Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hello all, it's been a very long time and I'm posting from my phone in an area with no wifi, so I hope I've followed all the rules as best I can.

 

I was out fossil hunting in the Upper Hell Creek in eastern Montana last year, and found this bone. (Sorry for the images, I will not be able to retake them for months.) It was found in a sandy mudstone and appears to be hollow (and very crumbly).  Its about 10 inches long.My best guess is a Struthiomimus femur, but if anyone knows different please let me know. Thank you for any help you can give!

 

 

20210108_110451_1610122202246.thumb.jpeg.5d5845c125c3e34996e7e1e92f7aa542.jpeg 20210108_110426_1610122200067.thumb.jpeg.6753cf4a61100f202e148c5bb990df4f.jpeg

Edited by RooBug
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few more shots of the bone would aid us in our attempt to identify it, but I do agree that it looks hollow, indicating it's theropod. Since all of the theropods in Hell Creek are Coelurosaurs, that's as far as I'm willing to go, aside from discounting the taxa which would be too small to have a bone of this size. The larger sized coelurosaurs present include multiple genera of Ornithomimids, Caenagnathid Oviraptorosaurs and Tyrannosaurs (if you consider Nanotyrannus separate). Troodontid and Dromaeosaur remains are rare, resulting in the described taxa being quite fragmentary. The same goes for the newly described Alvarezsaur Trierarchuncus and essentially all of the birds which have been found.

@jpc@Troodon@hxmendoza

Link to comment
Share on other sites

from the combination of what we can see in the photos and my knowledge, Struthiomimus femur is a good educated guess.  Mabe add a questionmark to both terms if you feel less than 100% confident.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know how to respond directly, but thank you guys for all your help!!

 

Also, I hadn't even considered tibia due to lack of actual images of them. They do look very similar so I'm definitely considering that now too, thank you so much for the picture! Alvarezsaur Trierarchuncus is also something I'll have to look up, how neat! (Also for some reason I can't edit the main post anymore to add the question marks for uncertainty, I'll make sure to do that next time!)

 

Thanks again for all of your help!

 

Edited by RooBug
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...