DHC Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 Hi all This one has me stumped. Found along the Red Deer River outside Dinosaur park. I thought it had some characteristics of a jaw? Any help and direction would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 (edited) First off, welcome to the forum! You've definitely come to the right place with your question, though it may occasionally take some time for the right people to find your post Anyway, not jaw - it'd be too thin and shallow for that, with no evidence for alveoli (tooth sockets) and a very unusual (for jaw bone) texture in the first photograph. Rather, the texture visible in the first photograph reminds me of turtle shell. And since the piece has something of a thickened and triangular shape, I think what you have here is a piece of the edge of a turtle's shell. Someone like @Carl or @Al Dente should be able to confirm this. By the way, although I think this issue can probably be resolved without further photographs, for future reference it'd be best if you could photograph you specimen alongside a ruler in at least one photograph, to better help the rest of us get a good reading on the size of your specimen Edited July 10, 2022 by pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 I think turtle is a good bet here but it's actually quite hard to orient in the mind and reconcile completely with turtle. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plax Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 maybe croc skull element? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 25 minutes ago, Plax said: maybe croc skull element? That's something else I considered as well. But I believe the texture would, in that case, be different. The texture on this specimen simply looks most like turtle to me. May be @caterpillar has an idea? 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 Im having a hard time reconciling this as a turtle shell given that the only broken edge is toward the end. Croc and Champsosaurus are two to consider 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caterpillar Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 I agree. More croc than turtle 1 http://www.paleotheque.fr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicnfossils Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 Looks croc. There’s lots of croc material out here. Welcome to the forum fellow Albertan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHC Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 Thanks for the direction on Croc and Champsosaurus. I've spent some time combing posts and the internet looking for something similar with no luck! as @Troodon mentioned, the only broken edge towards the end has left me perplexed. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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