Moroccan Mystery

[Yasmin95]

Hi Y'all,

 

I am new here

 

During the lockdown (in the Netherlands) I started cleaning and documenting my collection. There are a few things I am not sure about. 

 

So if anyone could help, Yes please

 

So this thing I am not sure what I am looking at. The thing that is weird to me is that if you look at it from the tip it lloks like a +. This wants to make me cross out a dinosaur but the bone structure does not look like a fish. Sooo I am a bit confuzed

 

Measurements are

LxHXB

24cmx5.1cmx4cm

 

Thank you for looking

[LordTrilobite]

Wow that is a weird one. I agree that the bone structure seems to resemble reptiles rather than fish. But it's a weird shape. It looks like it's bilaterally symmetrical right?

 

I don't know any skull bone that looks like this. I dunno, a really weird neural spine of a vertebra maybe? The only literal cross sections like this that I can think of are the dorsal spines of Rebbachisaurids. But even so, they seem to be consirably different. Could your specimen be just the core of the X with the thin walls on the edges being broken off? In that scenario it might fit reasonably well.

 

Rebbachisaurus dorsal vertebra.

 

[Yasmin95]

2 minutes ago, LordTrilobite said:

Wow that is a weird one. I agree that the bone structure seems to resemble reptiles rather than fish. But it's a weird shape. It looks like it's bilaterally symmetrical right?

 

I don't know any skull bone that looks like this. I dunno, a really weird neural spine of a vertebra maybe? The only literal cross sections like this that I can think of are the dorsal spines of Rebbachisaurids. But even so, they seem to be consirably different. Could your specimen be just the core of the X with the thin walls on the edges being broken off? In that scenario it might fit reasonably well.

 

Rebbachisaurus dorsal vertebra.

 

Hey Olof thanks, This was my first guess to, bu the bone looked so much thicker than a normal vertebra. But then again this this sauropod which probably have a thicker bone structure. 

 

Thanks  

[LabRatKing]

Perhaps a well eroded proximal of a premaxila?

 

Something like this:

 

 

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

7 hours ago, LabRatKing said:

Perhaps a well eroded proximal of a premaxila?

 

Something like this:

 

 

+1 from me... My first inclination was skull bone...

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

11 hours ago, LordTrilobite said:

the bone structure seems to resemble reptiles rather than fish

I've been hearing this from various parties now - that there's a visual difference in bone structure between reptile and fish - but have never got a clear answer on this. Could someone please explain this one to me?

[LordTrilobite]

8 hours ago, LabRatKing said:

Perhaps a well eroded proximal of a premaxila?

 

Something like this:

It does show some similarity. But most dinosaurs and crocs don't have fused premaxillae. And Kem Kem doesn't have mosasaurs as it's too early.

[LabRatKing]

1 hour ago, LordTrilobite said:

It does show some similarity. But most dinosaurs and crocs don't have fused premaxillae. And Kem Kem doesn't have mosasaurs as it's too early.

Yeah, it’s weird for sure. I knew it was too early for mosasaurs, but was only clear image I could find earlier today