ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[GrizzlyClaws]

That tooth was from China for sure, and I can foresee where exactly it came from.

It probably came from the Harbin breeding center, and althought to trade for the body parts of the dead tigers is strictly prohibited, but I think there are still some employees there chose to not abide the law and to trade these items under the table.

In China, there are many demand for the tiger tooth for the use of pendant or something like that.
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[GrizzlyClaws]

PS, that tooth was probably used for many years for the traditional Chinese medicines.

Many Chinese farmers usually used to wear down the tiger bone/tooth into powder for the medical purpose.

I guess some tooth collector might have purchased it before the fragmented tooth was completely wasted. Reply

[tigerluver]

Let's start with this, I reconstructed it onto vK's Ngandong skull by matching the coloration change on the tooth with the change on the fossil skull. The grinding would explain the odd curvature. Thoughs before we explore some more?

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[GrizzlyClaws]

I guess curvature is probably the insertion part of the canine, so you have to put it more upward within the skull section.


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[GrizzlyClaws]

Near the insertion part of the canine, there is always a curvature.

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[tigerluver]

I was thinking the same thing, but the problem is that the texture found above the gumline isn't present on the fragment. Add to that the wide end of the fragment is relatively close to the thin end which would theoretically lead to the point of the canine, so it would be difficult for the tooth to be deeper in the skull. To what extent and from which areas do you think was grinded? Reply

[GrizzlyClaws]

Above the curvature, the texture looks yellowish, that's the texture of the root part.

If you have placed its correctly, the ratio of the GLS will be reduced, it would probably match the 17 inches skull of some large captive male Amurs. Reply

[GrizzlyClaws]

Hopefully that could help.

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[GrizzlyClaws]

BTW, in most pictures, these intersection parts didn't look so apparent.

Anyway, it is so worn down.

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[tigerluver]

This was the best fit into the skull. 

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And going by the last interpretation of regions of the tooth:

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I could not get the curvature to fit without the root expanding into the skull beyond realistic levels. Reply

[GrizzlyClaws]

BTW, with that ratio, the skull should belong to a normal large tiger.

And the total length of the canine should be around 16 cm, which does match the estimate of the Duisburg specimen.

Although the owner has overestimated the length of the canine, it is still very robust built and heavy.

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[GrizzlyClaws]

BTW, that canine also did not preserve very well, and the texture was definitely messed up.

Anyway, that fragment probably represents 50% of the whole canine, so the whole canine probably weighed about 222 grams at 16 cm.

The density also matches perfectly with the 52.6 grams tiger canine at 9.9 cm. Reply

[tigerluver]

With that fit, the CBL is about 370.5 mm and GSL about 395 mm, so a 272 kg in Amur proportions, say 300-320 kg in Bengal proportions. Although, this was placed on a Ngandong tiger skull, which looks to have different ratios from the rest of the subspecies. Is there an image of an actual Amur skull we can use (not those market replicas). Reply

[GrizzlyClaws]

Probably belonged to a 600 pounds adult male Amur, and each of his canines probably weighed about half pound, which enabled him to deliver an extremely powerful killing bite.

There must have some specific reason for the Amur tiger to evolve with the one of the most powerful canine teeth of all big cats. Reply

[GrizzlyClaws]

(02-06-2015, 10:54 AM)'tigerluver' Wrote: With that fit, the CBL is about 370.5 mm and GSL about 395 mm, so a 272 kg in Amur proportions, say 300-320 kg in Bengal proportions. Although, this was placed on a Ngandong tiger skull, which looks to have different ratios from the rest of the subspecies. Is there an image of an actual Amur skull we can use (not those market replicas).

 

Although we currently don't have any comparison with the actual Amur skull.

However, we are heading to the right direction, it was likely a male Amur from the Harbin breeding center in China, and the employees of there probably didn't abide the law by selling the body parts of the dead tigers under the table.

And now I am wondering that could the extra heavy canines that allowed tiger to deliver a quick shot against its preys?

Since we usually saw the tigers used to dispatch its preys much faster than lions did, maybe it is the different weaponry. Reply