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Sharktooth Hill Marine Mammal Fossils


fossilsonwheels

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I recently found a small lot of mammal teeth from Sharktooth Hill. I am doing an education program about marine mammal evolution and they looked like cetacean teeth so I bought them. I am new to fossil forum but not new to collecting marine mammal fossils. I know that you can not get a species ID from cetacean teeth but I am hoping I can get a little additional information or perhaps a suspect so to speak.

 

I believe that the first 3 pictures are of an unidentifed Odontoceti, maybe a Kentriodon of some sort. The first two teeth were both right around 1.5 cm. The third tooth was a little over 1 inch.

 

I am fairly certain the 4th picture is of the unidentified Odontoceti species that is mistakenly called Prosqualodon errabundas by some collectors and dealers. I think it was the Coastal Paleontologist blog that said this was an undescribed species of large dolphin. It is about 1.75 inches long and has a very inflated root.

 

The last picture looks more like an Allodesmus than a cetacean to me but I could be wrong.

 

If anybody has an thought or opinion, I would greatly appreciate any information.

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4 hours ago, fossilsonwheels said:

I recently found a small lot of mammal teeth from Sharktooth Hill. I am doing an education program about marine mammal evolution and they looked like cetacean teeth so I bought them. I am new to fossil forum but not new to collecting marine mammal fossils. I know that you can not get a species ID from cetacean teeth but I am hoping I can get a little additional information or perhaps a suspect so to speak.

 

I believe that the first 3 pictures are of an unidentifed Odontoceti, maybe a Kentriodon of some sort. The first two teeth were both right around 1.5 cm. The third tooth was a little over 1 inch.

 

I am fairly certain the 4th picture is of the unidentified Odontoceti species that is mistakenly called Prosqualodon errabundas by some collectors and dealers. I think it was the Coastal Paleontologist blog that said this was an undescribed species of large dolphin. It is about 1.75 inches long and has a very inflated root.

 

The last picture looks more like an Allodesmus than a cetacean to me but I could be wrong.

 

If anybody has an thought or opinion, I would greatly appreciate any information.

 

Welcome to TFF,  I love your teeth because recently, I also acquired some very similar ones. @JBMugu @ynot  @siteseer

@caldigger

Think Allodesmus and read this thread.

 

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6 hours ago, fossilsonwheels said:

mistakenly called Prosqualodon errabundas

I agree with all of Your IDs.

Most cetatean teeth are not diagnostic to species.

I think there are no  Prosqualodon sp. in the STH bone bed.

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

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

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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The first four are whale and the last one might be Allodesmus, an extinct genus belonging to an extinct family of pinnipeds, but it's hard to say because it's so weathered.  You can call the whale teeth "dolphin" as long as you consider them that in the broad sense because they don't belong to a modern group of whales.

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@siteseer I used the term unidentified Odontoceti teeth which I think is the correct way of labeling the teeth. Dolphin was only used on the fourth tooth and that was referencing an article on the Coastal Paleontologist blog that was about the teeth from STH that are erroneously referred to as "Prosqualodon". 

 

The last tooth is very weathered and it looked similar to other Allodesmus teeth I have.

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On 1/12/2019 at 7:22 AM, ynot said:

I agree with all of Your IDs.

Most cetatean teeth are not diagnostic to species.

I think there are no  Prosqualodon sp. in the STH bone bed.

The Coastal Paleontologist blog had a really great piece on the "Prosqualodon" teeth from STH. It was very informative.

When I first started collecting cetacean fossils, I leaned toward teeth until i learned they were not diagnostic in many cases. Now I tend to look for ear bones. These fossils are used for education so having unidentified teeth is quite beneficial when it comes to doing classification lessons. 

 

Thank you for the input !!

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On 1/12/2019 at 4:58 AM, Shellseeker said:

Welcome to TFF,  I love your teeth because recently, I also acquired some very similar ones. @JBMugu @ynot  @siteseer

@caldigger

Think Allodesmus and read this thread.

 

That thread was informative. Thank you very much

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