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Unknown Bone [Fossilized]


IFoundThat

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Happy holidays everyone,

I was fortunate enough to find a mini-horde of fossilized bone in a small area. This area is near the Tennessee line in Kentucky and is rarely visited. The last time anyone was there was nearly 20 years and then it was logged only. Unfortunately they seem to have ran over many complete bones and I have 2 - 40 pound tubs of pieces. They are mostly end pieces and are nearly all gray.

This area is filled with beautiful evergreens and rolling hills and is on top of a 60 foot mound area. getting through the canopy is difficult but once you do it's like stepping back into time. There are even prickly pear cactus growing at the top of this hill, something very unusual for that area. That area is mostly slate yet I still found a few large pieces that are clearly fossilized bone. as one goes down to the path pieces of fossilized bones are all along the side where there is a slight berm that goes all the way to the bottom.

the most amazing thing is that despite people have been here, these bones were laying right on top the ground covered by just a little bit of grass and leaves. the round fossilized ball objects of all sizes were so numerous that they were rolling down this path and catching themselves on grass tufts. It was almost like an Easter egg hunt !

I also recovered one HUGE piece that (through days of researching), seem to be a Triceratops clavicle (or in that family) {still needs prepped however].

The item in question was near enough in proximity that it could be part of that skeleton and maybe the humorous bone. it does seem that the ends are missing and this fact haunts me because I would love to find more of this skeleton in this area but it is 2000 miles away and nearly inaccessible by a flight.

But despite these clues I have looked at every skeleton real or re-created as they appear on the Internet and have found nothing exactly like it. I hope that someone has an idea because if it is part of that clavicle / shoulder assembly I would like to be sure that they stay together and to knows while looking through pieces I may find the connecting piece.

Any help would be appreciated thank you very much. .. jp

PS. Happy new year to all.

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sir do you have pics of other specimens? at least when viewing on my phone, i'm seeing rock more so than bone

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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I'm afraid you're over 1,500 miles from the nearest place to find a Triceratops, and I also have to question whether the masses of 'bones' you describe are indeed bones; most of the KY/TN border is Paleozoic rock of marine origin, and bones of any kind would be few and far between.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Looks rather like the chert I find in my garden in the Reading Beds of England. I see no indicators of bone.

Regards,

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I would have to say that I have explored 75 percent of the US and even in places that few can go without specialized vehicles and equiptment and have

NEVER seen a rock shaped like a boomerang with a smooth narrow profile. Yes.. it was with many pieces that are OBViously bones fragments that are now petrified into rock.

Hopefully someone who has explored these areas that are said to be 'barren' of fossils [or even dinos???] has some idea... but hay maybe I am one of the very few to be willing to go through hell and high cliffs to see these remote places.. and found REAL dino bones. if there were a picture of this online; I guess there would be no mystery..

Funny how doubters and those who don't [really] know, that are willing to post comments can make an experience totally a negative one. I just started this 'membership' and I am dissapointed already.

Look and these new pics of a few favorites found next to the 'boomerang' fossil. Just a few of the MANY MANY bone fragments that I have from this exact area.

ps. Unfortunately this is all the time that I have for pics on this topic..... at this time...post-10668-0-74858000-1356739687_thumb.jpgpost-10668-0-31494800-1356739702_thumb.jpg

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I am sorry that you feel your experience has been a negative one. Please understand that you have made some extraordinary claims, and scientific inquiry thus requires extraordinary evidence.

Can you take a good picture of a broken cross-section, please? So far, aside from some suggestive shapes, I do not see any features that suggest bone, fossil or otherwise.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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No disrespect intended. I understand the frustration of not having others agree with my conclusions at times. But when that happens, I try to step back and look objectively, unbiased, and open minded, in part because I have no professional education in the field of paleo or even biology. One personal misconception that comes to mind from early in my Pleistocene collecting was retention of bones that turned out to be cow. I always try to learn as I go, regardless of how many years I've collected.

As a big game hunter and fossil hunter, I've found and looked at many bones over the years from Pennsylvanian through Pleistocene and Holocene. I've been known to venture into areas both inhospitable and remote in search of fossils including living in the desert alone for 5 days this month in search of Pleistocene bones, and found a few....and threw down many that I didn't think carried age.

Bones of this size you suggest would exhibit certain characteristics that are unequivocally diagnostic of bone. Depending on weathering and other factors, the cortex (outer surface) of the bone will have an almost microscopically porous or at times longitudinally striated appearance, sometimes with holes for blood vessels, ligament and tendon attachment scars, condyles physiologically shaped in a way that allows smooth articulation of joints, etc.

Depending on the type of animal and anatomical position, many bones broken in section have a very distinct cancellous (porous) bone structure present.

Breaking it down on a feature by feature basis, I'm just not seeing bone here. If you are seeing details not revealed in the photos, I'd encourage you to take your finds to a museum for professional first hand scrutiny. Thank you for posting.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Sorry, IFoundThat (great name, by the way!), but I'll agree with the chert concretion ID as well. The great news is that the TN/KY area is a terrific area for Paleozoic marine fossils.

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I do not see a single harsh word said in this topic by our members who have seen countless dinosaur bones in the USA and collected many. Yes they are shaped a bit like bones, but rocks can take all sorts of shapes and be rounded by weathering. Take a look at some of these bones and gaze at the bone structure present. http://www.thefossil...3022-dino-bits/

This tells us that they are bone - they also come from an area where bones are found regularly. As Auspex has said already, the geology does not match up and tells us dinosaur bones are not to be found, which rules it out sadly.

Sorry if you are not happy with what people say about what you picked up, but we too have been in your boat many times before with objects we found, and it is for your benefit.

Regards,

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So often we as paleontologist try to "fit" a rock into a fossil catagory. In this case, these are simply that. Rocks.

I don't want to be harsh, but the sooner you learn to recognize a true bone over a rock, the sooner you will start finding real fossils.

No one here is being negative. We are just being educated and experienced. It's taken me 20 years of fossil hunting to come to this place where I can confidently identify fossils. I have fossils in the Sternberg Museum in Hayes, KS; The Sam Noble Museum in OKC, and Southern Methodist University. I personally deiscovered the apex predator from the permian, Acheloma dunni, my namesake.

Please keep up the energy and perseverance. When fossil hunting starts clicking, you will be amazed at what is lying everywhere around you. Unfortunately, you will NEVER find a dinosaur in your area. It just isn't in the geologic cards.

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First off, I emplore your tenacity with searching out these remote areas searching for fossils. I'm a firm believer in the adage that "persistence pays off".

This was an interesting thread because it forced me to go look up Chert and learn more about what it looks like etc. Amazing all the uses for it, especially from an artifact standpoint.

I would emplore "IFoundThat" to do the same research and if all else fails, take Dan's advice and seek out a professional "in-person" ID at a museum or University. I guarantee you it will be a learning experience all the way around, and you'll establish contacts for future reference.

Daryl.

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  • 2 weeks later...

One personal misconception that comes to mind from early in my Pleistocene collecting was retention of bones that turned out to be cow. I always try to learn as I go, regardless of how many years I've collected.

Thank god it's happened to others!

I spent a bit of time digging out what, looking back, were obviously cow bones in some black rocky stuff on a beach. But hey, we all had to begin somewhere!

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" - Saint Augustine

"Those who can not see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else."

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Thank god it's happened to others!

I spent a bit of time digging out what, looking back, were obviously cow bones in some black rocky stuff on a beach. But hey, we all had to begin somewhere!

Amen brother! We all have been here!

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