Maricopa Brea Bird Material

[Nimravis]

I am just going through some miscellaneous pieces that I have in my collection. I received these 3 pieces from my fossil mentor Walter Lietz,  about 30 years ago, he received them in a trade with a fossil dealer from California named Judy Owyang. I met Ms. Owyang a couple of times when she would come up to the Chicagoland area and meet at Walter’s house.

 

All 3 pieces are to have come from Maricopa Brea and are supposed to be bird fossils.

 

I was wondering if someone knows what type of bird the claw belongs too, it looks like a raptor to me.

 

 

 

This next piece is supposed to be a bird foot bone.

 

 

 

 

This last piece is supposed to be a bird neck Vert.

 

 

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[FossilDAWG]

@Auspex is the go-to person for bird material!

 

Don

[Auspex]

You are correct that the terminal phalanx ('claw') is from a raptor (the other large ones from La Brea are Vulture, which are less curved). The foot bone is a medial phalanx also avian, and the vertibrae is a cervical, also avian. I am not able to get any more specific.

[Nimravis]

On 12/26/2021 at 11:39 AM, Auspex said:

You are correct that the terminal phalanx ('claw') is from a raptor (the other large ones from La Brea are Vulture, which are less curved). The foot bone is a medial phalanx also avian, and the vertibrae is a cervical, also avian. I am not able to get any more specific.

Thank you for the info,I just saw your reply.

[siteseer]

I met Judy Owyang back in the early 90's.  She's good friends with another friend who knew her before.  She was one of the better-known dealers in California at the time.  I haven't heard about her in years.  It reminds of a thread I was thinking about starting.  I would call it "Old Fossils" not because of their actual age but because I got them in the early 90's or earlier or because they came from even older collections.  @Auspex and others might get a kick out some of them especially the ones that still have their original labels from dealers like Don Malick, Geological Enterprises, etc.  I just have to dig them out of those boxes.