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Madagascar Dino Leg


Shortmegan

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Hello!

I recently purchased this piece in Madagascar. I was told that it is a dinosaur bone and was found in Majunga. I would love help in learning more about it. You can see that it is two main parts (which fit together) and there is some evidence of repair work. There are some crystals in the middle of the bone, which I think looks very pretty.

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That is quite a specimen! :wub:

"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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That’s an exemplary piece! Thanks for posting. It will be interesting to see a perspective of Madagascan fossils less bias to the commercial polished ammonites.

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Nice piece/s! I would look into a wooden display rack. Maybe something along the lines of a Baseball bat display.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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It is a femur, I can tell you that much. Majungasaurus? Majungathalus?

Sorry if i'm wrong but aren't they the same thing :)

Yeah, hard to believe it is authentic? :o

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Nice specimen :) . I would like to see a view with the two halves butted together and a ruler beside the fossil to get an idea how large to bone is. A brick is usually about 230mm long so looks to be quite large.

Mike

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It looks like a sauropod femur, Majungasaurus femurs seem to have been more bend and with projections while sauropod femurs are pretty straight. If it really comes from the Majunga area (and not further down south) it might very well be a Rapetosaurus femur. Is there no museum in Madagascar where you can go to ask the experts? it's a really nice piece, you should have someone look at it, Because from the Mahjunga area only 1 sauropod is known, maybe it turns out to be a new one?

Gr,

Sander

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Could very well be a sauropod femur. I've attached an image of a Rapetosaurus femur so you have something to compare against. I agree with sander if you can take it to a local museum might help sort out exactly what you have. Very nice bone.

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Sorry if i'm wrong but aren't they the same thing :)

Yeah, hard to believe it is authentic? :o

yeah, they are the same, I just can't remember which is current. I will however recant my guess...it does look more suaropodian than theropodian.

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Thank you for all the information! Here is a photo with a tape measure for scale. It's right at one meter long. I've put in my boot too because the tape measure doesn't show up all that well.

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Looks more like a jurassic bone. see my post at your other topic about the caudal vertebrae.

Gr,

Sander

Thanks for all this great information- it's giving me a place to start my investigation into these pieces. Unfortunately the museum closed years ago and the guys that sold this to me, frankly, don't know much either. "It's a dinosaur bone. From a dinosaur. From the North". So between the language issues and dealing with amateurs ...I don't know much. And your speculation in the other post that the bones came from further south could be 100% correct - they said "near" Majunga, which could mean anything. :)

I'm going to do more sleuthing - thanks for all the ideas.

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If I were you I'd buy up everything I could of this quality whilst its available at a reasonable price. Also try and get to the area where its being dug out. Its astonishingly good and rare material.

Paul

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If I were you I'd buy up everything I could of this quality whilst its available at a reasonable price. Also try and get to the area where its being dug out. Its astonishingly good and rare material.

Paul

I concur.

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Actually it is a bit dissappointing in Madagascar. because there is so much illicit digging, everything goes away unresearched, we haven't got 1 complete jurassic dinosaur from there. Lapparentosaurus is only known for a few incomplete skeletons (all lacking the skull) and Archaeodontosaurus is only known for loose teeth and part of a jaw. and there are lots of fossils that do not fit into either genus. Someone should really do a scientific expedition there before all the fairly complete skeletons are gone and we are only left with a few pieces. I get the idea that all the attention is focused at the cretaceous part of the Madagascan dinosaurs, if they are researching them at all, the last time I heard news from there was when they announced the discovery of Beelzebufo I think. Seeing all the stuff from there it at least deserves way more attention than it has yet been given. In a way the fossils are very nice and they are a good catch, but if you think about that no one has really looked good at them it is also a pity. one can only wonder how much information has already been lost. But then again, the same counts for Moroccan fossils and almost every other fossil that ends up in a collection.

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yeah, they are the same, I just can't remember which is current. I will however recant my guess...it does look more suaropodian than theropodian.

Mujungasaurus is the proper name.

-Lyall

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If I were you I'd buy up everything I could of this quality whilst its available at a reasonable price. Also try and get to the area where its being dug out. Its astonishingly good and rare material.

Paul

It is pretty incredible how affordable these things are- in a way, it's a very sad sign of the state of affairs here.

I'm going to try to make it up north where they do the digs and participate- I'll have to tread VERY carefully though. These artisinal diggers won't take too kindly to a foreign lady/hobbiest messing around with their livelihoods...so I'm not going to rush into it. But WOW- how cool would it be to go up there and actually FIND a dino?

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It is pretty incredible how affordable these things are- in a way, it's a very sad sign of the state of affairs here.

I'm going to try to make it up north where they do the digs and participate- I'll have to tread VERY carefully though. These artisinal diggers won't take too kindly to a foreign lady/hobbiest messing around with their livelihoods...so I'm not going to rush into it. But WOW- how cool would it be to go up there and actually FIND a dino?

If you really would find a dinosaur, or some articulated bones, make photo's of them while in situ, and remember the exact place where you found them. of course take the fossils with you, or some one else will. Also remember in which layer you found them. Maybe you can even write an article about that discovery yourself if you can find the time.

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