Help to identify fossil group

[Stan Simpson]

I know its very difficult to identify the animals these bones may have come from but any help to specify the animals will be very appreciated. They all come from a dredging operation near Houston.

Thanks to everyone for your help. I hope to have a fresh group of pieces in the next week or so.

I will be glad to add more photos if it would be helpful.

[Fruitbat]

The specimen on the right in Photo 3 is likely an Equus  (horse) toe bone (Phalanx I).

The specimen on the left in Photo 4 appears to be a Phalanx I from an artiodactyl (possily a bison or a camelid) but I would like to see a better picture of the other surface before I say anything that might be considered definitive.

 

-Joe

 

 

[Stan Simpson]

Thanks very much Joe. I'm attaching 3 more photos of the previous #4 left side photo.

[Fruitbat]

I'm revising my original 'guess' regarding the second one...it looks more like an Equus plananx I to me with the new pictures.  That was a BIG horse!

 

-Joe

[abyssunder]

I agree with Joe. They are first phalanges of Equus. The size variability is not a problem.

 

excerpt from Atlas of Animal Bones. For Prehistorians, Archaeologists and Quaternary Geologists - Elisabeth Schmid; Elsevier, New York, 1972.

[Batfossil]

Photo 3, as Fruitbat noted, horse (Equus) first phalanx on the right. Photo 4, horse on the left and small artiodactyl distal metapodial on the right. Photo 6, probably the proximal end of an artiodactyl metapodial, but need an end view to be sure.

[Stan Simpson]

Thanks Batfossil. I am attaching photos of both pieces in photo 6.

[Batfossil]

I'm afraid I may not be much of a help without being able to handle them. You may have a somewhat battered proximal end of a horse cannonbone and a fragment of the distal end of a horse tibia--or, sadly, you may not. So, put a big question mark and see if you can find someone with a disarticulated horse skeleton for direct comparison. No question though on the horse first phalanges.