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Peace River Find (4 Pics)


donbrunning

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Partial dugong cervical vertebra?

"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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Thanks man! Working on episode 3. I tried looking it up. That was one of the possibilities I came up with too… but it's pretty worn.

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Note the "?" in my response; there are many others here who know more about this than I, so don't go on air with that ID just yet!

"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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I'm having a hard time seeing the characteristic vertebral body and processes that denote a vertebra. My experise is in human anatomy, however, and perhaps dugong vertebrae are significantly different. The whale vertebrae I find are very similar to human, however, except for size of course. I am not familiar with the carpals or tarsals (Don't even know if that is what hand and feet bones are called in other mammals) but its oblique shape makes me think of hand or foot bones: carpals or tarsals respectively. That is another path of research you could pursue.

Luck is the most important skill of a fossil diver.

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These images are substandard for a professional photographer, Don. Try these adjustments:

DON'T OBSCURE THE MARGINS of the fossil with your fingers.

LIGHT IT UP. Use as much ambient light as possible to reduce shadows...two light sources are a minimum. Eliminate yellowed images caused by tungsten filament bulbs by switching to the new compact flourescent bulbs. CFLs come in a "daylight" (6500K) version that you can use in any (non-dimming) fixture and produce very little heat.

ELIMINATE SHADOWS by elevating the fossil on a glass or colorless plastic stage a couple of inches above the background. Illuminate the fossil AND THE BACKGROUND in this configuration. There are numerous things around the house to use for this purpose, from scrap window-glass to disposable plastic food/drink containers.

BRIGHTEN AND CONTRAST. BRIGHTEN the image until the fossil appears slightly washed, then adjust the CONTRAST until the fossil is bright and sharp and is a good color-match. Practice this until you get a feel for it.

CROP, CROP, CROP. Again, use the image-editing software to crop the image to only what is pertinent. Leave only a narrow margin around the fossil. The more of your kitchen counter-top in the image, the smaller the fossil image will be.

I did see in one image what appears to be a dens. That would make this bone an axis. If it were a dugongid axis (and I am not saying it is), it would look like this whole:

post-42-0-16776900-1439592429_thumb.jpg

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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