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Fossil pig tooth - What kind of pig???


Dpaul7

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During my fossil hunt at the local emporium, I came across this specimen. It was labeled Fossil Pig Tooth, China.

What kind of pig do you think?  A boar?  A pig like today? Any idea on period?  Pleistocene?

I like teeth - but this is a new one for me!

 

 

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I AM thinking Pleistocene -  Sus scrofa.  (That's as near as I can figure out!)

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Hi Dpaul7,

 

Back in the 90's, three distinct ages of fossil mammal remains from China were appearing at fossil shows around the world.  There was Early-Middle Miocene stuff but never a lot of that (giant pig teeth and jaws and some carnivore teeth).  There was a lot of Late Miocene stuff including skulls of things like Machairodus, at least two genera of hyena, a very rare large canid,  Hipparion, and Platybelodon.  Lastly, there was some Pleistocene teeth like Homotherium, panda, deer, tapir, bear, pig, and a primate usually called "orangutan" (deer teeth were the most common).  Dealers could buy a large plastic bag of mixed teeth and bits and then sell the teeth individually.  You still see the remnants of all that stuff on Ebay and various dealers.

 

Your tooth looks like it could have come from that Pleistocene stuff (teeth were usually white but could have some orangeish staining).  No one had a solid locality for it though various dealers consistently said it was from Guangzhi Province and a few added they were told it came from Luizhou.  At least one person said it came from a cave or caves in the area.

 

I should add that Harry is probably right about it being subfossil as some teeth merely hundreds of years old can show some mineralization.  I'm just offering the possibility that it could be a fossil because I used to see stuff of similar preservation at Tucson.

 

Jess

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