Assistance with tooth identification...

BJS in Iowa · Jan 31, 2015

Found this fossilized tooth in SE Iowa in late summer. It still has enamel showing but the area around the root is fossilized. Any previous owner help would be greatly appreciated.

Ninjafossils · Jan 31, 2015

Kinda looks like a modern animal. Elk?

Perico · Jan 31, 2015

I was going to say horse. Hopefully Harry will chime in.

Harry Pristis · Feb 2, 2015

Perico said:
I was going to say horse. Hopefully Harry will chime in.

You'd have been correct, Perico. It's a horse upper premolar -- P2, likely from a modern horse, Equus sp.

BJS in Iowa · Feb 5, 2015

Can you post a comparison? All the pictures of horse teeth I can find on the net are much longer than this tooth. And as far as it is encased in fossilized material around the root area, wouldn't that lend credence to it being older? Maybe a few thousand years? I guess the better question is, "What do you mean by modern?"

Harry Pristis · Feb 5, 2015

When I say "modern," I am suggesting that the tooth is from an Equus sp. horse introduced to North America in historical times. There were no Equus horses in North America -- no horses at all -- a few thousand years ago. Horses were extinct here from say 8,000 ybp to the 1600s of the modern era.

Horse teeth wear down with age. The low crown of your tooth indicates the horse lived long, probably stabled and fed. Here is a line-drawing which will give you an idea of how old the horse was at various stages of wear.

BJS in Iowa · Feb 6, 2015

Okay, thanks for the clarification. I hadn't considered there were no horses here then, although I was aware of it. And I also had not considered tooth wear as a factor. Again, thanks for your explanation and patience. It's a conversation starter when people see it non-the-less. Now I have a little more to tell than pure speculation.