Large mammal bone Miocene

[diginupbones]

I haven’t had much luck getting these larger bones identified in the past but this one is a little more complete so I am hoping for at least an ID on what part of the body this came from.   Found in  North Central Nebraska@Harry Pristis

[darrow]

The intact end makes me think tibia, the broken end being proximal.

[Harry Pristis]

I don't know what bone this is, but we can follow darrow's idea.  If this is a distal tibia, we can immediately eliminate artiodactyls and perissodactyls which have a deeply sculptured epiphysis to accomodate an astragalus.  The shallow sculpture of the epiphysis of this find must have made for a "loose" or flexible joint.  The example that jumps to mind is giant tortoise.  But this is just speculation based on a guess.  Perhaps someone will have a better idea.

[diginupbones]

Thanks guys! I learned some new terms today as usual.

[GPayton]

Going off of Harry's ID, I went looking for pictures of tortoise tibias. Here's one I found online of a much smaller tortoise tibia from the Pliocene of Florida. The distal end makes it seem like a pretty good match. 

[LabRatKing]

Distal tibia: agreed.

location data and scale: I’d start looking at the 47ish rhino species known for those formations.

 

However, I’m still learning mammalian morphology from that area. I have a few similar specimens in prep currently.

[ParkerPaleo]

I'm in the rhino tibia camp as well.  Looks to be a bit weathered/tumbled on the articular face as well. Hard to tell from photos.

[ParkerPaleo]

Could it be elephant?  Found this picture of a mammoth tibia.  I'm not super familiar with elephant anatomy.