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Dinosaur bone? Allosaurus?


Still_human

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This one I'm actually really worried about, cause I wasn't aware of trying to get something ID'd on here, and so took the seller at their word and bought it. It seemed a little weird, but Ive seen plenty of fossilized bones look weird and "off", so it didn't REALLY strike me as a red flag. after I got it though, the striped coloring looked even weirder in person, and the gravelly matrix on the bottom made it seem much thinner and more off. There was never any claim as to what bone it was, but it's supposed to be from an allosaurus from the Morrison formation. 

I couldn't fit all the pics in one post, so the rest are following.

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In my opinion, this piece of bone should be named "chunkosaurus" (not saying it is from a dino...).

I would not lean towards any identification here....

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11 minutes ago, Pemphix said:

In my opinion, this piece of bone should be named "chunkosaurus" (not saying it is from a dino...).

I would not lean towards any identification here....

Yeah, I hear ya. Probably the majority of fossils are totally unidentifiable out of context, tho. I got this one in particular cause it was the only one that had any kind of potential hint--that oval indentation. It's not much to go on, but for all I know, maybe it was enough to specifiy it somehow:/

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It could be that the fossil was obtained from an allosaur bone bed, and this was part of a fossil that was to broken and compressed to add with any major part of the rest of the skeleton. I would always ask in future however the seller has arrived at their conclusion of naming the fossil to a species advertised.

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If it's from the Morrison formation, then there's a chance it's Allosaurus. But while it does look like real bone, it's too small a fragment to properly identify as anything really.

I don't think there's anything "off" about the look though. But I'm not familiar with the type of sediment of Morrison formation.

 

Don't just trust the word of any seller though. Even very trustworthy sellers can be wrong about an ID. Always take IDs with a grain of salt, and do the necessary research.

 

So I would agree with the "Chunkosaurus" assessment.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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The only way anyone could assign this to any species, especially Allosaurus, is that it was removed from a dig where the identified remains were being removed.   You should ask the seller why he calling it that and see what he says

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8 hours ago, Still_human said:

There was never any claim as to what bone it was, but it's supposed to be from an allosaurus from the Morrison formation. 

I there was "never any claim as to what bone it was" where did the "allosaurus from Morrison formation" ID come from?

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

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1 hour ago, ynot said:

I there was "never any claim as to what bone it was" where did the "allosaurus from Morrison formation" ID come from?

I  looked at the Sold listing where this bone was,  the seller clearly states what it is ....."This is a Allosaurus Bone" 

 

Edit: he's got lots of other "Allo" bones for sale and from lots of other dinosaurs: Brachylophosaur, Camarasaur, T-rex, Centrosaur, Torosaur...and more  :doh!:

 

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@Still_human I know it’s tempting because you want an allosaurus bone in your collection, but I would wait for something better and safe. When I say safe I mean something where you can confidently say the fossil is identifiable as Allo. Instead of this bone chunk, where you’re always going to wonder “is it really?” wait and save up for something of greater quality. They are always going to pop up online so no worries. 

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5 hours ago, Haravex said:

It could be that the fossil was obtained from an allosaur bone bed, and this was part of a fossil that was to broken and compressed to add with any major part of the rest of the skeleton. I would always ask in future however the seller has arrived at their conclusion of naming the fossil to a species advertised.

I did. I got one of those expected answers that have no holes or flaws, but no true certainty either--he got them from a supplier who....actually, I don't remember the specifics anymore...if the supplier was the actual collector, or is supplied by the collector(s), but I was told its someone that he has dealt with for awhile and trusts. Morrison formation animals seem to be the speciality of either the seller, or their supplier.

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4 hours ago, Troodon said:

The only way anyone could assign this to any species, especially Allosaurus, is that it was removed from a dig where the identified remains were being removed.   You should ask the seller why he calling it that and see what he says

Oh yeah, I hear ya, this one one of those times where I'll sit there comparing the pros and cons. The pro of "but it's supposed to be an allosaurus" won the day.

i figured I got as much background info as anyone could expect to get from someone who's a seller not a collector, and everything checked out as well as could be expected, so unless the collector or seller is lying....? Apparently I figured it was worth taking the risk. 

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2 hours ago, ynot said:

I there was "never any claim as to what bone it was" where did the "allosaurus from Morrison formation" ID come from?

Oh, no, I'm sorry, I meant no claim as to WHICH bone it was. Like skull, vert, rib, etc.

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1 hour ago, Masp said:

@Still_human I know it’s tempting because you want an allosaurus bone in your collection, but I would wait for something better and safe. When I say safe I mean something where you can confidently say the fossil is identifiable as Allo. Instead of this bone chunk, where you’re always going to wonder “is it really?” wait and save up for something of greater quality. They are always going to pop up online so no worries. 

You're exactly right, which is why I keep bothering everyone with ID requests(thank you everyone who takes the time to help me out with thoughts and opinions!!!!), but this one was from before I was doing that on here. For better or worse, I had already bought this one. Honestly though, this would probably be the kind of quality I'd have to settle for, for an Al, anyway. I don't really MIND the physical situation of the bone, although I'd sure prefer something more visually pleasing, as long as I could know, or at least believe it to be what it is supposed to be.

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32 minutes ago, Still_human said:

You're exactly right, which is why I keep bothering everyone with ID requests(thank you everyone who takes the time to help me out with thoughts and opinions!!!!), but this one was from before I was doing that on here. For better or worse, I had already bought this one. Honestly though, this would probably be the kind of quality I'd have to settle for, for an Al, anyway. I don't really MIND the physical situation of the bone, although I'd sure prefer something more visually pleasing, as long as I could know, or at least believe it to be what it is supposed to be.

 Don’t worry, we’ve all been there especially me...I have several bones were I did the same in the past.  Important thing is that you’re comfortable with it.  :dinothumb:

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Btw, can you guys see the oval indentation in the "top"? Seeing that and the way the "front" side curves, does that give anyone any ideas of what bone it could be? Clearly it's not going to get ID'd, but there's bines that you can easily rule out(ribs? verts?), so assuming it's allosaurus, is there any type of bone that anyone can look at this and say "it could be...", or "there's an indent like that on..." "that curved side and indent make me think of..." etc.? Don't get me wrong, like I said, I don't expect an ID, and won't just cling to an opinion, but it'd be nice to have a starting point, and/or direction to work towards.

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I think that kind of assessment can only be made while holding the specimen in hand. Judging from photos is always difficult, especially with fragmentary remains like this. It's hard to know what is front and what is back etc.

But in general it's easier to pin down what type a bone is (skull, rib, limb etc.) than it is to pin down which animal it is exactly. Most animal anatomy is fairly conservative in most bones. The humerus bone for example is quite recognisable in most animals. Certain features might indicate a specific bone. But as I said, with fragmentary remains like this is can be very hard or even impossible.

Sometimes bone structure can indicate a type of animal. For example, crocs generally have more dense bones than most dinosaurs do.

 

But I don't think much more can be said based just on photos.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Yeah, I didn't think anyone would be able to get much of a sense from the pictures, but it never hurts to ask. This bone in particular is VERY difficult to understand without depth perception. Certain things are much more clear in person than in pictures, but just about all of it is at least somewhat more clear, while seeing in depth.

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