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North Sulphur River Tooth ID Croc?


shel67

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Hi all! I was down in the North Sulphur River bottom (Ladonia, Texas) this evening and found this small, but nice tooth. Any ideas what this tooth may have belonged to? 

I found a few other nice picks that I’ll post later, but I was eager to learn about this one. Any help would be appreciated. 

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Looks like a very small and very complete mosasaur tooth of the genus Tylosaurus sp. Nice find! While not a croc, mosasaurs were marine reptiles that went extinct with the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous. They are not dinosaurs but are marine reptiles more closely related to snakes than to dinosaurs. 

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1 hour ago, Heteromorph said:

Looks like a very small and very complete mosasaur tooth of the genus Tylosaurus sp.

With few exceptions (e.g. Globidens), assigning a genera to unassociated mosasaur teeth is highly speculative.  Research, soon to be published, will show that many similar mosasaur tooth shapes are present in multiple mosasaur genera.  Without specific, distinguishing described characteristics, identification can only be narrowed down to a probable handful of genera at best.  ;)

 

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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1 minute ago, JohnJ said:

With few exceptions (e.g. Globidens), assigning a genera to unassociated mosasaur teeth is highly speculative.  Research, soon to be published, will show that many similar mosasaur tooth shapes are present in multiple mosasaur genera.  Without specific, distinguishing described characteristics, identification can only be narrowed down to a probable handful of genera at best.  ;)

 

Good to know. I was using Tylosaurus as a paleo-bucket without meaning to, like some people use Hemiaster as a paleo-bucket for echinoids. I will avoid making such claims without clear evidence in the future.  

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46 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

With few exceptions (e.g. Globidens), assigning a genera to unassociated mosasaur teeth is highly speculative.  Research, soon to be published, will show that many similar mosasaur tooth shapes are present in multiple mosasaur genera.  Without specific, distinguishing described characteristics, identification can only be narrowed down to a probable handful of genera at best.  ;)

 

Thank you all for the helpful information! Am I to assume this is from a smaller type of Mosasaur or a juvenile? Or is it not possible to determine that? Sorry, I’m still new to all of this, but I’m learning!! ;)

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3 minutes ago, shel67 said:

Thank you all for the helpful information! Am I to assume this is from a smaller type of Mosasaur or a juvenile? Or is it not possible to determine that? Sorry, I’m still new to all of this, but I’m learning!! ;)

I don't think it's possible to do via a visual examination.  

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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6 minutes ago, shel67 said:

a smaller type of Mosasaur or a juvenile?

Mosasaur replace teeth a regular basis, so even an adult can have small teeth.

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

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