A small bone

[Shellseeker]

Yesterday, I tried to return to the Peace River at the location I hunted Wednesday with my son. As I reached the river, I noted it was 18-20 inches deeper than last time. I would say neck deep, fast currents.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/134026-a-day-in-the-sun-with-my-son/

It takes me 2 hours to reach the river, so going home was not an option. We decided to check out a creek, which would have lower water depths.

Found marine fauna (shark, ray, urchin, barracuda, fragments of dolphin bone)  and one odd bone.

 

I do not find very many G. aduncus.  The blade is not curved and lays flat ...

 

 

Recently,  I had found and identified with the help of TFF,  an alligator coracoid. It is a shoulder bone. and because I thought there was resemblance to this bone, searched for coracoids on the net.

 

Many of the images that came up were avian,  but they had very different proximal ends.. Then I saw this picture that @Harry Pristis  added to a TFF thread,

 

This seems more like my find... so a very goof possibility that it is turtle.  @digit has turtle knowledge. Let's see what he thinks...

The location seems dominated by Miopliocene marine fauna but there are lots of turtles that could drop a bone in the intervening eons....I always try to learn something new.. with each new find... The knowledge builds up over time.

[digit]

Your coracoid looks a bit more gracile than the more robust Snapping Turtle coracoid shown above in Harry's image. It seems in line with a slider (Trachemys) coracoid. The other common possibility would be softshell (Apalone) but they tend to be a bit more distorted and curved. The straight ones that look somehow like a wedge tool for spreading cheese on crackers have always turned out to be Trachemys when I'm sorting through bone bags from Montbrook.

 

https://galileoramos.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/red-eared-slider-trachemys-scripta-elegans-turtle-skeleton/

 

 

Apalone skeleton with coracoids circled:

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Shellseeker]

53 minutes ago, digit said:

Your coracoid looks a bit more gracile than the more robust Snapping Turtle coracoid shown above in Harry's image. It seems in line with a slider (Trachemys) coracoid. The other common possibility would be softshell (Apalone) but they tend to be a bit more distorted and curved. The straight ones that look somehow like a wedge tool for spreading cheese on crackers have always turned out to be Trachemys when I'm sorting through bone bags from Montbrook.

Thanks,  I felt that this was one of your sweet spots,  and have a way with words !!!

Also, learning other insights... the coracoids are only on the shoulders,   not the hips.. Great photos... 

[digit]

3 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

and have a way with words

One of my favorite podcasts.

 

https://www.waywordradio.org/

 

 

3 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

Also, learning other insights... the coracoids are only on the shoulders,   not the hips.

Indeed. Each half-pelvis is composed of 3 bones--the pubis, ishium and ilium.

 

I was prepping a plaster jacket from Montbrook and came across an entire pelvis (all 6 bones) which I hardened with B-72 and removed as a unit. At some point in time I hope I see this jacket again (we were prepping lots of jackets in the Fantastic Fossils exhibit last year). It would be fun to reconstruct these associated bones.

 

 

 

Where the three bones unite in each half of the pelvic girdle, there is an articulating surface where the proximal end of the femur fits in. You can see this fusion of the three bones and what the mess of fractured bones above would look like if restored completely (well one half of it at least) in the image below.

 

http://www.boneid.net/product/softshell-turtle-apalone-ferox-pelvic-girdle/

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken