From a plesiosaur?

[Still_human]

From all the comparing Ive done, i think it almost looks exactly right, except I haven't been able to find any vertebrae with the things on the bottom(chevrons?) shaped like that; that 90degree bend. Is that familiar to anyone? Is that something that appears on plesiosaurs or not?

 

(no better angle of the chevron(?)on the other side)

[Mike from North Queensland]

Looks right to me for some type of pliosaur I would guess from the neck some where.

Still needs a good clean up but is more complete than most I have seen.

In much better condition than the one I prepped for a friend a couple of weeks ago

There should be two distinct nutrient groove on the underside not seen in the last photo.

 

Mike

[Joe Salande]

I think the things on the bottom are the "transverse" process of the vertebrae.  That is where the spine articulates with the ribs. Throughout the spine, at lease with humans, the neck and Lumbar 

vertebrae do not have those, but the thoracic vertebrae region (thorax) do have these processes.

The good news is that I am a retired Chiropractor, so that statement is more probably then not true.

The bad news is that I know next to nothing about fossils and comparative anatomy of humans to dinosaurs, so I guess

I wouldn't take that answer to Las Vegas!

Joe

[Walt]

2 minutes ago, Joe Salande said:

I think the things on the bottom are the "transverse" process of the vertebrae.  That is where the spine articulates with the ribs. Throughout the spine, at lease with humans, the neck and Lumbar 

vertebrae do not have those, but the thoracic vertebrae region (thorax) do have these processes.

The good news is that I am a retired Chiropractor, so that statement is more probably then not true.

The bad news is that I know next to nothing about fossils and comparative anatomy of humans to dinosaurs, so I guess

I wouldn't take that answer to Las Vegas!

Joe

I imagine the basics hold true when it is bone fitting to bone....

But that begs the question,  when you have looked at exhibits at museums have you seen any dino anatomy that surprised you?  Or seemed contrary to what you know as a chiropractor?

[Joe Salande]

Greetings Walt!

From a comparative anatomy perspective, Ive never looked at Dino bones, but i did have an Alligator vertebrae in my office," and yes, I'm from Louisiana. They were oddly similar,

that is with the processes and tubercles and such, but surely different in a lot of ways.

But the biggest surprised with comparative anatomy was that a Giraffe has the same number of neck vertebrae as a human. There just extremely longer. But basically the anatomy and physiology

is quite similar.

But as I said, I would certainly defer to you on fossils and dinosaurs.

Joe

 

[Walt]

5 minutes ago, Joe Salande said:

But as I said, I would certainly defer to you on fossils and dinosaurs

No, I am the last person to defer to on most anything  

Dinos, I know almost nothing about.  Never have been that interested. 

Trilobites are my main focus and I am only just learning.  I do appreciate the fish and crabs and such.  Those all seem accessible to me where as the dinos never did. 

But I do believe your skeletal expertise will be an asset here on the forum!   

Oh, and there was a whole Nova devoted to the giraffe and their anatomy.  Fascinating creatures.

[Still_human]

On 9/24/2018 at 5:55 PM, Mike from North Queensland said:

Looks right to me for some type of pliosaur I would guess from the neck some where.

Still needs a good clean up but is more complete than most I have seen.

In much better condition than the one I prepped for a friend a couple of weeks ago

There should be two distinct nutrient groove on the underside not seen in the last photo.

 

Mike

So the sharp 90degree right angle on them looks right to you? That's the only thing that threw me off. I didn't look at pliosaurs, but from multiple diagrams of plesiosaurs I didn't see that bend on any verts from neck to tail. Those are just diagrams though, and the actual true skeletons and such, are much harder to make out exact details, and are never in perfectly lines up "diagram" positions, making it easy to see everything.

[Mike from North Queensland]

Look up elasmosaur on the net as there should be some good diagrams there showing very similar fossils material from just behind the head.