Jump to content

What May This Bone Be From


Mike Pocock

Recommended Posts

Hi I found this bone in Indiana on a recent fossil hunt in the USA, but i think it was dumped and is from New York state

I have cleaned off the matrix (chalk) to show the bone and am hopeing that someone will have some ideas.

post-15295-0-57129800-1406129500_thumb.jpg

post-15295-0-14629200-1406129757_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doesn't look like the type of early mammal fossils normally found in Indiana or New York state. The white fine grained matrix is more typical of Oligocene fossils found out west. The bone is consistent too. I have numerous speciments of bones from the White River formation of Nebraska and South Dakota and that bone would fit right in. It looks like a section of an oreodont tibia. What it was doing in Indiana is a mystery?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why do you think it's from New York State? Virtually all of the state is Paleozoic bedrock; I'm not familiar with any New York formations that would produce mammal bones in consolidated matrix.

I agree this specimen has a general appearance of a White River Formation fossil, for whatever that is worth.

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regardless it's a nice fossil mammal bone about 30 million years old. Not bad for any collection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

95% Certainly White River Fm. From South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado or Wyoming. How it got to Indiana is anyone's guess, but if you can find out, that may be a clue as to where it actually came form. Likely a tibia chunk; the sub-triangular cross-section suggests tibia. Maybe an oreodont. There are many other critters that lived at that time and are found in the White River Fm. But there is not enough of this bone to say for sure. Nice find for Indiana.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...