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Showing results for tags 'neurals'.
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Just came back from an afternoon at the FLMNH vertebrate paleontology warehouse sorting through bone bags from the Montbrook site. Richard Hulbert, Collection Manager, was there as well working on cataloging specimens from the trays of catalogable specimens that I'd separated from the scrappy bones last month. He came over to show me a set of 3 neural bones from the carapace of the Trachemys slider turtle that is ubiquitous at the site. I remember seeing these 3 bones (neurals 3 through 5) that run along the midline of the turtle's upper shell (carapace) when I determined they were associated and fit together. Associated bones are cataloged as a set rather than as individual bones. I recall these bones having rounded markings on them but likely was distracted with something else and didn't take the time to dig out the pits of lithified sand that filled these cavities. Richard took the time to clean out the matrix and it was quite apparent that this was one lucky turtle (depending on your point of view). You can clearly see that an alligator had managed to get this turtle into its mouth and had bit down at least twice leaving two distinct rows of tooth marks along the midline of this turtle's shell. The wounds are slightly healed and the fact that the neurals were found in close proximity within one of the grid squares and were not found digested and part of a gator coprolite means that this lucky turtle survived the attack and continued to live for some time after. Always fun when these little taphonomic clues can be interpreted to tell something of the life story of the individual. Cheers. -Ken
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