Tooth Bore

[Mango]

I have found lots of bones with this burrow type hole worn into them. I have never convinced myself that the markings on the bones were bite marks and not insect bore, or even water marks. Since this is the first time I have seen it on a tooth, could it be a gator bite mark from a territorial brawl? I am trying to think up other far fetched scenarios that could have caused it. Did the rest of this tooth get swallowed, and end up in someones collection in a far off land? Tell me the truth please.

[edd]

Those holes are called "worm holes" or something like that,it's where a clam or something started to eat its way through the tooth, its not just in teeth, in bones of any kind as well.

Edited January 4, 2010 by edd

[Boesse]

Those holes are caused by a type of boring clam that bore holes deep into rock; sometimes they do so to bone as well. Bobby

[tracer]

there was somewhat of a discussion maybe a month ago regarding such stuff. what i do is look at it under magnification, and look for signs of mechanical stress or alteration of the surrounding material - plastic deformation of the surrounding area, a pushed-up "ridge" around the "crater", an opposing "crater" on the opposite side indicative of a bite, etc. if something really hard pushed down hard into something comprised of bone or tooth, there should be some evidence of it other than just a "pock mark" or hole where material is just missing.

when it's just a hole in a fossil that appears to have material missing and no other evidence of anything, i consider it likely to have been caused by a boring worm, sponge, "clam" or insect. when the sides of the hole taper in a very precise conical manner, and the fossil is from a marine environment, i tend to think gastropod predation. depending on the context, and if the tapered hole has some irregularities, i might consider human alteration - in other words, an artifact.

[Shellseeker]

Yes, a different meg with something boring into my treasure. Note the root of the one on the left.

[Mango]

Thanks everyone for the confirmation.

[fossilselachian]

I once had a 4" meg in which the boring critter had completely penetrated the root of the tooth. Interesting was the fact the hole was so perfect it could have been done with a drill. This was not the case as it was a river tooth obtained directly from the diver. I still have a small Bone Valley meg where the root had been "drilled" to a depth of perhaps one-quarter inch, again a perfect 5/16" inch hole (circle). If anyone is interested, I'll post a pic of the tooth.

[Mango]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithophaga

Many of the holes in megalodon teeth are from these.

Thank you for the visual. I assume they would also be responsible for the marks in bone material like dugong ribs?

[edd]

Yep