Question for the Grape Red Spot - It's about teeth

[Jeff Root]

I have a Mosasaurus anceps tooth, 1" long, 3/4" wide, and 1/2" thick.
(I was going to use cm or mm but when I discovered that the dimensions
are such round numbers in the English/American units...) Mosasaurus
was a giant marine lizard that lived in the Cretaceous 70 million
years ago. This tooth was found in the Khouribga Plateau, Morocco.

In profile the tooth is shaped like a shark's dorsal fin. It has
no root, but appears to be broken off at the "gum line" or whatever
mosasaurs had. There is an obvious difference in color and texture
between the outer millimetre (or less) surface layer and the interior.
The surface material has a gradual gradation of color, from brown at
the tip to nearly white at the base.

I'm guessing that the surface is the original enamel. The person who
sold it to me said it was mineralized, not the original material.

Who's right?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Nick Theodorakis]

Tooth enamel is already heavily mineralized even in a living animal -- it's primarily hydroxylapatite. Unless the hydroxylapatite was replaced by a different mineral, it might be hard to determine whether the stuff in a fossil tooth was original or replaced.

Nick

[sarongsong]

Question for the Grape Red Spot......Who's right?What is the GRS's answer?

No pix?! :(

[mahesh]

By Jove....

Io say....I've been had....methought this is another, lovely, parody thread...

May be it is...it's too early in the morn....where'smetea? I'm gas ping...

[Jeff Root]

Sarongsong,

It only just occurred to me moments before reading your reply that I could
put the tooth on the scanner and get a "photo" of it for use in this thread.
However, after using the scanner a couple of times I put it back in its box
so that I can have a little bit of room to move around in while I put a new
top on my desk and then-- finally-- set up my new computer. When that's
done I'll unpack the scanner again. Although... If for any good reason or
maybe even some poor reason you reely, reely wanna see the tooth,
it wouldn't take that long to set the scanner up again now. Someday I'll
get a digital camera. Someday....

Mahesh,

I presume you know who the Grape Red Spot is. Like newspaper editors, I
have a fondness for silly subject lines. But I also realized that just saying
"Question for the Grape Red Spot" left the actual thread topic completely
un-mentioned. So I figured I'd better put the word "tooth" in it. But then
I thought of Monty Python....

Hmmm. I have a feeling that Terry Gilliam might be the person responsible
for the "teeth" business. He is from Minneapolis.

That was funny. I had a hard time getting the period at the end of that
sentence, because I never put one after "Minneapolis" in my signature.
My fingers couldn't believe a period belonged there.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis