Koller - Out of This World Tuesday, 28 June 2022, 4pm

1843 BLUE SMILODON TOOTH 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 (Mach- airodontinae) 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 disco- louration 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 lowmountain range in Germany) discovered in 1984. They found cattle and horse bones that were about a thousand years old and com­ pletely 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 disco- louration, which makes it a truly unique find from the famous dig site in Florida. CHF 10 000 / 18 000 (€ 9 710 / 17 480) | 46 Out of This World | Natural History, Space Exploration & Entertainment Memorabilia