Ice Age Bone 2

[TNCollector]

Hello everyone. This is one of a series of posts that I will be making today. I am NOT familiar with fossils of this age so I really need some help with identification of these specimens.

 

I did some collecting this week in a creek that exposes 3 formations, one that is Late Miocene (fossiliferous), one that is Pliocene (not fossiliferous), and one that is Pleistocene (fossiliferous). 

 

None of the fossils were found within the formation itself, so I don't know what formation each specimen came from. I found several bones that were undoubtedly modern, but the ones I am posting look and feel fossilized to me.

 

This is another hollow bone I found. I am not sure what to think of it, other than that it is a bone.

 

Let me know what you all think!

 

Miocene to Pleistocene

Mississippi

Bone of who?

 

 

[Rockwood]

I have seen it suggested that hollow looking bones like this were from a large Miocene bird. Terrestrial mammal bones can have a similar look though. Without more complete ends it seems doubtful that you will get a definitive ID on it.

[TNCollector]

On 12/18/2016 at 3:27 AM, Rockwood said:

I have seen it suggested that hollow looking bones like this were from a large Miocene bird. Terrestrial mammal bones can have a similar look though. Without more complete ends it seems doubtful that you will get a definitive ID on it.

Bird would be cool! But it seems to be too large for that, but then again, I don't really know much of anything about critters from this time period. And yeah, I don't really expect a definitive species ID, but it would be nice to at least get an idea of what type of animal it was (artiodactyl, bird, reptile, etc.).

 

I know there are some Florida folks out there who know this stuff, does anyone have a rough guess of what it may look like?

[PrehistoricFlorida]

It's definitely not bird. The side walls are too thick. It's a common misnomer that "all hollow bones are bird". Many terrestrial mammals have hollow bones or sparse marrow that easily erodes. 

With neither end intact, you'll have an extremely difficult time identifying this bone.