RCFossils Posted July 31, 2021 Share Posted July 31, 2021 I am just driving back from a fantastic 5 day collecting trip in Southeastern Montana. I had the opportunity to collect on a private ranch that had not been heavily hunted for several years. Our group made quite a few interesting finds. I am hoping that someone on the forum might be able to assist in identifying this unusual bone. It is definitely theropod and based on the size, likely tyrannosaur. It appears to be a portion of the skull but I am having trouble matching it up. I apologize for the lousy pictures in advance. The bone measures approximately 5-6 inches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted July 31, 2021 Share Posted July 31, 2021 look into t rex quadrate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordTrilobite Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 11 hours ago, jpc said: look into t rex quadrate. Are T. rex quadrates that spongy? The general shape of this bone does seem to fit a right quadrate fairly well. But its much more spongy than quadrates in other theropods. Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCFossils Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 (edited) Thanks for the input JPC! I was leaning towards a quadrate but could not quite match it up. There is some ironstone on one side that I will prep off. Aside from teeth, it is the first Rex skull material that I have found. Unfortunately, the two pieces shown in the photos are all that I recovered. I will plan to revisit the site again in 2023 to see if anything else erodes out. Do you think I should restore the missing areas or leave it as is? Edited August 1, 2021 by RCFossils Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 I'm not convinced its a quadrate and that spongy look leans me to a postcranial bone. Here is a couple quadrate from a Trex to compare against Quadrate(Pl.10):The quadrate of T.rex resembles those of other theropods such as Albertosaurus and Allosaurus. Informit is a vertical bar, flaring broadly both medially and laterally at the condyle,andsupportingmedially theplate-like pterygoidprocess.This process extendsforward to widely overlap the corresponding quadrate process ofthe pterygoid. An a couple of other big Tyrannosaurids Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCFossils Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 Thanks Troodon and Lordtrilobite. If it is post cranial, any other thoughts to what it could be? Portions of the bone are very thin so I do not think it is part of a vertebrae. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welsh Wizard Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 Is it a broken piece of ilium? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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