I found this strange tooth in Galveston, Texas. What does it belong to?

Question

I found this on May 7, 2017, on Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston, Texas. What's not visible are the treelike rings inside the tooth and what looks like a tiny interior porous center. It looks like it was considerably larger but broken off.

We're all taking bets on what it is! enter image description here

Hi welcome to Bio.SE! Neat tooth! :). Could you please include an image from the top of the tooth if possible? Thanks! — theforestecologist, May 08 '17 at 18:37
My dentist said it was human's lower right first molar. I think it's starting to look like cow. — Kristen Miller, May 08 '17 at 22:11
You should probably find a new dentist if they think that came from a human. — canadianer, May 08 '17 at 22:28
I'd agree that it looks bovine but there is a lot of homology in teeth so I wouldn't be confident in that determination, might at least be a ruminant though. See here for some bovine molars. — Bryan Krause, May 08 '17 at 22:40
Sure, wishful thinking, but for its size it could be densiovan which would be awesome ... :D — AlexDeLarge, May 09 '17 at 10:15
@BryanKrause I agree that your cow tooth link looks very close. — Display Name, May 09 '17 at 19:06
@Bryan I think it has something to do with Bison. This link will take you to some fossil forums. — Tyto alba, May 10 '17 at 17:55
@Tytoalba Why do you think it is a fossil rather than a relatively modern tooth? — Bryan Krause, May 10 '17 at 18:16
I didn't mean it is a fossil, I found these forums discussing about bovine (Bison) teeth, which can shade some light on this specimen. @BryanKrause — Tyto alba, May 10 '17 at 18:37
@Tytoalba Got it. I don't see a single tooth on there that is definitively attributed to a bison that looks like this one, though, is there an example I missed? I think it's more likely to be from common domestic cattle. People raise quite a few cattle in Texas, and there aren't very many bison there these days. — Bryan Krause, May 10 '17 at 18:42
I didn't do a thorough research and I see it lacks the prominent stylid of a Bison. Never mind. — Tyto alba, May 10 '17 at 18:57
This discussion might help: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/message/57652 — bli, May 11 '17 at 15:15

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 08 '17 at 07:40

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This is a cow tooth. Your image matches above image. https://www.flickr.com/photos/61377404@N08/12300347505

answered Aug 08 '17 at 07:40

Anubhav Goel

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I agree with this answer. I grew up on a cattle farm and saw these quite often. But it would be important to know if cattle were ever raised on Bolivar Peninsula. It seems quite small. – user137 Aug 08 '17 at 07:47

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered May 09 '17 at 18:20

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Most likely a horse tooth. Check out this image from Wikipedia.

answered May 09 '17 at 18:20

IconDaemon

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It doesn't look anything like any of the teeth in that horse's mouth. Compare to my link for a bovine molar in the link in the comments above. – Bryan Krause May 09 '17 at 18:38

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 07 '17 at 11:36

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It looks like a bison tooth Just saying btw if u have any other bones post them in thefossilforum.com(gives little bit of help with fosills and bones) How i identified it
just search on tooth of random animal maybe you/ll see the answer somewhere

answered Aug 07 '17 at 11:36

Sonic Splasher

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I found this strange tooth in Galveston, Texas. What does it belong to?

3 Answers3