Turtle? Bone? Shell?

[Jess1313]

Also got these in a lot from Florida. Are either of these part of a turtle?

[digit]

Most seem to be too fragmented to identify as anything but mineralized bone. The exception is the "peace sign" fragment that is part of the front of the plastron (under part of the turtle's shell). That piece is called the entoplastron. Here's a photo I scraped from the web that was taken by @Cris the founder of this very forum.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

 

[Jess1313]

So there's no way of telling what animal it came from either?

[digit]

Without distinctive articulating ends or something else diagnostic to base an ID on, most scrappy bone will remain in the Florida equivalent of "chunk-o-saurus". Some pieces are just too far gone to ever reliably assign them to their original owner. Dugong rib bones are solid with no spongy cancellous material inside and so these are identifiable even in smaller fragments. Their solid nature makes them preserve well and so we see lots and lots in places like the Peace River.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Jess1313]

Could this piece be a part of the "peace sign" I apologize for asking so many questions. I'm just trying to get as much info as I can to inform my aunt.

[Zenmaster6]

3 minutes ago, Jess1313 said:

Could this piece be a part of the "peace sign" I apologize for asking so many questions. I'm just trying to get as much info as I can to inform my aunt.

 I agree this is turtle scute. Im very certain however by no means a professional. 

 

sources: *I found turtle scutes on the coast here in Texas from pliocene and pleistocene*

[digit]

Yup! That's most of a turtle entoplastron.

 

 

Peace, love and fossils.

 

Questions are how we share knowledge.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[val horn]

i would think that most of what you showed is turtle.  there are degrees and degrees of certainty.

[digit]

Yup. Could very well be. Just hard to be certain from just photos. Often, a piece is easier to get a feel for when you can actually feel it (and examine in hand). The one with the rippled surface next to the entoplastron could likely be carapace as those bones are often textured--and most internal bones (not part of an exoskeleton) tend not to have much texture.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken