Fossilized Tusk or Dugong Bone?

[MakoMeCrazy]

It has been forever since I have posted on here, but I need help Identifying an unknown fossil. 

This fossil was found around Charleston, South Carolina along with many Angustidens and other shark teeth. 

This fossil appears to be approximately 4.5 inches from tip to base. 

I believe this fossil comes from the Oligocene epoch.

Please check out the very center and the growth rings. Thank you very much for the help!

I am identifying this fossil for a friend and the fossil is currently located in Charleston, SC, so I am not able to take more pictures of it. 

 

 

[GeschWhat]

It looks like an ivory tusk, but wait for the experts to chime in!

[caldigger]

 Hey Brian, I'll tell you what's making me crazy is that GW you have as an avatar, what a beauty!

I know absolutely nothing about Dugong bones except the ribs are extremely dense. I'm getting a tusky vibe from this bad boy.

[ynot]

I agree with tusk, but I do not see any schreger lines, and it does not look right for walrus (to old anyways).

 

[Fossildude19]

@Boesse

[abyssunder]

Sperm Whale tooth will be my guess.

 

[Rockwood]

6 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

Sperm Whale tooth will be my guess.

The hollow being this close to the apparent tip would be better explained this way.

@Fossildude19 I'm putting you in too, just because of the @.  

[Shellseeker]

Searching for Dugong ribs as examples I found this!!!  @Rockwood @Fossildude19 @Boesse

I had missed it first time around  Let's give Bobby another chance to comment.

 

@abyssunder  Source for this photo??? Having difficulty with whale, unless it is a whale tusk !!!!

 

 

[Rockwood]

7 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

Searching for Dugong ribs as examples I found this!!! 

How late in the Oligocene may be indicative ? Wouldn't those have to be heavily seasonal LAGs in a dugong rib ?

They both look a lot more like teeth to me.

[abyssunder]

7 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

Searching for Dugong ribs as examples I found this!!!  @Rockwood @Fossildude19 @Boesse

I had missed it first time around  Let's give Bobby another chance to comment.

 

@abyssunder  Source for this photo??? Having difficulty with whale, unless it is a whale tusk !!!!

 

 

Happy to mentioned me. Sorry for the unmetioned source. After all theese years, I was lucky to find my resource:

https://ehive.com/collections/3408/objects/23489/sperm-whale-tooth

Edited August 20, 2021 by abyssunder

[Shellseeker]

4 hours ago, Rockwood said:

How late in the Oligocene may be indicative ? Wouldn't those have to be heavily seasonal LAGs in a dugong rib ?

They both look a lot more like teeth to me.

Ditto....

It does not look like any Dugong rib I have ever seen....

[Mahnmut]

Can you give us a view of the tip?

Does it look intact or rather like it used to be thicker and eroded that way?

Best Regards,

J

[Boesse]

This is not a dugongid rib - ribs counterintuitively grow on the exterior surface and the interior surface along the inside of the ribcage is resorbed - so the ribs have growth lines, but they cut across a tiny section of the bone, like a little plug taken from a much larger cross-section of a tree trunk:

 

 

OPs specimen is in fact a tooth - probably not a tusk, more likely to be the root of a sperm whale tooth. It's not a walrus or dugong tusk, and it has a closed root, so it's not from a proboscidean.

[Rockwood]

21 minutes ago, Boesse said:

cross-section of a tree trunk:

I was tempted to call it ring porous, but knew it wouldn't be worth checking  to see if that was right.