Fossil "D" Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Was purchased as an Elasmosaurus vertabrae from Morocco 5.91" x 6.19" I found one similar online but the one I acquired seems to be a little more on the flat side. One of the processes has been repaired and seems to be stabilized. If it is indeed from an Elasmosaur, could it just be from a different section of the spine and is why it has a flatter profile? If so, what section could it be from? I'm just trying to get all the information on it that I can. The last three pics will be of the one I found online. Thank you in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 (edited) Hi and welcome to TFF! Your specimen indeed concerns a pair of, what appear to be articulated (rather than posthumously conjoined), elasmosaur vertebrae, of a species known as Zarafasaura oceanis. And while your specimen does indeed look rather flat in the first two photographs, they do appear to have proper dimensionality in the fifth photograph. The reason they look rather more flat in the first two photographs is due to the peculiar lateral angle from which we're looking at the fossils, in combination with presence of both part of the neural arch (the projection towards the bottom in the fifth photograph) and cervical ribs (towards the top in that same photograph). This means the vertebrae are part of the neck, and thus the same part of the body/along the spine as the example you found. However, there does appear to be some flattening on your specimen, which can further be substantiated by traces of breakage in the cervical ribs. Flattening is completely normal in terms of fossil preservation, though, so I'd say enjoy your very nice elasmosaur fossil! Edited July 9, 2021 by pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon 1 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted July 10, 2021 Share Posted July 10, 2021 I thought I'd add a schematic drawing of plesiosaur vertebral anatomy to help illustrate my discussion from above: (Figure 7 from Noè, Taylor and Gómez-Pérez [2017]) 1 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossil "D" Posted July 10, 2021 Author Share Posted July 10, 2021 So neck vertebrae, that's awesome. Thank you for all your valued info, it is very much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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