Hell Creek Toe Bone, Carter County, Montana

[Raptor Lover]

Can someone help me identify this bone? It is a toe bone from the Hell Creek Formation. The location is Carter County, Montana.

Edited August 25, 2015 by RaptorFan4Life

[Raptor Lover]

More pics

[PFOOLEY]

Turtle.

[Troodon]

Agreed turtle

[Ridgehiker]

It's turtle...rare to find one that large. Usually half that size.

Turtle shell is very common. However, other than small unguals (claws), we don't find many other toe/ limb turtle bones in our deposits.

[Raptor Lover]

Turtle.

Agreed turtle

It's turtle...rare to find one that large. Usually half that size.

Turtle shell is very common. However, other than small unguals (claws), we don't find many other toe/ limb turtle bones in our deposits.

Thanks everyone! I guess thats cool then if turtle toe bones arent that common or that big

[Troodon]

They had some pretty nice size turtles in the Hell Creek

[Ridgehiker]

They had some pretty nice size turtles in the Hell Creek

We find shell bits of what would have been large turtles but not much articulate. Perhaps 3 or 4 turtle types. This is the best I have found....nice and solid whereas normally someone would have to go through a pot of glue to piece the specimen together. About 14 inches across.

Soft shelled turtle. Trionyx. Today's Trionyx haven't changed much since this guy swam around.

[Troodon]

I love finding turtle material. Here are a couple of items from a channel deposit.

[Raptor Lover]

Nice find Canadawest!

[Raptor Lover]

And Troodon, that's really cool! I really like that first skull

[Troodon]

Here is another skull with the axis vertebra

[Raptor Lover]

Awesome!

[abyssunder]

All are nice finds! Congrats for them!

[Troodon]

Thanks their my pets, require no feeding or walking

[Ridgehiker]

Thanks their my pets, require no feeding or walking

We can put your skull on my body ( well, actually the turtles) and make a new species.

Always a plus to see lots of turtle bits, shell positions, etc. Often just a few fragments are found and easier to recognize the turtle type by the texture.

Edited August 25, 2015 by Ridgehiker

[Troodon]

I like that suggestion, always in for new species and we can have our names attached to it.

[Raptor Lover]

I'll put my turtle toe bone on it. It'll be the rare one toed turtle haha

[Ridgehiker]

I'll put my turtle toe bone on it. It'll be the rare one toed turtle haha

Ha...but the size of that bone makes up for a bunch of small ones.

On the serious side. Don't be disappointed the bone isn't from a raptor or ornithomimid. Your specimen is actually a bit rarer to find in our deposits. I'm not sure why but certain animals are fairly common in deposits but usually only from a couple of elements. Turtles it's shells and terminal phalanges, crocs it's teeth, scutes, skull material, Champsosaurus it's vertebrae and rib ends, etc. Always puzzling why we might find 50 Champsosaur vertebrae for every croc vert but 50 croc teeth for every Champsosaus toe bone, etc. It's like that with turtle bones...where are they all?

Edited August 26, 2015 by Ridgehiker

[Raptor Lover]

Ha...but the size of that bone makes up for a bunch of small ones.

On the serious side. Don't be disappointed the bone isn't from a raptor or ornithomimid. Your specimen is actually a bit rarer to find in our deposits. I'm not sure why but certain animals are fairly common in deposits but usually only from a couple of elements. Turtles it's shells and terminal phalanges, crocs it's teeth, scutes, skull material, Champsosaurus it's vertebrae and rib ends, etc. Always puzzling why we might find 50 Champsosaur vertebrae for every croc vert but 50 croc teeth for every Champsosaus toe bone, etc. It's like that with turtle bones...where are they all?

Thanks! Thats really reassuring. Its cool that my bone isnt that common. And hmmm thats really interesting that turtle bones dont come up

[Troodon]

Sorry chaps, but in the Hell Creek turtle bones are very common, have dozens of them. I actually collect at a site we call the Turtle site because the majority of items are croc, champ and turtle. The occasional Dino tooth.

[Raptor Lover]

Sorry chaps, but in the Hell Creek turtle bones are very common, have dozens of them. I actually collect at a site we call the Turtle site because the majority of items are croc, champ and turtle. The occasional Dino tooth.

Oh okay, well thanks for that info Well it's still a cool bone. It makes my collection a little more diverse. Thanks to you Troodon, I know what a raptor bone actually looks like so I won't make mistakes on future purchases.