The only blue smilodon tooth from Florida Smilodon Fatalis Florida, USA Bartow Phosphate Mines 10.8 x 3.5 x 1.5 cm Provenance: Swiss private collection Smilodon is a genus of extinct sabre-toothed cats (Machairodontinae) that was widespread in the Americas during the Pleistocene. They became extinct about 12,000 years ago at the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene. Even though they sometimes are called sabre-toothed tiger they are phylogenetically and anatomically distinctly different from the big cats living today. The Smilodon tooth offered here shows beautiful blue discolouration which was caused by Vivianite, an iron-phosphate mineral that has been used as a natural pigment since ancient times. This mineral also reacts with organic components containing iron, as railway workers in the Harz mountains (a low mountain range in Germany) discovered in 1984. They found cattle and horse bones that were about a thousand years old and completely discoloured light blue. Horse teeth from the same period that were also found there were filled with dark blue vivianite crystals up to three millimetres long in their hollow interior. The Smilodon tooth offered here shows beautiful blue discolouration, which makes it a truly unique find from the famous dig site in Florida. BLAUER SMILODON ZAHN Smilodon Fatalis Florida, USA Bartow Phosphat Minen 10,8 x 3,5 x 1,5 cm Provenienz: Schweizer Privatsammlung Smilodon ist eine Gattung der ausgestorbenen S?belzahnkatzen (Machairodontinae), die w?hrend des Pleistoz?ns in Amerika weit verbreitet war. Innerhalb der Gattung werden mit Smilodon gracilis, Smilodon populator und Smilodon fatalis drei Arten bezeichnet, die sich in ihrer Gr??e und anderen Merkmalen deutlich unterschieden. Smilodon starb vor etwa 12.000 Jahren an der Wende vom Pleistoz?n zum Holoz?n aus. Die drei Arten Smilodon werden aufgrund ihrer Gr??e und ihrer Position in der Nahrungspyramide auch als S?belzahntiger bezeichnet, obwohl keine n?here Verwandtschaft mit dem Tiger besteht. Stattdessen unterscheidet sich Smilodon stammesgeschichtlich und anatomisch deutlich von den heute lebenden Gro?katzen. Vivianit oder Eisenblau ist ein Eisen-Phosphat-Mineral, das schon seit der Antike als natürliches Pigment genutzt wird. Das Mineral reagiert auch mit eisenhaltigen, organischen Bestandteilen, wie Bahnarbeiter im Harz (Mittelgebirge in Deutschland) 1984 feststellten. Sie entdeckten rund tausend Jahre alte Rinder- und Pferdeknochen, die komplett hellblau verf?rbt waren. Ebenfalls dort gefundene Pferdez?hne aus der gleichen Zeit waren in ihrem hohlen Innenraum mit bis zu drei Millimeter langen dunkelblauen Vivianit-Kristallen gefüllt. Der hier angebotene Smilodon Zahn zeigt wundersch?ne blaue Verf?rbungen und ist in einem sehr guten Originalzustand.
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