fossilized mastodon or african elephant tooth?

[Paula Savino]

2 years ago I was at black market minerals, a rock/fossil shop in town. They were selling what they called a mastodon tooth. They wanted $300 for it and had been in the glass case for quite sometime according to the owner. I always wanted one so I examined it and it was certainly fossilized and looked cool. At some point in time it appears it had been dropped then glued back together in one section but that's besides the point. I haggled her down to $200 and went home happy. A year later I was looking online at common fossils found in the local withlacooche river and saw plenty of mastodon teeth and noticed they look a bit different. This spawned hours of looking at a lot of pictures and physically inspecting a lot of mastodon, woolly mammoth and elephant teeth. From my research this looks to be closer to a fossilized African elephant tooth. I hope i'm wrong. One main difference I noticed is that a mastodon tooth is smaller and has valleys and ridges throughout the surface of the tooth to grind their veggies. I need your help in confirming what this tooth came from. Thanks for your time.

 

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[Harry Pristis]

2 years ago I was at black market minerals, a rock/fossil shop in town. They were selling what they called a mastodon tooth. They wanted $300 for it and had been in the glass case for quite sometime according to the owner. I always wanted one so I examined it and it was certainly fossilized and looked cool. At some point in time it appears it had been dropped then glued back together in one section but that's besides the point. I haggled her down to $200 and went home happy. A year later I was looking online at common fossils found in the local withlacooche river and saw plenty of mastodon teeth and noticed they look a bit different. This spawned hours of looking at a lot of pictures and physically inspecting a lot of mastodon, woolly mammoth and elephant teeth. From my research this looks to be closer to a fossilized African elephant tooth. I hope i'm wrong. One main difference I noticed is that a mastodon tooth is smaller and has valleys and ridges throughout the surface of the tooth to grind their veggies. I need your help in confirming what this tooth came from. Thanks for your time.

My guess is that this is from a mastodont (maybe gomphothere) tooth imported from China. There are a lot of them around. In this senile specimen, most diagnostic characteristics are worn away. But, it is definitely not an African elephant tooth.

 

[Paula Savino]

My guess is that this is from a mastodont (maybe gomphothere) tooth imported from China. There are a lot of them around. In this senile specimen, most diagnostic characteristics are worn away. But, it is definitely not an African elephant tooth.

Thanks for your evaluation. Your right it does resemble a gomphothere tooth. I located some pictures that look similar to mine. Only main difference I can see right off is that mine Is a bit longer at around 12 inches compared to most being half that size.

Gomphothere tooth:


Gomphothere tooth:


From left to right: gomphothere, mastodon, mammoth:

 

[Harry Pristis]

Thanks for your evaluation. Your right it does resemble a gomphothere tooth. I located some pictures that look similar to mine. Only main difference I can see right off is that mine Is a bit longer at around 12 inches compared to most being half that size.

I've seen these Chinese teeth referred to Platybelodon, a shovel tusker. I understand that mature shovel tuskers in Florida (Amebelodon) had just single tooth (a long one) on each side, upper and lower. I am uncertain about the Florida Platybelodon. Maybe someone will check Hulbert's book and set this straight.

Size is a weak indicator for taxonomic purposes. Gomph teeth come in all sizes.

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