Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 I went peekin' and pokin' in the Pleistocene too. Let me start by revealing my fascination with blue teeth, even if they are small. This mandible is from a marmot, possibly a yellow bellied marmot, I'm told on good authority. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 OK, this pic of my kid is a couple years old, but you can never have too many blue teeth in your fossil report, I says... Oh, and those are Pleistocene deer teeth, BTW. For the moms out there, all the cooties are therefore long dead. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Here's a rather nifty find, a rather complete marmot skull, with mandible articulated. I think I counted 11 teeth. Careful prep happened on this one. I went after matrix with an exacto blade rather than an air scribe this round. Securing access to a gravel pit or two can be a boon to collecting, so I'm told, as fragile fossils tend not to be waterlogged and freshly tumbled. Bout all I can say bout that. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 More Pleisto-stuff. First a nice Glyptotherium marginal osteoderm, then probably a coyote jaw, Canis latrans. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 I kinda like the idea of camels in Texas. Let's look at some camel stuff. First, a distal metapodial in sandstone matrix. Although it is partial, I think it looks rather stately in matrix. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 And now, a ratty, honkin' big camel radioulna, weighing in at 23 inches. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 My heart jumped when I found this nearly complete camel axis vert (C2) in matrix. First, the unprepped pix. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Several careful scribe-hours later, this vert revealed itself in stunning relief. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 On the subject of camels, here is a cool mandible. Although the bone began to fall apart before I recovered it, the teeth stayed firmly anchored with sandstone, and root structure is clearly visible. The coloration of the occlusal surface is, to my eye, striking. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 While we are talking about mandibles, let's segue in an equine direction. This first one forgot to brush. Pretty nasty. Hard to see in the photo, but this is both sides of the mandible compressed together, symphesis and rami eroded off, then the whole thing covered with a nasty popcorn concretionary funk. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Fortunately, dental care in this string of finds gets progressively better, as you'll see. Here is another horse mandible that will keep nicely. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Next, my favorite horse jaw of all time. Did I mention that I like matrix? Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Some of the post cranials are worthy of mention too. I just like the overall character of this horse metapodial, complete with adhering matrix. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 OK, back to the cranial stuff. Here's one of those dumb luck finds. Would have been cooler if complete, but I adore it just the same. Equus. With canine. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Enough of the horse stampede. Let's slow down and enjoy something sloth. I found it interesting that this vert had the epiphesis peeled off only one side. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Here is a nice Megalonyx astragulus, extra crispy as if right out of the formation. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 The Pleistocene show wouldn't be complete without some mammoth stuff. First, a nice thoracic vertebra. Next, a partial tooth. The tooth isn't particularly spectacular, but I found it while exploring a new site, so it gets extra love. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 A little ivory is warranted at this juncture. Here's a full round that made the cut, followed by a section of rare gomphothere tusk. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 I saved the most common stuff for the end...Bison. Only this time, I'm showcasing a less common suite of finds from this commonly found critter. When I found this complete Bison femur, I wasn't aware of how fragile it was. It snapped in half under its own weight just a couple feet off the ground. When I inspected the broken diaphysis in cross section, I decided that this bone would be displayed broken, forever. Geodized with dogtooth calcite...what a stately way to be immortalized. But I don't care to repeat the 3 second emotional roller coaster again from find to lift, to the snap, to the inspection. Too much of that can wear an old guy out. 4 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Here is the ugliest Bison skull I've ever encountered. But I think I'll keep it, in all its ugly glory. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 How bout some prettier Bison stuff, like this mandible and maxilla. BTW, these are B. latifrons. And they happen to be associated. How can I be so sure of this? Read on.... Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Oh yeah, the maxilla... 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 So I found the mandible and maxilla associated with this skull cap...and found myself in a horribly delightful predicament near sundown that I was completely unprepared for. This was probably 100 lbs or so of bone and matrix. But I got it done. And perhaps I did the Frosted Lucky Charms victory dance, but as a grizzled, gray haired old dude, I'd never admitr to such. I took my time in 3D CAD designing and fabricating a sturdy display stand that would fit on my fireplace hearth, yet not detract from the specimen itself. I decided not to putty in the missing sections of skull, but instead created an internal support structure to suspend the bones in living position. I eased my wife into this find gingerly, as we sort of have a turf war at the house, with fossils taking up too much space. I began by complimenting her on her new curtains in the living room, noting how much bigger they made the place look. Then I dropped the bomb of wanting to bring the skull in the house. All went easier than anticipated, not because of my sales skills, but because my wife had always envisioned a longhorn skull in the living room when she moved to Texas. She got the bonus plan. This one could be up to 240,000 years old. Tip to tip, this thing measures 5 feet. If the horn tips were unworn, I suspect it would be 6 to 6 1/2 feet. But it fits better on my fireplace hearth the way it is. Note that the horn tips are covered with sandstone. This would make for an interesting discussion of taphonomy. OK I'll be quiet now so we can enjoy some pics. 2 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 25, 2017 Author Share Posted December 25, 2017 Horn tips. If I find a Bison left mandible at some point, I just may composite the thing into this display. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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