Possible Colombian mammoth rib from south Texas

[fossil_lover_2277]

Is this a mammoth rib? Came from the Brazos river in southern Texas. Could be from the Beaumont or Lissie formations, or a Pleistocene terrace deposit (definitely terrestrial). Based on size alone and what lived in Texas at the time, I’m thinking Colombian mammoth, or maybe a giant sloth. Definitely too big for bison, deer, llama, horse, etc.

[fossilus]

Could be mastodon also.  The size, to me at least, doesn't exclude giant bison or camelops. Ribs are tough to ID when not complete with their articulation surface.

[Brandy Cole]

From what I understand, both bison antiquus and camelops are possible in the Texas gulf coast plains area, as well as several types of proboscideans and giant sloth.  So lots of very large mammals as contenders.  I agree with @fossilus. I've found a couple of similarly sized rib sections and been hesitant to make any ID other than large mammal rib.  Others with more experience may be able to recognize some defining characteristics with yours that I'm missing.

[fossil_lover_2277]

8 minutes ago, Brandy Cole said:

From what I understand, both bison antiquus and camelops are possible in the Texas gulf coast plains area, as well as several types of proboscideans and giant sloth.  So lots of very large mammals as contenders.  I agree with @fossilus. I've found a couple of similarly sized rib sections and been hesitant to make any ID other than large mammal rib.  Others with more experience may be able to recognize some defining characteristics with yours that I'm missing.

I’m not that familiar with the fauna that lived in Texas, I definitely could see this being sloth or some other proboscidean. I’m skeptical of bison and camel though. I’ve seen several bison ribs and they were noticeably smaller than this rib. Could you post a pic of one of your bison or camel ribs of similar size? I’m interested to see it, maybe I’m wrong. Bison latifrons I guess could maybe get this size. I’m not aware of any giant camels from Texas, but there certainly could be, if that’s the case, maybe it’s camel.

Edited March 22, 2022 by fossil_lover_2277

[Brandy Cole]

@fossil_lover_2277

I personally don't have any bison or camel that I've been able to confirm to species. As I said, I've found similar sized ribs and left them uncategorized due to the many possibilities.

 

In my post I was just referencing the very large species that can be found in southeast Texas. There is a tremendous size difference between different types of bison.  I actually should have referenced bison latifrons before as I think it would be the largest bison contender.

The following site has a size graphic showing the size distinctions between latifrons and smaller types of bison.

 

https://allaboutbison.com/ancient-bison/

 

Camelops was also very large.

This site has information on camelops with a size comparison to humans.

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/c/camelops.html

[Joe_17]

Here are some sloth ribs I came across for comparison while I was perusing some collections back home. 

[fossil_lover_2277]

12 minutes ago, Joe_17 said:

Here are some sloth ribs I came across for comparison while I was perusing some collections back home. 

Thanks, it looks different than those in shape, the ridge on the mystery one is much more prominent than on those

[fossil_lover_2277]

37 minutes ago, Brandy Cole said:

@fossil_lover_2277

I personally don't have any bison or camel that I've been able to confirm to species. As I said, I've found similar sized ribs and left them uncategorized due to the many possibilities.

 

In my post I was just referencing the very large species that can be found in southeast Texas. There is a tremendous size difference between different types of bison.  I actually should have referenced bison latifrons before as I think it would be the largest bison contender.

The following site has a size graphic showing the size distinctions between latifrons and smaller types of bison.

 

https://allaboutbison.com/ancient-bison/

 

Camelops was also very large.

This site has information on camelops with a size comparison to humans.

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/c/camelops.html

With bison, the ribs tend to be wider in one plane vs the other from what I’ve seen. In a cross-section, they are thinner say top to bottom and wider left to right. This mystery rib is all around pretty thick, and the outward facing side has a prominent ridge that I don’t see with bison. It is clear that whatever species it is, the part of the rib it makes up is the region closer to the spine.

Edited March 22, 2022 by fossil_lover_2277

[fossil_lover_2277]

Here are some pics of ribs from different organisms for comparison:

mammoth

 

mastodon

 

bison

 

sloth

 

camel

 

mystery rib

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by fossil_lover_2277

[Brandy Cole]

 

@fossil_lover_2277. Those comparative pictures are informative.

 

I took a quick look to see if I had any good pictures of my possible rib fragments which were unidentified.  I didn't take measurement pictures for most of them since I figured they were too fragmented to get ID's, but these at least have some measurements in frame to get a general idea of size.  Green blocks are one square inch and silver ruler is in centimeters.  

Three items total.  

Pic 1 is Rib1.  Pic2 is Rib2. Pics3 and 4 are Rib3.

 

Edit: I couldn't get the first rib picture I tried to load, so the pictures below show two different ribs.  The first rib on the yellow towel is about two inches wide at its widest point.

 

The reddish brown rib in the second picture is the same as the one at bottom right of the third picture.  I believe it was much bigger, about 3-4 inches wide at widest point.

IMG_0805~2.CR2

Edited March 22, 2022 by Brandy Cole
Corrected description

[Brandy Cole]

Whoops. Looks like Pic1 didn't load.  I'll try a different couple of pictures taken before I cleaned off the dirt.  This is a third rib, a little more than two inches across.

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Brandy Cole
Corrected description