Cow teeth?

[Coogan]

Hi guys, I found a couple of teeth recently among some other bones and debitage in Marion county Florida. My initial thought was cow, but I honestly have no idea. Any help is appreciated.

[SurfaceHunter]

I'm not the person who could tell you. I'm sure someone will know and reply. Thanks for sharing them.

[Hal Gorges]

Welcome from Pinellas co.... Maybe horse, they don’t look fossilized, did you find em in a field or phosphate pit, where ?... Do you live in Marion co. ?...questions, questions, questions...lol.

[Coogan]

Definitely not fossilized. I found them on a friends property close to the withlacoochee river. The were other bones, some flakes and pottery fragments in the same area so i believe this animal was butchered by native Americans and these were some of their discards . I’m just curious as to what this was that they might’ve been eating.

[Hal Gorges]

Pretty sure N/As in Florida never had horses...

[Hal Gorges]

P.S. maybe Seminoles, but that would be a rare event because of the terrain

[Hoss]

Looks more like cow to me. Here is some very useful information.
https://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/...-raining-teeth

[Coogan]

Thanks Hoss, reading it now. Trying to wrap my head around this stylid thing and how it differs between bison and cow.

[Coogan]

Hal, with what I’ve been reading and the presence of the “stylid” I’m leaning more towards cow, which I realize were introduced in the 1500s by the Spaniards, so I don’t know what kind of access natives might have had to them. It sure seemed like a midden though with shells, pottery fragments, other bones, and this cool gator scute

[painshill]

Just to summarise for you.

Stylids can be present in the cheek teeth of all Bovidae (the family that includes bison, antelopes, sheep, goats, muskoxen, and domestic cattle).

If you compare one of your teeth to this generic diagram, it’s clearly a bovid molar. That wiggly bit attached to the main cusps of the tooth is the stylid.





Within Bovidae, a very prominent stylid is usually an indication for either Bison or Bos (domestic cattle) and confirmed in this case by the size and occlusal pattern of the enamel.

Note that in the generic diagram above, the stylid is continuously attached to the main cusps. That’s almost always the case for Bos (domestic cattle) and sometimes (much less commonly) the case for Bison.

If the stylid is isolated from the main cusps then that’s the (high degree of certainty) diagnostic for Bison and almost never seen in Bos (domestic cattle). These are bison teeth with isolated stylids:



Note that the greyish cementum around the stylid completely isolates it from the main cusps. In the second picture, the tooth has seen substantial wear and the isolated stylid then appears as a separate ring in the occlusal pattern.

So from a diagnostic point of view, since your tooth has a prominent but not isolated stylid, the balance of probability is that it’s Bos (domestic cattle)… but Bison cannot be completely ruled out. In the absence of additional information/examination, age/context or further parts of the skeleton, the proper assignation would be “Bovidae; probably Bos (domestic cattle)”.

[Mailman]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I have a box full of large teeth I've found on sites. I've always wondered how to I.D. them. I'm going to use this as a starting point. IF I can find that pesky box. Dang you, Mrs Mailman....

[Coogan]

Painshill

Thanks very much for all of that information, that helps a lot! Sorry it took me this long to realize there were other comments in this thread .