Woehr's Texas Meanderings - Ephemeral Edition

[Uncle Siphuncle]

The Maastrichtian gave up the goods as well.  Mostly Sphenodiscus ammonites from a couple formations.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

I got my kid off the computer again.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

More adventure.  My kid found a big, rough artifact.  He often finds them when I don't!

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Gotta run...we'll ascend the strat column in a bit.

[PFOOLEY]

I will be waiting.

 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Lutetian.  Croc tooth, osteoderm, and vert.  Caught me by surprise.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

More Lutetian serendipity.  My only other Texas gar scales (Lepisosteus?) are Pleistocene.  One image shows gar teeth, I think, and cutlassfish teeth.  The shark vert is my cleanest example of any size, any age.  Cool. 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Let's meander on upsection to the Rancholabrean, starting with striking examples of common stuff.  Bison would be a good start.  

 

Generally if I find something in the Bos/Bison spectrum, and I'm not sure it is Bison either by size, context, mineralization, or obvious diagnostic features, I chuck it as I'd hate to fill my house up with old cow bones.  The mandible is fossil by mineralization and context.  The differential wear on the occlusal surfaces of the teeth makes for an interesting study.

 

I had to stare at the thing I'm calling a Bison horn core for a while before assigning it to a genus.  It is clearly weathered, perhaps prior to fossilization, then it is permineralized and has adhering hard matrix.  There aren't many Pleistocene terrestrial boney structures with a sweeping, slightly curved, conically tapering cross section.  This is bone and not ivory.  I've provisionally labeled it as a B. latifrons horn core.

 

The last item is subfossil, but still cool.  A Bison bison skull cap with both horn cores never hurts my feelings.  Tatonka.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Now let's look a gift horse in the mouth...or perhaps a whole stinkin' herd of 'em....Equus tooth kolache, anyone???

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Hold your horses...

 

The first one looks questionable in age, but I have reason to think it is Pleistocene, tinged with a bit of chagrin...like a buffoon, I inadvertantly stepped on this thing in my garage when staged for curation, and the character of the break was very brittle, as in no collagen remaining.  Also, the bone was a constant chocolate brown throughout, none of that deceiving surface stain with white inside.  I showed photos to an expert before my episode of buffoonery, and he felt it was fossil.  My hapless destructive testing served as confirmation.  I was able to salvage it and it now adorns my office at work.

 

The big mandible framed in matrix was quite a tripmaker.  It was actually 95% encased in matrix when found as if cement was poured over it...perhaps Jimmy Hoffa's horse?

[Uncle Siphuncle]

I believe this next specimen to be fossil by context.  My books suggest it may be a carpometatarsus, and a friendly expert suggested turkey.  

[Uncle Siphuncle]

As you may have surmised, we are winding our way down the road of obscura.  Let's talk Texas camels.  I believe this next round of material to be Camelops.  Tibia and mandible sections.  Big stuff.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Now let's transition from camelids to xenarthrans.  The attached image will serve as a convenient segue.  Paleolama or Tanupolama mandible and Holmesina septentrionalis osteoderm.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Finally, the lethargic sloths have made it to the party.  Megalonyx tooth and unidentified sloth tibia, perhaps also Megalonyx, not sure.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Paramylodon was a pretty big critter.  I wish sloth jaws would hang onto their teeth!  

 

The vert in matrix may be a Paramylodon caudal.  The other vert, according to Hulbert, is a Paramylodon axis.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

I just threw this lumbar vert in here cuz it looks cool in matrix, and I have no idea what the heck it came from.

[Ludwigia]

Wow, Dan! What a row of stupendous finds you're showing us here! Please keep them coming and I'll make some more detailed comments on them when I get my speech back. By the way, the kid doesn't look much like a kid any more

[Uncle Siphuncle]

I was high grading my Pleistocene stuff to give the lesser half to my kid's high school, and in the process ran into something I found 10-12 years ago, and at the time knew enough only to save and forget about it.  I sent Rich White pics along with my suspicion that it was a juvie Tetrameryx double horn core, which he confirmed.  Delayed gratification. 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

3 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Wow, Dan! What a row of stupendous finds you're showing us here! Please keep them coming and I'll make some more detailed comments on them when I get my speech back. By the way, the kid doesn't look much like a kid any more

Certainly, my friend.  Now that I have your attention, I must take an intermission, but rest assured, I'm comin' back with both barrels for a guns-a-blazin' finish!

[DE&i]

Very educational trip report. It's nice to see photos of Ice Age material found in America. And proves very useful when trying to explain to family and friends. That during the Ice Age, sheets of ice covered much of the world including all of Antarctica, large parts of Europe, North America, and South America.

 

As you can imagine it's very hard to comprehend.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

1 hour ago, DarrenElliot said:

Very educational trip report. It's nice to see photos of Ice Age material found in America. And proves very useful when trying to explain to family and friends. That during the Ice Age, sheets of ice covered much of the world including all of Antarctica, large parts of Europe, North America, and South America.

 

As you can imagine it's very hard to comprehend.

Darren

 

Glaciers didn't make it as far south as Texas when these critters lived, but climate fluctuations certainly introduced and took away many animals of the time.  I grew up farther north in Ohio, and there the glaciers scraped and leveled the land in the northern half of the state, leaving a terminal moraine.  The southern part of the state remains hilly.  Kinda cool to be able to see both in one state.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Let's start looking some gift elephants in the mouth.  The mastodon maxilla was a welcome find, but I'd covet it much more if it had a couple teeth intact!

 

I was wondering what exactly to do with half a mammoth atlas vert, then I realized that it was free standing on the break, repurposing it as a nifty little nook for displaying other fossils, such as the ratty ole broke-busted mastodon tooth shown.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Oh Dan ! What marvelous fossils you found ! I always have so much pleasure to read your narratives of hunting which make me dream ! Again ! More !

 

Coco

[Uncle Siphuncle]

And speaking of messed up, below you'll see absolutely the most raggedy, ugly full round of tusk I've ever picked up.  It looks like it died, deteriorated almost to splinters, then somehow became permeated and consolidated.  Still a treasure on some level, but not for its aesthetics.  This thing weighs at least 20 LBS.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

"Joseph Merrick's Pet Elephant".  I'm always happy to find a proboscidean vert with processes, but this thoracic tells a deeper story...it is pathological.  Note the bone bulging into the neural canal from the top left.  When viewing the specimen in hand, it is quite clear that this prominence impinged onto the spinal cord.  I conjectured that an adjacent vert was diseased or injured, and this was the body's response, then I showed it to a more knowledgeable friend who suggested osteosarcoma.  I don't have the acumen to confirm nor refute that possibility.