Need Help Help identifying a tooth

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  • #65510
    Rene Dominguez
    Participant

    Hi, I found this tooth on a beach in eastern Havana (Tarara), Cuba. I have no idea what animal could it be, can anyone please help me to identify it?

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    #65512
    Victor Perez
    Participant

    Hi Rene, this is from an invertebrate. It’s either the part of a hinge of a clam or part of the feeding apparatus (called aristotle’s lantern) of a sea urchin. I’m sure with some photos from different angles, we could say which of the two it is.


    @jbauer
    do you agree / can you tell which it is?

    #65513
    Matthew Downing
    Participant

    My best guess is a badly worn shark tooth

    #65514
    Rene Dominguez
    Participant

    thank you, for your quick anwser Mr Perez. i send you more pictures. i’m a software developer so I do not have experience on fossil identification (or living sea animals identification either) <span lang=”en”>but I have to notice that the piece was on the seashore in an area of ​​hard waves with many stones around it, I guess a non-vertebrate structure could not resist such hard waves. Also the piece have almost a conic shape, i have seen pictures of aristotle’s lantern of sea urchin they have a lot of irregularities on his shape maybe erosion give it that shape? i thinks it’s difficult because it’s almost a perfect cone. also the size of the piece is 5 cm in lenght it’s hard to imagine such a big sea urchin or clam so close to the seashore. Any way as i tell you i have no experience on identification fossils or animals pieces and i know it’s very hard only using a picture. Thank you again for your help.
    </span>

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    #65519
    Rene Dominguez
    Participant

    sending more pictures

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    #65524
    Rene Dominguez
    Participant

    more pictures

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    #65529
    Rene Dominguez
    Participant

    last two pictures

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    #65682
    Rene Dominguez
    Participant

    Hi, Lee Cone from http://www.paleosoc.org has identify the piece as a predentary bone of a marlin or some other billfish i attached some pictures of that bone. he also said that it’s not a fossil but just a modern bone. One question i have is how can i decide if a founded piece is a fossil or just a regular bone? thank you again for your help.

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    #65796
    Matthew Downing
    Participant

    I agree with the bullfish predentary bone from a modern fish. It is definitely NOT from a sea urchin. That must’ve been a good size fish!

    #65797
    Matthew Downing
    Participant

    It looks modern, because it looks mostly made of bone, with little of no mineralization.  If it was from a fossil fish, you might expect it to have more of the bone replaced with rock minerals like silicates.

    #66793
    Bill Heim
    Participant

    A modern bone will usually be white or sometimes stained and be fairly light as it is porous.  A fossil will be mineralized and often stone-like with increased density due to mineralization.  Here is a fossil billfish rostrum.  Note less porous appearance, the colorization and more stony texture.

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    #67279
    Jennifer Bauer
    Participant

    Hi  all- sorry for the delay, I don’t believe it is from an invertebrate. Certainly it is not an echinoderm! Really interesting specimen, thank you for uploading so many images!

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