Jump to content

Revisiting Camel-Bison


Shellseeker

Recommended Posts

These finds from last Saturday.

When I first saw this tooth in my sieve, my immediate reaction was "bison", just based on the chewing surface where the chevrons seem more rounded than "v" shaped. Then my hunting partner noted no stylid, and this likely camel-llama I thought that the buttresses looked to be more like camel. Size is H35mm X W22.5mm X L26.1mm (occlusal surface). With the degree of fossilization, it's hard to believe this is Bos but that's a possibility.

post-2220-0-00826400-1435628899_thumb.jpgpost-2220-0-60057600-1435628947_thumb.jpgpost-2220-0-21501300-1435628966_thumb.jpg

If camel, seems large enough to be Heniauchenia.

Next up -- turtle center osteoderm -- different from the thousands of such osteoderms I have seem in the last 5 years. Any ideas on which Turtle and/or why so different looking?

post-2220-0-31428100-1435629184_thumb.jpg

Finally a couple of fish verts: Are these fresh or salt water? Each is in excellent shape. Can these be modern? TFF identified a larger previous version of Vert1 as Sawfish.. Based on size, these are pretty small fish.

post-2220-0-69059800-1435629355_thumb.jpg

post-2220-0-90413300-1435629372_thumb.jpg

It was a great hunting day, out in nature, fantastic weather, found some less common fossils. What could be better? Thanks for all comments. SS

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am no expert, and I did not sleep at a holiday inn last night, but I don't see the ridge between the cusps that I link with Bison. Nice finds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bison - the style is clearly present.

The bottom fish vertebra has the flattened appearance I associate with Amia, the bowfin.

The upper vertebra appears to be shark.

Edited by RichW9090

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rich,

Thanks for the IDs... The stylid is kind of minimal. I have taken it for a little extra centum. I am pleased that my initial take was bison. If this one turned out to be camel, I would have been less sure of future IDs,

On the shark vert, I have found 3 or 4 of these and used this photo to ID as Sawfish (Pristis Lathami) http://www.dmap.co.uk/fossils/barton/vert/bartvert.htm. I had always considered Sawfish as less common than other sharks and it confuses me not to find other shark vert and the fact that like this one (20mm) they are from small sharks.

We have Gar and Bowfin in the Peace River region, and this vert may be modern. The preservation is very good with trace details unworn. Hard to be certain. I have found puffer fish mouthplates in a similar high state of preservation, and they would not be modern.

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Jack, nice finds!

On the turtle I have a very similar piece...because of the size Jeff and I were discussing big tortoise and the guys at the Tampa club were saying giant tortoise for sure..I know there were a couple Hesperotestudo's so I'll wait to see if anyone can confirm/narrow it down.

post-1240-0-30840000-1435660056_thumb.jpgpost-1240-0-81422400-1435660148_thumb.jpg

Regards, Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...