Funny Find

[megateeth]

I have been diving every day since Monday because the Tech College that I teach at is on break. I have not even looked at my finds for the week until today. Sometimes I find a Meg tooth that is so river worn that there is no enamel and almost all of the features have been river polished away. About the only thing that identifies them as teeth is the shape and texture of the material that is left. I found one of these teeth yesterday and pulled it out today. With these teeth I sometimes polish the blade just to make it look pretty. I know some people look down on that practice but it really is fun to see what you can make a lump look like. So I am looking at the one I found yesterday and trying to decide if I feel like polishing it or just putting it in my bin. I turned it over and had to laugh. I turned it back and forth a few times and was pretty amazed.

So I polished it and this is how it came out.

Not bad looking considering how it started. The thing that made me laugh was when I looked at the non-display side This is what I saw.

It is not easy to tell from the photo, but it is a rib bone not a meg tooth. When I polished it I shaped the "blade" a bit but did nothing to shape the "root". It broke in a shape that looked a lot like a Meg tooth. Other than the texture the real giveaway for me was that once I looked closely at it, it was way too thick to be a tooth. But from the display side I was 100% sure it was a Meg tooth.

When I was done I kind of regret polishing it or at least not photographing it first.

[MikeD]

Sure looks like a tooth at first.

[Auspex]

That's a riot

On the other hand, it just occurred to me that rib-bone pseudomorphs of large Megs are far rarer than large Megs...

[lordpiney]

too funny! how big is it?

[megateeth]

Just about 3" and Auspex is correct that it is one of a kind.

[Mudkicker]

Now thats a neat find!!!

[Nicholas]

That's pretty cool, I'd be disappointed if I found that and then turned it over though.