Bobby Rico Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Hi all, I love this site, lots of really learned people sharing thier knowledge. Ok food for thought, I love aquiring old collections of labelled fossils. For me they have a third life. What I am describing by this is their life as an living creature, their life as a fossil, mineral/rock and their life as part of an old collection. I suppose you can call it the romanticism of collecting. So the question how can you tell this bone is from a Masterdon? I can see only a part of a river worn fossilised bone with piddocks boring holes but can't say what animal or part of that animal it is. Any thought on the identification or old collections? I will try and and add more photos but I think I need to resize them. Need to work that out. thanks for your time Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Bones of different creatures have different structure, texture, and form. For instance, I know, from collecting/dealing with fish fossils, that fish bones are frequently flaky and fragile looking. Combined with comparison of extant animal bones, and the knowledge of the geology of the area of/at the time of discovery, the paleontologists of yesteryear made lots of guesses and inferences. Occasionally, they have been found wrong, years and years later. Much of paleontology back then (and now?) was/is what I would call educated guesses. Hope that answers some of your questions. As far as ID's - you'll have to wait for someone more experienced than I. Regards, 1 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Hi Bobby, In this case its more likely whale bone, commonly found in the Crag deposits. It’s a derived fossil, hence the shiny patina. There’s nothing distinguishable to a mastodon, I assume it’s a Victorian collector (or dealer) that’s assigned a potential name (note the question mark after “mastodon” on the label) to add interest to the collection (or add value). Best regards, 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 More pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 The borings are done by marine clams, Family Pholadidae, rock-boring clams. http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Hi Bobby...welcome to the forum! I can't help you with your identification other than the cross section looks like it could be a rib bone. Do you happen to know what collection this came from? I totally get the romanticism of an old collection piece. To me, the label is the real treasure. If I were you, I would try to identify the handwriting and labeling style to see if it matches one of the more well know collectors of the time. I know that can be hard because many like William Buckland and Mary Anning had the help of relatives. The Victorians were amazing. They did a lot of really practical comparative science. Let's fill the spiral valve of a shark with cement. By gosh, these aren't fossil fir cones we have been collecting; they are fossil poop! Or another one of my favorites: This fossil footprint looks familiar...honey, roll out some dough. William Buckland pops out back to grab their pet tortoise, places it on the dough discovering the footprints match. If you haven't already guessed, coprolite is kind of my thing. William Buckland has long been one of my favorites. I just finally got my hands on his the 1837 edition of Geology and Mineralogy. It is like stepping back in time when I read things like, "Mr. Darwin has recently discovered..." I look forward to seeing more of your collection in the future! Again, welcome! Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyssunder Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Pretty nice. The label looks old, or at least is made to be that. Do you know the source (not the location) where it came from ? One is sure, the Norwich Crag Formation is Pleistocene marine deposit. " We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. " Thomas Mann My Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosmoceras Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Although the Norwich Crag is a Pleistocene deposit, the preservation of this bone is more typical of those you find in the Red Crag (Norwich Crag bones are much less worn). This is not surprising however, as some sections on the Norwich Crag contain an abundance of material reworked from the Red and Coralline Crags. What makes it particularly interesting, is that these bones from the Red Crag (most are assigned as whale, but other bones and teeth are found) are themselves likely derived from Miocene deposits which are now absent is Britain. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 Hi all and thank you very much. I have really enjoyed the info I have received on the Victorian mammal bone fossil. I think a whale is the best guess for the origin of the bone. The collective geological knowledge in this site is incredible. GeschWhat I get your collections too, I'd be interested in seeing some of your treasures, have you any posted this site? Also nice job on aquiring a copy of 1837 edition of Geology and Mineralogy I am quite jealous. I got the fossil in part of an old collection. I can post more photos of the whole collection if anybody is interested. Thanks again Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 18 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said: Hi all and thank you very much. I have really enjoyed the info I have received on the Victorian mammal bone fossil. I think a whale is the best guess for the origin of the bone. The collective geological knowledge in this site is incredible. GeschWhat I get your collections too, I'd be interested in seeing some of your treasures, have you any posted this site? Also nice job on aquiring a copy of 1837 edition of Geology and Mineralogy I am quite jealous. I got the fossil in part of an old collection. I can post more photos of the whole collection if anybody is interested. Thanks again Bobby I would love to see more of your collection! I have a few things posted here on the forum, but most are on the links below. 1 Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 Most of a old collection I aquired a some time ago including this mammalian bone. GestchWhat I can't see your link but I will go through your posts. Apologies if my posts are sometimes a bit delayed but I am dyslexic so it takes me a while to write. Thanks again . Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I do a lot of indexing and transcription of 19th century documents for a couple of organizations. The fossils are very nice, but the handwriting is absolutely beautiful! Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 Yes thank you. The handwriting is lovely. I have some ID cards for some of this collection too. I also like Fossil with old museum identification codes or numbering. indexing sounds very interesting. Thank you and I am looking forward to seeing some of your old posts and seeing some of your collections . Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyssunder Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 This one is a pretty nice crinoid hash plate, showing a crinoid pluricolumnal in median longitudinal section among other crinoid fragments. Do you have a label for this? " We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. " Thomas Mann My Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 I don't know if I have a label for the crinoid hash plat. I am quite dyslexic and a lot of the labels are hand written faded copper plate text so are hard to read. I will look and get back to you. Also thank you for the Id some great info. Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyssunder Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 You're welcome, Bobby! " We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. " Thomas Mann My Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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