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Help with tooth ID- possibly Mosasaurus?


Islandtime1023

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Posting for a friend. He found this fossilized tooth/root underwater in southwest Florida (30-50’)—first pic. The 2nd pic with the 3 pictures, the two on the right are pics I found online of mosasaurus teeth, which from all my research, are not found in Florida so I am stumped. Any ideas? 

 

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83BBA70D-76F3-472B-8EEA-8F2A36398B28.jpeg

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My idea is that they are not from Florida. They are most likely from Morocco, Florida has no surface exposure of Cretaceous age. Someone must have dropped them in the river.

“...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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This was in the ocean. One tooth (the others were for reference). Possible but unlikely as this is offshore in not one of the sites that are visited by the dive ops regularly. 

IS it a mosa? I know they haven’t been found here so I’m wondering what else it could be. I don’t believe it was dropped, but even if it was, what is it?  

Mosa have been found in Texas and Louisiana, so is it that far a stretch that one could be off Fl in the gulf side? 

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This is a typical Moroccan composite tooth. The crown is added to a root or even carved bone. Not likely from the water, cause if you got it wet, I'll bet the crown will come apart from the root where the obvious grout separation is.

I think your friend is pulling your leg.

 

Here are some composited teeth from the web. You will note the same colored grout ( same as yours) which doesn't match the root color is used almost exclusively for these items.

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Mosasaur teeth from Texas or other regional areas do not have the preservation, color, that is unique to morocco.   Just look at two examples you used, they are identical in appearance to your friends tooth and they are Moroccan.  Like caldigger said the tooth is a composite and that is very typical of teeth from Morocco.

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No, it was pulled from the water along with several other finds. It’s been cleaned up, bit he did nothi g else. Not going to rule anything out of course. Just can’t understand why someone would drop/plant it??? 

At least we know it truly is a mosa so thank you 

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3 hours ago, Islandtime1023 said:

Just can’t understand why someone would drop/plant it??? 

Some people will do such to trick others into thinking they have found something from a completely different age in time.

For what reason, only they can know.

However, I seriously doubt this thing has touched water since that glue was mixed up.  Moroccan glue is very water soluble and will dissolve quite readily when immersed in water.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Islandtime1023 said:

Posting for a friend. He found this fossilized tooth/root underwater in southwest Florida (30-50’)—first pic. The 2nd pic with the 3 pictures, the two on the right are pics I found online of mosasaurus teeth, which from all my research, are not found in Florida so I am stumped. Any ideas? 

 

79472C65-02D4-4574-ADD5-1BA990941AF3.jpeg

83BBA70D-76F3-472B-8EEA-8F2A36398B28.jpeg

  And anyone who has been on this site long enough .. or walked in any local 'rock' shop .. or has scanned the 1,000 of listings on our favorite auction site ... or has walked the isles to gawk at the wares at the Tuscon Gem and Mineral show will attest .. this is an example of a classic Moroccan Mosasaur hack job.  You soak that in water for a few hours and that tooth 'root' will begin to dissolve away from the crown. 

 

  Trust us .. someone is pulling someone's leg.  And getting a right good laugh out of it.....

 

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Here are a few ? .. are you convinced yet ?  I can post a few dozen more ...

 

Keep in mind they don't just pop out of the ground this way either, or roll around on the bottom of the ocean.  They are tied up in the matrix and must be extracted.

 

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Let's look at this logically. You say your buddy found this in roughly the same area as the vertebra here and only cleaned the tooth off ( which is exactly what has happened to the vert by the way).

Do you see any similarities at all between the two in regards to color or preservation?

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If this tooth was at the bottom of the Gulf it would be dark (mineral stained) and have marine growth on it just like the whale vert, if it was in the same approximate area.

Even more so since it is millions of years older.

 

Your friend is probably rolling on the floor laughing!

 

 

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I'm with the others. No doubt Moroccan, no doubt mosasaur, no doubt doctored, no doubt water would melt that putty. And no doubt that the hand of at least one trickster was involved here.

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