Camel IncisorWhen I first saw this, I had a little water in my mask so I thought it was a broken shark tooth or a whale tooth or something like that, but it was tough to tell. I put it in my bag and kept hunting. Later, when I got home I looked at it a lot closer, and I eliminated my first two guesses as to the identity of this item. There's no way its a shark tooth, and its too thin to be a whale tooth. From the photo, you can see its very thin. I looked though all my fossil books and I couldn't find anything that looked even remotely like it. The only thing I've ever see that looks even remotely like this is a saber cat incisor. I've only seen adult sabers before, so I don't know what juvenile sabers look like. Could it be? I'll take it to Jedi Master on Wednesday for a positive ID. In the meantime, I'd love to hear about any ideas you have. 10-12-2004 I got an email from Eric who suggests that this could be an incisor from a camel, Hemiauchenia macrocephala. Its the only camel species to have an incisor. He sent along a link with a photo, and it really looks similar to this tooth. I'll get a positive ID on Wed. 10-13-2004 Jedi Master confirmed that this is a camel incisor. I can't say I'm not disappointed that this isn't Saber Cat, but I've still never found one of these before. I guess I'll just have to keep diving for the cat stuff!
Location
| Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
Species
| Hemiauchenia macrocephala |
Age
| Pleistocene Epoch |
Category
| Land Mammal |
Length
| 1 7/8 inches |
ID | 1349 |
Member | dw |
Date Added | 10/10/2004 |
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You can see the black enamel best from this view. There is sand as hard as concrete stuck to the middle of this tooth, but you can make out the tip end of the root poking out of the end. |
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Here you can see how thin it is. |
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