Ray and Skate Verts

[Shellseeker]

Yesterday, a hunting companion found a Vertebra like this one.

The majority of his finds were Stingray (broken) mouth plates, isolated teeth and barbs. He immediately thought he had a Stingray vert, but I said no.... Sawfish.  and now I am not sure. Why is it so difficult to find verts from Stingrays (Manta, Eagle, etc) identified on the Internet? What do they look like? Can I compare a Sawfish vert to a Manta Ray Vert and note differences?

In searching, I found this reference and photos

https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/skates/anatomy/internal-eng.html

The website has this photo of a Thorny Skate vertebrae but no edge photo.. This top view looks very similar to Sawfish

 

 

[Al Dente]

6 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

but I said no.... Sawfish.

You are correct. It is from a sawfish.

[Harry Pristis]

37 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

. . . 

 Why is it so difficult to find verts from Stingrays (Manta, Eagle, etc) identified on the Internet? What do they look like? Can I compare a Sawfish vert to a Manta Ray Vert and note differences?

 . . . 

 

It seems there is not a lot of interest in these vertebrae.  Here's a thread which addresses this identification challenge:  Shark Vert Vs Fish Vert - Questions & Answers - The Fossil Forum

[Shellseeker]

Great, Great thread... well worth the read.  Thanks to @Harry Pristis, @MarcoSr, @Al Dente and others for a great discussion that created this thread with likely the most definitive, easily accessable, information on the Internet for StingRay Vertebrae.

You have to attempt to find any photos or definitive statements on the internet to fully understand my comment.

 

If there is an easy way to flag this thread with higher importance,  it should be .  @fossildude