Pleistocene Bone Identifications

[Brandy Cole]

We found these bones laying in sandy gravel in a sandbar in an area that has Pleistocene mammals and reptiles.  I've read threads that joke about chunkosaurs when there is too little bone to identify, and these may fit that bill!  I know they don't have a lot of identifying characteristics.   I'm hoping to at least rule out a few things or get a few possibilities.  My young niece and nephew have come out with us some to look for fossils, and it would be neat to tell them a little bit about these since at their age they just think all fossils = dinosaur. :-)

 

I'm also testing out editing the pictures to cut down the file size so that I can post more, so I apologize if that's a little messy.

 

There are three different bone fragments with six pictures apiece.  

 

The first fragment was smaller than the others and darker. 

 

 

The second was the largest and had a sort of compressed oval shape. 

 

 

The third was a chunky more rounded bone.  

 

 

Thanks again for any help.

 

[JohnJ]

@Brandy Cole 

 

I've edited the photos under your descriptive comments.  You can place attached photos within the body of text by placing your cursor where you want the image, then click the + sign on the thumbnail image.

 

[Brandy Cole]

2 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

@Brandy Cole 

 

I've edited the photos under your descriptive comments.  You can place attached photos within the body of text by placing your cursor where you want the image, then click the + sign on the thumbnail image.

 

Thank you! I couldn't figure out how to do that.

[fossilus]

These are tough. Generally for limb bones the ends are most diagnostic. 

Some of these may be ribs which are even more difficult as descriptive scientific papers don't generally describe ribs.

[garyc]

Nothing is jumping out at me diagnostically. They do look like pleisto frags. Good pics btw

[Brandy Cole]

20 hours ago, garyc said:

Nothing is jumping out at me diagnostically. They do look like pleisto frags. Good pics btw

Thank you!  Still working on improving that.

22 hours ago, fossilus said:

These are tough. Generally for limb bones the ends are most diagnostic. 

Some of these may be ribs which are even more difficult as descriptive scientific papers don't generally describe ribs.

The only bone that appears to have a natural, unbroken end is the darkest bone in the first picture.  I'm attaching another picture that might better show how the end looks in relation to the rest of the bone.  

Thanks for taking a look.

[fossilus]

 

 

There is a chance that the indentation could be the same as you can see on these femurs, the left from a horse, the right bison, both are commonly found in SE Texas.  It could really be from any ungulate including deer or llama which are also found in that area.  The size might indicate deer which are found as both recent and also as fossilized. 

 

But that would be very much of a guess.

[Brandy Cole]

On 11/12/2020 at 7:46 PM, fossilus said:

 

 

There is a chance that the indentation could be the same as you can see on these femurs, the left from a horse, the right bison, both are commonly found in SE Texas.  It could really be from any ungulate including deer or llama which are also found in the area.  The size might indicate deer which are found as both recent and also as fossilized. 

 

But that would be very much of a guess.

Thank you for the ideas!