Large spine like fossil or petrified wood?

[fossilchris]

I recently acquired a very large lot of petrified wood from a very old home site that was likely collected from the Douglas County Colorado area.  Probably from the surrounding area of the home, which dated back to the late 1800's.

 

Among the pieces were a few that did not look like wood, and one in particular that seemed very unique.   I included one picture further back for scale sitting on the back of my truck.  It is pretty heavy maybe 35-35 pounds.

 

Any idea?

[Rockwood]

Appears to be a geologic structure.  Something similar to box work.

[Norki]

This is almost definitely a series of three articulated vertebrae. You can really see the bone texture in the second photo, on the vertically aligned process.

 

I couldn't tell you what animal these are from, but the size says some kind of dinosaur.

 

 

[Rockwood]

[LabRatKing]

At first glance, looks geologic to me, possibly a travertine?

 

But, I see what I think you and others are seeing.

 

We need some close ups of the highlighted areas, with special attention to the area indicated by the red arrow.

 

Be sure to include a ruler or tape measure in the images!

[Fossildude19]

Travertine for me as well. 

Not so sure about any fossils included. 

[fossilchris]

I thought as well it seems like a series of vertebrae.  There have been some monumental large dino finds in this area, so who knows.  There could be other bones in the pile of material I have, I took some other pics.

[fossilchris]

[fossilchris]

[Top Trilo]

I just have to say that is a beautiful group of petrified wood

[fossilchris]

Thank you - there is some incredibly cool pieces in there with lots of crystals.  I am sure it was all collected in the surrounding property way back in the day.

 

here are a couple more pics of of the maybe fossil showing what sure seems to be structure of some sort.

[Rockwood]

Wait a minute.

Just maybe I failed to consider the possibility of the bones being thin and inflated looking. Could it be a large Pterosaur ?

[Rockwood]

4 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Wait a minute.

Just maybe I failed to consider the possibility of the bones being thin and inflated looking. Could it be a large Pterosaur ?

Seriously, there is too much indication of bone to ignore.

@Troodon  @LordTrilobite What do you think ?

[LabRatKing]

This one has me stumped...

(see what I did there?)

 

All the signs of travertine and druzy and botryoidal calcite is there for sure....but this guy....Looks spongiform to me in spots.

 

[LordTrilobite]

I do agree that some of the photo closeups look like there's bone present. Other photos kinda look like there's some mineral veining going on though.

I will say, that I have seen something similar on the Triceratops material I worked on in the museum prep lab. Overall the bones were in pretty good condition, but in some spots, there were roots going right through the matrix and bone. Often the bone was still in it's original shape, but had lost all of it's structural integrity. It was basically packed dust held in place by the matrix in these areas. But the interesting bit is the bone would sometimes seep into cracks in the matrix. This would then create weird "fake" anatomy and sometimes resembled how mineral veins look snaking through rock.

But this looks much more extreme if that's what's going on.

 

 

I'd say this needs proper prepping to tell more.

[Troodon]

@RockwoodNo pterosaur but I do see on a couple of photos what looks like vertebrae (spine & centrum) and bone.  Its so deteriorated that hard to verify without holding it.

[Norki]

The thing that really sells it for me is the texture and symmetry of this bit, which looks a lot like a spinous process:

 

 

Also, the piece appears to have three transverse processes on each side, with the following photo in particular appearing to also show bone texture where they have broken off:

 

 

 

It would really be a lot clearer if we could see it in hand, but the evidence so far to me indicates that these are fossil vertebrae. A little bit of prep and matrix removal would probably make this a lot more clear. Can we get more close-ups of the surfaces that I've circled?

[LabRatKing]

Just now, Norki said:

The thing that really sells it for me is the texture and symmetry of this bit, which looks a lot like a spinous process:

 

 

Also, the piece appears to have three transverse processes on each side, with the following photo in particular appearing to also show bone texture where they have broken off:

 

 

 

It would really be a lot clearer if we could see it in hand, but the evidence so far to me indicates that these are fossil vertebrae. A little bit of prep and matrix removal would probably make this a lot more clear. Can we get more close-ups of the surfaces that I've circled?

I am in complete agreement with this line of thought. If it was local to me, I'd be on my way over with beverages for a long feasability study.

[LabRatKing]

8 hours ago, fossilchris said:

I thought as well it seems like a series of vertebrae.  There have been some monumental large dino finds in this area, so who knows.  There could be other bones in the pile of material I have, I took some other pics.

This trove reminds me of the "Elementary" episode Dead Clade Walking....so many goodies in there!

[PaleoNoel]

Interesting pickup and nice collection of wood! With the pictures you've provided it's evident to me this is bone, three articulated vertebrae of something very large, in the size range of many dinosaurs. I'm not sure if its poor preservation quality or maybe a feature originally present, but there appear to be large spaces in the bone tissue, perhaps hinting at pneumaticity-just an observation.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

On 11/19/2020 at 9:12 AM, Norki said:

This is almost definitely a series of three articulated vertebrae. You can really see the bone texture in the second photo, on the vertically aligned process.

 

I couldn't tell you what animal these are from, but the size says some kind of dinosaur.

 

 

Yup, I totally agree. As soon as I saw the photographs, the first thing that came to mind was a string of vertebrae. Nice work on highlighting them for others to see too, @Norki!

[fossilchris]

Thanks for all of the great input.  I would love to clean/prep this up for a better look.  Unfortunately, I am more of a mineral/rock enthusiast so I do not have any experience in fossil prep.  I could give it a try I just want to make sure I am not learning on something that has enough significance to have value.  If it turned out to be something like a rare dinosaur spine section, would it be better to look for a professional fossil prep service, or if I go at it myself there is not much harm even if it gets damaged?

[jpc]

1 hour ago, fossilchris said:

Thanks for all of the great input.  I would love to clean/prep this up for a better look.  Unfortunately, I am more of a mineral/rock enthusiast so I do not have any experience in fossil prep.  I could give it a try I just want to make sure I am not learning on something that has enough significance to have value.  If it turned out to be something like a rare dinosaur spine section, would it be better to look for a professional fossil prep service, or if I go at it myself there is not much harm even if it gets damaged?

This is a very interesting piece.  If those are bones (and they sure look boney) the preservation is not like any I have ever seen.  If you get a chance you should bring these to a paleontologist to have a look in person.  In your neck of the woods (assuming western slope), I recommend the good folks at either Dinosaur National Monument or the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita.  And no, they cannot take your finds away from you.  Or if you ever make it up to Casper bring it by the Tate Museum and I would love to have a look.  Additionally, I would not try to prep this yourself.  The preservation alone might make it more interesting as is.    

 

Cool fossil.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

In addition to what @jpc just said, the preservation doesn't seem to good. Trying to prep the piece yourself, especially if you're experienced, would be precarious and would risk damage to the fossil. I think first taking it to a museum for further evaluation is indeed the best course of action in this case.

[thelivingdead531]

If you do take it somewhere to have it looked at, please keep us in the loop! This is a really cool piece!