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I have recently purchase two large pieces of Jurassic aged bone from the Morrison Formation near the Dinosaur National Monument in Northwest Colorado. They seemed to be shaped in a way that it maybe possible to give them a general ID, I don't know if it can of course go as far as ID the specific dinosaur of course but if anyone with experience may know what kind of bones they are, any help would be appreciated as I would like to label them for the collection. As it stands the first larger one I believe to be likely sauropod bone or some other large herbivore while the second one I think may be theropod of some sort. Also if it's possible would anyone be able to tell what kind of bone they maybe like for example limb, leg, metatarsal, etc. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

 

The larger bone measures nearly 9 1/2 inches long

 

The smaller one measures approximately 6 1/2 inches long

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I'm sure you'll get more informative answers as this forum has many users interested and specializing in dinosaurs. my quick first take though is that the first larger item, if bone, is a portion of a vertebra centrum.

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13 minutes ago, jpenn said:

I'm sure you'll get more informative answers as this forum has many users interested and specializing in dinosaurs. my quick first take though is that the first larger item is a portion of a vertebra centrum.

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't consider it to be part of a vertebra at first, after looking at a few pics quick it reminds me of something similar to this, especially the side view. This is a picture of a stegosaurus one, I'll have to compare it to a few different verts of different Jurassic dinosaurs.

journal.pone.0138352.g008.PNG

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I did some more comparisons and it seems that it is very likely part of a sauropod vert, more than it could be stegosaurus as I suspected. I think it would be safe to label it as sauropod? 

m_zoj12029-fig-0006.png

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I think that large vertebra centrum looks most like one from the dorsal area. There doesn't seem to be much pneumaticity. So I would lean away from Sauropod.

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Troodon is currently away on a dig, how may I help... anyway jokes aside yes vertebrae and given the shape I too am in the dorsal camp LT pointed out a good reason of the lack of pneumaticity, however I will also point out that on both of these pieces there is still a reasonable amount of surface matrix in places although I do recognize that the Morrison formation does not always leave the best presentation and not by any means the easiest to prep. For comparison a 4th stegosaurus vert journal.pone.0138352.g021 

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On a dig yes but I do get a signal once and a while where Im staying.

I'm inclined to think your first one is from a Sauropod.  Not much in the Morisson that would fit that other than a Sauropod.

  Here is a Camarasaurus vertebra 

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And one from a Diplodocus 10" long.

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Not seeing anything theropodish on your second one.  Not sure what it is

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