Petalodus12 Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 Hi all, Something different for today. I discovered this vertebra in the surf at Matoaka Cabins roughly 2 years ago. For those of you that don’t know, the rocks here are Miocene in age and preserve a nearshore marine environment. Cetacean remains are common, but other mammals (esp terrestrial) are not. Originally I thought it was a turtle vert, but now I’ve realized that it’s mammalian and possibly terrestrial in origin. It passed the burn test, by the way. My thought is that it is from a small mammal’s tail, as it closely resembles other mammalian caudal vertebrae. I’ve included a diagram of the vertebrae of Phenacodus, which show marked similarity. It’s not from Phenacodus, though as the deposits are far too young. Does anyone have any ideas on a better or more specific id? I’m not well versed in Cenozoic mammals. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 mammal tail bones are kinda one size fits all. Could be anything, but I think you are right... terrestrial mammal. Nice find. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petalodus12 Posted January 12, 2021 Author Share Posted January 12, 2021 36 minutes ago, jpc said: mammal tail bones are kinda one size fits all. Could be anything, but I think you are right... terrestrial mammal. Nice find. Thank you for the confirmation! I figured as much but I just wanted to be sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted January 12, 2021 Share Posted January 12, 2021 but you're right... not Phenacodus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoNoel Posted January 12, 2021 Share Posted January 12, 2021 Looks very similar to the oreodont caudal vertebrae I found over the summer in the White River gp. in Wyoming. I would go with caudal vertebra for sure, with similarities to artiodactyls (not sure how it compares to other mammal groups though). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted January 12, 2021 Share Posted January 12, 2021 I would contact Dr. Stephen Godfrey of the Calvert Museum to see if he could help you. Terrestrial finds are not uncommon in the cliffs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petalodus12 Posted January 12, 2021 Author Share Posted January 12, 2021 9 hours ago, Troodon said: I would contact Dr. Stephen Godfrey of the Calvert Museum to see if he could help you. Terrestrial finds are not uncommon in the cliffs Will do. Thank you for the suggestion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted January 12, 2021 Share Posted January 12, 2021 Yes, this looks like an oreodont tailbone, but like I said earlier, mammal tail bones are almost all incredibly similar. Phenacodus (a Paleocene mammal), Oreodont, modern dog... all bones from long mammal tails that are not prehensile are very very similar. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petalodus12 Posted January 12, 2021 Author Share Posted January 12, 2021 39 minutes ago, jpc said: Yes, this looks like an oreodont tailbone, but like I said earlier, mammal tail bones are almost all incredibly similar. Phenacodus (a Paleocene mammal), Oreodont, modern dog... all bones from long mammal tails that are not prehensile are very very similar. I noticed that when I was doing some google searches to try to narrow this down. They all definitely looked quite similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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