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PaleoNoel

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Hi everyone! I came across this little piece as I was sorting through some of the anthill matrix I brought back from Wyoming's Lance formation. When I first found it, I must not have recognized it as a partial claw as it ended up alongside other odds and ends (fragments of bone, gar scales & other misc. fossils) at the bottom of a pill bottle where I had deposited all of my pickings. This week, however, I emptied that pill bottle to see what was inside in order to organize all the micros I found from this locality (which will get its own post eventually). It's evident to me that this is a claw given it's pair of blood grooves, but it's far and away the smallest in my collection thus far at only 3 mm in length and 2 mm wide. I'm sure it may be a long shot for a definitive ID, but I wanted to see what opinions you all had. And for what it's worth, the flat base and lack of curvature makes it look similar to my ornithomimid claw from the Judith River. 

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These next two focused more on the forceps than the claw unfortunately, will retake these soon. 

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Edited by PaleoNoel
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Tough to ID micro claws but I don't get a theropod vibe with it especially with that concave proximal end.  

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13 hours ago, Troodon said:

Tough to ID micro claws but I don't get a theropod vibe with it especially with that concave proximal end.  

I thought that was odd too, but I wasn't sure if it was a result of breaking or, if it was from a young individual, an unfused bone. I can't really tell what it could be from otherwise.  

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Profile wrong for thesc/pachy.  None have a concave proximal end 

Here is a baby claw

PachybabyclawnewD6A.jpg.c7a465bc9da6d201d81bd64b2a42d69f.jpg

 

I get a reptlian vibe on it ?

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  • 1 year later...

Baby tyrannosaurid bones and teeth from the Late Cretaceous of western  North America1

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/104320/1/cjes-2020-0169.pdf

 

Thought I'd circle back to this thread. This was the figure I had in mind and was reminded of it after listening to Greg Funston speak about it in a Philip J. Currie Museum Lecture on Youtube. While my fossil may not be tyrannosaurid, I see similarities to the above specimen which may suggest theropod affinities.

 

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I'm strongly in the turtle maybe Croc camp on this one.  If you look at the dorsal image of Funstons claw it has a very narrow surface with blood grooves that are wide to the proximal end.   Your claw has a dorsal surface that is broad without blood grooves to the end.  That concave proximal is also not a characteristics you see on Theropod claws.  I think I have a pair of these claws that are complete but need to find them.    Lots of small claws look like those lateral images.

 

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Troodon and i rarely disagree and i wish i could give as good a reason for my non-dino opinon as he has here, but i am going purely by guy impression

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