Horse tooth?

[Superdup]

First post on this particular forum, glad to be able to do so! I found this tooth in my chicken run after a heavy rain. Have found native American artifacts in the vicinity as well. I've some some online research as well as read through posts on teeth on this forum but I'm afraid they all just look too similar to make a call. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

[SurfaceHunter]

I’m sure someone will know cool find

[Hal Gorges]

A warm welcome from Safety Harbor Florida....They all look the same to me also, Lol.

[Superdup]

Hal you are a good dude... I've posted on the what did I find forum several times and you are the first to respond! Makes me wish, as an old school south Louisiana boy, we could chew the fat around the fire sonewhere, but thank the lord for the internet so this is possible....

[Hal Gorges]

As I understand it cow and bison have a styled ( yellow arrow ), horse doesn’t...I could be wrong, I usta know these things, Lol..Probably horse but I can’t see all sides...

[painshill]

It’s a horse molar.

It’s true that Equidae don’t usually have a stylid, although it’s sometimes seen in deciduous lower cheek teeth. However, the feature I’ve highlighted in red is not a stylid. If you trace the outline of the enamel you’ll see It’s pretty much the opposite of that. Stylids are discrete columns of enamel that protrude from between the main cusps of the tooth and may or may not be attached to it (isolated vs non-isolated). What you have here is a ‘sulcus’… a fold within the flexids of the occlusal pattern and that’s a characteristic of Equidae.



So, for America, that would mean horse or mule/donkey. In donkeys (as well as the tooth being generally smaller) the sulcus is usually distinctly V-shaped, coming to a pointed end, and penetrates deeply into the valleys of the flexids, sometimes approaching the other side of the tooth. In horses it’s worm/sausage-shaped, has a rounded end that may have a cleft in it, and usually penetrates less deeply… not beyond halfway into the tooth.

Compare to these horse molars (and particularly the last of the four):

[Superdup]

Thanks gents! Painshill, that last depiction is a dead ringer. Any guess as to modern or prehistoric?

[painshill]

It would only be a guess, but I would say 'historic' (ie after the introduction of domesticated horses by Europeans).