Sabertooth Cat (Smilodon) Lower Jaw Section - Florida

This is an extremely rare, 2.8" long, fossil lower jaw section with molar from a Saber tooth Cat (Smilodon) found in the Withlacoochee River in Florida. Any Smilodon material is extremely collectable and it's nearly impossible to find commercially available. This tooth one of three specimens I acquired as part of an old collection all from the same location. The fairly worn ID tag has a has a year 1992 listed on it which I suspect is the year they were collected.

There are too species of Smilodon known from Florida, Smilodon fatalis (sometimes referred to as Smilodon floridanus) and Smilodon gracilis. I do not believe it's possible to assign these isolated fossil teeth to one species vs the other. Isolated Smilodon material typically just single bones and teeth have been found throughout Florida but are considered fairly rare finds.