South Dakota Desert Teeth

[Breanne]

I found these on my trip to South Dakota in the Badlands. I would like to know what they might be. Thank you! 

[gigantoraptor]

Looks like a partial Oreodont jaw to me. No idea on specific genus or species. Nice find, did you find other fossils as well?

[Breanne]

1 minute ago, gigantoraptor said:

Looks like a partial Oreodont jaw to me. No idea on specific genus or species. Nice find, did you find other fossils as well?

I did not! I had a spare hour or so, so I did not get to hunt very long unfortunately. I got very excited when I found these. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice finds indeed! 

[rfarrar]

These are teeth from the Oligocene 3-toed horse - Mesohippus or Miohippus - part of a right lower jaw, I believe.

 

Bob

[facehugger]

Wow! Awesome find! 

[Hiitsjustme]

If this is equine teeth then this animal probably starved to death not being able to grind the fodder correctly. Their teeth need to be flat on top other wise the plant material balls up in their cheek and falls right back out of their mouth. It needed a good teeth floating. Good news though it probably wasn't young.

Just an observation from a horse person!

Super cool find especially to find anything in an hour!

[thelivingdead531]

9 hours ago, Hiitsjustme said:

If this is equine teeth then this animal probably starved to death not being able to grind the fodder correctly. Their teeth need to be flat on top other wise the plant material balls up in their cheek and falls right back out of their mouth. It needed a good teeth floating. Good news though it probably wasn't young.

Just an observation from a horse person!

Super cool find especially to find anything in an hour!

Yes, for modern horses this is true, however the fossil in question isn’t from a modern horse. The mesohippus had a different diet, which required the teeth you see above. They seem to mostly have fed on twigs and fruit, instead of grass as modern horses do. 

[Hiitsjustme]

20 hours ago, thelivingdead531 said:

Yes, for modern horses this is true, however the fossil in question isn’t from a modern horse. The mesohippus had a different diet, which required the teeth you see above. They seem to mostly have fed on twigs and fruit, instead of grass as modern horses do. 

Very interesting! I beg to differ on modern horses (sorry). Maybe captive horses. A wild horse in nature  has a diet more like a deer. Probably forcing them to eat hay and grain is the equivalent of our captive processed diet, lol, but that's a totally different debate. A captive horse will still eat a tree if you have it too close to the fence line or what ever else you've left in their pasture other than grass. However I totally agree I was way to presumptuous on assuming I knew how an animal died looking at a picture of a hand full of teeth! Thanks

[thelivingdead531]

12 hours ago, Hiitsjustme said:

Very interesting! I beg to differ on modern horses (sorry). Maybe captive horses. A wild horse in nature  has a diet more like a deer. Probably forcing them to eat hay and grain is the equivalent of our captive processed diet, lol, but that's a totally different debate. A captive horse will still eat a tree if you have it too close to the fence line or what ever else you've left in their pasture other than grass. However I totally agree I was way to presumptuous on assuming I knew how an animal died looking at a picture of a hand full of teeth! Thanks

I must have read your other comment wrong, so thank you for a more thorough explanation. No need to be sorry at all, we’re all here to learn something!