Unidentified Miocene Bones from Tonopah, NV. Possibly a Artiodactyl?

[ConnorR]

So I bought a completely unidentified fossil the other week because it looked cool. All I know about it is that the seller said that it's from Tonopah, Nevada, and the matrix appears to be a tuffaceous sandstone. According to my research, this points to the fossil being from the Siebert Formation, around the middle Miocene. I'm leaning toward some kind of artiodactyl, assuming that the bones on the right are metatarsals or metacarpals.

 

[Harry Pristis]

This appears to be a camel metapodial, there are some large camelids in the Miocene.

 

[ConnorR]

That would fit the time and place. I was also wondering if it could be a genus of three toed horse.

[Harry Pristis]

9 hours ago, ConnorR said:

That would fit the time and place. I was also wondering if it could be a genus of three toed horse.

I think it could be a horse metapodial.  The tell is the fork in the distal end.  I thought I saw the fork, but it could have been a splint.  Do some further preparation, then take images.

 

"splints" or lateral metapodials:

[NevadaHunter]

I spoke to the seller at length and this fossil came from an area that today is an open pit mine north of Tonopah. Imo, the cluster of three bones looks like it could’ve come from merrychippus which would make the larger bone a metacarpal (the bone where you can see its distal articulting surface). As for the other lone bone that’s broken and kind of off on its own, it’s harder to tell from photos. 
 

I’m leaning more toward merychippus or another horse species like hypohippus instead of a camelid because one, the literature for that specific site calls horse species the most common, and two being it doesn’t look like the camelid metatarsals I have found (it too straight so I’m not sure it’ll have that split). 
 

Just my two cents:) 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by NevadaHunter

[fossillarry]

I've collected at the Tonopah locality three time and have a good collection from there,mostly horses. This specimen is a left hind foot from a horse. In the top right picture the long bone that runs most of the length of the photo is the metatarsal 3. It is overlayed by the left metatarsal 4. the head of which lays just above the sagittal ridge(the ridge that prevents the first phalanx from dislocating). To the right of the metatarsal 4 is the shaft of the metatarsal 2. the head of which is only partially visible. The bone to the right of the head of the third metatarsal looks like the remnants of the first central  phalanx .The bone to the left of the foot bones is the tibia  I think this because in the second photo from the top, the upper end of the bone(actually the distal,bottom,end) has a groove (groove for the lateral digital tendon) only found in the tibia.  Probably  some or all of the tarsals are there.also, but I can't tell which. The Tonopah local fauna belongs to the Esmeralda Formation and is Early Late Barstovian. At one time this fossil would have been labeled Merychippus calimarius but now it is considered to be Scaphohippus  intermontanus or perhaps S.sumani. Very nice specimen.

[fossillarry]

I forgot to add That the Tonopah locality is found about 5 miles West of the town of Tonopah,EsmeralldaCounthy,Nevada.