Measuring length of a tooth?

[Dracarys]

What is the correct way to measure a tooth? straight line? around the curve? straight line from tip to the furthest end point? Thank you

[Macrophyseter]

For shark teeth, there's mainly two types of ways to measure a tooth in its entirety. Tooth height is measuring the height of the tooth from the tip straight down towards end of the root (To clarify, imagine placing the tooth in a box with the root lobes perfectly flushed to a wall. Then measure the tooth from the crown tip to the end of that flushed wall straight down and perpendicular to it). Slant height (which is a more popular method as it's much simpler to measure and gives slightly larger sizes) is measuring from the tip of the crown to the tip of the crown to the tip of the longest root lobe.

 

 

TH stands for Tooth height.

MCL and IMCL are slant heights, but they only accommodate the crown in this diagram (Although most collectors prefer to measure everything in a tooth, scientists tend to focus more on only the crown height of a shark tooth)

[sharkdoctor]

Great visual, @Macrophyseter! I'd love to have a citation or source for that visual if you have it handy.

[Dracarys]

8 hours ago, Macrophyseter said:

For shark teeth, there's mainly two types of ways to measure a tooth in its entirety. Tooth height is measuring the height of the tooth from the tip straight down towards end of the root (To clarify, imagine placing the tooth in a box with the root lobes perfectly flushed to a wall. Then measure the tooth from the crown tip to the end of that flushed wall straight down and perpendicular to it). Slant height (which is a more popular method as it's much simpler to measure and gives slightly larger sizes) is measuring from the tip of the crown to the tip of the crown to the tip of the longest root lobe.

TH stands for Tooth height.

MCL and IMCL are slant heights, but they only accommodate the crown in this diagram (Although most collectors prefer to measure everything in a tooth, scientists tend to focus more on only the crown height of a shark tooth)

Thank you! That was very helpful. How about dinosaur teeth?

[Troodon]

I found that the scientific community looks at measurements a bit different than the commercial one.

 

Dino Teeth there is crown height and tooth length

For shed teeth its Crown height : CH  and if the tooth contains a root the tooth length is from the tip to the base of the root.

For commercial sellers they just measure the length of a tooth from tip to base  regardless of how much root is present..  So their listing is typically the entire length.

 

 

 

For shark teeth most comercial sellers measure a tooth on the  diagonal from the tip to the edge of the longest root unless they mention otherwise in their listing.  

[Harry Pristis]

 

Here is the method for horse teeth:

 

 

[Dracarys]

9 hours ago, Troodon said:

I found that the scientific community looks at measurements a bit different than the commercial one.

 

Dino Teeth there is crown height and tooth length

For shed teeth its Crown height : CH  and if the tooth contains a root the tooth length is from the tip to the base of the root.

For commercial sellers they just measure the length of a tooth from tip to base  regardless of how much root is present..  So their listing is typically the entire length.

 

 

 

For shark teeth most comercial sellers measure a tooth on the  diagonal from the tip to the edge of the longest root unless they mention otherwise in their listing.  

 

3 hours ago, Harry Pristis said:

 

Here is the method for horse teeth:

 

 

Thank you both. Very helpful.