Roz Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Dan, Sure hope you don't mind me posting this since it's your tooth. I downloaded 2 of your pics and emailed it for possible ID. I am posting the 2 shots since he is describing the tooth from looking at them. Thought many others would be curious to know as well. Stuff like unknowns drive me crazy. Like that tooth on a stick that I think keeper of snakes once posted. The Del Rio Fm. of south-central Texas is of e. Cenomanian age (about 95 million yrs. ago), about middle Cretaceous (formally, there's only an Upper and Lower, and it's earliest Upper), lt. Commanchean (just before the Gulf Coastal Plain began to form), up. Washita Grp. It's upper part is equivalent to the Grayson Marl of north Texas, famous for its dwarf fauna (tiny versions of regular ammonites, etc.) Assuming those are finger tips in the first photo, I'd guess it's size at about 5mm (about 1/4in.) wide and maybe 5cm (about 1.5in.) long. The fossil looks like a small left premaxilla with three incisor-like teeth. Has it been Tertiary or Pleist., I might have said a small mammal of some sort, but you wouldn't get a mammal like that in the m. Cret. The 1st photo is in occlusal view, I'd guess with ant. at the bottom. The 2nd photo looks to be an ant. view, my guess would be with dorsal at the bottom (it looks to me more like a premaxilla of the upper jaw, than the ant. dentary of the lower jaw). The straight area in the lower right of the 2nd photo could be the sympysis, where the two premaxillae meet. If that photo is of the ant., then the curvature suggests a left premax. Most bony fish don't have premaxillae (or rounded teeth) like this. My guess would be that this is a pycnodont premax. You couldn't identify the genus from the premax. alone, but the m. Cret. of Texas is famous for its pycnodonts (mostly the isolated toothplates, not the incisors or premaxillae), a group of deep-bodied bony fish, which nibbled on hard rudist reef creatures of various kinds (a bit like a parrotfish today). They're more-derived relatives of the Hadrodus, whose incisor pictures you sent earlier. The isolated pycnodont incisors I've seen looked more like human incisors than these do, though these might be a primitive one.There's lots of info on pycnodonts in OOK: http://www.oceansofkansas.com/Pycnodont.html (although no premaxillae, that I notice). Credit goes to Earl Manning for the ID. 1 Welcome to the forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommabetts Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 That is very interesting looking, I have never seen anything like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 I appreciate you follow up on this, Roz. FYI I have found some nice palatine pycnodont teeth in the pit before, but never an incisor. Are we certain they didn't come from some British rock star? Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screweduptexan Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Very interesting...thanks for sharing. I know it is not, but when I first saw it I thought it looked like a miniature monkey arm and from there I concluded it must be some type of tooth. I just couldn't figure out what kind of tooth from what. Now y'all know how my mind works. I am sure tracer will be interested LOL I can't come up with anything clever enough for my signature...yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Dan, I told you it wasn't a tooth from a wayward Kansan. Ramo For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Ramo Yeah I ascertained that for myself by virtue of not finding pathological gums associated with the teeth! Hahaha...(duck)..Ha! Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
explorer1 Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 dunno but i like the wisdom thinking there, got to find some of them. nice also i have gravel for sale check the trade room or my posts. god hunting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nicholas Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Great work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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