What Type Of Claw Is This?

[musicnfossils]

Found this recently while looking for teeth. Looks like a good portion of it is broken off but it looks like it might be a claw to me. As usual, Dinosaur Park fm. 

 

 

[PaleoNoel]

It's a tough call due to the condition, but my guess is either ornithomimid or parksosaurid, different sides of the dinosaur family tree but with foot claws not totally dissimilar. Seems to fit with the size as well. 

[Troodon]

Yea pretty beat up however might have an answer

In 2008 Nick Longrich published a paper :

A NEW, LARGE ORNITHOMIMID FROM THE
CRETACEOUS DINOSAUR PARK FORMATION OF
ALBERTA, CANADA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF DISSOCIATED DINOSAUR REMAINS.

 

One key sketal element, other than size,  that made this critter different than other ornithomimids is a dimple on the ventral side of the foot claw, see photo.  Yours has that dimple not has pronounced but your claw is in sorry shape so it might be that but its super rare if that what it is.  The other alternative is a pachycephalosaurid.

 

I happen to have one from the Judith so I contacted him to see if it had been described.

He responded that its unofficially called "Bigassomimus"  

 

[musicnfossils]

Wow, very cool! The dimple on the bottom is actually fairly pronounced photos don’t do it justice. 

[Troodon]

[musicnfossils]

Here’s a better picture to show a bit more depth; 

 

 

[PaleoNoel]

Awesome that we can get a good ID on it! I gotta look at my own I found back in 2019 as that dimple looks familiar.

[musicnfossils]

A response I got from Caleb Brown at RTMP about it below. Unfortunately it’s likely a claw from a known species of ornithomimid. I was going to donate the specimen if for any reason they found it research worthy but they don’t so it will stay in my collection for now. 

 

Understandably as stated I should leave the next specimen I find that I will report in it’s original resting place, however he figures that because the edges are not eroded that the rest of it might still be sitting there and I missed it. I will probably go see if I can find it sometime soon.