Replies

Just an uninformed engineer's opinion.

That looks more like an antler than a tooth.

Notice the cruve of the tooth, not look at the root; it doesn't look structurally sound. So consider, we have a predatory mammal that has never been sighted, with a tooth 4 inches long, that isn't structrually sound nor does it have signs of wear (notice the tip). Sorry, my BS detector is going off.

That's what I thought.
Sort of like a Pronghorn.

Pretty weak "root", isn't it?

Your antler guess is probably correct.

That looks more like an antler than a tooth.

Notice the cruve of the tooth, not look at the root; it doesn't look structurally sound. So consider, we have a predatory mammal that has never been sighted, with a tooth 4 inches long, that isn't structrually sound nor does it have signs of wear (notice the tip). Sorry, my BS detector is going off.

Also, to me, it goes against logic that a tooth would have a barb on it. A barb would only make it difficult for the animal to consume what it just killed or bit into.

Notice the cruve of the tooth, not look at the root; it doesn't look structurally sound.

Not only that, but I was wondering what kind of animal could survive in the wild if it lost a tooth every time it sat down to dinner? After a few meals, it would have to take all of its sustenance through a straw. So, until they find a deer corpse with a straw sticking out and all of its internal organs sucked out, I'm going to remain skeptical.

Bingo! Antler. The deer got into a fight with another deer and lost. Then he got half eaten, sounds like, by fish, if half the carcass had been in the water. That would have looked like he had been torn in half.

Yep. Looks like a spike buck shed. The spur is pretty clear on that one.

First off, there really isn't much of a root showing on the "tooth", but then again teeth rarely break off so beautifully that we see a root with the tooth. Certainly I would assume that a portion of gum/flesh would be torn out of the maxillary, premaxillary, or dentary portions of the jaw bone in the event of the entire tooth, root included, being broken off. Also, pertaining to this specific situation, no one as of yet has revealed any baseline comparisons as to what the tooth morphology of all Anguilla species look like. The barb on the "tooth" is a very curious feature, it is reminiscent of the tip of an antler, as well as I can see relevance in the "Crab" comparisons. We needed to look at the overall damage to the deer specimen, we needed to swab the severed zones for DNA samples,we need the"tooth"... the list of problems with diagnosing this evidence go on and on. And now local politics are playing a role. Steve Alten told me yesterday that there is now a $100,000.00 reward for the return of the tooth, and much of this money is being funded by marine biologists and other philanthropists within and without the scientific community. They must see something in those pictures to post that kind of money, don't'cha think?

They found a second tooth under the carcass