Tooth Identified: Rare mega-marmot, Paenemarmota molar discovered

[Jaybot]

 

 

 

Last month I posted an Id request for 3 molars, and two were identified as Peccary.  Just to be clear, I personally did not find them, as I was requesting an id on behalf of others. The third tooth was left unidentified, and I was recommended by Shellseeker to contact a museum for help.

If you would like to read the original post, and view photos, here it is:

I eventually contacted the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and David Krause of their Paleontology department sent me this:

 

 

 ''Hi 'Jaybot' ––

No worries.  Thanks for getting back to me and for confirmation about the scale bar.

The fact that your scale bar was in centimeters helps to confirm Kristen's (cc'd here) tentative identification that your tooth is that of a Plio-Pleistocene mega-marmot, the genus name of which is Paenemarmota.  The largest species is Paenamarmota barbouri (close to modern beaver size) and your specimen seems to be in that approximate size range, although precise measurement is warranted.

After Kristen's tentative ID, I reached out to one of our Research Associates here, Greg McDonald, who is another expert on Plio-Pleistocene mammals, who, in fact, has recently published on Paenemarmota (see attached file). He tentatively confirmed Kristen's identification and further identified it as a right lower third molar.''

Here is the paper he attached in the email:

McDonald et al. - Paenemarmota from NM - 2022.pdf

This is very interesting to me, and I figure that y'all might enjoy this as well.

I would never have guessed mega-marmot

 

 

I'll tag everyone in the original post so they can find this:

@jpc@Danielb@Balance@Shellseeker@dries85@CDiggs@Harry Pristis

 

Have a great day!

 

 

[Balance]

No mega marmots here. Lol. Tallest mountain is 450 ft ish. Lol 

 

Thank you!!

 

 

[Danielb]

Wow!

[Danielb]

Very cool find.

[Shellseeker]

8 hours ago, Jaybot said:

 

 

 

Last month I posted an Id request for 3 molars, and two were identified as Peccary.  Just to be clear, I personally did not find them, as I was requesting an id on behalf of others. The third tooth was left unidentified, and I was recommended by Shellseeker to contact a museum for help.

If you would like to read the original post, and view photos, here it is:

I eventually contacted the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and David Krause of their Paleontology department sent me this:

 

 

 ''Hi 'Jaybot' ––

No worries.  Thanks for getting back to me and for confirmation about the scale bar.

The fact that your scale bar was in centimeters helps to confirm Kristen's (cc'd here) tentative identification that your tooth is that of a Plio-Pleistocene mega-marmot, the genus name of which is Paenemarmota.  The largest species is Paenamarmota barbouri (close to modern beaver size) and your specimen seems to be in that approximate size range, although precise measurement is warranted.

After Kristen's tentative ID, I reached out to one of our Research Associates here, Greg McDonald, who is another expert on Plio-Pleistocene mammals, who, in fact, has recently published on Paenemarmota (see attached file). He tentatively confirmed Kristen's identification and further identified it as a right lower third molar.''

Here is the paper he attached in the email:

McDonald et al. - Paenemarmota from NM - 2022.pdf 3.23 MB · 6 downloads

This is very interesting to me, and I figure that y'all might enjoy this as well.

I would never have guessed mega-marmot

 

 

I'll tag everyone in the original post so they can find this:

@jpc@Danielb@Balance@Shellseeker@dries85@CDiggs@Harry Pristis

 

Have a great day!

 

 

Thank you for being persistent,  and then following up.  Very classy thing to do... I hate leaving puzzles unsolved and I enjoy gaining new knowledge!!!   Jack