Name: Deltadromeus agilis (dinosaur tooth)
Age: Upper Cretaceous
Size: (25.4mm=1 inch): 26 mm along outer curve or 23 mm across inner diagonal
Location: Tegana Formation, Kem Kem Basin near Taouz Morocco
Code: DT01
Price: $40.00 - Sold
This
is the tooth of Deltadromeus agilis (a basal coelurosaur), a dinosaur with unusually
long, slender limbs and an oviraptorid-like foot suggesting speed and agility
-- such dinosaurs are often ascribed the name raptors. Deltadromeus
is believed to have grown to a large size (28 feet long and up to 4 tonnes), the
result of tens of million of years of adaptation where the slow and the small
themselves became lunch and failed to procreate, and 
where
the protein in meat could fuel the metabolism for rapid growth. Speed and size
would have indeed combined to define Deltadromeus as a formidable predator. This
tooth would have come from a smaller animal; dinosaurs were hatched from eggs
much smaller than Volkswagens, and thus had to eat much and grow for years to
attain large size, which but a small fraction of them ever attained.
Note the prominent serrations present on both sides, attesting to its carnivorous
propensities; being thin, it was more for stripping meat than for crushing bone.
As with most dinosaur teeth, this one was shed by its owner with a new sharper
and larger tooth taking its place.
