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>From the pictures in the page it looks like a plausible mosasaur tooth, although rather stumpy. The basal view is consistent but the vertical striations are a bit unusual. Size is not a problem, its well within the range of many platecarpines. It may also be an unusual crocodilian tooth: a clue would be the presence of paired carinae directly opposite on medial and lateral borders. In most mosasaurs there are carinate margins offset on anteromedial and postero medial edges but they are not 180 degrees opposed. So, in the absence of informations on carinae it appears to be mosasaur. Certainly not theropod, champsosaur, plesiosaur or anything else of that age that comes to mind. Cheers, On 14 Nov 96 at 23:02, Benjamin Van Ee wrote: > Pardon me for reposting this, several subscribers that I know did not > receive the text body. > > Is there a person who could help me identify a "tooth." You can see > a picture of it at http://www.dordt.edu/dept/biology/pictrev.shtml > I found it on a recent Paleontology class field trip south of Hawarden > in NW Iowa. It may be a Mosasaur. It looks similar to the illustration > of a Mosasaur tooth found by Leidy and figured on plate 2 of Witzke's > article in Iowa Geological Survey Guidebook Series Number 4 of 1981. > It most likely came from Greenhorn limestone but due to errosion it > could be from the underlying Graneros shale. > This is the first such "tooth" we have found in the local Cretaceous > and not being experts wonder if there are other teeth that might look > very similar to those of Mosasaurs. > Is there a good reference for these teeth? > Witzke seems to imply in his article in the Survey Guidebook that Mosasaur > fossils are rare in this area; is that still thought to be the case? > > Benjamin Van Ee > Dordt College > 498 4th Ave. NE > Sioux Center, IA 51250 > > email: bnjmnvn@dordt.edu > phone: (712) 722 6616 > _______________________________ David Schwimmer Dep't of Chemistry & Geology Columbus State University 4225 University Ave. Columbus, Georgia USA 31907-5645 schwimmer_david@colstate.edu tel.& voice mail: (706) 569-3028 FAX (706) 569-3133
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