What could this be?

[zkreso]

Hello all,

my mothers boyfriend found this strange thing that looked like a tooth in his yard, and asked me if I could try and found out what it was on the internet. I took some pictures, but my camera is not that good with macro shots, so they came out a bit undetailed, but I hope you can help me anyway.
The dimensions are ca. 5x2x2 cm. and it was found in Kristiansand, on the southern tip of Norway.

from the above pictures, is someone able to identify it?

thanks,
-zk

 

[Phil]

Hi Zkreso!

Hmm...interesting.

I think, but am not certain, that what you have there is a partial horse's tooth. Compare your 'left' view with that in the top picture in this site:

Prehistoric Megafauna of the Wekiva River Basin

If you have a google image search on 'horse tooth' or 'horse teeth' you will find a few images that really look quite similar. However, I'll shoot off an e-mail to TONMO member GeoffC and see what he thinks. Geoff studies animal bone material as part of his job, he'll have a much better idea than me.

Thanks for posting it.

 

[GeoffC]

Hi Zkreso! Hi Phil!

Sorry not to see this sooner, I'm not near a computer much at the moment. Anyway, yes I think Phil's right, it looks like a horse tooth from the upper jaw (which are more square in cross section), without actually seeing the tooth it's a bit difficult to say. The root end is shown on your 'right' picture.

Cheers
Geoff

 

[zkreso]

Hi all,

thanks for replying, I had a gut feeling that it might have been a horse tooth. Actually I didn't really expect any replies, so thanks again for answering!

-zk