2.5" Serrated Tyrannosaur Tooth - Judith River Formation

Serrated Tyrannosaur Tooth - Judith River Formation #207654

This is a stunning 2.5" long serrated Tyrannosaur tooth collected this past summer from the Judith River Formation of Montana. This formation is approximately 70 million years old, or about 5 million years older than the Hell Creek Formation which produces T-Rex.

The serrations on both edges of this tooth are in excellent condition with only a couple spots missing where the tooth cracked. The enamel is beautiful with dark to light brown coloration. There is a repaired crack at the tip of the tooth, with an additional crack about half an inch up from the tip. There are some spots of gap fill across the labial face to fill natural fractures in the tooth. The only significant restoration can be found at the basal end around the rim, primarily as gap fill to stabilize the bone.

Three species of tyrannosaur have been described from the Two Medicine & Judith River Formations: Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus and Daspletosaurus. Research done on teeth from these three tyrannosaurs has concluded that isolated teeth are statistically impossible to assign to a specific genus because they are so similar.

Morphometry of the teeth of western North American tyrannosaurids and its applicability to quantitative classification

The Judith River Formation is one of the world's most prolific sources of Late Cretaceous vertebrate fossils. At least sixteen Orders containing more than forty Genera are known from the formation. These include fish, amphibians, mammals, and insects in addition to reptiles and avian (birds) and non-avian dinosaurs. Among the more interesting specimens is Leonardo, a mummified and fossilized Brachylophosaurus. This is a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur found with amazing soft-tissue preservation: skin impressions can be found on 90 percent of its body! The pattern in the skin on its feet is even preserved. In addition to Leonardo, the Judith River Formation contains the remains of the theropod Hesperornis, the only known freshwater Hespernorthid, a penguin-like bird.

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