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Marine Reptile Bone Needs Id


Ramo

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Missing Digits and I made a little trip across central Kansas today and made a lot of nice finds. Lots of shark teeth, some fish teeth, and a few bones. I came across this weird little bone in the Codell Sandstone, and I'm not exactly sure what it is. I have a guess, but don't want influence any of your guesses. Here are a few pictures of the bone in question. Both ends are concave. Tomorrow I'll try and add a few pictures of our other finds after a little clean-up.

Ramo

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For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun.
-Aldo Leopold
 

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Sea Turtle phalanges aren't usually concave on both ends, if I remember correctly.

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence".

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I was thinking turtle as well, but after looking at some pictures on-line, I'm not sure. Like rich said most of the photos I saw show convex ends on the bones. Plesiosaur "finger bones" are kind of concave on the ends, but this bone isn't the correct shape. Perhaps it is crushed some, and weathered more than I thought. Here are a couple more pictures.

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For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun.
-Aldo Leopold
 

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I suppose it could be a plesiosaur vertebrae with erosion on one end, but I think it looks more like a "finger" bone of something. The plesiosaur verts I'm familiar with are not near this long. I'll have to do a little research on those.

Ramo

For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun.
-Aldo Leopold
 

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I have a few mosasaur verts, and they are concave on one end and convex on the other (the concave points towards the head). I'm not too sure on turtle verts, but plesiosaur vertebrae are concave on both ends. As weathered as it is, I can see that the ends are not eroded too much, and they both appear almost flat to slightly concave.

Ramo

For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun.
-Aldo Leopold
 

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I am so glad you were the one to see this Ramo- I would not have even picked it up. Very nice find. Hope it's turtle- very cool.

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