...

 

[Jakuzi]

1 hour ago, Fruitbat said:

No...I haven't.  I've seen a lot of broken pieces of tooth but the only reasonably-complete Pleistocene beastie I've ever personally seen come out of the NSR was the skeleton (minus the skull) of Bison antiquus that came out of the river bank near the Hwy.24 bridge.

 

-Joe

With all the chunks of mastodon and mammoth teeth I’d think a full tooth would turn up every now and then.  

 

A local I talked to the other day told me a story about an entire mammoth skeleton coming out of a creek off 904 in the 80’s.

It involved a helicopter... 

[caldigger]

1 hour ago, Auspex said:

I never would have come up with that!

Raise your hand if your first thought was "pizza crust"...

 

Stuffed crust pizza at that!

[NSRhunter]

Sorry to burst your bubble but I believe that is a section of fish jaw bone. It has that characteristic flaky bone texture, in addition to the tube you are talking about is usually the calcified/filled in core of the teeth you find up there. If you want I can post some similar examples  Neat find! 

[JarrodB]

1 hour ago, NSRhunter said:

Sorry to burst your bubble but I believe that is a section of fish jaw bone. It has that characteristic flaky bone texture, in addition to the tube you are talking about is usually the calcified/filled in core of the teeth you find up there. If you want I can post some similar examples  Neat find! 

I agree

[JarrodB]

3 hours ago, Jakuzi said:

With all the chunks of mastodon and mammoth teeth I’d think a full tooth would turn up every now and then.  

 

A local I talked to the other day told me a story about an entire mammoth skeleton coming out of a creek off 904 in the 80’s.

It involved a helicopter... 

My friend Lewis found a Musk Ox at the 24 bridge. 

[Fruitbat]

No bubble to burst.  I 'said' what I thought it could be.  If I'm wrong, I gladly stand corrected.

 

JarrodB...when was that?  I know that Dr. Joan Echols at what used to be East Texas State University (now TAMU-Commerce) found what she identified as a Soergelia skull on the NSR many decades ago.  It was fairly poorly-preserved and I don't know if she ever published on it or not.

 

-Joe

[caldigger]

Sooo, you're saying it's not a pizza crust after all?!