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Fossiljones

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Hi All,

 

Had a great trip to South Carolina for river diving last weekend.

The water was cold, and we had to dry-suit it, but nonetheless, everyone made some incredible finds, and had a great time.

 

I've got three items I'm looking for the forum's expertise and wisdom on.

 

1. The first six pics are of what I believe to be a Camel Metacarpal, or Metatarsal.  It looks to be in very pristine condition, so much so, that when I first found it, I assumed it must be modern and almost didn't bring it up.  After returning home and investigating, I learned that it may be Camel, and I was very happily surprised.  This just confirms the advice given to me many years ago by a wise veteran: when on the bottom of the river, and your not sure what something is, bag it up.  Once back on the boat, you can always throw it back if it's nothing of interest.

 

2, The next four pics are of four articulated verts in matrix.  I have no idea what these are from, they look fishy to me.  The matrix is fairly soft. I can remove it with nothing more than a dental pick, and smooth it with a scrubbing pad and water.  I intend to remove more of the matrix, but I want to leave enough to keep the articulation stable.

 

3.  The last item appears to be a claw core? ( or a tusk from the newly discovered (by me) very very tiny, miniature Mammoth?)

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I agree with your diagnosis of camelid metapodial for the first specimen.  Is there any way you can get a closer shot of the broken end of the Micromammuthus fossiljonesi (:D) specimen?   I can't tell if there are Hunter-Schreger lines present or not.

 

-Joe

Illigitimati non carborundum

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I agree the vertebrae can be fishy. Really nice finds.:D

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

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Any chance the verts are some kind of amphibian ? They look a bit like one that was IDed as a salamander a while ago. 

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Those are definitely teleost vertebrae - I had an ID for these a while back but can't seem to recall what the critter is. We've got some of this same taxon from the Oligocene Ashley/Chandler Bridge Formations in CCNHM collections.

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I wonder if your matrix containing the fish verts would contain foraminifera?

 

Often river finds are out of context and it's great to get some matrix. Forams may help to date your find.

 

I would keep some matrix.

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Harry, thank you very much!

I had used previous posts of yours to initially ID this find, and found myself going back and forth between Metacarpal and Metatarsal, because in the details I see characteristics from both.

I'm glad to see your conclusion.

 

We had many good finds during this trip, and I'm thinking for the first time of submitting a trip report.  Most of our finds do not require ID help because they're instantly recognizable, but it was such a unique trip, I think it would make an interesting story.

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18 hours ago, Fossiljones said:

Harry, thank you very much!

I had used previous posts of yours to initially ID this find, and found myself going back and forth between Metacarpal and Metatarsal, because in the details I see characteristics from both.

I'm glad to see your conclusion.

 

We had many good finds during this trip, and I'm thinking for the first time of submitting a trip report.  Most of our finds do not require ID help because they're instantly recognizable, but it was such a unique trip, I think it would make an interesting story.

 

Please do give us a trip report.  Here are some line drawings to help (me) distinguish between metacarpal and metatarsal.  There are a number of camels with metapodials of differing size, so I have not included an approximation of length.  The morphology of the bones of these other camels will be similar for gross identification purposes.  The proportions of the proximal and distal measurements may also be similar.  The measurements I added are likely to be from Paleolama mirifica, the most common Pleistocene camelid in Florida.

camel_metacarpal.JPG

camel_metatarsal.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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Nice finds! I'm really loving those associated fish verts! 

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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