Type of Dino ID possible from vertebrae?

[creepyspiderlady]

My dog and I were out rock hunting in Utah, right outside the dinosaur national monument park boundaries and she started digging furiously at a rock that I had tripped over. I looked back and I couldn’t believe what was sticking up out of the ground. It was a Dino bone vertebrae! I was in complete shock! I helped my dog clear the earth around it and found more and more pieces. Whole pieces. I knew I was supposed to do something but my mind went completely blank. I took the pieces that we had found to a paleontologist that lived on the same block as me. He told me that ‘they aren’t interested in small specimens’, and ‘if you find like a leg bone, that’s another story’. So I kept the pieces that we already had taken. I recently contacted a lady that works in the utah blm network and she contacted like 5 or 6 other people, all of them emailed me and I told them my story. One guy seemed really interested because he had taken a bunch of students out to the site 4 years earlier and hadn’t found anything. I mean, literally, this bone jumped out at me! I tripped over it! Anyways, I read about a man from Moab that basically had the same story happen to him and he was charged with theft and sentenced to prison for taking Dino bone. The guy I was emailing (I am pretty sure his name is Steve) asked me to come show him where I found this dinosaur. I don’t want to go to prison. But I really think this dinosaur needs and deserves to be ‘found’ so nothing else will happen to it. 

[FranzBernhard]

Welcome to TFF from Austria!

 

I am not into Dinos, but:

.

There could be a substantial specimen hidden in the ground. Go out with a trustworthy person, show her/him the site and let them do the work.

7 minutes ago, creepyspiderlady said:

But I really think this dinosaur needs and deserves to be ‘found’

Fully agree!

 

There are many knowledgeable members here on TFF, which will give you more detailed advice than I am able to do.

 

Franz Bernhard 

[creepyspiderlady]

Thank you!

[Troodon]

Its perfectly legal to collect on private land with the owners permission.   People that you see get arrested are those that collect on Federal land like those in the Park or on BLM property and State Land, without a permit.  So you have to be careful where you collect and hopefully you were on private land.

 

Your bones are pretty weathered but the the three center ones look like tail vertebrae and can be from a Sauropod.  But beyond that I cannot say much are not in great shape.  Not scientifically important like the paleontologist indicated to you unless you can find more.  Once exposed it may not take long for them to be destroyed completely so good you found them.   There is a chance that more of that dinosaur is still around where you found these, so like Franz indicated may be worthwhile to look.   Remember what you saw are typically the clues dinosaur hunters look for to find additional parts of the skeleton may still be around buried..

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Perhaps @jpc will have contacts and advice to give you. He is a professional paleontologist specializing in dinosaurs.

 

Coco

 

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Contact the nearest Natural History Museum and talk to the resident paleontologist. Let them take it from there.

[jpc]

Hi creepyspiderlady (great name, by the way)...

 

A few thoughts.  The guy in Moab went to jail indeed because he knew he was collecting bones on BLM land and selling them.  

Do you know whose property you were on?  I don't know off the top of my head what the land ownership is like outside of the Monument, but ther eis a lot more private land up there than around Moab.  But this is key.  If you were on private land with permission, you should not worry.  If were on private land without permission, you may need to put your tail between your legs and look shameful and turn them into the landowner.  On the other hand if you were on BLM lands, without permission, you need to report them; it is ilelgal to collect fossil bones on BLM land without a permit.  I'm sure you did not know the rules, but that is legally not an excuse.  You should contact Rebecca Hunt-Foster in the Moab or Vernal Field Office.  She is the Utah state BLM paleontologist.  Feel free to tell her JP in Casper sent you. 

 

As for ID, I think troodon's ID is about as close as I can get as well.  But what you have found suggests that there is indeed more out there.  

 

I amalso sending you a PM