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Pleistocene Vert


Uncle Siphuncle

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I pulled this vert this weekend from a favorite spot that has produced sloth, mammoth, gator, peccary, giant armadillo, antelope, camel, horse, spear points, and human remains in the past. Without exhaustive research I'm tempted to call this vert sloth. Any other opinions out there?

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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I pulled this vert this weekend from a favorite spot that has produced sloth, mammoth, gator, peccary, giant armadillo, antelope, camel, horse, spear points, and human remains in the past. Without exhaustive research I'm tempted to call this vert sloth. Any other opinions out there?

I dunno, Dan . . . vertebrae are difficult. I have been given to understand that sloth vertebrae have an oval rather than round neural canal.

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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The neural canal of this vert is quite small for the size of the specimen. Does this imply that it is a caudal vert from a large critter rather than a thoracic or lumbar vert from a medium sized critter?

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Hey Dan. That looks like one of those rare Wonderfulis RJBis? Not really sure. Why dont you mail it to me for further study.

RB

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A museum curator buddy of mine thinks this may be a glyptodont caudal vert. If so that is quite cool.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Glyptodont caudal vertebra isn't all that far-fetched.

Here's a picture of a complete Glyptotherium tail. There are some striking similarities between those vertebrae and the one you collected.

gallery_330_106_15675.jpg

-Joe

Illigitimati non carborundum

Fruitbat's PDF Library

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The neural canal of this vert is quite small for the size of the specimen. Does this imply that it is a caudal vert from a large critter rather than a thoracic or lumbar vert from a medium sized critter?

I would say "yes" to this question. The neural canal does taper off significantly in the caudal (tail) vertebrae of all the critters I can think of.

While I have many vertebrae here, I can identify only a portion. I can show you analogs to illustrate your question and the answer.

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Note the relative diameter of the neural canal in this lumbar vertebra. Then look at the relative size of the canal in these two caudal vertebrae.

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-------Harry Pristis

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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Thanks for the photo comparison, Harry. I've attached a couple images of a similar vert possibly also from a Xenarthran which I picked up last fall from an adjacent bar deriving its gravel from the same source. While one image shows several verts, I'm only talking about the one with the paddle like transverse processes.

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post-22-1213416141_thumb.jpg

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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