Calling ALL Experts! I.D. this talon/tusk found in Iowa river

[Mr. Allgood]

Wild guesses?

 

[krichardson]

That's someone's toenail.

 

[arowanafinatic]

^LOL

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[Mr. Allgood]

DNR says its possibly a muskrat tooth... Smh.

 

[Mr. Allgood]

Where's all of our zoologists, biologists, and archeologists?! Some gist has to know what this is...

 

[RMorrow]

I agree with DNR. It appears to me to be some sort of rodent tooth.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Yep, I'd say rodent tooth as well. It looks like it grew in wrong and might have caused the death of the animal it belongs to.

 

[Mr. Allgood]

It would be more like a fang than a regular flat rodent tooth. The whole thing is round from the base to the sharp point. Are there many fanged rodents out there?

 

[pshtex]

there are some aquatic worm/worm like animla species that produce shells. not really sure if this is one of those.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

It would be more like a fang than a regular flat rodent tooth. The whole thing is round from the base to the sharp point. Are there many fanged rodents out there?

The word rodent means "to gnaw" and that's the reason why their teeth are shaped like chisels. Teeth in the rodent family grow their entire life. If they didn't gnaw on things, they'd grow long, pointed and spiral shape.

There's a bunch of photos on google of rodents that have teeth issues. Their teeth look just like the one you found.