hollow bone & possible ground sloth tooth?

[debivort]

 

• Bone is from Chandler Bridge formation in Ridgeville, South Carolina. One end is partially closed over, like a node of bamboo (left panel in top image).

• tooth is from Drum Island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Seems to match some internet images annotated as juvenile ground sloth tooth. I'm not sure if either end is the chewing surface. Possibly the surface shown in the bottom-right two images of lower image.

 

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by debivort

[Shellseeker]

It is a sloth tooth.  Look at the front molars on Harlan's and Jefferson's ground sloth in this thread

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/74390-sloth-tooth-for-id-please/

I think left photo shows chewing surface.

 

I am not sure on the bone... but feeling Horse cannon bone.. @Harry Pristis  What Geological age?  Can you find Pliocene/Miocene fossils there?

[Brandy Cole]

Sadly I'm really not sure there's enough of the bone to ID it.

[debivort]

2 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

It is a sloth tooth.  Look at the front molars on Harlan's and Jefferson's ground sloth in this thread

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/74390-sloth-tooth-for-id-please/

I think left photo shows chewing surface.

 

I am not sure on the bone... but feeling Horse cannon bone.. @Harry Pristis  What Geological age?  Can you find Pliocene/Miocene fossils there?

 

Wonderful, thanks for the confirming the plausibility of the sloth tooth id. I think some of the material is reworked at this site, so Miocene through Pleistocene are all possible. We find horse teeth there.

 

2 hours ago, Brandy Cole said:

Sadly I'm really not sure there's enough of the bone to ID it.

 

The hollowness struck me as unusual - no porous filling. Is that at all diagnostic?

[Brandy Cole]

9 hours ago, debivort said:

The hollowness struck me as unusual - no porous filling. Is that at all diagnostic?

Likely not, in a bone this damaged/worn.

 

As I understand it, it really depends on the other features of the bone and the conditions a bone has been in before it is found.  Bones exposed to a lot of wear in areas like river beds or fast flowing creeks will often have their normal inner porosity worn away by the elements, especially if the bone has been broken in a way that leaves the more fragile inner parts are exposed.

 

For example, here's a large rib bone fragment from Pleistocene megafauna in my area.  It's a very stout bone that shouldn't be hollow, but it's broken in a way that let floodwater and gravel wear away the more delicate material inside, mostly only leaving the stronger cortical bone.

 

 

[debivort]

Thanks Brandy, that's super helpful. My specimen shows little sign of rounding wear - all its surfaces are well preserved or cleanly broken. Here are some pictures that capture a bit more of that detail: 

 

 

It seems from this thread that crisp-edged bones like this can also be hollow (and hard to ID, apparently):

 

[JohnJ]

@

 

Something not that obvious in your first images is the highlighted groove seen better in you second set.  This is a clue to the possible ID.

[debivort]

Just now, JohnJ said:

Something not that obvious in your first images is the highlighted groove seen better in you second set.  This is a clue to the possible ID.

Yes, I realized that the original pictures weren't lit appropriately to show the shape.

[Shellseeker]

You should take a look at these threads...

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/110974-horse-cannon-bone-question/

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/116599-an-interesting-bone/

 

I'm thinking it is a small Tridactyl horse Metatarsal/Metacarpal

[debivort]

42 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

You should take a look at these threads...

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/110974-horse-cannon-bone-question/

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/116599-an-interesting-bone/

 

I'm thinking it is a small Tridactyl horse Metatarsal/Metacarpal

 

Thanks for these leads - I think I may have found a good match here as well:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/fossil-anchippus-horse-metapodial-1854104927

My specimen looks a lot like the green portion highlighted here:

 

[Shellseeker]

10 hours ago, debivort said:

Thanks for these leads - I think I may have found a good match here as well:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/fossil-anchippus-horse-metapodial-1854104927

My specimen looks a lot like the green portion highlighted here:

Nice,  Searching the Internet for image match is always a great tool.