Eocene Whale Id

[calhounensis]

This came out of the Crystal River Fm. part of the Ocala Limestone, the age of which is Late Eocene. The tooth definitely belongs to a whale. There is some sort of root pathology, feeding damage to the enamel, and a concave root. I was thinking it could be a Zygorhiza incisor, but my knowledge of the archeocete whales is limited. Had to take the pictures inside due to weather, so the lighting wasn't the best and the images came out pretty fuzzy. The weather should be better tomorrow if I need to get better photos.

Thanks for any help,

Daniel

Edited June 9, 2014 by calhounensis

[Al Dente]

It's an interesting find. It looks unusual for an Eocene tooth.

[Harry Pristis]

Any trace of crenulations left on the crown?

For orientation:

[calhounensis]

Do you have an example of the crenulations in Cetacea? I hadn't heard the term before, some digging in Google pulled up an image of crenulations on several sharks teeth but nothing for whales. There does appear to be some perpendicular 'lines' in the enamel right above the pathological side of the root. The lines are only about 1mm, they are pretty worn down and barely evident.

Please excuse my general lack of knowledge on this subject.

Thanks Harry.

Edited June 10, 2014 by calhounensis

[Harry Pristis]

I don't know what your tooth is, Cal, but here are a trio of single-root teeth from Zygorhiza. These teeth are blade-like, laterally compressed. you can see the crenulations I was asking about.

[calhounensis]

Thanks for teaching me something new.

[Harry Pristis]

You're welcome, Cal. If this exchange was instructive, why don't you press the "INFORMATIVE" button on the appropriate post. All of us should be using that feedback device more extensively.