A Very Large Toe Bone

[Shellseeker]

I have been running HOT lately -- not so much in quantity, but certainly in quality. Here are photos of the latest.

I have been searching the net for mammoth or mastodon toe bones but nothing looks exactly the same. I have learned the questions: Is this Proximal, Medial, or Distal?

Assuming the "rounded" side points forward and flat side rearward, can we tell which foot (left or right) and which toe on the foot?

The size in 3.25x3.25x5.00 inches. Is this specimen a small, medium, or large example? I know that I am asking the usual suspects, but hope others will enjoy the discussion and answers..

and YES, I am search for the rest of this animal.

[Harry Pristis]

I have been running HOT lately -- not so much in quantity, but certainly in quality. Here are photos of the latest.

I have been searching the net for mammoth or mastodon toe bones but nothing looks exactly the same. I have learned the questions: Is this Proximal, Medial, or Distal?

Assuming the "rounded" side points forward and flat side rearward, can we tell which foot (left or right) and which toe on the foot?

The size in 3.25x3.25x5.00 inches. Is this specimen a small, medium, or large example? I know that I am asking the usual suspects, but hope others will enjoy the discussion and answers..

and YES, I am search for the rest of this animal.

Good find! I think it's elephant, alright. This is not a toe bone, though . . . it is a metapodial.

Elephants have only two toe bones that survive as fossils -- the distal toe, the ungual, typically does not preserve because of its spongy nature. The illustration in OSTEOLOGY FOR THE ARCHAEOLOGIST by Stanley J. Olsen shows only two phalanges on each digit; but, an articular surface on the last-shown toe indicates the missing unguals.

I cannot say whether this is a mammoth, mastodont, or gomphothere metapodial. I have one here that I'm fairly confident is gomph', and it would go with your bone easily. From the Peace River, I would guess mastodont.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Harry Pristis

[sjaak]

I agree with some kind of elephant. I have a mammoth bone in my collection which is similar.

Nice find!

I like these toe/ foot/ hand bones. These are often complete and are good to ID.

Edited November 17, 2012 by sjaak

[PrehistoricFlorida]

I'm not sure it's possible, at least for me, to differentiate between mastodon, mammoth and gomph based on just a metapodial. I have found several of these, and based on the ones that I've found, I'd say this is an average size adult specimen.

[ckmerlin]

Wow !! now thats what I call a big toe just wish sometimes that I could find something like this

[Roz]

That's a great find!

[PrehistoricFlorida]

Compare to this juvenile mastodon foot.

[Shellseeker]

Thanks for all the good comments. I am very thankful/interested in this photo of the juvenile foot. I thing this is a photo of the bottom of the foot rather than the top.

Given a little time from fossil hunting, I am going to try to match my find to the metapodial on the 2nd toe from the bottom, I also note that there seems to be an unfused disk on forward edge of the metapodial that is completely fused on my find. There is a V shaped pattern on the trailing edge which is split approximated 3/4 - 1/4. Both my find and the juvenile photo have the 1/4 portion of the V on the upper portion of the photo -- that may mean that they both come from the same foot (either right or left).

I have found a couple of photos -

http://www.fossilsonline.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_193_220&products_id=476

I will let all know what I discover -- if anything. SS

[PrehistoricFlorida]

It is the top of the foot. This specimen is a friend of mines, I don't remember if this is the left or right, but it is one of the front feet.