http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=57,4519,0,0,1,0
Mr Yap Kok Feng, a paralegal executive, wrote to Lianhe Zaobao recently claiming that the relic looks nothing like a human tooth.
When contacted, he said that he had shown a picture of it to dentists who believe it to be a herbivore's.
One of them, Dr Pamela Craig, a senior lecturer at the School of Dental Science at the University of Melbourne, told The Sunday Times she had examined photographs and compared the tooth with teeth from various animal skulls in her comparative dental anatomy department.
'There's absolutely no possibility that it is a human tooth,' said Dr Craig, who specialises in human and animal oral anatomy.
'I'm almost certain that it belongs to a member of the Bos species, probably a cow or a water buffalo.'
Dr Craig said human teeth should be rounded with a short crown and a comparatively longer root, but the picture clearly shows a long crown and a shorter root.
'In this case, looking at a photo is clear enough because it's so obvious that it's not a human tooth. It's like comparing a pear and an apple.'
The Sunday Times also showed a picture of the tooth to four other dentists, including two forensic dental experts. All said the tooth could not have come from a human.
'This is an animal 'cheek tooth', that is, a molar at the back of the mouth,' said Professor David K. Whittaker, a forensic dental specialist at Cardiff University in Britain.
The seemingly uneven biting surface is indicative of grass-eating animals whose teeth have 'a very efficient grinding surface for breaking up coarse plant materials,' he said.
Dr Myra Elliott, a consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon with a practice at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said: 'Even if human teeth have been fossilised, there's still a pattern. And what is shown in the picture doesn't look like a primate's tooth at all.'
The size of the tooth - measuring 7.5cm - is also far too long for a human tooth, said Dr Anthony Goh, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon.
'There isn't enough space in the jaw.'