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Mosasaur tooth from NSR? Is species ID possible?


jenwat

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Found this tooth within the first 10 minutes of walking through the North Sulphur River in northeast Texas yesterday! My suspicion is mosasaur, but someone on another site cast doubt on that notion, so I would just like to confirm whether or not it belongs to a mosasaur. Additionally, if at all possible, I would love to have an ID on it. 
 

Edit for clarity: not shown in the pictures, but the tooth is fairly conical and has one blade edge, which is on the outside curve (sorry, I don’t know the official terminology). I can provide extra pictures if needed. 

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Edited by jenwat
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That's pretty cool! I'd imagine we can rule out any Tylosaurus beyond a young juvenile stage, and even then I'm not sure if the morphology would fit with that genus. Perhaps more along the lines of Clidastes or Platecarpus? While I love mosasaurs I'm not nearly as well versed in them as some of my peers, so I'll loop them into this conversation.

@Jared C @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon @Praefectus

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Plioplatecarpine mosasaur tooth. Probably Latoplatecarpus.

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15 hours ago, Praefectus said:

Plioplatecarpine mosasaur tooth. Probably Latoplatecarpus.

 

I wouldn't know about the Latoplatecarpus identification, but would trust Trevor on that. Maybe @JohnJ can confirm. In any case, I agree with the identification as plioplatecarpine mosasaur. Nice one!

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'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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Striations point plioplatecarpine and the strong medial curvature suggests Latoplatecarpus. That's not a 100% solid ID, but Lato is the most common plioplatecarpine in the area. 

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I tend to agree with Trevor, also.  For reference.

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The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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