Odd shaped rock in my garden

[Stone_mason]

Hello!

 

first post here. I know very little about fossils but I found this peculiar rock in my garden and thought it looked like an old vertebrae. Location is Salt Lake City, although it could have been put in the garden by the previous owners. It’s a heavy rock, about 7x7 inches. I apologize if I am leaving out any important details! Cheers, m

[Auspex]

Um, yeah...

It does appear to be a vertebral centrum. A great big one. And heavily mineralized.

Both ends appear to be concave.

I'll let the real experts chime in, but this is neat.

[GeschWhat]

Oh to live in an area where you can find vertebrae in your garden! 

[Bone guy]

Looks like a whale vert 

[Miocene_Mason]

Does look like a vert, but the one thing worrying me is that I don’t see any bone structure. Could you look for any “spongy” looking areas and take a picture of them? 

[Stone_mason]

Seems to be “spongy” areas exposed on the ends. 

[Cowboy Paleontologist]

Looks like bone to me.

 

[jdp]

Definitely dinosaur. My guess is sauropod. Congrats!

[Crazyhen]

It looks like a dinosaur vertebra.  Great finds!

[fifbrindacier]

38 minutes ago, jdp said:

Definitely dinosaur. My guess is sauropod. Congrats!

 

3 hours ago, Bone guy said:

Looks like a whale vert 

There is an entire geological universe between dinosaurs and whales. Do you know the geological age of where you live ?

[jdp]

That area of Utah has a lot of Morrison Formation (late Jurassic). Hence sauropod.

[Bobby Rico]

our friend can help @Troodon

[LiamL]

Imagine finding a dinosaur bone in your back yard! 

[Troodon]

Does look like a vertebra and possibly could be Sauropod.  Unfortunately there is nothing diagnostic about it to say much more.  

 

Utahs dinosaur fossil record is one of the most extensive on record with Sauropods existing from middle Jurassic to the late Cretaceous.   However most of these exposures are south and east of SLC including the Morisson and the geology around the city is not mesozoic. Great salt flats however for racing.   One possibility is that the bone was transported into your yard from a different locality by the previous owner like you mentioned..

 

 

 Fossil record localities during different ages in Utah.  Nothing suggests that this bone is anthing other than dinosaurian 

 

http://geology.utah.gov/online/pi/pi-93.pdf

[Bone guy]

Honestly I didn't even think sauropod was possible! But if that's a sauropod vert then that's very cool!

[fifbrindacier]

Whatever was its original owner, i know i'll never make that kind of find in my back yard.