iota Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 I am an amateur who knows next to nothing about fossils and paleontology. I am attaching five photographs of a petrified bone which I understand, used to be part of some creatures backbone. I belong to the foothills of Himalayas known as the Shivalik hills which was home to various species of Megafauna during some time in the past. We have fossil park dedicated to these gaints . (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivalik_Fossil_Park) This bone has been lying at my home since my great grandfather's time. The local name of such bones is 'nau gaje di haddi' which translates to 'Bone of the Nine Meter long (Giant)'. It seems that few decades ago there was a tradition of people using these bones to ward off evil spirits off kids. Kids were made to sit on these bones while they were bathed in milk. The practice has since stopped but these gigantic bones are still lying around. I am using my 6" kindle as a scale. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilized6s Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Welcome. I'm sorry I can't help you identify your treasures, but I do appreciate you teaching us something very interesting about your cultural heritage. I love stuff like that! ~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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seaforth Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Same here. Interesting stuff. It kinds looks like a big vertebra to me but I am hardly an expert. You live in an interesting (and no doubt stunningly beautfull) part of the world. Greetings from WAY below sea level Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyssunder Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Welcome to the Forum! Interesting vertebra,probably from an ancient elephant.Nice find! Here is an interesting paper about the geodiversity in India, with geo-fossil parks:http://www.igu-cog.org/international%20journal%20of%20geoheritage/4%20R.B.%20Singh.pdf " We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. " Thomas Mann My Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izak_ Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Welcome to TFF! That is a very beautiful/interesting piece, like most have said. Izak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyssunder Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 I think this could be a good guide,but unfortunately I did not have it: "Pictorial Catalogue of Siwalik Vertebrate Fossils from Northwest Himalayaby Geological Survey of India, B.C. Verma, V.P. Mishra, S.S. Gupta",but this maybe is helpfully: http://palaeontologicalsociety.in/aug14/vol58_1/9.pdf om mani padme hum... " We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. " Thomas Mann My Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Fascinating! Welcome to the forum! Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZiggieCie Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Thank you for sharing with the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) Interesting bone and story. It dodes indeed look like a vertebra.. a fossilized one. From what... is hard to say as there is not enough of it to ID. The Sivaliks are home to quite a variety of ancient faunas that span quite a bit of geological time, and many of those had big animals. Edited May 19, 2015 by jpc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diceros Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Strictly speaking, all you have here is the centrum of a large vertebra - the heavy, circular part below the hole for the spinal cord, and below the neural arch (to the sides of, and over the hole, usually with two transverse processes and an upright neural spine. To get even a bit more precise identification (even to say if it's mammal or reptile), it would need to be prepared more completely, mostly to remove the mineral overgrowth on the bone. I used to work with the Shivalik fossils at the American Museum in New York (they aren't big on Lord Shiva there, so it's all labelled as "Siwalik"), and it's an excellent series of faunas. If I understand it right, the faunas get older the farther you go from the base of the Himalayas - Pleistocene in the foothills (like around Simla), then the late Miocene Doakh Pathan fauna, then the middle Miocene Chinli fauna farthest to the south. As I recall, the two older faunas are mostly land and river mammals of the jungle, and the Pleistocene fauna a drier one. You're in a good area for fossil collecting (watch out for those evil spirits, though!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Cool cultural background on that fossil. I'd say they were right--these bones did belong to giants (if not the type they were referring to). Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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