jikohr Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 Hi everyone! I just acquired some fossils from Florida and could use some help identifying these two vertebrae. The first I believe is thoracic and the second is an atlas, but I'm not sure what animal they're from. Cetacean was the first thing that came to mind but I all the pictures I've been finding are different looking especially the pictures of whale atlas vertebrae so I could really use another opinion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahnmut Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 Hi, the first one is cetacean, the second seems to be rather a skull base than an atlas vertebra. Maybe @Boesse can tell you more. Best Regards, J Try to learn something about everything and everything about something Thomas Henry Huxley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellseeker Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 1 hour ago, Mahnmut said: Hi, the first one is cetacean, the second seems to be rather a skull base than an atlas vertebra. Maybe @Boesse can tell you more. Best Regards, J I am not an expert: Mahnmut has notified Bobby who is.... the director at the Mace_Brown Museum in South Carolina. https://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/2016/12/02/friday-fossil-feature-fintastic-surfprises-from-lee-cones-whale/ I am going to go with Cervical for the 1st, and Axis on the 2nd. Both Whale, Very likely land finds The White Queen ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jikohr Posted December 9, 2021 Author Share Posted December 9, 2021 9 hours ago, Mahnmut said: Hi, the first one is cetacean, the second seems to be rather a skull base than an atlas vertebra. Maybe @Boesse can tell you more. Best Regards, J 8 hours ago, Shellseeker said: I am not an expert: Mahnmut has notified Bobby who is.... the director at the Mace_Brown Museum in South Carolina. https://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/2016/12/02/friday-fossil-feature-fintastic-surfprises-from-lee-cones-whale/ I am going to go with Cervical for the 1st, and Axis on the 2nd. Both Whale, Very likely land finds Thank you for the input, I was thinking whale at first also on the thoracic but here is my hangup. The vertebrae on the left is the one pictured above, to the right is a thoracic vertebrae from Stegodon and elephant. The V shape disk and boney nub at the bottom really stook out to me. The nub in particular because it isn't a line of bone from back to front but a noticeable bump in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 The second specimen is indeed the "occiput" part of the skull of a baleen whale - the occipital condyles plus parts of the exoccipitals and basioccipital. Essentially, the back wall and floor of the braincase. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jikohr Posted December 9, 2021 Author Share Posted December 9, 2021 3 minutes ago, Boesse said: The second specimen is indeed the "occiput" part of the skull of a baleen whale - the occipital condyles plus parts of the exoccipitals and basioccipital. Essentially, the back wall and floor of the braincase. Thanks! Any thoughts on the other one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahnmut Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 15 hours ago, jikohr said: Thank you for the input, I was thinking whale at first also on the thoracic but here is my hangup. The vertebrae on the left is the one pictured above, to the right is a thoracic vertebrae from Stegodon and elephant. The V shape disk and boney nub at the bottom really stook out to me. The nub in particular because it isn't a line of bone from back to front but a noticeable bump in the middle. Ok, I did confidently say the first one is cetacean, but now my confidence is shaken, I did not realize that proboscidean vertebrae look like this. So hopefully someone can ID it for you! J Try to learn something about everything and everything about something Thomas Henry Huxley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bone Daddy Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 That first vert looks similar to Ground Sloth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellseeker Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 On 12/9/2021 at 5:56 PM, jikohr said: Thanks! Any thoughts on the other one? Have you considered Dugong/Manatee? Also, I have heard that Armadillo has heart shaped vertebra. http://www.findingrocks.com/media_uploads/archive/202005/20200520163140_220.jpg Armadillo... The White Queen ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jikohr Posted December 11, 2021 Author Share Posted December 11, 2021 1 hour ago, Shellseeker said: Have you considered Dugong/Manatee? Also, I have heard that Armadillo has heart shaped vertebra. http://www.findingrocks.com/media_uploads/archive/202005/20200520163140_220.jpg Armadillo... The heart shape is much more subtle on this one compared to manatee (at least in the pics I've seen). If it's armadillo it would have to be a HUGE armadillo, also again the heart shape is much more subtle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jikohr Posted December 11, 2021 Author Share Posted December 11, 2021 10 hours ago, Bone Daddy said: That first vert looks similar to Ground Sloth. I did find a couple vertebrae almost identical to this one (including the nub at the bottom and the shape of the disk) on online that are claimed to be ground sloth but I've also seen a river rock that was claimed to be a dinosaur embryo there. Do you have any pics of ground sloth vertebrae to compare to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bone Daddy Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 I found this one several years back and some of the members here said it was ground sloth, so I just went with that. Your specimen is not identical, but the texture and shape of the center portion seemed similar to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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